from TPD 1998-Dec-20, from Yated Neeman, 1998-Dec-18, by Yaakov Kornreich:

Vendetta Against Pollard Exposed as CIA Coverup

Advocates for the immediate release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard are pointing to new evidence that he is being blamed by the American intelligence community for damage that was actually done by CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames. The newspaper Forward reports that according to a former staff member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Angelo Codevilla, Ames himself was the CIA agent in charge of the original damage report on Pollard's activities.

Codevilla asserts that Ames took advantage of the Pollard affair to cover up the loss of American intelligence for which Ames himself was actually responsible.

The most persuasive argument offered by those in the intelligence community who have argued for Pollard's continued imprisonment is the wholly unsubstantiated claim that the information that he gave Israel resulted in the death of American intelligence agents. If Codevilla is right, and Ames was the one really responsible for those losses, then the treatment of Pollard will have been exposed as a massive and deliberate miscarriage of justice.

Worse, it would reveal the case of Jonathan Pollard to be one in which the federal government abused its power to declare information secret, in order to deny Pollard, an American citizen, due process of law. As a result, Pollard may have been punished unjustly for a crime for which he was never convicted or even formally accused. The embarrassment of such a revelation is one possible explanation for the American security establishment's obsession to keep Pollard in federal prison.

The truth is that Pollard was the victim of a cruel double cross by prosecutors. Originally, after he was arrested in 1984, he was charged with giving classified information to a friendly country (Israel), a charge for which no American had ever been imprisoned for more than ten years. But Pollard agreed to tell everything he did in exchange for a plea bargain. A plea bargain means that the prosecutor agrees to recommend a reduced sentence in return for the cooperation of the accused, who agrees to plead guilty. But in this case, the government prosecutor allowed Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, who as a Jew who converted to Christianity, was clearly personally embarrassed by the Pollard case, to submit a secret memo to the sentencing judge which accused Jonathan Pollard of crimes so serious that the judge sentenced him to life in prison.

The contents of that memo have never been revealed. Each time Pollard's case comes up for clemency review, the same group of nefarious security establishment figures comes forward with new but totally unproven allegations about what damage Pollard might have done to deserve the extraordinarily harsh punishment that he continues to receive.

As each succeeding allegation is disproved by Pollard's supporters, the accusations grow wilder and more extreme.

He has been accused of releasing huge volumes of documents. After thirteen years in jail, they say that he still has access to sensitive American secrets that could somehow damage the country's security if they were released by Pollard to Israel, one of America's closest allies. They even say that unless Pollard stays in jail, other American Jews might be tempted to spy for Israel.

Codvilla has recently sent a letter to President Clinton arguing for Pollard's release, as has former Democratic Senator Dennis DeConcini, who had access to all the relevant secret information as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee before he retired in 1994.

Codvilla has also suggested that another possible reason why the intelligence community remains so furious with Pollard is because he exposed the ill-fated American cooperation with Iraq's Saddam Hussein before he invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Still, aside from mean-spirited revenge or die-hard anti-Semitism, it is hard to comprehend why Pollard's accusers are so unforgiving. Are they covering up their own guilt in his unfair persecution? Are they trying to hide something that may be revealed upon his release? Perhaps they were feeding him false information at the end, before he was arrested, to deliberately mislead the Israelis, something that wouldn't become obvious until the Israelis get a chance to debrief him. Whatever may be the real reason for Pollard's relentless persecution, it is almost certain that the most interesting parts of this story are yet to be told, and will not become known until Jonathan Pollard is finally set free. Pollard betrayed during the Wye talks Pollard's case came to the fore most recently at the end of Wye accords, when Clinton finally agreed to Israeli demands for his release, and then quickly changed his mind when the American intelligence community rebelled against the decision.

Reportedly, CIA Directer George Tenet went to Wye and threatened to resign if Clinton did not reverse himself. In order for the Wye deal to go forward, Tenet had to agree to play a key role in overseeing the security arrangements in the Wye accords, Clinton felt he had no choice, and informed Prime Minister Netanyahu that the part of the deal to release Pollard was off.

Netanyahu and the others in the Israeli delegation reacted angrily. They had just agreed to allow one of Arafat's chief security men who was personally responsible for recent terror attacks on Israel in exchange for the promise of Pollard's release. Now Clinton told them that the Palestinian terrorist would remain free, while Pollard would be kept behind bars.

