Albright: No Clemency For Pollard

With President Clinton expected to make a decision soon on whether to grant clemency to Jonathan Pollard, who is in prison for life for providing Navy secrets to Israel, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is prepared to recommend denying clemency, the Associated Press is reporting.

Albright is said to believe that there is no foreign-policy reason to release Pollard, who was convicted of espionage, and no basis for overriding the judgment of the U.S. intelligence community, said an official who asked not to be identified.

Her advice, combined with the known opposition of CIA Director George Tenet, could seal Pollard's fate.

Albright's stance on the Pollard case implies that she foresees no shock to U.S. relations with Israel if Pollard remains imprisoned.

Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee's two top members, concerned that Mr. Clinton may grant clemency to Pollard, urged other senators to join them in a letter to the president asking him not do so.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the committee chairman, said he had encouraged Mr. Clinton "to rethink what I understand may be his expected course of action."

He was backed by the vice chairman, Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., and virtually all members of the committee.

Pollard was convicted as a spy for handing over thousands of top-secret documents to Israel in 1984 and 1985.

Releasing him, Shelby said in a statement accompanying the letter, "would set a dangerous and unwise precedent that crimes against the United States are not serious. It would also undermine our country's ability to act as an honest broker throughout the world."

The Associated Press had been reporting that Albright's recommendation already had been passed along to President Clinton. But a senior State Department official says that is not the case, CBS News Correspondent Charles Wolfson reports.

Mr. Clinton confirmed last month that he promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at U.S.-sponsored negotiations with the Palestinians in October that he would look into Netanyahu's request for leniency for Pollard.

White House counsel Charles Ruff was directed to solicit views of U.S. intelligence and security agencies. Several former U.S. intelligence officials hotly opposed clemency and asserted that Pollard attempted to provide classified information to other countries before striking a deal with Israel.

At FBI headquarters Thursday, spokesman Frank Scafidi said, "Justice has been done to this point. To release Pollard now would undo everything that law enforcement and prosecutors worked tirelessly to accomplish."

The Justice Department's criminal division adamantly opposes clemency, senior officials said Thursday, requesting anonymity. Justice and FBI officials believe Pollard has never fully cooperated in assessing what secrets he sold the Israelis.

Attorney General Janet Reno said she would send Ruff a reommendation by Monday.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Kenneth Bacon refused last week to say what Defense Secretary William Cohen was telling Ruff. But Bacon, asked about the Pentagon's position, said: "The Pentagon has been strongly opposed to the release of Jonathan Pollard in the past, and I don't expect any change from that position."