WSJ: US preparing to release convicted Israeli spy Pollard

The release would end a decades-long fight between Israel and the United States over Pollard, 60, who was convicted of spying for Israel and sentenced in 1987 to life in prison with a minimum of 30 years, a period that ends this November.

The Journal said some U.S. officials hope his release will smooth relations with Israel following the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel opposes.

Some U.S. officials are pushing for Pollard to be let out in a matter of weeks, while others expect it could take months, possibly until his parole consideration date in November, the Journal reported.

A U.S. official to the Journal she was not aware that he would be released before he is eligible for parole in November.

Alistair Baskey, a National Security Council spokesman, told Al Jazeera, “Mr. Pollard’s status will be determined by the United States Parole Commission according to standard procedures. There is absolutely zero linkage between Mr. Pollard’s status and foreign policy considerations.”

In a statement to Al Jazeera, a Justice Department spokesman, Marc Raimondi, rejected the Journal's contention that the Obama administration was preparing to release Pollard early: The DOJ "has always and continues to maintain that Jonathan Pollard should serve his full sentence for the serious crimes he committed."

Pollard's supporters say that three decade sentence is too harsh since Israel is a U.S. ally and he should be released because of his poor health, with his attorney saying he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure.

Pollard has many supporters in Israel: a Jewish settlement building in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, was named after Pollard.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has personally pressed to get the United States to release Pollard, who is serving time in a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina. Netanyahu visited Pollard in prison in 2002.

Many members of the U.S. security establishment have long opposed Pollard's release. In 1998, George Tenet, then the CIA director, said he would resign if Pollard was let go, saying it would "would reward a U.S. citizen who spied on his own country."

A Department of Defense adviser to Israel, Noel Koch, wrote in Foreign Policy in 2013 that Israel had neither told the U.S. who Pollard's co-conspirators were or how much information they received from him.

"It it is absurd to consider ever releasing Jonathan Pollard, " he wrote, adding later: "Unlike Judas, who had the grace to hang himself in shame, he lives in the hope that his purchasers will spring him so he can enjoy the apartment set aside for him, the money they have been banking for him and the hero’s welcome they have promised him for betraying the United States."

Al Jazeera and Reuters