Pollard: Why Govt. fear of Lindenstrauss? It's the money!
'Your office continues to lie and to disseminate official government
statements declaring that my wife and I are receiving full financial
support,' Pollard says in letter addressed to PM Olmert, 'are the funds
which you claim are intended for us being misappropriated by your office and
used illegally elsewhere?'

Sharon Roffe-Ofir - YNET News - March 26, 2008
www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3523953,00.html

"As you are well aware, in the 23 years that I have been in captivity, I
have never received one cent from the Government of Israel. Even though, as
an officially recognized Israeli agent, I am entitled to full government
support and financial compensation, I have received nothing," Jonathan
Pollard said this week in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"Similarly, my wife Esther has never received a single cent from the
Government of Israel, nor any kind of support, even when she was seriously
ill with cancer," wrote Pollard who has been jailed in the US since 1985
after being convicted of spying for Israel.

"Yet your office continues to lie and to disseminate official government
statements declaring that my wife and I and my 'close associates' are
receiving 'full support in every possible respect' from the Government of
Israel," Pollard said in the letter, which was sent to Israel via certified
mail.

"If, as you insist, your Government is allocating resources for me and my
wife, but we are not receiving them, then who is getting the money? Are the
funds (which you claim are intended for us) being misappropriated by your
office and used illegally elsewhere? While we do not know for certain what
kind of corruption is going on, we do know that something smells very bad."

A few months ago Pollard's attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, sent Olmert a
letter demanding that the PM substantiate the government's claims that it
was supporting the Pollards financially.

Olmert's legal counsel, Shulamit Barnea Fargo, wrote in response that "the
claims in your letter are for the most part, baseless, and the style in
which they are written is offensive. I do not see any place for providing
the information which you requested, out of fear that this will damage Mr.
Pollard's welfare and the efforts of the State of Israel to assist him.

'Expose the truth'

Fargo continued to say that "the government has acted in the past and is
currently working to assist Jonathan Pollard and his associates."

Similar responses were provided by the government to several letters sent by
Israeli citizens asking why the State refused to support Esther Pollard,
whose financial situation, according to them, was dire.

Pollard for his part said in his letter "Mr. Prime Minister, that if the
Government had any proof to substantiate the lies your office is
disseminating about support for me and my wife, you would have no need to
evade the questions my attorney asked."

His wife told Ynet, "If I were indeed receiving support from the Government
of Israel, would I be living this way, in dire straits financially? Would I
be forced to live in a little room in the apartment of a kindly Jerusalem
widow who heard of our financial distress and offered to take me in?"

Meanwhile, Esther Pollard refuted recent claims made by senior defense
officials and politicians according to which a comprehensive inquiry
recently launched by the State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss may
compromise "sensitive efforts" to bring about her husband's release.

Lindenstrauss was ordered by the Knesset's State Control Committee to
investigate actions taken by Israel's governments over the years to release
Pollard.

All the "hysteria" surrounding the State Comptroller's investigation, she
explained, has nothing to do with fear of damaging efforts to secure
Pollard's release. "There are no efforts to free Pollard," Esther Pollard
said.

She continued to say that "I was recently told by a senior American official
with close ties to the the Bush Administration, there is only one man who
can free your husband -- Bush; and there is only one man who has to ask for
your husband's release -- Olmert. So what are these Israeli defense
officials afraid of? How can they be afraid of damaging initiatives to
secure his release, when there are no initiatives for Jonathan's release?

"In point of fact, what they are really afraid of is that the investigation
will reveal who has been misappropriating all the money intended for Pollard
for the last 23 years, and that the truth will come to light that this is
not just about monetary corruption, but about trafficking in the blood of an
Israeli agent," Esther Pollard said.

--
JUSTICE FOR JONATHAN POLLARD
Website: http://www.JonathanPollard.org
RSS: http://www.JonathanPollard.org/rss.htm