The nasty public dispute came very close to causing the Wye accords to collapse at the very last moment. The Israelis threatened to go home without signing the accord. Clinton then countered that if they did that, he would recognize the Palestinian state that Arafat has repeatedly threatened to announced next May.

The Israelis had no choice. They accepted the deal, and Pollard remained in jail.

In the end, the White House tried to cover up the embarrassing story of how the president went back on his word. The Americans issued a cover story saying that Netanyahu had brought up the Pollard release issue at the last minute, and had misunderstood President Clinton's promise to review the case. But multiple other sources have since confirmed that the issue of Pollard's release had first been raised by the Israelis at the beginning of the Wye talks, that Arafat had been the one who suggested the trade of Pollard's freedom for his security man's freedom, and that Clinton had clearly agreed to the deal and that Tenet and others later twisted his arm to force him to change his mind.

Now Pollard's attorney, Larry Dub is accusing Tenet of "initiating a witch hunt to rid the CIA of Jews holding security clearances." That accusation, if true, raises other worries about how fairly the CIA under Tenet will carry out its supervisory responsibilities for Palestinian compliance with the Wye accords.

Clinton refuses to promise Pollard's release

In Israel this week, Clinton declined to say whether he would decide to set Jonathan Pollard free. Clinton had promised Netanyahu at the signing ceremony for the Wye accords that he would again review Pollard's case, without committing himself as to the outcome of the review. Clinton has reviewed Pollard's case twice before, once in 1993 and again in 1996. On those occasions, the Washington intelligence/security establishment made sure that he was kept in jail. Earlier this month, he made good on that promise by asking for recommendations from his advisers on Pollard. Netanyahu acknowledged that Pollard had "done something bad and inexcusable... "We think he should have served his time, and he did."

Netanyahu noted that Pollard has already served 13 years in prison, most of them in solitary confinement, a sentence far harsher than that meted out to any other American who spied against it for a friendly power. Netanyahu urged that it is now time for the US to release Pollard on strictly humanitarian grounds.

"Since he was sent by us on a mistaken mission - not to work against the United States, but nevertheless, to break the laws of the United States - we hope that, on a purely humanitarian appeal, a way will be found to release him," Netanyahu said at a joint press conference with Clinton in Yerushalayim Sunday.

In response, President Clinton promised, "I will review all that, plus whatever arguments are presented to me on the other side for the reduction of the sentence. And I will make a decision in a prompt way." Clinton said he had instructed White House counsel Charles F.C. Ruff to sound out all the relevant intelligence and security agencies for their opinions on Pollard's release.

Latest lies against Pollard

The most recent effort to keep Pollard in jail came in the form of a petition signed by seven former American Defense Secretaries calling on President Clinton not to release Pollard. The seven - Rumsfeld, Richardson, Schlesinger, Weinberger, Cheney, Laird, and Carlucci - wrote that Pollard's release "could encourage others who would harm national security."

Other recent accusations claimed that Pollard, after 13 years in jail, could still compromise secret communications protocols used by American intelligence agencies.

Most fantastic of all, the CBS network broadcast an unattributed and unproven accusation this week that Pollard also spied for South Africa and Pakistan, and is still receiving payments in his accounts from those countries for his services.

Pollard's lawyer Larry Dub, called the accusation, "absolute, utter nonsense." If monies were being deposited in Pollard's bank account [by Israel] today, Dub declared that he and his client were unaware of it. Meanwhile, Pollard issuing a statement from his cell in a North Carolina federal prison, expressed satisfaction with Netanyahu's and Clinton's words. [Not true! See letter to the Jerusalem Post.]

A growing cause

The cause of Pollard's release has won growing support across the ideological and political Jewish spectrum. Many secular American Jews originally greeted the news of Pollard's arrest with horror. As a turncoat American Jew who betrayed the US for Israel, his case revived all of the old bugaboos about divided loyalties.

For years, most American Jewish organizations considered Pollard to be little more than an embarrassment, and concerned themselves little over the procedural injustices that he may have suffered at the hands of the American legal system.

However, as it became clear to all that Pollard was being singled out for particularly cruel punishment, new interest developed in his case. Pollard has long since expressed his deep remorse for his acts of espionage against the United States.

For many years, the Israeli governments denied responsibility for Pollard's actions, blaming his spying against the US on rogue Israeli intelligence agents operating without official. It was only a few months ago that the Netanyahu government finally formally acknowledged Israel's ultimate responsibility for Pollard's spying.

