That there's some pure genius.
Posted on 12/27/2013 11:47:49 AM PST by cll
Notable Quotes:
“It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess.”
“When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing.”
Explains everything.
[Within a few days, in June 1984, Pollard started passing classified information to Sella (Israeli handler) and received, in exchange, $10,000 cash and a very expensive diamond and sapphire ring, which Pollard later used to propose marriage to his girlfriend Anne. He also agreed to receive $1,500 per month for further espionage.]
The US “dangles the carrot” for various things,- things like this ...
Wye River Memorandum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wye_River_Memorandum
Slick Willy used his huckster ways on Netanyahu and dangled the carrot to get concessions from Israel. Netanyahu says that Clinton basically lied to him about Pollard.
Clinton Did Promise to Release Pollard, Israeli Insider Says
Julie Stahl, Jerusalem Bureau Chief
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Contrary to his own claims, former U.S. President Bill Clinton did promise to release convicted spy Jonathon Pollard as part of the Wye River Memorandum that Israel and the Palestinians signed in 1998 — but Clinton went back on his word at the last minute, said an Israeli insider who attended the Wye talks.
In his autobiography My Life , Clinton denied that he had ever promised to release Pollard, an American convicted of spying on behalf of Israel and sentenced to life in prison in 1987.
Pollard has served longer than any other person convicted of espionage on behalf of an ally with no intent to harm the U.S.; and he is the only person in U.S. history to have received a life sentence for spying for an ally.
Successive Israeli prime ministers have taken up the case with successive U.S. administrations in an attempt to obtain a pardon for Pollard, but to no avail.
In mid-October 1998, Clinton hosted a summit between Israel (led by then Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu) and the Palestinians )led by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat) at Wye River, Maryland.
According to Clinton, Netanyahu threatened that he would cancel the agreement if Clinton did not release Pollard.
According to Clinton, Netanyahu said that Clinton had promised in an earlier meeting to release Pollard, and that was why Netanyahu had accepted other conditions in the agreement.
But, Clinton wrote, the truth is that he had told Netanyahu that if the release of Pollard was necessary for him to make peace, then he would be inclined to do it and that he would check with his people.
Clinton said CIA Directory George Tenet and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger and others opposed the move - with Tenet threatening to quit — so Clinton closed the door on the idea.
But one Israeli insider who attended the Wye River talks told CNSNews.com that Clinton had promised to release Pollard.
At 4:00 a.m. on the day of the signing, the Israeli delegation received a phone call saying there was “no deal,” said the Israeli source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was part of the whole deal, but Clinton went back on his word, the source said.
The Israeli team then met again to decide if they would sign the agreement, the source added.
In a statement on the “Justice for Jonathon Pollard” website, Pollard himself blamed Israeli Minister Natan Sharansky’s silence over the last six years for enabling Clinton “to revive all the old lies and canards about me in his new book.”
Pollard said Sharansky, who was also an Israeli minister in attendance at Wye, had kept silent all these years about Clinton’s promise to release him.
Page Source (url): http://www.crosswalk.com/1270008/
Brave insider who didn’t want his name publicized. No name, no credibility.
Clinton even confirms the situation ...
In his book, “My Life,” Clinton reflects on the 1998 Wye River Accords, in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was told Pollard would be released as part of a deal that would also free 750 Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons.
Clinton says Netanyahu brought up the Pollard issue at the last minute, and that he had to renege on the release after CIA Director George Tenet threatened to resign if Pollard’s sentence was commuted.
AND ... it’s not only Clinton that says so, but even Netanyahu ...
Pollard’s version of events has been corroborated by the Israeli delegation at Wye including Netanyahu and Naveh, and by prominent Jewish leaders.
Speaking to the Knesset in 2001, Naveh stated, “The former president of the United States, Bill Clinton, made an explicit commitment to the then-prime minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu, to release Jonathan Pollard. This promise was made prior to the Wye Summit and [again] during the course of the negotiations at Wye …”
Article at ...
http://www.wnd.com/2004/06/25244/
So what?
The “So what?” ... is in answer to your question.
In Post #135, you asked “ ... What would the US expect to get out of it?”
