Posted on 12/27/2013 11:47:49 AM PST by cll
United States Secretary of State John Kerry has offered Israel the release of Jonathan Pollard, Channel 10 News reported on Friday.
According to the report, Kerry’s offer was made as part of the discussions surrounding the upcoming planned release of 26 terrorists from Israeli jails as a “gesture” to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Kol Yisrael radio, which also reported about Kerry’s offer, said it relates to the fourth stage of the terrorist release and is conditional upon Israel agreeing to release Israeli Arabs who have committed acts of terrorism.
Israeli officials were quoted by both outlets as having said that they believe the idea has not been cleared with President Barack Obama and as such were doubtful that the offer would actually be implemented.
Pollard’s release has been tied in the past week with recent revelations by documents leaked by Edward Snowden that the United States conducted surveillance on Israeli leaders.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Congressman Allen West
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2011/060211.pdf
A letter to the President asking Pollard to be released ...
I believe this was an ad (or some variation of it) in the national papers. I can’t recall when it was, but this is the same information that went out.
They all say - “Now is the time to free Jonathan Pollard.”
It lists ...
Lawrence J Korb
Former US Assistant Secretary of State
Senator Allen K Simpson
Co-chair of the Presidents Economic Commission
Senator Dennis DeConcini
Former Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
Bernard W Nussbaum
Former White House Council
Michael B Muckasey
Former US Attorney General
George P Shultz
Former US Secretary of State
Henry A Kissinger
Former US Secretary of State
R James Woolsey
Former CIA Director
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2011/051711.jpg
You do know that Israel itself negotiated for just ONE ISRAELI SOLDIER - and released ONE THOUSAND ISLAMIC TERRORISTS for just this one soldier! This was just a couple of years ago.
Israel has been promised a few times before to release Pollard, but was lied to. This is probably another lie of Obama and Kerry.
Home is actually Israel, now, as he is an Israeli citizen and not a US citizen.
Jonathan Pollard’s wife wrote the following in regards to news article about him in 1998. The information still hasn’t changed since then.
No Treason in Pollard Case
Pollard’s Wife to Globe and Mail: Set the Record Straight
October 25, 1998
by fax and by email
Dear Editor,
Re: Jewish-American Spy A Cause Celebre Around the World - M.Gee & G Abbate Globe and Mail October 24, 1998.
When a man’s fate and his very life hang in the balance, the Globe and Mail has an obligation to do its homework first, instead of recycling old canards and allegations. Contrary to what the Globe and Mail published, here are the facts:
JONATHAN POLLARD DID NOT COMMIT TREASON.
He was never accused of treason. He was never indicted for treason. He was not charged with spying against the US, only with spying on behalf of Israel.
JONATHAN POLLARD DID NOT COMPROMISE US SOURCES AND METHODS.
This is an old canard that the CIA trots out for the media with predictable regularity. In fact, Jonathan Pollard never had access to sources and methods, or codes information .
Even though the real culprits, (Aldrich Ames, David Boone and others), who compromised this sensitive information have since been arrested, the CIA has never stopped scapegoating Pollard for their crimes.
JONATHAN POLLARD DID NOT HARM US SECURITY.
Jonathan Pollard has never been indicted for harming the United States, its agents, its property or its installations. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE THAT WOULD SUPPORT SUCH A CHARGE.
The only information that Jonathan Pollard gave over to the Israeli Government was information related to the vital security of the State of Israel - information that the US had legally pledged to share with Israel.
ONLY ONE INDICTMENT: ONE COUNT OF PASSING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION TO AN ALLY.
The one and only charge on which Jonathan Pollard was indicted was one count of passing classified information to an ally. This is a lesser charge of the American espionage statutes. It carries a median sentence of 2 to 4 years. Today the maximum sentence has been capped at 10 years. Jonathan Pollard is entering his 14th year of a LIFE SENTENCE, with no end in sight.
JONATHAN POLLARD NEVER HAD A TRIAL.