Now Pollard's release has become a regular request by Israeli government officials in meetings with their American counterparts, and several visiting Israeli cabinet ministers have gone to see Pollard in his North Carolina jail cell.

American Jewish groups, including first the National Council of Young Israel and, most recently, the Conference of Presidents, have joined in the calls for Pollard's release, as have several prominent secular Jewish personalities.

The cause of Pollard's release has also spread right to left across the Israeli political spectrum.

"We expect the greatest power in the world not to show revenge but rather to adopt a policy of generosity and consideration with regard to Pollard," said opposition Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz to a crowd of about 100 adults and youth who were demonstrating on behalf of Pollard's release outside the Beit Hanassi Sunday evening while Clinton was speaking to President Ezer Weizman. Pines-Paz said. "Jonathan Pollard certainly does not present a threat. It is ridiculous to make out that he does. He was wrong and has apologized," said M.K. Rechavan Ze'evi.

Now justice demands that the US at last let Pollard go. While he surely did commit a crime, by now he has suffered more than enough to pay for his admitted mistakes, and clearly deserves to be set free.

The following are five articles about President Clinton's reputed agreement to free a convicted Israeli spy as an enticement to re-engage the so-called "peace process":

from TPDL 1998-Oct-24, from the New York Post, by Marilyn Rauber

Prez Risks U.S. Face for Only a 'Tiny' Gain

WASHINGTON - President Clinton emerged a winner in the latest Mideast peace deal despite the spy flap - but it won't help him win on Sexgate, and he could get blamed if peace goes awry.

In throwing himself into the peace talks, Clinton - who canceled four political trips, spent 78 hours negotiating and even took along dog Buddy to break the ice - will get credit for making ... a very tiny part of the peace process, said Mideast analyst Judith Kipper.

Kipper said the deal signed by the two Mideast leaders - part of which essentially demands the CIA ensure Israeli safety in exchange for more West Bank turf for the Palestinians - highlights the toughness of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the compliance of the scandal-wracked Clinton.

He's set himself up so if it doesn't work, it's an American failure, Kipper said, blaming Clinton's reluctance to say no in the face of confrontation.

Kipper and others said Clinton allowed Netanyahu to get the upper hand - including Israel's secret, last-minute demand that Clinton free jailed spy Jonathan Pollard.

It was smart of Netanyahu to raise it. This was a moment of maximum leverage over the Americans, said foreign-policy analyst Peter Rodman.

It was deja vu all over again. Two years ago, when the newly elected Netanyahu visited the White House, the tough-talking Israeli dominated their joint press conference, and Clinton took pains not to contradict him.

Yesterday, talk of freeing Pollard infuriated some in Congress, along with defense and intelligence experts who were skeptical of the president's foreign policy, and Clinton ultimately fudged.

The fact that you even contemplated such a step ... is a slap in the face of every agent who has ever risked his or her life in defense of freedom, Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) told Clinton in an angry letter accusing him of seeking an election-time boost at any cost.

Conservative analyst Jim Phillips described yesterday's deal - 19 months in the making, culminating in a tense, nine-day session at a secluded Maryland estate - as little more than the latest in a series of broken promises.

How are they going to negotiate the thorniest issues if it took this long to negotiate this one? Phillips asked, referring to next year's critical talks on final status for a Palestinian entity.

At some point, people have to ask themselves, "Isn't this the fourth Middle East peace deal?'

But Clinton desperately needed this mini-victory, as he faces the impeachment fight in Congress over his fling with Monica Lewinsky, and the Democrats face elections next month.

from TPDL 1998-Oct-25, from the New York Post, by Uri Dan:

Prez OK'd Freeing Pollard:

WASHINGTON - President Clinton promised Israel the release of spy Jonathan Pollard on the first day of the Mideast summit, but backed down after some GOP congressmen objected, The Post has learned.

U.S. officials maintain no promises were made to free Pollard, who spied on the United States for Israel.

But Israeli officials say a deal was struck quietly on Oct. 15, when the nine-day summit got under way.

The plan to turn Pollard over to Israel first hit a snag when CIA head George Tenet objected to releasing the convicted spy.

Then the deal was leaked to several House members, prompting House Speaker Newt Gingrich to call Clinton and protest.

What happened was that several Republicans who are known as staunch supporters of Israel ... sent messages to the president not to do it, an Israeli official told The Post.