That would be “concessions” which would be hard to achieve otherwise. You use a “hot issue”, you dangle it like a carrot on a stick, you get the concessions, and when it becomes impossible to back out, you “pull a Lucy” (like with Charlie Brown) and yank the carrot completely away.
And there you have it ... the “so what” ... :-) ...
The dangle didn’t work. Clinton talked to some people and changed his mind.
So what?
The “dangle” did work, as it was the USA who was doing the “dangling” in order to get the concessions.
The USA did get the concessions, and the “dangle” was pulled back just before the signing was to take place. The concessions “stayed”.
Now the Israelis know better than trust a Clinton.
That’s why Netanyahu is going to DEMAND the release of Pollard, this time - or Israel will do nothing the USA wants on the Palestinian issue.
It’s going to be absolutely quid pro quo this time around. That’s because this wasn’t another Israeli government that Netanyahu simply “heard about” getting stiffed - it was Netanyahu, himself. He’s not forgetting that - this time around.
Netanyahu ‘to demand release of spy in return for peace talks concessions’
The Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will link the release of former US naval intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard, convicted of spying against the US for Israel, to progress in the US-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
The reports said Netanyahu would either demand Pollard’s release when Israel signed a framework agreement, or as part of a prisoner exchange involving Arab citizens of Israel held for terrorist offences, who have always been excluded from previous agreements.
Netanyahu’s office declined to confirm or deny the story, which was reported by most of Israel’s most well-informed diplomatic correspondents – a favoured method of leaking sensitive information.
Netanyahu appeared to be responding to mounting pressure following revelations that Britain’s GCHQ and America’s National Security Agency had targeted then Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, his defence minister, Ehud Barak, and Barak’s chief of staff.
Pollard was imprisoned in 1987 and has served longer than any other spy captured in the US. Repeated Israeli requests for his release have been ignored, although they have lately been joined by top US officials responsible for his prosecution, including Lawrence Kolb, deputy to then US defence secretary Caspar Weinberger.
“We ask that you seriously consider the requests that there have been from top current and former American officials and release Pollard on humanitarian grounds,” said a letter to The US president, Barack Obama, signed by more than 100 Israeli MPs and ministers ahead of a special session in the Knesset on Wednesday.
“It’s a matter of justice,” said the deputy defence minister, Danny Danon. “The Americans can’t come to us asking for more and more while Pollard remains in prison.”
Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier released in a prisoner swap in 2011 after being held for five years by Hamas, added his moral weight to the campaign and called on “our American friends” to release him.
“After Israel released terrorists with blood on their hands as a gesture to the Palestinians – this is an appropriate reciprocal gesture,” Shalit wrote in a national newspaper column.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/24/israel-demand-release-spy-jonathan-pollard-peace-talks
That’s why Netanyahu is going to DEMAND the release of Pollard,
And that will guarantee Obama will get nowhere there ...
And that is probably a good thing anyway. Obama shouldn’t be allowed to insert himself into what’s going on with Israel, and extract conditions which are meant only for Obama’s personal and political aggrandizement.
I would be perfectly happy to see Kerry sent packing - to go back to Obama with absolutely nothing in hand - and give Obama a big flop.
And don’t forget Kerry wants to get his ticket punched also. So far he ain’t done squat as SOS and he would surely like to have something to crow about-—feather in his cap as it were——some deal, any deal, for some, any reason. No matter how pathetic and pointless——something to chat with the ketchup queen about. Something more fun than throwing somebody else’s medals over a fence.
“If you’re hung up on this for any reason, pretend Pollard is a South Korean or Filipino-American or an ally from someplace else, and free him.”
Well if you are in to affirmative action for spy release, I guess that will work for the average dumb arse. The problem is that no SK or FA has done anything near as bad as Pollard has to national security.
That was James Woolsey, who was head of the CIA, who said that. If anyone should be able to know what all the classified and unreleased information on Pollard is — he would be the one who would know. He is not of that opinion, as you express it, and he did examine the information.
Since I don’t think you have access to all the classified and top secret information ... I’ll go with Woolsey, rather than you ... :-) ...
Yeah, and people with a brain will go with the multiple CIA Directors and Secretary’s of Defense who thought the sentence should fit the crime and he needed to stay in prison.
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