He entered into a plea agreement with the US government in which he gave up his right to a trial. At sentencing, the Government completely violated the plea agreement and gave Jonathan a LIFE SENTENCE without possibility of parole. Who plea bargains for a life sentence?
JONATHAN POLLARD WAS ACCUSED IN KAFKA-ESQUE SECRECY.
Neither Pollard nor his attorneys have ever been allowed to see a classified memorandum to the sentencing judge in which former secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger levels secret charges against him. Nothing in the indictment against him supports the grossly disproportionate sentence that he received.
(NOTE: IN CANADA, SUCH INTERFERENCE IN THE JUDICIAL PROCESS BY THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN A MISTRIAL, AND THE POLLARD CASE WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!)
LIFE SENTENCE FOR FRIENDLY ESPIONAGE: UNPRECEDENTED.
No one in the history of the United States has ever received a life sentence for spying for an ally. Only Jonathan Pollard. The median sentence is 2 to 4 years. Some recent cases of similar spying, (for example, Schwartz and Lee) received no prison time whatsoever!
Appellate Court Justice Stephen Williams termed the Pollard case “a complete and gross miscarriage of Justice.”
JONATHAN POLLARD EXPOSED ARAB PLANS TO ANNIHILATE ISRAEL.
The information Jonathan Pollard passed to Israel concerned CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL, AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS OF WAR being massed by neighboring Arab countries specifically for use against Israel. It also concerned detailed plans for upcoming terrorist attacks on civilian targets in Israel.
VITAL SECURITY INFORMATION ILLEGALLY WITHHELD BY U.S.
Anti-Israel elements within the US security and defense establishments illegally embargoed the flow of information to Israel. For example, the US, did NOT tell Israel about the Scud missiles and poison gas that Saddam Hussein was preparing for use against it.
JONATHAN POLLARD TRIED TO RELEASE INFO LEGALLY.
He appealed right up the chain of command all the way to the Under Secretary of Defense, but was rebuffed with spurious excuses such as “Jews get nervous when we talk about poison gas, so we won’t tell them that that is what Saddam is aiming at them.”
JONATHAN POLLARD ACTED OUT OF FEAR FOR ISRAELI LIVES.
When all of Jonathan Pollard’s efforts to legally release the information failed, he acted on his fear for the thousands, indeed millions of Israeli lives that were being jeopardized. He then approached the Israelis and volunteered to make the information available.
JONATHAN POLLARD PREPARED ISRAEL FOR THE GULF WAR.
The people of Israel call Jonathan Pollard “The Ghost of the Sealed Rooms”, because it was his information that allowed the Government of Israel to prepare for and plan for the GULF WAR. For the first time, the concept of gas masks and sealed rooms was introduced into Israeli civil defense.
FICTITIOUS VOLUME OF INFORMATION ALLEGED.
The volume of information that Jonathan Pollard is alleged to have passed to Israel is an absurdity - he would have needed to use a moving van on several occasions to have transferred the volume of documents being claimed by the CIA.!
The truth is, even if only one page or a single sentence of a document was passed to the Israelis, it was counted as if the whole document had been transmitted. Even referenced documents and sources were counted as having been transmitted in toto. Using this calculation, a single page could be counted as 50 hard bound 500 page volumes.
JONATHAN POLLARD HAS EXPRESSED HIS REMORSE.
Jonathan Pollard has repeatedly expressed his regrets for having broken the law. He is sorry he did not avail himself of legal means to act upon his concerns for Israel.
JONATHAN POLLARD HAS PAID A DISPROPORTIONAL PRICE.
He has now served 3 times as long in prison as any other person in the United States convicted of a similar offense: 14 years in prison (8 years in solitary confinement), under the harshest of conditions.
ISRAEL AND THE U.S.: CLOSE FRIENDS AND STRONG ALLIES?