The president then got cold feet and went back on his promise to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stunning Netanyahu and threatening the accord on the summit's final day.

Instead, Clinton pledged only to review Pollard's case.

Gingrich said yesterday that it would be a tremendous mistake for the United States to start putting traitors on the negotiating table and implored the administration not to release Pollard under any circumstance.

Pollard, who has been behind bars since 1986, is serving a life sentence in a North Carolina prison for passing intelligence information to Israel while working as a U.S. naval analyst.

Israel had always maintained Pollard was part of a rogue operation, but acknowledged in May that he was acting as an agent of the Israeli government.

Netanyahu, asked yesterday whether all the hoopla might jeopardize Pollard's release, said, Not at all.

On the contrary, it will support the Israeli struggle for Pollard's liberation ... because President Clinton was kind enough to announce for the first time in public that he is going to review the case.

The Post also learned that an addendum to the Mideast peace deal was signed Friday by Tenet and the chiefs of both Israeli and Palestinian security.

The agreement details measures to be taken by the Israelis and Palestinians when either side gets hold of intelligence data on planned terrorist attacks.

The plan also stipulates that the Palestinian police force of 36,000 be reduced by 6,000 and that a list of the members' names be given to the Israelis.

The CIA is supervising implementation of the security aspects of the accord between Netanyahu and PLO chief Yasser Arafat, which cedes 13 percent more of West Bank land to the Palestinians in exchange for tougher steps against terrorism.

Netanyahu and Arafat have agreed to an immediate summit in Washington if any new crisis develops.

The agreement, to be signed shortly, is in keeping with the administration's desire to keep both sides from taking unilateral steps that could destroy final negotiations.

Netanyahu, due back in Israel today, was set to launch a media and political offensive to sell the accord to Israelis and block any attempts by opponents to topple his government.

from TPDL 1998-Oct-25, from the Associated Press:

Gingrich tells Clinton to forget about releasing Israeli spy Pollard

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (October 24, 1998 5:26 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -- Newt Gingrich said Saturday America should not put "traitors on the negotiating table as a pawn" and demanded that President Clinton forget about releasing Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

"I hope the president will just decide to take it off the table. It should=

never have been there in the first place," Gingrich, the House speaker, said in this Atlanta suburb. "It is not something we should negotiate about in the middle of a peace conference."

As part of a U.S.-brokered land-for-security agreement reached Friday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Clinton agreed to review whether Pollard can be released from his life sentence and sent to Israel.

A former civilian employee of the Navy's intelligence service, Pollard was sentenced to life in prison 11 years ago for spying for Israel.

Until recently, Israeli governments disavowed Pollard and called his espionage a "rogue operation." Netanyahu's government granted Pollard Israeli citizenship and acknowledged him as the Israeli government's agent.

Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton have refused appeals for Pollard's release, the latest by Netanyahu rejected by Clinton on Oct. 1.

"I think it would be a tremendous mistake for the United States to start putting traitors on the negotiating table as a pawn, and I hope the administration will now say they will not, under any circumstance, release Pollard," Gingrich said.

His release, Gingrich added, "may well endanger American security."

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Intelligence Committee, also demanded that Pollard not be released. In a letter, Shelby wrote Friday that "Pollard's treachery is a United States security matter. It touches on not merely the national security information revealed without authorization, but on the trust which underpins our system of safeguarding classified information."

On another intelligence question, Gingrich said it is impossible for the CIA, as it is currently set up, to supervise the security plan mandated in the agreement.

"To allow the traditional CIA to be involved in this would be a very major mistake," Gingrich said. "I believe without any question they will have to establish a new department ... so that it doesn't end up tainting the other intelligence-gathering operations."

He said Congress will send a delegation to Israel to assist in implementing the plan, which stipulates that the CIA oversee the arrest of Palestinian terrorist suspects and the confiscation of weapons in areas under Palestinian Authority control.

He gave no details on the delegation's mission.

Gingrich said the agreement, achieved just 11 days before the Nov. 3 elections, has no impact on Clinton's impeachment inquiry and on domestic politics.

"I'd prefer to believe that all of us are in favor of the peace treaty being implemented," said Gingrich. "We're in favor of the peace talks being successful, and I think the president was sincere in trying to get them to work.

