My best spook buddy sez there is more to the Pollard story:
1. The secrets he stole for Israel were re-sold to the Russkis. We were in the middle of the Cold War and some Israeli spook decided to make an extra shekel by selling US secrets to Russia. Pissed off a lot of people.
2. Pollard appeared to have helpers within the NSA and he never would give them up.
3. The NSA fired every Jew in the place to prevent said helpers from continuing to spy.
I do not have personal knowledge, just passing on what I was told by a guy who knows where the bodies are buried.
Not important since it doesn’t relate to the thread. Personally I seriously doubt #1, Israel had no reason to sell info to the Russians at the height of the cold war. However not long after Pollard was found out, Israel discovered a long time Russian mole in the Mossad, I’ve forgotten his name. I also doubt 2, he and his “operation”, which was essentially a low priced bazaar selling documents to anyone with the cash doesn’t strike me as one going to prison to protect “helpers”. Were there coverups going on in our intelligence agency at the time, you bet. You might recall Aldrich Ames. One of the “charges” implied against Pollard is that he outed a number of American agents in the USSR resulting in several dozen deaths. Anything is possible, but this was information far beyond Pollard’s security clearance. Not Ames, who interestingly participated in the damage assessment of Pollard’s espionage, several years later Ames admitted to passing most of the names to the Soviets himself. Doubt anyone asked him about Pollard. I believe later Robert Hansen admitted outing a few as well. Intelligence was a mess in those days. As to number 3, I’ve never heard that but the left often accuses Republicans of anti-Semitism, which firing Jews on the assumption they’ll be spies clearly is. If the Reagan administration was firing Jews, we’d have heard about it.