---
updated: 2026-10-12
tags:
  - Organization
  - Media
  - USA
category: "Private Organization"
summary: "Esquire is an American magazine whose October 1991 article by Craig Unger repeated Ari Ben-Menashe's allegations that Robert McFarlane was recruited by Rafi Eitan and identified McFarlane as 'Mr. X' in the Jonathan Pollard case."
---
*[[Esquire]]* is an [[United States|American]] magazine. In October 1991, it published an article by [[Craig Unger]] that repeated [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] allegations that [[Robert McFarlane]] had been recruited by [[Rafael Eitan|Rafi]] and named McFarlane as "Mr. X" in the [[Jonathan Pollard]] case.[^1] The article was the subject of a libel suit by McFarlane. The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the judgment for the magazine on January 30, 1996.[^2] The opinion records that the magazine's editor, William Blythe, approved the phrase "Yet it's almost impossible to dismiss him" directly after the passage listing Ben-Menashe's vulnerabilities. Explaining the decision, Blythe testified: "We wouldn't have used him as a source unless we thought he had some knowledgeability."[^2]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
[^2]: *McFarlane v. Esquire Magazine*, 74 F.3d 1296 (D.C. Cir. 1996), No. 94-7137, decided January 30, 1996. https://static.case.law/f3d/74/cases/1296-01.json