"(But) this was not any climactic event."

from TPDL 1998-Nov-16, from the Washington Times, by Bill Gertz:

Pollard's career as spy proved to be fruitful for Israelis

Jonathan Jay Pollard walked to his car on a cold November day in 1985 carrying an envelope full of classified intelligence documents he had just printed out from the Anti-Terrorism Alert Center at the U.S. Naval Investigative Service in Suitland, Md.

From his computer terminal, the civilian intelligence analyst had been saving highly classified intelligence material on Soviet and foreign weapons and intelligence-gathering plans culled from a variety of U.S. spy agencies and supplying them to a foreign government.

Pollard saw the group of FBI and Naval security agents approach and knew he was in trouble. They said they wanted to talk.

The sting that day caught a spy and ignited a diplomatic firestorm between the United States and its closest Middle East ally, Israel, that smolders to this day. Pollard's fate has been a continuing source of friction between the two countries and nearly broke up the fragile Middle East peace deal negotiated at the Wye Plantation in Maryland last month.

Pollard told the agents that November day that the secret documents were for a colleague. During a break in the questioning, Pollard called his wife, Ann Henderson Pollard, and instructed her to remove the "cactus" -- the code word signaling that he was in trouble.

Anne Pollard was to remove a suitcase full of incriminating intelligence documents from their apartment at 1733 20th St. NW in Washington.

"Cactus" also was a code word on one of the intelligence documents that described a South African surface-to-air missile system Pollard later would admit he turned over to Israeli intelligence agents.

Several months later, in June 1986, he would plead guilty to spying in a plea bargain that included his cooperation in conducting a damage assessment, a move that was expected to win him a lighter sentence than life in prison. Anne Pollard, who had used classified intelligence documents obtained by her husband in seeking public relations work with the Chinese government, received a five-year prison term as an accessory.

During one point in the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr. called lawyers for a conference after a defense attorney argued that the damage caused in the case was exaggerated.

"You don't consider that damage?" Judge Robinson asked the lawyer, pointing to a passage in Pentagon's top-secret damage assessment presented to the court. He then surprised the courtroom by sentencing Pollard to life in prison.

Details of the case remain secret, but U.S. officials said Pollard's spying represented a massive compromise of secret intelligence that included the locations of Soviet missile fields. The intelligence photographs allowed Israel to target its nuclear-tipped Jericho missiles on the Soviet missile fields.

He also provided classified documents that revealed sensitive details of U.S. agents and electronic eavesdropping on the Soviet Union, and codes for American diplomatic communications that allowed the Israelis to read U.S. diplomatic cables. Officials confirmed the details of Pollard's spying after the publication of a 1991 book by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.

In all, Pollard supplied the Israelis with some 500,000 pages of material, enough to fill a room 6 feet by 6 feet by 10 feet. The FBI didn't arrest Pollard at the first meeting on Nov. 18, 1985. But the couple remained under close surveillance.

Fearing the worst, the Pollards made a run for it three days later. On Nov. 21, 1985, they drove their 1980 Mustang through the high-security gates of the new Israeli Embassy compound off Wisconsin Avenue and asked for political asylum.

With FBI agents standing outside the gates, the Israelis turned them down and Pollard was arrested. Israel was not ready to harbor a fugitive charged with spying and risk a major standoff with its most important Western ally.

The FBI agents didn't even have an arrest warrant when they picked up Pollard. It was only the second time during the so-called "Year of the Spy" that an agent of a foreign power was picked up without a warrant, according to the Justice Department official who directed spy prosecutions. Anne Pollard was arrested the following day.

The case was a breakthrough for the FBI. Until then, its agents had been forced by U.S. policy to turn a blind eye to Israeli spying in the United States. "We would often catch the Israelis and then be told to let them go," said one counterintelligence agent.

Pollard was a Jew, strongly pro-Israel, and an intelligence officer who spied because he felt the close information-sharing relationship between the United States and Israel was not enough.

But he also was paid at least $50,000 in cash for stacks of classified documents he would take from the Naval Investigative Service, copy on a machine supplied by the Israelis and then return to the safe in Suitland. Some officials said the Israelis gave him up to $300,000, deposited in overseas bank accounts.

According to a 1989 book on the case, Israel has been setting aside $5,000 a month for Pollard since he began serving his sentence in June 1986. If he is released by the Clinton administration, the pot of money waiting for him would total $745,000.

The case has also divided the American Jewish community. Some Jewish groups agreed Pollard deserved the severe punishment, while others argued he was treated unfairly.

