Former CIA chief George Tenet claims, in a new book, that he was the person who prevented the release of Jonathan Pollard during the Wye Plantation talks in October of 1998. The talks, between then-Prime Minister of Israel Binyamin Netanyahu and then-head of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat, were brokered by President Bill Clinton and focused on an Israeli withdrawal from most of the biblical city of Hevron.
In his book “At The Eye of the Storm,” Tenet says that Israel demanded that Jonathan Pollard – who was convicted of transferring classified documents to Israel in 1985 – be released from jail, as part of the deal in which Netanyahu agreed to the Hevron withdrawal.
According to Tenet, the senior American staff at Wye Plantation, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, held a meeting on the evening before the signing of the accords. In that meeting, Berger told Tenet – "you should know that Netanyahu has put [the matter of] Pollard on the table."
Tenet says he got up and stormed out of the room at that point, saying "you are wrong, Pollard i
Dennis Ross reassured Tenet and Clinton that Netanyahu would not walk out
s not on the table." Berger ran out after him, but Tenet was adamant, calling the idea "ridiculous" and insisting that the Pollard issue had nothing to do with the matters being discussed at Wye. Berger then told him, according to Tenet's account, that President Clinton had not yet agreed to anything.
Tenet claims he spent the next hours choosing his course of action. "If Pollard was in the final package deal, no one at CIA headquarters would believe I had nothing to do with it," he thought. He concluded that his career as the head of the CIA would be destroyed if he agreed to the deal.
As Tenet tells it, the senior Administration staff wanted the deal but were afraid of his resignation. Tenet asked for a private meeting with President Clinton. At that meeting, Tenet says, he told Clinton that if Pollard is released, he would no longer be CIA chief in the morning.
The next morning, October 23, 1998, Netanyahu placed pressure on Clinton to agree to release Pollard, and threatened to leave without signing the accord. The then-Israeli defense minister, Yitzchak Mordechai, tried to talk Tenet into agreeing. Special US Middle East Coordinator Dennis Ross reassured Tenet and Clinton that Netanyahu would not walk out, and in the end, that is what happened: Netanyahu signed the accord and Pollard remains in prison to this day.
It should be noted that at least one account Tenet gives in his book of a conversation he supposedly had with defense expert Richard Perle, is being disputed as fictional by Perle and others.
In his book “At The Eye of the Storm,” Tenet says that Israel demanded that Jonathan Pollard – who was convicted of transferring classified documents to Israel in 1985 – be released from jail, as part of the deal in which Netanyahu agreed to the Hevron withdrawal.
According to Tenet, the senior American staff at Wye Plantation, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, held a meeting on the evening before the signing of the accords. In that meeting, Berger told Tenet – "you should know that Netanyahu has put [the matter of] Pollard on the table."
Tenet says he got up and stormed out of the room at that point, saying "you are wrong, Pollard i
Dennis Ross reassured Tenet and Clinton that Netanyahu would not walk out
s not on the table." Berger ran out after him, but Tenet was adamant, calling the idea "ridiculous" and insisting that the Pollard issue had nothing to do with the matters being discussed at Wye. Berger then told him, according to Tenet's account, that President Clinton had not yet agreed to anything. Tenet claims he spent the next hours choosing his course of action. "If Pollard was in the final package deal, no one at CIA headquarters would believe I had nothing to do with it," he thought. He concluded that his career as the head of the CIA would be destroyed if he agreed to the deal.
As Tenet tells it, the senior Administration staff wanted the deal but were afraid of his resignation. Tenet asked for a private meeting with President Clinton. At that meeting, Tenet says, he told Clinton that if Pollard is released, he would no longer be CIA chief in the morning.
The next morning, October 23, 1998, Netanyahu placed pressure on Clinton to agree to release Pollard, and threatened to leave without signing the accord. The then-Israeli defense minister, Yitzchak Mordechai, tried to talk Tenet into agreeing. Special US Middle East Coordinator Dennis Ross reassured Tenet and Clinton that Netanyahu would not walk out, and in the end, that is what happened: Netanyahu signed the accord and Pollard remains in prison to this day.
It should be noted that at least one account Tenet gives in his book of a conversation he supposedly had with defense expert Richard Perle, is being disputed as fictional by Perle and others.
