![\"Former](\"http:\/\/cdn.timesofisrael.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/clinton1-e1398900582476.jpg\" "\\"Former")
<\/a>Former US president Bill Clinton speaks at Georgetown University on Wednesday, April 30, 2014 (photo credit: Georgetown University)<\/p><\/div>Halper noted that \u201cintelligence officials in the United States or Israel will of course not<\/p>\n
confirm on the record the extent or substance of Israeli eavesdropping,\u201d but also cited an article published in 2000 by the magazine Insight, that claimed that Israel had \u201cpenetrated four White House telephone lines and was able to relay real-time conversations on those lines from a remote site outside the White House directly to Israel for listening and recording.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel has denied such claims in the past as \u201coutrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pollard, a former US naval analyst, was found guilty of passing sensitive documents to Israel, and sentenced to a life sentence in prison for the offense. He remains a cause celebre in Israel, and there have been repeated efforts throughout the past twenty years to secure his release.<\/p>\n
Halper cites seemingly corroborating information, including a contemporary New York Times article from November 1998 which reported that the two leaders had discussed Pollard\u2019s release during the ill-fated conference and that \u201cthe Israelis had told the president something that opened up the possibility of Pollard\u2019s release, something Clinton had explicitly ruled out during the first six years of his presidency.\u201d The Times article noted that a White House spokesman told a reporter that Clinton was simply \u201cnewly impressed by the force of Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Halper, during the special investigation by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr \u201cLewinsky told prosecutors that Clinton suggested that \u201cthey knew their calls were being monitored all along, and the phone sex was just a put-on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Halper adds to the narrative claims by the Lewinsky legal support team that \u201cthey found evidence that the British, Russians and Israelis all had scooped up the microwaves off the top of the White House.\u201d Halper also offered as evidence the memoir of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who wrote that Russian intelligence had picked up on Clinton\u2019s \u201cpredilection for beautiful young women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clinton\u2019s \u201cpredilection for beautiful young women,\u201d however, was far from a state secret; it was in fact widely discussed even during Clinton\u2019s initial presidential election campaign.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s threat, according to Halper, spurred Clinton to consider action. Halper claims that Clinton brought the request before CIA director George Tenet. Tenet, however, threatened to resign his position if Pollard was released, and Clinton backpedalled on the idea.<\/p>\n