Pollard's relatives, led by his sister Carol, have led the campaign for his release. The campaign has also picked up steam in Israel in recent years.

In 1991, Pollard sought to have his guilty plea removed after claiming the government had violated its agreement. The plea agreement was upheld.

Pollard also has said his spying was justified by the 1991 Persian Gulf war. He stated in a letter to a rabbi published by the Wall Street Journal that he supplied Israel with intelligence photos of Iraqi chemical weapons plants.

But FBI officials counter that "friendly" spying can be as damaging as spying for enemies. And friends can become enemies, they note, as in 1967 when Israeli jets deliberately attacked the electronic intelligence-gathering ship USS Liberty, killing 34 Americans and wounding 171.

"If you use that standard, the Rosenbergs were spies for Russia during and after the war," said John L. Martin, a former Justice Department official who directed numerous spy prosecutions, including Pollard's. "That's a good example of an ally that later became an adversary."

"Espionage statutes make no distinction between allies and adversaries," Mr. Martin said. "The courts recognize that today's friends might become tomorrow's adversaries."

President Clinton rejected clemency appeals for Pollard in January 1993, March 1994 and July 1996, based on the recommendations of Attorney General Janet Reno and what the White House said were "the unanimous views of the law enforcement and national security agencies" that Pollard should remain in prison.

But under pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Clinton administration is now reviewing the case to see if Pollard's life prison term should be commuted and whether he will be released and allowed to go to Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu raised the Pollard case in the final hours of the Mideast summit at the Wye Plantation in Maryland and thought he had obtained Mr. Clinton's pledge to release Pollard. The White House maintained that no firm promise had been given and said only that it would "review" the case.

Pollard's betrayal continues to evoke strong emotions within top U.S. intelligence and security circles. Mr. Clinton's top advisers strenuously opposed the spy's release and CIA Director George Tenet threatened to resign last month if Pollard was let go.

Pollard, currently in a federal prison in North Carolina, would be the first American convicted of spying to be released and allowed to go to the country that paid him for U.S. secrets.

"Pollard placed at risk thousands of American troops and diplomatic personnel," said Joseph diGenova, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case. "If people don't think that is serious, then there is nothing I can do to help them."

For the period between May 1984 and the time of his arrest in November 1985, the Israeli spy provided thousands of pages of classified intelligence documents to a secret Israeli spy unit known as LAKEM -- the acronym for Scientific Liaison Office. The unit was set up to acquire nuclear weapons and other high-technology secrets.

According to court papers filed in 1991 by Pollard's supporters, Judge Robinson issued the unexpectedly harsh life sentence after the secret Pentagon analysis revealed that Pollard had compromised intelligence-gathering on Israel's nuclear cooperation with South Africa.

The secrets passed by Pollard exposed sensitive electronic eavesdropping efforts to spy on nuclear weapons cooperation between South Africa and Israel, according to government officials close to the case.

The material passed to the Israelis is said to have compromised several forms of intelligence on the Middle East -- photographs taken by satellites, electronic eavesdropping on individuals and governments that were unaware of the spying, and reports from agents working secretly with the United States to supply information about Israel and other Middle Eastern states, according to people familiar with the report.

"It is difficult even in the so-called Year of the Spy to conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by the defendant in view of the breadth, the critical importance to the United States, and the high sensitivity of the information he sold to Israel," Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger stated in the 1986 classified report. Pollard's was one of a series of damaging spy cases uncovered in 1985, including the Walker family spy ring that sold top-level secrets to the Soviet Union for a decade.

Pollard's handler was Israeli Air Force Col. Aviem Sella. Sella worked out of the Israeli Embassy in Washington with two other operatives, Joseph Yagur and Erit Erb. A fourth agent also was identified: Israeli master spy Rafael "Rafi" Eitan. Eventually, Sella was indicted as a co-conspirator, and any pardon of Pollard would have to dispose of his case as well, according to legal experts.

Last May, Israel broke with precedent and officially recognized Pollard as its spy -- the opening shot in an official effort to win Pollard's release, which has become a rallying point among conservative Israelis.

Last year, Mr. Eitan broke more than 10 years of silence, describing Pollard's arrest as a failed operation that is part of the spying business.

"That is the lot of an intelligence officer who runs complex intelligence operations," he told the newspaper Yediot Ahronot.

"When you work a lot and do a lot, especially in the intelligence field, you win some and you lose some."