Israel has apologized for the Pollard affair, and given the US strong assurances of no future repetition. Israel has granted Jonathan Pollard citizenship, and has pledged to be fully responsible for him. Four Prime Ministers of Israel, 3 Presidents of Israel, and all the ensuing Parliaments of Israel have repeatedly asked the United States to release him to Israel. Between close friends and strong allies that ought to be enough.
All of the above information and more is located on our website: http://www.jonathanpollard.org
The Globe and Mail has done a grave disservice not only to Jonathan Pollard, but to the fight for equal justice in America, and for equal treatment of Israel as an ally. Set the record straight. Print the facts. They speak for themselves.
Esther Pollard
(Mrs. Jonathan Pollard)
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1998/102598.htm
If Pollard talks .... Oh boy. Heads and reputations might flow like those in the French revolution.
Just saying.
This was posted in WorldNetDaily right after the attack on the USA on 9/11/2001 ...
Terror in the U.S. and the Jonathan Pollard case
http://www.wnd.com/2001/09/11023/
Essentially, Jonathan Pollard warned Israel that Saddam Hussein was planning to scorch the Jewish State with weapons of mass destruction. What is perhaps most shocking of all, though, is the fact that this vital information was being purposely withheld from Israel by the U.S., Israel’s closest ally.
Nevertheless, thanks to Jonathan Pollard, Israel was ready with gas masks and sealed rooms when Iraq attacked her during the Gulf War.
In warning Israel, Jonathan broke the law. He deserved to be punished. But the punishment has to fit the crime. The usual sentence for spying for an ally is 2-4 years. Jonathan is about to complete his 16th year of a life sentence, with virtually no possibility of parole.
Jonathan Pollard did not spy against the United States. He was never indicted for intent to harm the United States, nor for treason, though he has been falsely accused of both. He received his life sentence without benefit of trial, as the result of a plea bargain which Jonathan honored and the U.S. violated.
Jonathan received a sentence far harsher than most of those who spied for an enemy nation. Twentieth-century spies Michael Walker, Clayton Lonetree and Richard Miller, who spied for the Soviet Union and did inestimable damage to American national security, are all free men today. Only Jonathan Pollard, a Jew who spied for the Jewish State, remains in prison with no end in sight.
Additionally, the case of Michael Schwartz highlights the disparity in sentencing between Jew and non-Jew and between Israel and other U.S. allies. Schwartz, a non-Jew who spied for Saudi Arabia, was arrested, confessed and indicted. But before he ever stood trial, a quick deal was worked out in order to appease America’s Saudi ally. His punishment? Loss of his Navy job, rank and pension. Whereas Jonathan Pollard got life for his activities on behalf of a U.S. ally, Schwartz did not get a single day in prison.
An article (“Crime and Punishment,” LA Jewish Journal – 04/03/98) by J.J. Goldberg, Editor of The Forward (N.Y.), cites high-level Washington sources indicating that the Joint Chiefs of Staff acted through Caspar Weinberger to secure a life sentence for Jonathan Pollard that has nothing to do with Jonathan’s guilt or innocence and everything to do with sending an intimidating message to Israel and to the American Jewish community: “High-ranking sources say that it was the Joint Chiefs of Staff who urged the judge, through then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, to ignore the plea agreement and throw the book at Pollard. … They wanted to send a message. … Pollard is still in jail, these sources say, not because his crime merits his lengthy sentence – it doesn’t – but because too many American Jews still haven’t gotten the message.”
Perhaps this explains why both the American justice system and the clemency process have been repeatedly subverted in the Pollard case and why, in spite of the patently false accusations against him, Jonathan Pollard remains in prison nearly 16 years later.
He was born in America, raised in America, educated in America and was a full American citizen when he committed treason against his nation.
Why would Israel, the great ally of America, provide Israeli citizenship after Pollard's conviction of American treason? Just what's in this for Israel?
I don't care what Bibi Netanyahu wants. We'll do our best to get Pollard to his foster country before sunset for a proper Jewish burial.
No release before then.
Right of Reply: Not treason, not dual loyalty, but equal justice is the issue
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Right-of-Reply-Not-treason-not-dual-loyalty-but-equal-justice-is-the-issue
Jonathan Pollard is the only person in US history to receive a life sentence for spying for an ally.
My husband, Jonathan Pollard, was never accused, indicted or convicted of treason in a court of law. However, Jonathan has been repeatedly defamed in the media, falsely accused of treason and wrongly branded a “traitor” by those who, incredibly, claim to have no hostile agenda. A recent case in point: “The Pollard Affair: Was it dual loyalty?” by Eli Kavon (Jerusalem Post, February 12).
Kavon’s grandiose declarations of American patriotism are no excuse for dismissing an issue that strikes at the very heart of the American system of justice: equality before the law for all Americans. His patriotic breast-beating notwithstanding, there can be no excuse for distorting facts, changing history and ignorance of American law.
The US Constitution, Article 3, Section 3 defines the crime of treason as follows: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” By repeatedly describing Jonathan as if he were a “traitor, his crime “treason” and his actions as “treasonous,” Kavon is not only defaming Jonathan, he is implying that Israel is an enemy nation at war with the US, which is absurd.
Even a cursory glance at the facts which Kavon ignores, reveals a case which Appellate Court Justice Steven Williams described as “a fundamental miscarriage of justice.” Jonathan is currently serving his 24th year of a life sentence for an offense that has a median sentence of two to four years.
JONATHAN NEVER had a trial. He received his life sentence as the result of a plea agreement which he honored and the US Government violated.
Jonathan was indicted on one charge only: one count of passing classified information to an ally without intent to harm the United States. There were no additional charges against him. Jonathan is the only person in the history of the US to receive a life sentence for spying for an ally.
The information Jonathan passed to Israel included Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare capabilities - all being developed for use against Israel. It also included information on ballistic missile development by these countries and information on planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets. When he resigned in 1994, former NSA Director Bobby Ray Inman publicly admitted that this critical information had been deliberately, illegally withheld from Israel, in retaliation for Israel’s 1981 strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor.
Nevertheless and notwithstanding, Jonathan broke the law and he acknowledges his guilt. On numerous occasions he has expressed remorse for his actions, regretting that he did not find a legal means to act upon his concerns for Israel. Jonathan has long since paid his dues for the one count of disclosing classified information to Israel with intent that it be used to Israel’s benefit, with which he was charged.
RATHER THAN address the facts of the case and the troubling questions it raises for American Jews, Kavon pontificates about “dual loyalty” versus “divided loyalty”. He “psychoanalyzes” Jonathan, speculates on his mind-set more than two decades ago, and comes to the conclusion that while it is “disappointing” that outgoing President Bush did not pardon Jonathan, it was the victim’s own fault.
When Kavon refers to George Washington’s historic declaration to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island as proof of America’s inherent fairness towards all, and refers to Jonathan’s actions as making him unworthy of this great gift, he is missing the point. It is precisely when an offense has been committed that this protection is so vital.
In point of fact, President Washington’s promise to American Jewry, after his visit to the Touro Synagogue in 1794, was the guarantee of full equality before the law. Equal justice for all. Similar sentences for similar offenses.
It is not dual loyalty that is at the heart of the Pollard case. It is equal justice.
KAVON POINTS TO THE DREYFUS case as if to suggest that the two cases - Pollard and Dreyfus - could not be more dissimilar. This is false.
Alfred Dreyfus was a Jewish officer in the French army who was falsely convicted of treason in 1894 and spent five years on Devil’s Island for a crime he did not commit. He was later exonerated.
Like Dreyfus, Jonathan is a Jew serving time for crimes he did not commit. Although he was never formally indicted, Jonathan was secretly blamed [by the prosecution and by the American intelligence community] for all the unsolved espionage crimes up to the time of his arrest. In the nearly quarter of a century that Jonathan has been in prison, the real perpetrators - Hansen, Boone, Pelton and Ames among them - have been caught and sentenced. Nevertheless, Jonathan continues to languish in jail. After 24 years in the harshest of prison conditions, Jonathan is desperately ill and his health is rapidly deteriorating.
