Posted on 04/15/2006 4:31:49 PM PDT by Sabramerican
Report: US to release Pollard in Barghouti swap deal JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Apr. 16, 2006
Officials in Jerusalem claimed on Saturday that the US would free imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for Israel releasing jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.
According to Army Radio, Israel is set to offer the proposed prisoner swap deal in the next few months, following the unfolding anarchy in the Palestinian Authority. Seemingly, Israel intends to use Barghouti's release to strengthen the Fatah movement against the background of the much criticized rule of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government.
In 2004 Israel suggested a similar move but the initiative was rejected by the US government. Jerusalem officials predict that on this occasion the White House will accept the proposal.
Pollard, a former Mossad agent, was convicted of selling US military secrets to Israel, while he worked at the Defense Department's Pentagon headquarters. He was arrested in 1985 and pleaded guilty to the espionage charges. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and has been incarcerated in a US jail for the past 21 years.
The Israeli government denied for years that Pollard was its spy but finally acknowledged it in 1998.
Various prime ministers have since made efforts to secure a pardon for Pollard, none of which have been successful.
Probably execute them. Reptile-brain Islamopsychos have their own rules.
Russia is now an ally. Would you then believe Robert Hanssen is not guilty of treason and should be given a lighter sentence despite his spying for Russia?
Hansen's spying for Russia goes back to the Cold War when Russia was an enemy. Awful comparison. A better comparison would be someone spying for South Korea or Great Britain.
It's not an awful comparison. You just have a narrow legalistic definition of treason. I have a broad one. The purpose of a treason statute is to prevent it from happening again and thereby protecting American lives.
I think that ultimately nobody here knows the whole story, but if the Hersh account is true, than Pollard gave intelligence to the Israelis (about nuclear submarine positioning, communication, etc) that had zero use to Israeli defense and the he must have known was only useful to its ultimate destination, the Soviets.
So, if what the worst said about pollard is true, then the fact that he spied for Israel is irrelevent... he had to know the information was ultimately for the benefit of the USSR.
On another note, is their an offical definition of treason somewhere that backs up what your point?
He wasn't tried for treason. He pled guilty of lesser stuff and accepted a plea bargin. The judge threw out the plea bargain, as was his right. Now, for those of you who think that it is rare, it is not. It actually happend to me once. I was arrested on some felonies (over-reaching, it was some fraternity prank stuff) I accepted a plea bargin for a fine. The judge threw it out and sentenced me to 500 hours of community service.
That does not mean that I was not guilty of the felony charges (even though I think the felony aspect was over-reaching).
Similarly, Pollard elected to put himself before the judge, the fact that by accepting a plea bargain he was not tried is not good proof that he was innocent.
If Pollard was working for the Soviets I would favor his execution. He worked for an ally. He deserved to be punished for his deed but his punishment has become excessive.
On another note, is their an offical definition of treason somewhere that backs up what your point?>
Here is the definition in Webster's New World Dictionary "betrayal of one's country to an enemy" The legal definition is even more restrictive. This came up during John Walker Lyn's case.
So I take it then that you totally mis-understand then my argument that if Israel was merely a conduit to the USSR that we should be able to judge him as if he had sold to the USSR? Or, you do understand it but don't care?
Having read the site www.jonathanpollard.net, with the copies of news reports and legal briefings, this is a very curious case. It appears to me that Pollard informed Israel of information necessary for its defense against poison gas to be used by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. There were reports that $5 billion of US Agriculture Department development funds were used to build Saddam's BCW plants, and this was something certain officials did not want Israel to know.
The problem is that the Memorandum of Understanding between President Reagan and the State of Israel of 1983 made such vital information available to Israel. Thus it appears to this observor that Pollard's action _were law
enforcing_, not law breaking. The law breaking was done by those who embargoed the intelligence, according to reports, Weinberger and Bobby Inman.
To sum up, Pollard's treatment is an outrage of injustice.
The Cold War is over, there are real enemies of the West. The antisemites in Defense, CIA and State can stop playing make believe enemy alien now, as a plethora of active combatants are entering the West even as we speak. These have been actively committing aggression against the West for many years. It is time to free Pollard, and move on.
Magooey
Pollard should be have been hung hanged.
All sell-out traitors should be made to watch too.
Yeah, yeah, you're right!
You are stating an unproven and very unlikely thesis. Israel and the Soviets were not working together at the time so it seems unlikely the Israelis passed info to the Soviets. The most damning argument against Pollard that made sense was that the Israelis used the info that Pollard gave them in a way which betrayed agents who the Soviets knew would have been in a position to pass the info. The idea that the Israelis passed the info to the Soviets is only a figment of Hersh's imagination and if I had a dollar for every time Hersh blew hot air I would not need to work any more.
Bush bashing AND Olmert bashing all in one. I'll believe it when I see it... hopefully never.
One thing we can always trust Sabramerican for--bashing Prime Minister Olmert.
LoL.. I scrambled trying to figure out the HTML to do the strikeout you did and couldn't figure it out.. I just knew some other smartaleck was gonna get ya first. Finally just copied your source.
I been wanting to use my new-found knowledge (was corrected by a friend about a week ago) of hanged vs hung and was just waiting for the opportunity.. so I couldn't resist!
I tend to agree with you here. Of course, should Jonathan be released many more details will become frontpage news and I could revise my opinion as I learn more.
Bush would drive his numbers into the teens with such a move, for no real gain on the ground in the Middle East. Ain't gonna happen.
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