Former CIA head calls for Pollard's release

James Woolsey, who led the CIA from 1993 to 1995, says imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard should be released from U.S. prison, as he has been in jail much longer than spies working for other U.S. allies.

Yori Yalon and Staff - Israel Hayom - November 8, 2013


Speaking at a conference in Manhattan, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief James Woolsey called for the U.S. to immediately release imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

Pollard, 59, was arrested by U.S. authorities in 1985 and later sentenced to life in prison.

Woolsey said that spies of other allies, such as South Korea and the Philippines, that the U.S. has caught have received sentences of six or seven years.

"If anybody is hung up over the fact that he's an American Jew or that he's Israeli, just pretend that he's a South Korean and set him free," Woolsey said of Pollard.

"He's been in prison a long time now, and the only people who are in prison that long are people like [convicted CIA spy Aldrich] Ames and [convicted FBI spy Robert] Hanssen who got people killed, and Pollard didn't do that," Woolsey said.

Woolsey led the CIA from February 1993 to January 1995.

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