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Former undersecretary of defense Lawrence Korb said Tuesday that convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard may be released soon. "Given Jonathan's deteriorating health they may consider clemency," Korb said in remarks that contradicted reports that Pollard's release was were baseless. "There is a chance." Korb also rejected that US President Barack Obama's silence on an emergency plea for Pollard's release from Israeli President Shimon Peres on humanitarian grounds was a definite "no" on clemency for Pollard. "Obama didn't respond to a letter sent by Prime Minister Netanyahu over a year ago, either, to my knowledge," Korb said. "He may be waiting...

WASHINGTON -- The government of Israel is again asking the United States to release convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, a former Navy analyst serving a life sentence for espionage. But the White House said Monday its position has not changed, and President Barack Obama has no intention of releasing Pollard. Pollard was arrested in 1985 and convicted in 1987. Democratic and Republican administrations alike have repeatedly refused Israeli appeals to release Pollard. The latest request was made Monday in a letter to Obama from Israeli President Shimon Peres, who asked that Pollard be released on humanitarian grounds because his health has...

It is not the business of Israel, although it seems to be the business of the politicians of Israel, to hector and harass President Obama about the release of Jonathan Pollard, who served as a certified espionage agent of the Jewish state in and against its one truly reliable ally, the United States of America. Maybe Pollard’s sentence was a bit harsher than it should have been. But I don’t even concede that. In any case, there are probably hundreds of thousands of convicts now in jail who can argue that their prison sentence was not equable or even just...

Officials in the Prime Ministers office have relayed to journalists that it is the intention of the Prime Minister to raise with the President, the issue of Jonathan Pollard’s release. As will be remembered, 14 months ago Prime Minister Netanyahu made an unprecedented official request for Pollard’s release. His request has not received the courtesy of a response to date. At this time hopes are mounting that during the upcoming meeting between the PM and the President, a positive response to Netanyahu’s request will be forthcoming. Even more so, in light of the dozens of appeals by high-ranking senior officials...

"Leading Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich discusses Jonathan Pollard in an Interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN Wednesday. Gingrich says he is leaning towards clemency in the case of Jonathan Pollard, but hasn’t all the information needed to make up his mind. . . ."

Next month, convicted Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard will begin his 27th year in prison, and the Obama administration is displaying stunning insensitivity to what this means for the American Jewish community. Pollard was arrested in 1985 for transferring classified documents to Israel during his service at US Naval Intelligence. In 1987, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crime. Pollard's sentence contradicted his plea bargain agreement. It was based, among other things, on an impact assessment report of his crimes that was authored by CIA officer Aldrich Ames. At the time of Pollard's arrest, Ames had been spying for...

US vice president hosts Jewish leaders, political rivals for Rosh Hashana toast, says 'Israel is America's closest, dearest, most morally-based friend' WASHINGTON – At an annual event held at the US Vice President's residence in honor of the Jewish New Year, US Vice President Joe Biden said that "Israel is America's closest, dearest, and most morally-based friend". Biden added that there is no alternative to America's commitment to Israel. Among the guests present at the event were Biden's political rivals from the Republican Party, such as House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, as well as leaders of the American Jewish...

U.S. President Barack Obama was set to release Jonathan Pollard but his vice president thwarted the move, The New York Times has reported. According to the report, Vice President Joe Biden met last week with 15 rabbis in Boca Raton, Florida, when he was asked by one of them why Pollard, who was convicted in 1986, was still in prison. In response to the question Biden said, “President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, ‘Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time.’” He added, “If it were up to me, he would...

In the wake of the recent growing calls to release Jonathan Pollard, Attorney Marc Zell, co-chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition chapter in Israel, claimed surprisingly on Thursday that there are other American Jews who do not support Pollard’s release. He did not claim his views are the policy of the Republican party. “As an Israeli Jew I’m obviously sorry he’s still in prison, but as an American Republican and an American citizen I do not support Pollard’s release,” Zell told Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew-language news service. “Knowing the issues inside out and knowing the background, what he did was very...

Professor Morris Pollard was laid to rest Monday, denied the privilege of having his son Jonathan present to recite the Kaddish – the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead – over his grave. Jonathan Pollard sat grieving for his father in his jail cell instead, his mother already having died -- also without his presence to comfort her in her final hours. Despite thousands of phone calls that flooded the White House switchboard, an appeal to the U.S. State Department by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren and pleas by dozens of Israeli lawmakers, the Obama administration refused to allow Pollard to...

