Free Mordechai Vanunu instead
December 7, 2005 -- The Israeli media is speculating that the Bush administration is considering releasing Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in return for Israel's release of imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti. Pollard passed a "garage full" of classified documents to the Israelis during the 1980s. Past attempts to have Pollard released were strenuously opposed by U.S. intelligence chiefs, including CIA Director George Tenet who threatened to resign in protest if Clinton pardoned Pollard.The Bush administration clearly feels that CIA Director Porter Goss and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and their team of right wing operatives have successfully purged the US Intelligence Community to the point where a Pollard release is possible without mass opposition from the ranks.
However, releasing Pollard in exchange for an Israeli prisoner makes much more sense if the deal involves Israel's release from house arrest and transport to U.S. hands of Israeli nuclear scientists and convert to Christianity Mordechai Vanunu (who was kidnapped by Mossad agents in Rome in 1986). Vanunu has unique insights on Israel's use of international WMD smuggling networks to obtain materials for its nuclear weapons program -- information that would be beneficial to U.S. intelligence.
