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Ayalon: Pollard still in jail due to FBI error

Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard remains in an American jail in part because of a mistaken theory in the US Justice Department and FBI that he had an accomplice who Israel has refused to name, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.
Ayalon, who was the first Israeli ambassador to the US who visited Pollard, speculated that the same mistake persuaded former CIA director George Tenet to block a deal for Pollard's freedom that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had reached with then-US president Bill Clinton when the Wye River Accords were signed in 1998.
“The FBI wanted to keep Pollard as a hostage until Israel gave them his partner,” Ayalon said. “There of course was no partner, and the charge is totally outrageous, yet it is difficult to shake. This unrealistic and stupid suspicion could be one explanation as to why he is still in jail after so many years when others who did much more damage spying for real enemies have gotten out.”
Ayalon called it a mystery why Pollard is still in prison. He said the Pollard case “strikes a chord of irrationality” with top American officials.
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