Morris Pollard, the father of Jonathan Pollard, has died at age 95. HIs family has sent an urgent plea to President Obama, asking him to show mercy and allow Jonathan Pollard compassionate leave to attend his father's funeral. Jonathan Pollard was convicted for passing classified information to a foreign country and has been incarcerated for 26 years Pollard's father had been hospitalized for the last several months. During this period, activists on Pollard's behalf and various well-known Israelis, attempted to no avail to obtain permission for Jonathan to visit his father on a 24 hour leave. The refusal prompted MK...

Jonathan Pollard’s father is in serious condition, according to Pollard’s wife Esther. “Emergency phone call from Jonathan today,” Esther Pollard in an email message Saturday night. “He was crying. He was crying so much it was hard to understand. Now I am crying too.” “He told me he got an emergency phone call from his brother Harvey to tell him that his Dad is dying... they do not know if he will even make it through the day. “This was totally unexpected and a great shock. “Dad was in fairly good health. He is old but in very good shape....

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Republican Sen. John McCain is joining his call urging the release of an American convicted of spying for Israel more than two decades ago.

As the calls for clemency for Jonathan Pollard continue to intensify, Henry A. Kissinger, an elder statesman, well-respected diplomat, and experienced member of the United States intelligence community, has become the latest American governmental leader to issue a public call for Pollard’s release. Pollard has spent more than 25 years languishing in a federal prison for passing classified information to Israel, an ally of the United States. Kissinger, who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, sent a letter to President Obama requesting that he commute Pollard’s sentence to...

Democrats claim their sweeping financial-sector reforms will guard against the kind of problems that triggered the recent economic meltdown. But if they really wanted to do that, they would've focused on how so many US officials were simply . . . bought. Fat chance. Nonetheless, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform, is demanding just such a review -- and, for the sake of the nation, he should get one. Last week, Issa wrote to Alfred Pollard, general counsel to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,...

Former US Secretary of State who served under Ronald Reagan joins list of senior security officials calling for Pollard's release. Former US secretary of state George Shultz has joined a long list of former senior American and Israeli security officials calling upon US President Barack Obama to release Jonathan Pollard. In a letter obtained by The Jerusalem Post Tuesday night, Shultz wrote that he was impressed that the people who are best informed about the classified material Pollard passed to Israel now favor his release. He cited former CIA director James Woolsey, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dennis...

Why is this man still in jail? Why was this man forced to spend seven years in solitary? Why is he still confined, languishing, festering in jail for a total of twenty five years? Solitary confinement is the most barbaric of punishments. Few people can withstand this form of torture without becoming very ill, both physically and mentally. Am I talking about the Soviet Gulag? Or about some hell-hole in Afghanistan or Iran? Last year, The New Yorker ran a piece about solitary confinement. The article concludes that this punishment amounts to torture, that it can even induce “acute psychosis...

Why is this man still in jail? Why was this man forced to spend seven years in solitary? Why is still confined, languishing, festering in jail for a total of twenty five years? Solitary confinement is the most barbaric of punishments. Few people can withstand this form of torture without becoming very ill, both physically and mentally. Am I talking about the Soviet Gulag? Or about some hell-hole in Afghanistan or Iran? Last year, The New Yorker ran a piece about solitary confinement. The article concludes that this punishment amounts to torture, that it can even induce “acute psychosis with...

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a public plea to the White House for the release of Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli spy jailed 25 years ago, an official said Tuesday. Pollard's wife Esther at a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday passed on a message from her husband urging Israel to move on from the quiet diplomacy of the past quarter-century and to make a formal and public request for his release.

The British surrogate mother who was carrying Osama Bin Laden's twin grandchildren has suffered a miscarriage. Louise Pollard was ten weeks into her pregnancy when she lost the children conceived by IVF using the sperm of Bin Laden's son Omar and the eggs of his 54-year-old British wife, Zaina, who was previously known as Jane Felix-Browne.  Miss Pollard was travelling in Syria with Mrs Bin Laden when she was attacked by two men as she walked alone from a cafe to her accommodation late at night.    (edit)   There was no heart beat,' said Miss Pollard, who has...