Pollard may be released
Jonathon Pollard was arrested in 1985 for passing US secrets to Israel while he worked for the Naval Intelligence Command. In 1987, he pleaded guilty and sentenced to life in prison. His imprisonment has been highly controversial because his sentence was for passing secrets to our ally. While he spied for Israel, he was very well paid by that ally. He also passed classified information to Australia and attempted, unsuccessfully to trade in secrets with Pakistan, according to NCIS investigators. So, you see, the issue wasn’t about who he spied for, it was about the act of spying.
Well, now the Obama Administration wants to make nice with the Israeli government, which has been lobbying for Pollard’s release since the door slammed shut behind him and it looks like he might make parole in November thirty years after his arrest, according to Fox News;
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that some U.S. officials hope the release will improve relations with Israel following the Iran nuclear deal. However, others denied any link between the release and the Iran deal exists.
National Security Council spokesperson Alistair Baskey told Fox News on Friday that Pollard’s prison status ”will be determined by the United States Parole Commission according to standard procedures. There is absolutely zero linkage between Mr. Pollard’s status and foreign policy considerations.”
The 60-year-old Pollard has been experiencing health problems in recent years, but the lead lawyer for Naval Intelligence during the investigation of Pollard, M.E. “Spike” Bowman, characterizes him as a less than sympathetic character according to Wiki;
“Because the case never went to trial, it is difficult for outside observers to understand the potential impact and complexity of the Pollard betrayal,” he wrote. “There is no doubt that Pollard was devoted to Israel. However, the extent of the theft and the damage was far broader and more complex than evidenced by the single charge and sentence.” In his estimation Pollard “was neither a U.S. nor an Israeli patriot. He was a self-serving, gluttonous character seeking financial reward and personal gratification.”
Category: Legal
They should throw him into a dungeon and drop the key into the River Styx. I say this as a Jew and a supporter of Israel.
That’s a filthy lie. Pollard was a spy for israel, and never had anything to do with Australia or Pakistan. The investigators came up with that canard after sentencing to ensure he would be in jail forever.
So you know, pollard is the longest jailed spy in american history. All those russian spies from the cold and the frozen wars were released way before reaching 30 years in prison.
“All those russian spies from the cold and the frozen wars were released way before reaching 30 years in prison.”
That’s because they were useful as bargaining chips, unlike Pollard.
No, he’ll be released as a bargaining chip to soothe Bibi’s feelings about the Iranian deal.
It won’t help.
A useless gesture on the part of an incompetent admimistration, if true.
Word, Ed.
As another of the chosen tribe I have to disagree with you Michael. They should have placed the traitor against a wall and shot him sans blindfold and last smoke.
This article uses the terms “convicted spy” and “his trial.” Pollard was never “convicted’ because he never had a trial. The government wanted to avoid a trial where Pollard’s lawyer could have compelled his accusers testify under oath and be revealed as lying. U.S. intelligence was also guilty of violating Reagans’ Presidential directive to share intelligence with Israel. Pollard discovered that Saddam was preparing poison gas for use against Israel. His superiors refused to share that intelligence. Pollard then warned Israel who then distributed gas masks prior to the first Gulf War in 1991. Those who violated Reagan’s directive were never punished. Warning Israel, with intelligence they were entitled to receive, was viewed by some as committing a crime against the U.S. Our government pressured Pollard to accept a plea deal instead of a trial. He was promised leniency in return for cooperating and was also threatened with withholding needed medicine from his incarcerated wife if he refused. Pollard accepted the government’s promise. The government reneged and imposed a life sentence including seven years in solitary confinement (despite the Constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment) to make sure Pollard was silenced. U.S. security was indeed severely damaged by someone spying for the Soviet Union. Pollard was blamed and given a life sentence. After Pollard was already incarcerated Aldrich Ames of the CIA and Robert Hanssen of the FBI were found to be selling American secrets to the KGB. But this could not be brought out in time because Pollard had no trial. Those two were guilty of betraying American security for which Pollard was blamed. In June 2003 an article appeared in Moment Magazine by John Loftus titled “The Truth About Jonathan Pollard”. John Loftus is a former prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department with access to top secret CIA and NATO archives. He authored many books and co-authored “The Secret War Against the Jews – How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People”. That article is archived at http://www.jonathanpollard.org… It is highly revealing and begins as follows: When American intelligence broke the Soviet wartime code, we learned that the… Read more »
Agree 100%. Traitor should die in prison, tough crap he has health problems. I’m not Jewish,but I sure as hell do know what happened to MILLIONS and the few that were hidden by my papas team. 1,476 Jewish hidden in just Amsterdam and small surrounding areas by six underground teams. As for Israel having to fight for a piece of land for over 5,000 years is crap. Give it to them and get on with life. Today I’m sharing for the first time that I’ve been in contact with survivors who were hidden, most are their children and grandchildren. I send money that was left to me by my father whenever I get a call. My list has grown to almost 90 people. I do this though my papa’s best friend David who who fought side by side with all members as a Jew. Now a Rabbi as is his two sons and nephews of the sister my granddaughter cared for. We always thought it would of been what our papa and Opa would of been proud of. Since my children put their inheritance in the cause, we can continue to donate.
