Senator Wellstone Asks President to Intercede

'I Am Your Spy' Newsletter, Fall 1999

Sen. Paul Wellstone, the Minnesota Democrat who represents the adoptive parents of Mordechai Vanunu, has added his voice to Congressional calls for release of the imprisoned whistle-blower.

In a July 21 1999 letter he asked President Clinton to ask the newly installed Israeli government of Ehud Barak to "review Mr. Vanunu's case on humanitarian grounds, as I believe that this case may involve international human rights issues that transcend national boundaries and that these issues should be considered in reviewing Mr. Vanunu's case."

Referring to concerns about Vanunu's prison treatment expressed by House members and by Clinton himself, Wellstone wrote: "I share these concerns and believe they should figure prominently in any humanitarian reassessment of his case."

Wellstone is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His constituents include Mary and Nicholas Eoloff of St. Paul, who became Vanunu's adoptive parents in 1997.

Wellstone's request went well beyond a letter of March, 1997, when he asked Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to check into Vanunu's prison treatment.