The Pollard question
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July 18, 2012
“Why is Jonathan Pollard still in jail?” The question is a Rorschach test for American Jews. Some Jewish pundits, like Martin Peretz, would be glad to tell you why the Navy intelligence analyst convicted in 1987 for spying for Israel deserves his life sentence. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Peretz writes that those urging clemency “cannot let go of their image of Pollard as a man of virtue and bravery.” However, he writes, “there is no cloud about Pollard’s guilt, no illusion of his innocence. And he did not spy for Zion out of idealistic motives. This is a retrospective improvisation.”
Others ask the question as an accusation. They wonder why Pollard remains incarcerated after nearly 27 years, despite having pleaded guilty and despite much more lenient sentences handed down to those who spied on behalf of America’s enemies. “While we do not condone Mr. Pollard’s actions, we believe he has served his time,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said in April. “In studying precedents, no other individual convicted of similar crimes has served such a lengthy sentence. Further, the humanitarian justification is intensified by his deteriorating health condition.”
Pollard proponents, including top leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, may have been heartened by a recent letter by a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. James Woolsey once argued against clemency for Pollard, but now says it is time to commute his sentence. “Pollard has cooperated fully with the U.S. government, pledged not to profit from his crime (e.g., from book sales), and has many times expressed remorse for what he did,” Woolsey wrote in response to Peretz.
Perhaps a decade ago, when a vocal pro-Pollard camp continued to portray him as some kind of hero, calls for clemency were premature. But with Pollard reportedly ailing and a generation of political and diplomatic water under the bridge, his continued incarceration seems harder and harder to justify.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t look like Pollard will taste freedom anytime soon. At a news conference in Jerusalem this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rejected clemency for Pollard. “I do not have any expectations that that is going to change,” she said, referring to his life sentence.
Comments
Larry
July 19, 2012
Obama has hardened his own heart. He will not let Pollard go. And in doing so, he has further distanced Israelis of all stripes. And yet he says “trust me” when it comes to Iran. Can Israel really trust this president on Iran??
Michael
July 20, 2012
Pollard sold out his country to a foreign state. That state packaged some of the classified information and resold it to the Soviet Union in exchange for Russian citizens who had been denied the right to leave the Soviet Union. As a result, many U.S. operatives in Russia were identified and they vanished, never to be heard from again. Now that same state and its religious and ethnic sympathisers in the U.S. attempts to pressure the U.S. to release their spy. I certainly hope not.
Bob Schultz
July 20, 2012
Opinions are best offered within a factual framework. Michael wrote that classified information obtained by Pollard was “resold ... to the Soviet Union in exchange for Russian citizens who had been denied the right to leave the Soviet Union. As a result, many U.S. operatives in Russia were identified and they vanished, never to be heard from again.”
What is the source of your information? Others have opined that Pollard’s pilfered information found its way to South Africa. Which is it? Are you repeating someone else’s speculation or simply fabricating? American human intelligence (HUMINT) assets did in fact vanish from the Soviet Union, but it was later determined that their covers were exposed by Aldrich Ames, a CIA officer, not by Pollard. In his position as an intelligence analyst for the US Navy, Pollard had access to signal intelligence (SIGINT). The exposure of HUMINT required the involvement of someone of someone with access to non-official cover, i.e., a CIA case officer.
The Pollard issue is not one of guilt or innocence (he admitted his crimes), but fairness. In exchange for a guilty plea, the US Attorney agreed not to ask for the maximum sentence. The sentencing occurred before Congress codified sentencing guidelines into law, so the US District Judge, Aubrey Robinson, had wider discretion than a judge would have today. Then Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger submitted a damage assessment to the Court, ex parte. Defense counsel had no ability to review or offer rebuttal. Judge Robinson imposed a life sentence.
Persons convicted of espionage for enemy nations have been released in prisoner exchanges, and in some cases received more moderate sentences. Why was Pollard hit with the max? Weinberger’s antipathy toward Israel and Jews was well known in Washington. Alan Dershowitz, Pollard’s appellate attorney wrote in his book “Chutzpah”, that he asked the late Justice Arthur Goldberg, a friend of Judge Robinson, why Robinson sentenced Pollard to life. Goldberg believed that Weinberger convinced Judge Robinson, an African-American, that Pollard’s information made its way to the apartheid regime in South Africa. In other words, Weinberger knew exactly how to light Robinson’s fuse. Now this is hearsay, but plausible considering the known facts and players.
shlomo
July 21, 2012
Israel spies on the US and idiot Larry above asks: can Israel ever trust the US? I am amused that Pollard’s Israeli and American Jewish supports fail to realize that Pollard would have sold Israel’s secrets to any takers, including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, and Hezbollah if he had access to them.
007
July 21, 2012
Curious. The Ad above this comments columns offers the way to get a CIA Intelligence Degree. That was Pollard’s plan from the beginning: get a US security clearance that would provide access to classified information; collect classified documents; sell them to support Pollard’s and his wife Anne’s lifestyle. Israel committed a terrible betrayal of US trust by taking Pollard’s bait and messing up its relationship with its most important strategic partner and patron.
gerry
July 23, 2012
Go to Pollard’s website and scan some articles from ‘91-‘92, he’s been in “failing health” for 20 years.