According to reports Obama has refused outright to release our brother Pollard! I am urging everyone to call the White House Now and demand FREE POLLARD NOW!!!
1. Call Switchboard first: 202-456-1414
Say FREE POLLARD NOW!
2. If you have time wait and you will be transferred to the Comment line: 202-456-1111 say FREE POLLARD!
9am to 5pm EDST
ALSO SIGN THE PETITION
This Petition will be sent to President Peres in Israel
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/
See also
Opinion: Jonathan Pollard is Dead
By Yishai Fleisher
There was no trial so there are no facts other than Pollard copped to a plea. The question therefore is what was the agreement between the defense and the government? Rule #1, you can’t trust the government. Rule #2, you can’t trust the Judge. Rule #3, see both rule #1 and rule #2. The attorney appears to have no experience in criminal cases. You do not allow your client to plead to a charge unless you know what the sentence is going to be and you have an escape clause. Without those two items you do not allow your client to plead. I don’t recall his attorney objecting to his plea. His attorney did not properly handle the case. Another thing, if the Judge was a known anti-semite, you demand that the Judge recluse and turn the case over to another Judge otherwise the attorney again screwed up. Without knowing all the facts in the case, the only conclusion is that Pollard’s attorney really screwed up.
@ ArnoldHarris:
Good for you Arnold for doing your homework and keeping an open mind. Like I said Pollard got screwed.
I spent a couple of hours this afternoon and early evening reading materials on Pollard written or assembled by Professor Eugene Narrett, in the Maccabean Online and a few other sites with which he is associated.
I would be less than honest if I failed to admit that Narrett makes a damning case that Pollard got a prison sentence totally disproportional to sentences for some dozens of other US Federal employees who were tried and convicted of espionage or passing of classified documents and other information, some for states presumably friendly to the USA and others that were relatively or totally hostile at the time of arrest and conviction.
In addition, I see that the US government specifically steered Pollard from getting an open trial in which he could offer testimony on his own behalf, in return for a reduced charge. Nevertheless, the judge in the case ignored the deal made by the prosecuting official and sentenced Pollard to life imprisonment. Plainly, the US Department of State and the US Department of Defense wanted Pollard stuck in a dungeon, possibly in hopes he would die there before being able to defend himself and his actions.
Narrett also makes a convincing case that all the recent elected government administrations in Israel have been acting as little more than stooges of these same Washington bureaucrats, who seem not to care whether the State of Israel is kicked to death by the neighboring Arabs in particular and the Moslem world in general. All this I have long thought about and came to the same conclusion. What I had not thought about was where Pollard fit into the picture.
The sum of all this is that I think I can guess what was running through Pollard’s mind when he learned that the agency for which he worked was systematically withholding intelligence information from Israel which plainly had been promised to them. In other words, trying to play the great game on a purposely tilted playing field.
Reading this stuff is beginning to make my blood boil, because I don’t like being suckered in the name of patriotism or anything else. Not half so much at Pollard anymore for falling into their mousetrap, but at these agencies, which serve the interests of the United States not much better than they have been helping the State of Israel, which is probably the only faithful ally of this country in the entire Middle East.
As for their stooges in the Israeli government, in my mind this all reinforces what I have long thought, that Israel needs to strengthen its own independent power base, start working their connections to China and Russia, annexing Shomron and Yehuda as soon as possible, starting immediately with Area C and maybe even Area B as outlined on the Oslo Accord maps.
This doesn’t mean I have any emotional ties to Pollard as an individual, but I think some of the entrenched Washington gang is targeting not just Pollard but the future of the whole Jewish nation. That personalizes things for me. I expect to follow up on this. The web is chock-full of interesting and relevant stuff, and I wasn’t trained as a wire service reporter just to read the comic strips.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Pollard, Israel, America and Terror
@ Dick Schwanz:
Pollard’s “crime” was to warn Israel about Saddam’s poison gas capability when U.S. intelligence maliciously refused to pass on the information in violation of the intelligence sharing agreement signed by President Reagan. Recall that during the 1991 Gulf War Israelis were wearing gas masks and Saddam was deprived of the fatal surprise that U.S. intelligence tried to offer him.
