Israel pushed pardon for Rich
By Jodi Enda, Inquirer Washington Bureau
Washington - President Bill Clinton granted his pardon to fugitive financier Marc Rich in part because the prime minister of Israel repeatedly pressed him to do it in reward for Rich's clandestine services to Israeli intelligence.
Although the controversy surrounding the pardon has focused primarily on large financial donations to the Democratic Party and to Clinton's presidential library from Rich's ex-wife, Israeli pressure raised national security and foreign policy concerns at the White House.
On its face, Israeli support for Rich might seem curious, since Rich did extensive business with both Iran and Iraq, two of Israel's mortal enemies, in apparent violation of U.S. law. But it turns out that Rich also used his business contacts in the Arab world to pass intelligence to Israel's foreign intelligence service, the Mossad, and to top Israeli officials. Vincent Cannistraro, a former Middle East expert with the CIA, said the Mossad used Rich as a "conduit for financial transfers" and to pass messages to Iran when necessary. "He is a very wealthy man, so he is not on the payroll per se," Cannistraro said. "He was a very close friend of the Israeli government and has been cooperating with Israeli intelligence since the early 1980s." Jack Quinn, Rich's lawyer and Clinton's former White House counsel, told a Senate committee Wednesday that he was convinced that Clinton's Jan. 20 action was informed by legal arguments and pleas from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. "Everything I saw in my dealings with the president," Quinn said, "suggested to me that President Clinton based his decision on his judgment of the merits, and I believe on the strong support for the pardon from . . . Barak."
Barak called Clinton at least twice to urge him to pardon Rich, who fled the United States for Switzerland in 1983 shortly before he was indicted on charges of tax evasion and trading with Iran during the hostage crisis of the late 1970s. The prime minister's last call came "a couple days" before Clinton pardoned Rich in his final hours as president, a former administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this week.
Other Israeli officials, including former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and former foreign intelligence chief Shabtai Shavit, also pressed Clinton to pardon Rich, who also has donated millions to Israeli charities, according to documents obtained by congressional committees.
For years, Rich has assisted Israel intelligence by helping to find Israeli soldiers missing in action in Lebanon and by helping to bring Jews to Israel from such countries as Ethiopia and Yemen.
In a letter to Clinton dated Nov. 28, 2000, Shavit said the Mossad had "requested his assistance in looking for MIAs and help in the rescue and evacuation of Jews from enemy countries."
"Mr. Rich always agreed and used his extensive network of contacts in these countries to produce results sometimes beyond the expected," the letter said. "Israel and the Jewish people are grateful for these unselfish actions, which sometimes had the potential of jeopardizing his own personal interests and business relations in these countries."
The petition asking Clinton to pardon Rich contained a number of letters from heads of Israeli philanthropic organizations, whose support was solicited by Avner Azulay, executive director of the Rich Foundation, a charitable entity that Rich established in Tel Aviv in 1988.
Azulay is a former Mossad agent, according to a congressional investigator who has been researching the pardon and who asked not to be identified. Rich's bodyguards also are former Israeli intelligence agents, the investigator said.
In a memo to Quinn dated Jan. 4, 2001, Azulay suggested that Clinton consider pardoning Rich instead of the controversial Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. naval intelligence analyst convicted in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison for spying against the United States for Israel. Over several years, Clinton rejected repeated Israeli requests that he pardon Pollard.
Azulay argued that if a pardon for Pollard would generate too much political heat, Clinton could mollify Israel by helping Rich. Using initials to refer to Pollard and Rich, Azulay wrote: "If he [Clinton] says no to JP, one more reason to say yes to MR."
Quinn used a similar pitch with the White House. According to one of his memos, he had a conversation with White House counsel Beth Nolan on Jan. 3 in which he suggested using the Pollard case to Rich's advantage. "Lastly, I told her that if they pardon JP, then pardoning MR is easy, but that if they do not pardon JP, then they should pardon MR," he wrote.
Barak also talked with Clinton last year about pardoning Rich "as an acknowledgment of his contribution to the well-being of the Jewish people in Israel and Diaspora, as well to its national security," according to a memo dated Jan. 24 from Azulay to Quinn. Clinton has acknowledged the Israeli lobbying effort on Rich's behalf, but he has not said how much weight it carried in his decision. Republicans in the House and Senate have held hearings on the pardon - unusual in part because Rich never was tried in court - though they have no power to reverse it. In a related development, New York U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White yesterday confirmed that she had opened a pardon investigation.
Most publicity surrounding the pardon, issued along with 139 others on the morning of Jan. 20, has focused on Rich's former wife, Denise, who contributed $450,000 to Clinton's presidential library and more than $1 million total to the Democratic Party and the successful Senate campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Denise Rich invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination when called to testify before a House committee last week. Also urging the president to pardon Rich was Beth Dozoretz, another Clinton friend and high-profile Democratic fund-raiser. A former Clinton administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the Israeli lobbying campaign and added that King Juan Carlos of Spain also weighed in on Rich's behalf. The former official noted that Clinton spoke regularly with Barak, who since has been voted out of office. "People have made too much of Denise's money and Beth's phone calls, because you also had world leaders calling the president," the former official said. "Whose calls do you think had more influence with him, a fund-raiser or someone he had been working with on Middle East peace?"
James Kuhnhenn, Jonathan S. Landay, Lenny Savino and Jackie Koszczuk contributed to this article.