Bush said ready to free Israeli spy

JERUSALEM, April 12 (UPI) -- The wife of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard says President Bush is willing to release him if there is a formal request for it from Israel.

Ester Pollard told Channel Two's Monday morning television talk program that "someone close" to Bush told her he would be ready to release her husband immediately if Israeli Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert made a formal request.

"Someone who is very close to President Bush came to me last night and said that Bush is ready to free Jonathan even in time for the upcoming Passover holiday (Thursday) as long as Olmert makes an official request," Pollard said, according to a report by Arutz-7 news agency.

She added that her source is "known very well to Mr. Olmert as trustworthy and having close ties with the U.S. President. I am willing to meet with Olmert even today if he invites me, in order to give him the information I have."

A member of Olmert's staff speaking to Arutz-7 on condition of anonymity said that such a meeting "would be considered" if Pollard requested it.

Pollard has been serving a life sentence -- with a recommendation against parole -- since being convicted on one count of espionage. in 1986.

Before his sentencing, Pollard estimated that the documents he provided to his Israeli contacts would create a 6-foot-square pile 10 feet tall.

During the trial Assistant United States attorney Charles S. Leeper in a publicly filed sentencing memorandum wrote that Pollard was known to have received $50,000 in cash from his Israeli handlers