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(Thursday, November 18th, 2010) Today, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – Queens and Brooklyn) and 39 of his colleagues announced they are sending a letter to President Obama urging him to pardon Jonathan Pollard, who received a disproportionately severe sentence when he was convicted of spying for Israel, one of the United States’ closest allies.
“We write to urge you to use your constitutional power to extend clemency to Jonathan Pollard, thereby releasing him from prison after the time he has already served,” the letter reads. “We believe that there has been a great disparity from the standpoint of justice between the amount of time Mr. Pollard has served and the time that has been served – or not served at all – by many others who were found guilty of similar activity on behalf of nations that, like Israel, are not adversarial to us.”
In 1985, Pollard was charged with passing classified information to the Israeli government. He cooperated with investigators, admitted his wrongdoing, and was sentenced to life in prison. No one who has ever pleaded guilty to a similar crime – one count of spying for an ally – has ever been sentenced to a life term. He has now served more than 25 years in federal prison.
Weiner has been a longtime advocate for awarding Pollard clemency. In 2005, he urged Attorney General Gonzalez to release crucial information in the Jonathan Pollard case to Pollard’s attorneys.
During the sentencing phase of Pollard’s trial, the government submitted a memo to the court which was later referenced by the judge as justification for his stiff sentence. Despite the fact that they the necessary security clearance, the government has never allowed Pollard’s lawyers to review the memo. This has severely hamstrung Pollard’s attorneys’ efforts to win him clemency.
The letter concludes with Weiner and his colleagues writing that “we see clemency for Mr. Pollard as an act of compassion justified by the way others have been treated by our justice system; as an act that will do nothing whatsoever to lessen our defenses against espionage; and a step that far from hurting the national security, could advance it by the impact it would have within Israel. We urge you to use the clemency power in this case.”
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Here's the comment:
Background: Jonathan Jay Pollard was born in 1954 in Texas & grew up in Indiana, in an affluent family; later he attended Stanford & Tufts. He was born an American citizen who betrayed his country for financial gain.
I wish I could list the various types of classified manuals & codes that he sold to Israel and others, which some fools dismiss today, saying but "they're our allies they wouldn't harm us." Some of those very documents were then sold again by several Israelis who worked in the Israeli Defense ministry -- 3 other men were discussed who then sold some of those US docs to the USSR. NCIS analysts assumed Israelis were "testing weaknesses" within US security defense systems. We can only wonder why they would. I remember during the post 9-11 period, there were at least 5 instances where Israelis were stopped, arrested and deported from backwater towns like Alamogordo, New Mexico in May 2002; it happened also at a Naval Base in Washington State, a Tennessee back road not too far from the prison where Pollard was housed, and a few others I've forgotten. Most were stopped driving U-Haul trucks using Israeli identifications (as was the case in NM) near where I reside. I read that tiny arrest report in the Alamogordo News-- the driver stated he was on his way to Chicago from Austin. Alamogordo is very far south & west. close to Deming & White Sands Missile base. Not the direction of someone traveling to Illinois from Texas. That item disappeared from the newspaper's web in less than 48 hours & the reporter left the paper's employ the next week. Those Israeli drivers of the empty U-Haul were deported a few days later as the paper's editor told me when I called back for an update.
The layers of disinformation/lies that have swirled around the Pollard case arose because such extensive damage was done to the United States security due to his actions, followed by layers of misinformation & coverup by the Israeli govt which received the million plus documents over 18 Months. The magnitude and type of information cannot be listed or explained as it is all still classified. The story has the same quality of mystery & distortion surrounding it as does the horrific still classified and inexplicable Israeli 1967 attack to sink a solo surveillance ship, the USS Liberty..but that is what propagandists and damage control agents do---sow confusion and disinformation. The best recourse is to find a well written presentation to read about this notorious espionage case to learn the truth and avoid 'hasbara'.
I highly recommend Ronald Olive's 'page turner' entitled: "Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How one of the most notorious spies in American history was brought to justice" published by the US Naval Institute Press, 2006. This author, Ron Olive, is a retired Special Agent of NCIS who served 30 years in law enforcement and 22 at NCIS in foreign counterintelligence. Previous to that he served in US Marine recon, received a Bronze star -V for valor in Vietnam.
Mr.Olive led the investigation against Pollard & garnered his confession which led to the arrest in 1986. The amount of damage done and the enormous number of documents that Pollard stole and sold to Israel is difficult to visualize; approximately 360 cubic feet, i.e., 1 Million+ documents over a period of 18 months. Then Sec of Defense Cap Weinberger wrote a 46 page (still) classified letter documenting the extent of damage to the presiding Judge in the case. Pollard did it for money, as he admitted...(he said he just grew dependent on the lavish living he'd grown used to-- some defense) !
Israel was not the only recipient of his espionage, South Africa, USSR and PRC also were discussed, but as Pollard's wife explained to Mike Wallace of CBS 60 Minutes : "we did what we felt our moral obligation as Jews..i have no regrets about that." She was as delusional & arrogant as her husband at the time and does not speak for anyone but her own wretched self. She received a brief 5 yr sentence but served only 3 yrs.
After Pollard was caught he contacted Wolf Blitzer who was then writing for the Wash Post. Blitzer then published a column minimizing the Intelligence that Pollard had passed along to Israel--which truly enraged Sec of Defense Cap Weinberger, who the submitted another letter to the court, this time unclassified, on the eve of sentencing stating : "the defendant took it upon himself to reverse policies and national assets which have taken many years, great effort, and enormous national resources to secure." Pollard had betrayed the security of the United States for money.
This is no time nor is there any room now for clemency, and as I learned from various readings the damage that was done to US security was so extensive, that results of Pollard's actions remain classified due to national risk. He stole and sold 1 million + of Top Secret / SCI information documents and led to serious damage to US relations with M/E govts as well. The book goes into depth about who, why what and how.
I urge you to contact your elected representatives, especially if they have signed off on this whitewash.
Tell them - no clemency no release for Pollard. No American should work on behalf of release for this traitor./Miriam
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http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/75900/Weiner,-Colleagues-Urge-Clemency-For-Jonathan-Pollard.html
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