Shmuel Rosner of Haartez notes that in his new book Tenet claims he is responsible for stopping the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

Former CIA chief George Tenet claims that he is responsible for scuppering a deal to free Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Navy analyst who received a life sentence for spying for Israel.

In his memoirs, Tenet says he told former U.S. president Bill Clinton during the 1998 Israel-Palestinian summit at the Wye Plantation that he would resign if Pollard were freed.

In his account of a meeting between himself and Clinton, he says that he remained "very calm and matter of fact," even though he had issued an ultimatum to the president.

"It's just the wrong thing to do," Tenet says he told the president. If you do this, he said, "I won't be your CIA director in the morning."

The demand to free Pollard came from then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a condition for Israel's acceptance of the agreement on the table at the time.