Donald Rumsfeld, RIP Answer

07/05/2021

C. For many years, Rumsfeld strongly advocated against the release from prison of Jonathan Pollard, who had pled guilty to spying on behalf of Israel in 1986. As early as 1988, Israel began numerous efforts to bring about Pollard’s freedom. Rumsfeld organized a letter in 1998 to President Bill Clinton and signed by six other former secretaries of defense opposing the release, and in 2001 he sent a letter to President George W. Bush urging him not to support the freeing of Pollard. In 2015, Rumsfeld referenced those correspondences when he tweeted “Releasing Pollard was a bad idea in 1998 & 2001. It is not a better idea today.” Pollard, however, was paroled in late 2015, and following the end of his parole period in 2020, he emigrated to Israel.

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