Espionage

A Presidential Administration is winding down and the quadrennial drum-roll for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard is upon us. Yesterday’s Washington Post detailed the latest efforts of Pollard’s friends, including the Israeli government, to secure Pollard’s freedom. The short story carried the usual abbreviated rehash of the Pollard case, noting the severe harm he caused to U.S. intelligence and the lame-ass excuses of his supporters. What I found interesting was the detail that President Bush, on his trip to Israel, dined with, among others, Rafi Eitan, Pollard’s one-time Israeli intellligence handler in Washington and an un-indicted co-conspirator in the case. Eitan left Washington in a hurry at the time of Pollard’s arrest and is barred from entering our country. Although Eitan was never tried, and is innocent until proven guilty, the Israeli government admitted in 1998 that Pollard was its spy and there is really no dispute that Eitan aided and abetted Pollard’s espionage. Yes, I know, Eitan is an Israeli Cabinet Minister. In that sense it was perfectly normal for him to have been at what I assume was a state dinner. But it stills sticks in my craw that the President of the United States was seated at the table with somebody identified by our own government as a co-conspirator in one of the major spy scandals of recent history.