U.S. intelligence never forgave Israel for exposing their treachery toward Israel in the Six Day War. When Pollard foiled them again before the Gulf War they vowed to take revenge. Yes, we really do have American officials who place extreme hatred for Jews far ahead of their obligation to America.
Alright, Ron.
I can’t really argue too much with what you wrote here, even though I think this Pollard was a grade-A jerk with delusions about his own self, the agency he worked for, and his secret plan to save Israel, whatever that amounted to. And everybody shafted him, including the State of Israel. And when all was said and done, Pollard damaged what the government of Israel thought — and still thinks — is a vital relationship with the USA, especially with this country’s intelligence agencies.
But I can’t deny that anti-semitism at least plays a part in keeping Pollard in jail. And if you say that by notable comparison the USA released the scumbag Lockerbie bomber, I believe it. Because that’s the dumb way the government here operates, all too frequently.
But in the meantime, 62% of the American Jews want to put Pollard’s jailer back into the White House for another four years.
Because most of the Jews in this country are the kinds of cowardly liars that Yamit imagines I must be.
So what do you expect ordinary American Jews like me to think about all this?
I know what’s in it for Pollard. If he’s released, he gets to travel around Israel and can expect to be treated as some sort of hero. Even if quite a few folks in the Israeli government have excellent reason to want to run away and hide from him.
And I know what’s in it for the intelligence agencies Pollard used to work for. They probably no longer want to be accused of anti-Semitism and want to rid their agencies of the taint that Pollard brought upon himself and them as well. And I’m certain that Pollard wasn’t and still isn’t the only Jew who worked and still works for the National Security Agency and other US intelligence units. How does all this affect their rights as American citizens?
And what about the memory of the late Admiral Sumner Shapiro USN, a Jewish American graduate of the US Naval Academy and career naval officer who worked long and hard to play it straight with the American land of his birth. Admiral Shapiro was the head of the National Security Agency who suspected enough about Pollard to reduce his security clearance level, and later, flatly stated that he should have fired Pollard on the spot. One thing for certain was that Admiral Shapiro did not sell out his country for $100,000 or whatever Israel spent on Pollard. And if this Pollard were such a dedicated Zionist trying to protect Israel, why did he demand and get payment from Israel for the vast hoard of documents that he copied and turned over to his Israeli handler?
So yes, Ron, there are quite a few somethings wrong with this picture.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Folks it’s anti-Semitism that’s keeping Pollard in jail.
The US released the scumbag Lockerbie Bomber.
Something wrong with this picture.
Yamit, you fantasize far too much for the state of your own mental health.
I’m not scared of anything in my neck of the woods or anywhere else. The streets of Chicago were sometimes a mean place in which to grow up. But we all learned to adapt in a hurry. I sometimes encountered anti-semitism as a high school kid. When it got physical, I fought back; once, going upside another guy’s face with a hammer. He knocked me onto my ass as he was bleeding. My mom and dad had to pay for the stitches in his face, and one of them had to come to school to listen to a lecture about classroom violence. That was all there was to it. Nobody ever bothered me again, and I didn’t bother them either. If the guy is still alive, he still has the scar I put on his grinning face.
As for Jews helping one another. When it came to fighting some of the goyische tough guys, most of the Jews I knew were elsewhere for one reason or another. So I learned to count exclusively on myself, first, last and always, and they would be the last ones I would try counting on even if I needed such help.
Everybody I’m acquainted with knows I’m Jewish. Nobody ever gave me a hard time about it. Whenever one of them tries to talk me into thinking about Jesus as the Jewish meshiach, I just tell them that I never will agree that a dead man can rise from the grave. At least not unless and until I have actually witnessed such a phenomenom. As for the virgin birth crap, I tell them that I don’t think God came down out of heaven to fuck some village girl in ancient Israel. The combination of those two Arnold Harris principles stops them cold, every time. Once, in college, a fellow I knew, a hardcore atheist who considered himself an expert on the subject of comparative philosophy, got himself into an argument with me over one of his doctrinal trifles. He said to me, “Harris, you’re just a delicatessen Jew!” I replied: “Sure I am. If you want a kosher pickle with your corned beef on rye, slap your money on the counter. Otherwise get the hell out of my store.”
