Look Who's Sorry Now

By DAVID ELLIS

A life sentence has evidently given JONATHAN JAY POLLARD, who pleaded guilty in 1986 to selling U.S. secrets to Israel, plenty of time to ponder his deeds. "Dear Mom and Dad," he wrote in a lawyerly burst of remorse, "I regret the adverse effect which my actions had on the U.S. and the Jewish community . . . I have also reflected on how and why, despite my idealism about the world and Israel's place in it, I was capable of taking the actions I did." During an 18-month spying binge, the former Navy counterintelligence analyst gave hundreds of classified documents to Israeli contacts for some $45,000 in cash, claiming "anxiety" over Israel's vulnerability to attack. The passage of time has also given more weight to Pollard's excuse. His defenders, who want his sentence commuted, contend that his information on the Iraqi military was crucial to Israel during the gulf war.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart