Posted on 09/04/2003 7:24:42 AM PDT by bedolido
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:16:25 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
September 3, 2003 -- JONATHAN Pollard, convicted spy, would like to be set free. His advocates in the United States also want Pollard to go free. And his one-time paymasters in Israel badly want him to go free. Pollard was in court yesterday asking for a reduction in his sentence. But he should have been executed for his crimes. His life sentence was a mercy he didn't deserve. Releasing him from prison while he's still breathing would be terrible for America - and even worse for Israel.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Yes, and entirely deserved, when you consider his actions prior to sentencing. The simple fact of the matter is that, Jew or not, Israel or not, if Jonathan Pollard had simply said "I'm sorry" and kept his mouth shut after that, he'd be out by now and be enjoying a comfortable retirement somewhere in Israel. But he chose not to do that - he chose to try manipulating the system in a way those other traitors you cited did not, and tried to portray himself as a righteous person acting in service of some greater good. And while it may be harsh, it's hardly unprecedented - Christopher Boyce tried to portray his espionage as morally justified as well, and got basically the same treatment.
Pollard freely decided, of his own accord, to try playing with fire, and he got burned - he got exactly what he deserved for such a thing. And now he can simply stay where he is, as far as I'm concerned. Just like Boyce, who got 40 years for his own effort to seize the moral high-ground.
So you think he would have only received about 15 years on the merits of his case ...
Some of these cases are even more interesting in comparing to Pollard's:
1996 – HAROLD J. NICHOLSON, was arrested on 16 November at Dulles International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Switzerland. On his person were found rolls of film bearing images of Top Secret documents. Nicholson is the highest ranking Central Intelligence Agency officer (GS-15) charged with espionage to date. Counterintelligence officials believe that he began spying for Russian intelligence in June 1994 as he was completing a tour of duty as deputy station chief in Malaysia. He joined the agency in 1980 after serving as a captain in the US Army.
Nicholson was charged with passing a wide range of highly classified information to Moscow, including biographic information on every CIA case officer trained between 1994 and 1996. He is also suspected of having compromised the identities of US and foreign business people who have provided information to the CIA. According to investigators, for two and a half years he had been hacking into the agency’s computer system and providing the Russians with every secret he could steal. It is alleged that Nicholson received approximately $120,000 from the Russians over a two-year period.
He came under suspicion in late 1995 when he failed a series of polygraph examinations. Further investigation revealed a pattern of extravagant spending, and an unusual pattern of foreign travel followed by large, unexplained bank deposits. Nicholson, who at the time was in the middle of a divorce and child custody battle, claimed that he did it for his children and to pay his bills. On 21 November he was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit espionage. On 3 March 1997, Nicholson pleaded guilty under a plea agreement in which he admitted that he had been a Russian spy. On 6 June he was sentenced by a Federal judge to 23 years and seven months in prison. This reduced sentence reflected his extensive cooperation with government investigators.
Los Angeles Times, 19 Nov 1996, "Career CIA Officer Is Charged With Spying For Russia" Los Angeles Times, 21, Nov 1996, "Alleged Mole To Plead Not Guilty" Washington Post, 6 Jun 1997, "Convicted Spy Says He Did It For His Family" New York Times, 4 Mar 1997, "CIA. Officer Admits Spying For Russians"
As much as you'd obviously like to pretend it didn't happen, his behavior is a part of the case and the merits thereof, your handwaving notwithstanding. The facts are clear - Jonathan Pollard is in prison because he put himself there. He neither deserves nor will have mercy based on his own lack of remorse for what he did. Boyce got 40 years for his lack of remorse. Pollard was in a greater position of trust than Boyce, and demonstrated an equal lack of remorse - hence, his sentence was commensurately more severe. Life's a b*tch that way.
Who said that Pollard should be hanged? I merely suggest that he can stay right where he is, right where he deserves to be.
1985 - SHARON M. SCRANAGE, operations support assistant for the CIA stationed in Ghana and her Ghanaian boyfriend, MICHAEL SOUSSOUDIS, were charged on 11 July with turning over classified information, including the identities of CIA agents and informants, to Ghanaian intelligence officials. It is reported that a routine polygraph test given to Scranage on her return to the US aroused CIA suspicions.
Following an internal investigation, Scranage agreed to cooperate with the FBI in order to arrest Soussoudis, a business consultant and permanent resident of the United States. According to one report, damaging information on CIA intelligence collection activities is likely to have been passed on by pro-Marxist Kojo Tsikata, head of Ghanaian intelligence, to Cuba, Libya, East Germany and other Soviet Bloc nations.
Indicted on 18 counts of providing classified information to a foreign country, Scranage subsequently pleaded guilty to one count under the espionage code and two counts of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Fifteen remaining charges were dropped. On 26 November Scranage was sentenced to five years in prison. (This was later reduced to two years.) At the same time Soussoudis who had been charged with eight counts of espionage pleaded nolo contendere and was sentenced to 20 years. His sentence was suspended on the condition that he leave the United States within 24 hours.
Washington Post, 12 Jul 1985, "CIA Aide, Ghanaian Face Spy Counts" Washington Post, 14 Jul 1985, "Routine Polygraph Opened Ghanaian Espionage Probe" Washington Post, 20 Jul 1985, "FBI Says Spying Occurred After CIA Order on Ghanaian"
As much as you'd obviously like to pretend it didn't happen, his behavior is a part of the case and the merits thereof, your handwaving notwithstanding. The facts are clear - Jonathan Pollard is in prison because he put himself there.
I have already agreed that he was guilty of espionage and deserved a sentence commensurate with the crime. Your position is that he would have received about 15 years or less under normal sentencing with a plea bargain but that because he showed no remorse and grandstanded he deserves life without parole.
He was actually sentence to prison and did not put himself there. He would leave if a judge ordered his release, like a judge ordered his incarceration.
Obviously not you, but there have been more than a few who feel this way and actually write it.
I don't know what sort of a sentence he would have received, any more than you do. What I do know is that in comparable cases where the defendant behaved similarly, the sentences were similar. Your contention that his sentence is unprecedented is only sustainable so long as you pretend that Pollard's behavior was the same as those other cases. It was not. And yes, he very much put himself there by engaging in behavior that inevitably heightened his risk of greater punishment. Nobody made Jonathan Pollard talk to the Post. Nobody made Jonathan Pollard claim the moral high-ground for his traitorous behavior. Nobody made Jonathan Pollard demonstrate exactly the lack of remorse that has maximized the punishments of countless defendants in countless cases before him. Nobody made Jonathan Pollard choose the same sort of path as the thug gas-station stickup man who decides to impress his friends with how tough he is by flipping off the judge. Nobody made Jonathan Pollard engage in a calculated plan designed to pressure the court system into lightening his sentence, and which ended up backfiring on him.
Nobody made Jonathan Pollard do these things. Jonathan Pollard did all these things on his own. Yes, Jonathan Pollard is very much in prison now because he put himself there. He is merely reaping what he himself has sown, as much as you would like to suggest otherwise.
In the one example you provided, Chrisopher Boyce received 40 years for spying for the USSR during the height of the Cold War. He did not reach a plea agreement with the government. He maintained his innocence, perjured himself at trial, and was convicted.
Pollard received life for spying for Israel at the height of a US-Israeli alliance, in spite of a plea agreement. I think there is a tertiary reason for the "unusually harsh sentence", a visceral hatred of Pollard because he is an American Jew who betrayed American secrets to Israel. It is the explanation that makes the most sense, not his behavior at trial. Otherwise why Weinberger ?
Often asserted, never supported.
I am a Christian. Now you're out of excuses.
Are you an American, or are you an Israeli?
Why Jonathan Pollard Got Life In making its case against Pollard, the government traveled a great distance: from choosing in its indictment not to charge Pollard with injuring the United States, to listing in the Victim Impact Statement allegations of damage to American interests, to raising in Secretary Weinberger's January declaration the specter of danger to American lives, to accusing Pollard of "treason" in Weinberger's eve-of-sentencing supplemental declaration. It almost appears that the government leveled a charge of lesser magnitude against Pollard; successfully secured his guilty plea; and then post-facto kept upping the ante, to the point where a life sentence became almost inevitable.
Now why would they do that ?
You don't seem to be acting like a Christian.
Are you an American, or are you an Israeli?
Yes
You know, just as an aside, I would think that it's patently obvious that Jonathan Pollard has singlehandedly done more to damage the cause of American Jews than almost anyone else. After Pollard, the anti-Semites will simply point to him and his dual loyalties when they say that Jews cannot be given positions of trust - and now, people will listen, where they might not have before. Hell, even Joe Lieberman knows this much...
Why, how nice of you to comment on the state of my soul, not that it's particularly relevant to the discussion.
And you really go out of your way to avoid giving a straight answer to my question.
Something is not kosher here.
Perhaps the "dual loyalties canard" isn't such a canard in a very few cases...including yours.
Hell, I'm listening now, and I'm called an "Isra-bot" by the Raimondonistas.
You don't seem like a Christian to me. It's probably just another flag you want to drape yourself in to feel important.
I'm interested in justice as a matter of integrity.
You know, just as an aside, I would think that it's patently obvious that Jonathan Pollard has singlehandedly done more to damage the cause of American Jews than almost anyone else. After Pollard, the anti-Semites will simply point to him and his dual loyalties when they say that Jews cannot be given positions of trust - and now, people will listen, where they might not have before. Hell, even Joe Lieberman knows this much...
I agree. It has already begun and G-d knows where it will lead.
That's fine, but unless and until you bring something a bit more solid to the table than just a set of "why else would they do that?"-type questions, I see no reason to entertain theories suggesting that Pollard is in jail because of someone's bigotry. Those are serious charges, my friend, and they require serious evidence before anyone is going to listen, let alone believe.
I agree. It has already begun and G-d knows where it will lead.
The problem is that aiding and abetting Pollard in his attempt to make his case into a matter of Jewish solidarity is only going to reinforce that perception. It's time to let it go...
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