The truth is, I don’t really give a damn about what other people think of me. Folks quickly sense that, and either accept me for what and who I am, or take a hike.
About the guns. The idea is to keep the barrels clean and dry. Only the bolt, receiver and trigger mechanism get oiled. I
know what I know about guns. I have a lot of them, and I’m part of the American gun culture. What you know about this kind of stuff, if anything, is hard to say.
Anyway, fantasize on. It can’t be denied that you bring a certain charm to Israpundit.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ ArnoldHarris:
Beneath your hardboiled and hardhearted lack of concern for another Jew, I think you are just a chickshit scared old nominal Jew afraid of the gentile backlash especially in your neck of the woods. If you live long enough you might get to use all those guns of yours for the purpose they were intended for.
At this point neither I nor pollard would want to see Israel pay any price that endangers other Jews or the State of Israel. That’s why after 27 years and due to his physical condition he should be released only based upon humanitarian grounds not for any quid pro quo.
Whether he was stupid, misguided, or any of the other attributes you assigned him is beside the point today. He is being incarcerated because he is a Jew and that should be enough reason for any other Jew to fight for his freedom. Then you chickenshit cowards will always find a reason to justify the un-Jewish positions you made.
Were it up to me I would pick up one of the myriad of American spy’s in Israel sentence them to 30 years, put them in with the worst of the Arab terrorists and throw away the key till Pollard is safely in Israel with his wife. Unlike you I value Jews over Americans and am not worried over what the Goyim say or do.
Keep your guns cleaned oiled and loaded you never know? 8)
@ ArnoldHarris:
I see your point in not harming Israel’s vital interests for the sake of a single man. But Pollard did do the time AND THEN SOME. Even some US officials in recent years have called for his release. There is no justification for the length of time he has been in prison, under harsh conditions. As for a hostile American administration using Pollard to make an offer Israel can’t refuse, I do not believe Israel is foolish enough to give away the store in order to get Pollard out.
@ Dick Schwanz:
No, what he did ordinarily gets one sentenced to 2-4 years in jail. That was the sentence someone of Egyptian background received for handing over US secrets to Egypt. So Pollard has received a far disproportionate punishment for his crime.
Ted,
I consider Pollard guilty mainly of the stupidity of getting involved with espionage while in the paid service of one of the most important and mainly secret US communications intelligence agencies. He was indeed screwed both by Israel and the USA. But if had possessed any street-smarts, he would have known from the start that his Israeli handlers would disown him if he were caught, and that his own agency already suspected him, especially after the chief of the agency, Admiral Shapiro — another Jew — reduced his security clearance following arguments at an agency meeting over a half-cocked scheme involving South Africa in some US-based intelligence operation.
And he was half as bright as would be expected for someone hired by the National Security Agency for classified work, he ought to have known after his set-to with the agency director that there would be a hidden camera tracking his every move in that building where the files were kept. All such agencies have counter-intelligence units, and the NSA certainly would not have been an exception.
In any case, his experiences at the hands of Admiral Shapiro alone ought to have been a clear signal to him to do one of two things: Sit down at his desk, shut his big mouth, and just do the job they were paying him for; or wrap it all up, resign from the agency, and find some more suitable outlet for his obvious interests in foreign intrigue. For example, he could have made a lot more money writing spy novels, and that way, he would not have spent a day in prison.
The unfairness of it all, as you have expressed? That’s just part of the Jewish experience of trying to make their way in a non-Jewish world. On the other hand, I notice that more than a couple dozen Jewish generals and admirals in the service of the armed forces of the United States served with honor and some with great distinction. Among these was the straight-laced Jewish admiral who busted this two-bit would-be spy on duty in his own agency.
You know the story as well as I do, Ted. “You do the crime, you do the time”, and if the prosecutors or the judge don’t like you to begin with, then you do long-time rather than short-time. That’s just the way the cookie always crumbles, and always will crumble.
