Posted on 10/29/2009 12:25:07 PM PDT by Nachum
(IsraelNN.com) Former minister Rafi Eitan, who recruited Jonathan Pollard as a spy for Israel in the US, expressed regret over the espionage debacle in an interview on Channel 2.
"I admit the failure and I regret it,” he said.
In an interview to Maariv in 2008, Eitan said that the US intelligence services made a joint decision not to permit Pollard ever to be released until the end of his life. “The reason isn't Pollard. It's Israel... It's connected to the relationship system between the American intelligence services and the state of Israel.” Eitan went on to confirm that the US intelligence services were “taking revenge” on Israeli intelligence through Pollard.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Rafi Eitan may have his opinions about the U.S. taking it out on Pollard to “get even” with Israel, but Eitan (the guy who recruited Pollard to spy on the U.S. - that’s also called being a traitor) is living good as a govt official and allowed a fellow Jew to suffer. Eitan should have devised an escape plan for Pollard to leave the U.S. and, to placate any hurt American feelings, Pollard could serve time in one of those weekend off jails in Israel.
As for me, I’ve got no sympathy for Pollard.
Those secrets Pollard gave away eventually wound up in the hands of the ChiComs. He should have been shot.
Tell me more about that.
Are you saying that Pollard was spying for Israel, but then Israel was selling these secrets to the Chinese?
Is that what you are saying?
Considering the number of overseas agents that were “eliminated” because they were betrayed by this rat bastard - not to mention the all the stolen military secrets - shooting would have been too nice.
To clarify, Pollard was also giving those secrets to the ChiComs, it’s not clear whether Israel was aware of this or not.
The point is, he just wasn’t spying for a “friendly nation”, he was also helping a real enemy.
Israel sells weapons to the Chinese, they reverse engineer. I don’t entirely blame Israel, we force them to defend themselves with one hand behind their back and they are trying to survive in a very hostile world. The ME question could be settled now if we had let Israel settle it.
COuld you please point me to some sources on that?
They should have traded Pollard for some Eastern bloc spy, like MI5 routinely used to do.
Ed
Aren’t you thinking of Aldrich Ames?
Ed
Israel spying on us and then selling that information to the Chinese is unrelated to our alleged lack of support to them in their war against their enemies in the ME.
You’re mixing apples and oranges.
I’m not taking sides, someone else mentioned that Israel spied on us and then sold that info to the Chinese.
“At the 1998 Wye River Conference, Benjamin Netanyahu demanded Pollard’s release, and President Clinton made a public statement about reviewing the case.[49] This precipitated an “incredulous” reaction in the American intelligence community.[53] Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as well as six other former U.S. Secretaries of Defense (Melvin R. Laird, Frank C. Carlucci, Richard B. Cheney, Caspar W. Weinberger, James R. Schlesinger and Elliot L. Richardson) spoke out in opposition to clemency for Jonathan Pollard.[28] They were joined by several senior congressional leaders.[28]
Four past directors of Naval Intelligence, William Studeman, Sumner Shapiro, John L. Butts, and Thomas Brooks, authored a response to the talk of clemency and what they termed “the myths that have arisen from this clever public relations campaign... aimed at transforming Pollard from greedy, arrogant betrayer of the American national trust into Pollard, committed Israeli patriot”.[54] They asserted that Pollard passed information to three other countries before engaging in espionage activity on behalf of Israel, and that he had offered his services to a fourth country while he was spying for Israel.[54] They continued,
“We... feel obligated to go on record with the facts regarding Pollard in order to dispel the myths that have arisen from this clever public relations campaign... aimed at transforming Pollard from greedy, arrogant betrayer of the American national trust in to Pollard, committed Israeli patriot”
“Pollard pleaded guilty and therefore never was publicly tried. Thus, the American people never came to know that he offered classified information to three other countries before working for the Israelis and that he offered his services to a fourth country while he was spying for Israel. They also never came to understand that he was being highly paid for his services....”
“Pollard and his apologists argue he turned over to the Israelis information they were being denied that was critical to their security. The fact is, however, Pollard had no way of knowing what the Israeli government was already receiving by way of official intelligence exchange agreements... Some of the data he compromised had nothing to do with Israeli security or even with the Middle East. He betrayed worldwide intelligence data, including sources and methods developed at significant cost to the U.S. taxpayer. As a result of his perfidy, some of those sources are lost forever.”
“...Another claim Pollard made is that the U.S. government reneged on its bargain not to seek the life sentence. What is not heard is that Pollard’s part of the bargain was to cooperate fully in an assessment of the damage he had done and to refrain from talking to the press prior to the completion of his sentencing. He blatantly and contemptuously failed to live up to either part of the plea agreement... It was this coupled with the magnitude and consequences of his criminal actions that resulted in the judge imposing a life sentence... The appellate court subsequently upheld the life sentence.”
“If, as Pollard and his supporters claim, he has “suffered enough” for his crimes, he is free to apply for parole as the American judicial system provides. In his arrogance, he has refused to do so, but insists on being granted clemency or a pardon.”
Admiral Shapiro, who was himself Jewish, stated that he was troubled by the support of Jewish organizations for Pollard: “We work so hard to establish ourselves and to get where we are, and to have somebody screw it up... and then to have Jewish organizations line up behind this guy and try to make him out a hero of the Jewish people, it bothers the hell out of me”.[9]
Eric Margolis alleges that Pollard’s spying may have led to the capture and execution of CIA spies in the Eastern Bloc after Israel sold or bartered Pollard’s information to the Soviet Union.”
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard
What does any military do when they find foreign spy ships giving real time intelligence and troop movements during the middle of a shooting war. Looking back at WWII, they are generally blown out of the water.
Might be one reason LBJ wanted to hush things up.
Oh my GOD! I had no idea. Thank you very much for giving me this info. I always saw Pollard as a misguided patriot for Israel, not a craven, Walker/Ames type who caused deaths.
Thanks...
Ed
It is generally known that information that Israel collected from spies in the United States was routinely transmitted to the Soviet Union for Israel’s own purposes. It is also available in the open literature that the ChiComs were/are enamored with Israel’s technical abilities.
The information that Pollard transferred to Israel cost the United States millions of dollars and hundred of thousands of technical man hours to compensate for.
Pollard should be shown no mercy as he is a man that betrayed the sacred trust that this country entrusted him with.
The sad thing is that Israel learned no lesson and continues to spy on us as you read this post. (as do virtually every other major country in the world).
Spying on us was wrong, and Pollard should be in jail forever, if not executed. The Israeli’s however are trying to survive, without help in a world that wants them to go away. I’d do the same thing were I them.
Israel has friends, let’s stop the “nobody likes me” charade.
In an interview to Maariv in 2008, Eitan said that the US intelligence services made a joint decision not to permit Pollard ever to be released until the end of his life. "The reason isn't Pollard. It's Israel... It's connected to the relationship system between the American intelligence services and the state of Israel." Eitan went on to confirm that the US intelligence services were "taking revenge" on Israeli intelligence through Pollard.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.