U.S. TO RELEASE POLLARD IN BARGHOUTI SWAP DEAL?

Report: Pollard, Barghouti deal in works (JPost)
Officials in Jerusalem claimed on Saturday that the US would free imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for Israel releasing jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.

According to Army Radio, Israel is set to offer the proposed prisoner swap deal in the next few months, following the unfolding anarchy in the Palestinian Authority. Seemingly, Israel intends to use Barghouti's release to strengthen the Fatah movement against the background of the much criticized rule of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government.

In 2004 Israel suggested a similar move but the initiative was rejected by the US government. Jerusalem officials predict that on this occasion the White House will accept the proposal.
Pollard, a former Mossad agent, was convicted of selling US military secrets to Israel, while he worked at the Defense Department's Pentagon headquarters. He was arrested in 1985 and pleaded guilty to the espionage charges. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and has been incarcerated in a US jail for the past 21 years.

The Israeli government denied for years that Pollard was its spy but finally acknowledged it in 1998. Various prime ministers have since made efforts to secure a pardon for Pollard, none of which have been successful.

SEE ALSO: Pollard vs. Olmert (JTA)
Jonathan Pollard threatened to publish information that may embarrass the Israeli government if his former handler, now a politician, receives a ministerial portfolio. Pollard´s lawyer in Israel, Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, told Yediot Aharonot on Friday that she had written to Prime Minister-elect Ehud Olmert demanding that Rafael Eitan, a retired spymaster who now heads the powerful pensioners´ party Gil, not be appointed to the Cabinet. She said Pollard would challenge any such appointment at Israel´s High Court of Justice, a move that would entail going public with a document that would "cause great damage to Eitan". She did not elaborate, but Pollard´s wife, Esther, alleged that despite Eitan´s claims to have recruited the former U.S. Navy analyst on his own initiative, "everyone, including the prime minister minister, knew about the recruitment" at the time. Pollard is serving a life prison sentence for passing Israel classified documents in the 1980s, an affair that put serious strains on the Jewish State´s relations with its top ally. Eitan, who previously vowed to campaign in the Knesset for Pollard´s release, declined comment. Olmert´s office was closed for Passover.