LET POLLARD ROT IN PRISON..
“Pollard was neither a U.S. nor an Israeli patriot. He was a self-serving, gluttonous character seeking financial reward and personal gratification.”
Wow. A member of “the tribe” behaving that way? Hard to believe.
And about Israel being an “ally”… to me they ceased to be after they killed 34 of our sailors (and injured 174) in the prolonged and deliberate aerial attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. This incident never has and never will get the attention it deserves.
It was a friendly fire incident. If you had bothered to serve in the military in time of war you would know how frequent those are.
But the enemies of israel and the jewish people never fail to use this friendly fire incident as a blood libel.
Many of us have served in war. We have no love for traitors regardless of who’s fire got them. And it’s only libel if it’s not true. Are you saying he didn’t sell secrets to Israel? If he did, it ain’t libel to say so. So try not to compare it to the blood libel conspiracy that actually is 100% grade A Czarist bullshit and stay on topic. Otherwise people won’t take you seriously.
As for serving longer than other spies, well maybe those others should’ve served longer. But we got a use out of letting them out.
There are books, websites, and eyewitness accounts, including from the captain of that ship, that directly contradict your revisionist history.
Go peddle your propaganda elsewhere, or better yet, just use your trump card and call me an “anti-semite.”
Friendly fire my ass. Google USS Liberty and see what you come up with.
Yeah, if you want to believe all the conspiracy theories created by those who hate israel.
And about you being antisemite, I don’t know and I don’t care.
Im a big boy, I know how to defend myself, so I have no fears.
I never believe everything I read..just the truth. STOP FIGHTING YOU GUYS..YOUR BETTER THEN THAT. Don’t let a disagreement turn my hero’s into enemies. We have enough of those in the middle east. Say its cool and have a beer?
Agreed. Every time Americans and Israelis argue, America’s enemies rejoice.
Then we need stop the arguments.Everyone has their own opinion, the only one we should believe is what God explains to us when we get to the gates
To be called an “Anti-Semite” means you are doing something right.
Yef, you’re full of shit. It was a deliberate attack, so shut the effing-eff up now.
Come on dude, do your research. It was friendly fire. Israel had just lost a destroyer and thought the liberty was another Egyptian warship. The planes diverted to engagge were loaded with ground support ordnance.
Had this been an intentional attack, no one would have survived.
Um, the US wasn’t a party to that conflict. So the term “friendly fire” is not correct.
The attack on the USS LIBERTY was either an accident of war due to gross incompetence that resulted in an attack by Israeli forces on a neutral nation’s ship, or it was a deliberate attack by Israeli forces on a neutral nation’s ship. Based on accounts from survivors detailing the incident, my money’s on the latter.
There was no way in hell the USS LIBERTY was mistaken for the EL QUSEIR, as the Israeli government first claimed. And the IDF knew the USS LIBERTY was operating in that general area, having sighted it earlier that day and verified its identity (and the fact that it was a neutral nation ship).
The IDF is many things, but it is not freaking incompetent.
