Conference wants Pollard out of jail

A major Jewish umbrella group asked President Bush to pardon Jonathan Pollard. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the foreign policy umbrella body for US Jewish groups, approved the plea in a conference call, its executive vice chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein, told JTA.

"It's time that he be released," Hoenlein said of Pollard, a former US Navy analyst who was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for spying for Israel. "He has expressed remorse." The plea is to release Pollard on humanitarian grounds. Hoenlein said other interventions are also planned.

Pollard's pardon is opposed by the US intelligence community. However, presidents on the brink of retirement often feel freer to take up controversial pardons. (JTA)