It is unjust that Jonathan has been punished much more severely than all others who committed similar offenses on behalf of other US allies. It raises concern about why a Jew who spies for Israel is treated far more harshly than those who have spied for other allies, or even enemies, of the US.
The five years that Dreyfus spent on Devil’s Island will forever be a blot on the honor of France’s Third Republic. History will judge with equal disfavor, not only those directly involved in the imposition and preservation of Jonathan’s life sentence, but all who have failed for more than two decades, to speak out against such a shameful and inexcusable abuse of fundamental American justice.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey and former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee US Senator (ret.) Dennis DeConcini, as well as a cross section of other notable Americans, and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations are calling for Jonathan’s release. Enough is enough, they say.
Even former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, the man who drove Jonathan’s life sentence, admitted in an interview before he died, that the Pollard case was a “minor matter” which had been “made much more important than it was” in order to serve another agenda.
When President George Bush left office on January 20, 2009, he did not reject Jonathan’s petition for clemency. He handed the Pollard petition on to President Barak Obama, a man who has expressed strong determination to restore honor and fairness to the American system of justice.
Commuting Jonathan Pollard’s life sentence to the 24 years he has already served would be a good and honorable start.
Bio Note: Jonathan Pollard is an American-born Israeli citizen who worked for Israel’s Ministry of Defense. He is currently in his 25th year of captivity in an American prison for his activities on behalf of the security of the State of Israel. Esther Pollard is his wife.
No, they don't. He has no credibility whatsoever. The only thing that has changed between 1993 and 2013 is that Woolsey is no longer the CIA director.
There isn't a single shred of new information or evidence that has come out in the last 20 years that alters the facts at the time or presents any mitigating circumstances. And since the guy who is supposed to be serving a "life sentence" is due to be released in less than two years anyway, the only thing at work here is politics.
The first time I saw a reference to a comment that Pollard should be released "to be with his wife," I laughed so hard I almost barfed. This isn't the same wife who was married to him when they were both charged with espionage, mind you. This is a new wife ... who got married to him after he was already in prison. LOL.
You asked ... “Why would Israel, the great ally of America, provide Israeli citizenship after Pollard’s conviction of American treason? Just what’s in this for Israel?”
As Israel has already stated a few times and in public, Jonathan Pollard worked for Israel and was doing his job under direction from the State of Israel.
Israel made him a citizen because his cover was blown by that time and there was no reason to keep it hidden any longer.
Woolsey is just one of a whole big list of officials who back Pollard being released. So, if you don’t like Woolsey ... take your pick from a long line of them ... :-) ...
So Pollard worked for Israel as a citizen of the United States?
1. If someone as damaged and unprincipled as Bill Clinton wasn't willing to release Pollard for the sake of political expediency -- even after apparently promising to do so -- then you know there's a lot more to this story than the American public has been told.
2. If you talk to anyone who has worked in U.S. intelligence, you'll probably notice that they never refer to Israel as an "ally." There's a good reason for this. They consider Israel no more trustworthy than the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
ROFL.
Anyone who thinks the guy has any credibility on this issue should simply do a Google search on the terms "Woolsey, global warming" to see what kind of nonsense he's willing to spew in public when he's paid to make a fool of himself.
Yes he did. He didn’t have Israeli citizenship at that time because that would blow his cover. He wouldn’t have been a very good Mossad agent if he let the cat out of the bag .... :-) ...
AND ... you do know that ALL JEWS IN THE USA qualify for Israeli citizenship - no matter where they were born or no matter what their prior citizenship is.
After it got out and after Israel made the public statement that Jonathan Pollard was definitely working for the State of Israel and under their control - they then conferred Israeli citizenship upon him.
I mean, come on ... We're supposed to sit up and take note because Anthony Weiner thinks Pollard should be released from prison? ROFL!
And do you think Pollard should be released?
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