Regarding why: the Israelis knew precisely what the USS LIBERTY was. The Golan Invasion was postponed until after the attack (it was originally to happen a day earlier), and the IDF reportedly had executed or was executing a number of Egyptian POWs in the Sinai (vic El Arish) before or at about the time of the attack. Either would be a damn good reason for Israel to be highly concerned about the USS LIBERTY’s presence just off their coast.
I hope to live long enough to see the full files on the incident released, which would show the actual reason behind the attack. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will.
Yes, it was friendly fire, and we can’t forget how many nazis the Israeli Intelligence Massod brought to be tried for crimes against humanity. So sorry some were killed trying to escape and the one that was murdered in a prison as the sole prisoner. NOT?
“Friendly fire in fog of war” ignores that the attack took place in full daylight, CAVU unlimited, on a ship conspiciously flying at least two American flags. Pull the other one – Israel made a deliberate attack on the ship.
That, however, is totally extraneous to Pollard’s case. Regardless of who he sold out to, he sold out, and with no overwhelming strategic reason to release him sooner, should spend the rest of his unnatural traitorous life rotting in a small room with a barred door.
WHEN AMERICA ALMOST DIED
Though the facts behind the Pollard disaster have never been made public, members of America’s military, intelligence and national security organizations knew, they had to, it was their job to try to defend a country left vulnerable to attack.
Stories of DEFCON alerts tied to Pollard, are spoken of quietly, hushed voices, among retirees, pilots from the Strategic Air Command, NORAD personnel and other top military commands, both American and NATO partners.
Pollard dangled victory in front of a Soviet regime that was the most radical and thoughtless in their history, at a time when the signs of the collapse were becoming clear.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/07/24/pollard-goes-free-over-our-dead-bodies/
Horseshit Yef. That is not what it was at all. It was a very well planned and deliberate attack on a clearly marked US ship flying a US flag in international waters. Their reason for it was very simple. They were about to launch an attack on the Arab states and didn’t want to take any chances at all that we might tell the Arabs, or anyone else.
By the way, I love your pro Israel and pro Pollard fiction above. Too bad none of it is true.
“Pollard was neither a U.S. nor an Israeli patriot. He was a self-serving, gluttonous character seeking financial reward and personal gratification.”
Hmmm……..thought you were talking about Obama…a weak-kneed twit that is ruining this country.
What goes around, comes around, doesn’t it?
But if you’re “elected” to do that, rather than hired, you can do whatever you want to the country for money.
Anyone who thinks the Israeli’s are our allies has never actually served with them. They were so problematic during Beirut the Commandant of the Marine Corps wrote a letter of protest to POTUS over their actions.
Conspiracy nut jobs have had a field day writing about the Israeli’s. There is no need to make shit up, the facts are bizarre enough.
The fact that we evacuated the PLO to safety and deployed Marines to end their advances into Lebanon resulted in retaliation.
There was a division within the Israeli forces, some did not support their actions. Several attempts were made to pass information to US services through non-traditional channels.
Some of the events that took place during and after our occupation of Beirut were a result of Israeli retaliation. Not all Israeli’s supported those actions. Not all actions against Marines were due to the Israeli’s of course.
Higgins did not just walk away from his convoy, nor was he forced, he was talking to a familiar face. Amid did not just vanish, he fled to London. The Israeli’s were determined to exact a price on the US for obstructing what they seen as an opportunity to put a permanent end to hostilities from their northern boarder.
This guy can rot in the depths of hell for all eternity. What he did provided Israel with another means to exact their revenge.
I forget who it was who said “Countries don’t have friends; they have interests.”
This is very true as regards the Israelis. While we share many common interests, we can never forget that they will always pursue their own agenda.
Good grief – a sovereign country looking out for it’s own best interest. Imagine that. None other would ever do that, right?
I do not blame the Israeli’s for defending themselves. I am not even sure stopping them from taking over half of Lebanon was the right thing to do.
People being sold the idea that we were in Beirut to bring peace to a civil is utter nonsense. It might have been on the list of hopeful outcomes but it had little to do with our presence.
Capt Johnson had to pull a weapon on the driver of the lead tanks to stop them from advancing. The spin put on that incident claiming it was a misunderstanding was done by none other than Mr. Netanyahu.
They can claim what they want about those years but there are too many of us that witnessed their bullshit in person.