I tell you once again, Ted; you people keep pushing this Pollard business, and one day a hostile US administration will make you an offer you can’t refuse. Because they know how to play Jews and their warm-hearted sentiments like a bunch of fiddles. Think what’s better for Israel, and selling out the vital interests of the Jewish nation and state for the sake of a single American dumb-bell who got caught up in a spider’s net of his own conspiracy theories sure as hell is not good for Israel.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Pollard was screwed by both Israel and the US. There is no way that his crime warranted anything like the sentence he got. Even if you consider him guilty of all the other chargers that were never proven, the sentence was cruel and unusual punishment.
He cut a deal with the prosecution to one offence and an agreed sentence. The prosecution screwed him and asked for the maximum.He joins a list of Jews who were given excessive sentences or falsely convicted including Dreyfus, Jabotinsky and Sharansky. Jabotinsky was sentenced to 15 years on trumped up charges by the British military. The uproar in Britain was so great that he was soon released and exonerated.
Pushing too hard for earlier release of Pollard could involve giving the Obama administration additional leverage to blackmail Israel for concessions to the Arabs regarding Jewish national rights in Shomron, Yehuda and even the part of Jerusalem annexed 44 years ago.
When considering any action or event, I think of possible consequences affecting the overall interests of the Jewish nation, which to me transcends anything that happens to Pollard or any other individual.
So what about it, Yamit? If push came to shove, would you sell out Jewish rights in Jerusalem, Shomron or Yehuda as a price to be paid for earliest release of a paid spy? Would that give you any satisfaction?
And by way, Yamit. I don’t suffer over results of American elections. Unlike you, I’m not emotional enough to fall into the trap of writing silly statements as part of blogsite comments. In any case, these elections are all just part of the great game over here.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Your handle is obscene.
Pollard was unjustifiably sentenced ny a judge known to some lawyers in D.C. as an anti-semite: Aubrey Robinson.
A complete travesty.
Obama Chooses ‘Anti-Pollard’ Biden to Appease Jews
Biden, who has said Pollard should die in jail, will address US rabbis as part of Obama’s effort for Jewish votes and campaign money.
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Former US Official: Pollard May Yet be Released
Former US undersecretary of defense Lawrence Korb says Jonathan Pollard may yet be released, perhaps in June.
Earlier on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor responded to Peres’ emergency plea saying “Our position has not changed”.
Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy, was arrested in 1985 and has been serving a life sentence since 1987 for one count of conspiracy to deliver national security information to a foreign government.
Pollard told Wolf Blitzer that year that he provided Israel with satellite photography of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in Tunisia, specific capabilities of Libya’s air defenses, and “the pick of U.S. intelligence about Arab and Islamic conventional and unconventional military activity.”
Others convicted of the same crime, including those who pass intelligence data to hostile nations, have been given average sentences of 7 years or less in prison.
Israel granted Pollard citizenship in 1995, but denies he was an Israeli agent. In 1998, Israeli officials said Pollard had worked for an “unauthorized rogue operation.”
The disparity of Pollard’s sentence with those of others convicted of the same crime has turned his lengthy incarceration into an issue for American Jewry.
Except for the Arnold Harris’s
Marty Peretz has advised Obama NOT to release Pollard. He fears if Pollard gets out he will get a hero’s welcome in Israel and the American goyim will see this and say “Aha!”
@ ArnoldHarris:
You may be entitled to your opinions, it’s just that when you express them I wish you were in Pollards situation or worse. It’s those like you who almost make me wish that Obama wins the election and the democrats take both houses. I want you to suffer.
He will be out from behind bars in only 43 months. So give it a rest.
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“At the time of Pollard’s sentencing there was a rule that mandated parole after 30 years of imprisonment for certain prisoners who had maintained a clean record in prison. That parole date would be November 21, 2015. Pollard was also eligible to apply for parole after eight years and six months, although he has not done so to date.[45]
His Federal Bureau of Prisons ID is #09185-016. He is incarcerated in FCI Butner Medium at the Butner Federal Correction Complex in North Carolina. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) projects his release date as November 21, 2015.[46”
(From the Federal Bureau of Prison’s file on Pollard.)
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Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Let my Precious Biblical Hero go Home Sweet Home