Hayabusa: that would be Henry John Temple of the UK. He was better known as Lord Palmerston; in the 1800s, he twice served as the UK’s Foreign secretary, once as the UK’s Secretary for War, once as the UK’s Home Secretary, and twice as the UK’s Prime Minister.
Palmerston was absolutely correct. Anyone who forgets that when analyzing foreign relations and/or diplomacy is a damn fool.
Anyone thinking the Israelis are presently anything but a US ally of convenience is deluding themselves. They’d deal with anyone to protect Israel.
Can’t say I blame Israel for protecting themselves, actually. But harbor no illusions: they’d sell out the USA in a heartbeat if they thought it would further Israel’s security.
And FWIW: count me among those who believe the USS Liberty incident was a deliberate attack vice inadvertent friendly fire. At the time of the attack, the USS Libertywas flying her colors (the large flag), was clearly marked with her USN designation in letters several feet high, and was overflown twice by Israeli aircraft before she was attacked. The USS Liberty also looked very little like the Egyptian freighter for which she was claimed to have been mistaken.
Unfortunately, certain exceptions to normal declassification rules apply to intelligence operations. I’m guessing the truth about the attack on the USS Liberty is unlikely to be made public in my lifetime.
Regarding the basic subject of the article: IMO, Pollard should be released from prison exactly the same way as John Walker was – in a box, after dying behind bars. He was a freaking traitor, and should have gotten the same thing that the Rosenbergs did: execution.
And give me a break with that, “Pollard was spying for an ally, so his sentence is too severe” garbage. That’s pure horsecrap. So were the Rosenbergs – the USSR was a US ally while Julius and Ethyl were spying for them during World War II. They deserved hanging; they got the chair. Pollard deserved no less.
Perhaps if he wanted a sex change he could get a Presidential pardon.
Well, while the admin is off messing everything up to the detriment of the country, we might as well release the traitors too.
A traitor is a traitor, SHIT on Pollard.
When and why exactly did we stop hanging traitors as the law recommends?
Well, I hope he dies.
Soon.
He can keep Walker company in hell.
A traitor is a traitor. Firing squad or Noose should be the only question.
There’s nary a problem with issues of parole when a convict’s been executed.
That there should be thunk on next time it is time for sentencing a traitor.
He’s in poor health? And… I don’t care.
He’s a snake. End of story.
Snakes are much cleaner than Pollard, he’s more like a moldy rat turd!
Bagel, cream cheese, onion and lox!
I got nothin’ else!
I asked a friend of mine in Israel what Israelis think about Pollard. He said,
“Yes, people care about Pollard, but it’s a very sensitive subject – after all, he is guilty for spying against our best ally.”
and
“Regardless – Pollard is old and very ill. Several high-rank officials in the states said that if he wasn’t Israeli he would have been released long ago (there are examples for Russian spies that were released much earlier, doing much worse things), but this is too big a betrayal.”
My friend is one guy but in this case he sounds like you guys – Pollard is a traitor to his country, he was a spy against Israel’s best ally, and that is unforgivable.
I say we give him the Manning treatment before parole.
Cut his dick off, put a wig on him, then release him.
I’m not a Jew, but I stayed at a hotel in Tel Aviv.
To this day, I don’t understand anything I’ve read or heard about Jonathan Pollard and/or the attack on the USS LIBERTY, and I’ve read and/or heard quite a bit, as there’s been lots of news reports and opinion pieces published on these subjects over the past ensuing years.
YUP – – – , I’m still in the dark.
So, y’all have fun fighting among yourselves, for I’ll be doggoned if I can figure any of it out.
I have friends in Israel and to see how they struggle to live is criminal. The older one’s that made it through the death camps, or hidden in cramped spaces, were so mentally and physically exhausted, most never recuperated. David said there’s less the 200 just in Israel. More in America who had relative’s here to help them out.
The off spring of the survivors’ were born with conditions due to how they were treated in the camps and they care for those that can’t. Has anyone ever been to Anne Franks Attic, Holocaust museum in LA, D.C.? I’ve been to all three and the images are beyond heartbreaking.The stories my pa told me are always in my mind. The same thing is happening to others through the world and its sad that only Americans seem to care?