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Israel Renews Call to Free Jailed US Spy Jonathan Pollard
by Cecily Hilleary
President Obama's planned visit to Israel later this month has
triggered renewed calls for Washington to free jailed American spy
Jonathan Pollard. A petition of his release has already been signed by
[1]100,000 Israelis, among them, Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid
Party. Israel's parliament, the [2]Knesset, has been debating the issue
this week. For decades, the White House has refused to release
Pollard. But that hasn't stopped his supporters from pleaing his case.
Background
''In 1985, the U.S. government accused Pollard of selling classified
documents to Israel while he was employed as a U.S. Navy intelligence
specialist. Initially, Israel denied having anything to do with
Pollard's activities, but did grant him Israeli citizenship in 1996,
and two years later formally admitted that he had worked as an official
agent for the Jewish state.
Prosecutors [3]arranged a plea-bargain, by which Pollard pleaded guilty
to conspiracy to commit espionage. In exchange, the government said it
would recommend a "substantial" prison term, as opposed to life
imprisonment.
For love or money?
For years, Pollard's defenders have argued that he acted in order [4]to
protect Israel from its regional enemies. Among those defenders is
[5]Lawrence Korb, a deputy secretary of defense at the time Pollard was
arrested. Korb is in Jerusalem this week for meetings with Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Knesset
leaders.
Now a Senior Fellow at the Washington-based Center for American
Progress, Korb says Pollard's punishment far exceeds the crime.
"He was not convicted of treason, and that, of course, is a key thing,"
Korb said. "He pled guilty to furnishing classified information to an
ally, which is different. Treason is if you furnish something to an
enemy that can be used against you, and I think that's a very important
point."
Korb points to the original half-page [6]victim impact statement to
support his point.
"In fact the victim impact statement said the damage done to the United
States was basically that it undermined our leverage with the Israelis
in terms of things that we could get, as well as undermined our
credibility with Arab nations," Korb said.
In other words, according to Korb, friendly nations routinely exchange
intelligence, but in this case, the U.S. received nothing back from
Israel, and the information that Pollard gave Israel was [7]much more
highly classified than what the U.S. would have normally offered. An
embarrassment, says Korb, but hardly punishable by life in prison.
Eliot Lauer and his partner Jacques Semmelman have represented Pollard
since spring 2000.
"What you have is a man that violated his oath," Lauer said, "foolishly
and impetuously gave a volume of information to an ally dealing with
threats to the state of Israel, for which he deserved to be
incarcerated. But no one who has been sentenced and convicted of a
similar offense has served even 25 percent of this sentence."
There is this unfair, incorrect notion spread by the nay-sayers that
somehow Pollard gave high-tech military technology to Israel that might
leak to Russia, that somehow he gave information that might have
compromised agents or sources of information.
Defense attorney Eliot Lauer to VOA
Assessing harm done
Because the case never went to trial, the extent of the damage caused
by Pollard's spying is unclear to all but a few. Just before
sentencing, then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger submitted a
[8]CIA damage assessment.
Available [9]online but heavily redacted, the assessment says Pollard
sold Israel "a large and varied body of classified material" posing
"risks of several kinds to U.S. intelligence sources and methods,
analytical capabilities and intelligence exchanges, and foreign policy
interests, including the possibility of extended compromise of some of
Pollard's material to third countries"--referring to speculation that
some information may have [10]ended up in KGB hands.
Weinberger also submitted an [11]supplemental four-page declaration in
which he said he believed Pollard would continue divulging top secrets
"without restraint," if he had the chance. "It is difficult for me,"
Weinberger wrote, "to conceive of a greater harm to national security
than that caused by the defendant.
One day later, a federal judge sentenced Pollard to life in jail.
''Pollard's attorney Lauer says the case was weak. "All that
Weinberger was saying...is that it could possibly be that there was
greater harm than the harm described in the victim impact statement.
But it's all in the context of `possible.'"
"It was 1985, the Year of the Spy," says Lauer, referring to several
high-profile spy cases in the U.S. that year. He says the government
gave Pollard an overly harsh sentence to set an example to others the
government suspected were spying but had not yet caught.
There wasn't ever any doubt that he spied for Israel and caused some of
the greatest damage to U.S. national security in the history of the
country
Former prosecutor Joseph E. diGenova to VOA
Punishment fits crime
Joseph E. diGenova is a former U.S. Attorney for the District of
Columbia and served as the chief prosecutor in case. As such, he had
full access to the CIA report, as did defense attorneys and Pollard
himself. He says Pollard got exactly what he deserved.
"There wasn't ever any doubt that he spied for Israel and caused some
of the greatest damage to U.S. national security in the history of the
country," diGenova said. "He leaked information that was in what we
call `top secret code word...which included technical information and
memorandums and data which were able to identify human intelligence and
signals intelligence, which is National Security Agency-type
material."
Just how much material Pollard provided Israel has never been revealed,
but Pollard himself estimated it could take up a space [12]six feet
wide, six feet long and ten feet high.
DiGenova also questions why Pollard, who has been eligible for parole
for more than 20 years, seeks clemency instead. "I don't know what his
goal is and I don't know what the goal of his supporters is, but I do
know as a matter of legal fact is that he has never sought parole, even
though he is entitled to do so."
Lauer told VOA, "Mr. Pollard has a far better chance [of getting
released] in a court of world opinion, public opinion, and a
fair-minded president and his staff."
White House spokesman Jay Carney recently told reporters that the
[13]White House has changed its position on keeping Pollard in jail.
[14]Israeli press reports Netanyahu will bring up the issue when Obama
visits him in his home March 20th.
In the meeting with Knesset leaders this week, Korb said he advised
Israel to "admit they were wrong, turn over all the material and
promise not to do it again."
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[15]http://www.voanews.com/content/israel-renewing-calls-to-free-jailed
-spy-jonathan-pollard/1616554.html
References
1. http://www.haaretz.com/israeli-knesset-discusses-jailed-spy-jonathan-pollard.premium-1.507707
2. http://www.haaretz.com/israeli-knesset-discusses-jailed-spy-jonathan-pollard.premium-1.507707
3. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/Pollard%20damage%20assess%20CIA.pdf
4. http://www.jonathanpollard.org/facts.htm
5. http://www.americanprogress.org/about/staff/korb-lawrence-j/bio/
6. http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1997/061397a.htm
7. http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1997/061397a.htm
8. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/Pollard%20damage%20assess%20CIA.pdf
9. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/Pollard%20damage%20assess%20CIA.pdf
10. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/576453/posts
11. http://www.irmep.org/ila/pollard/03041987weinberger.pdf
12. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/576453/posts
13. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/11/press-briefing-press-secretary-jay-carney-2112013
14. http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/president-obamas-three-day-visit-to-israel/2013/02/22/
15. http://www.voanews.com/content/israel-renewing-calls-to-free-jailed-spy-jonathan-pollard/1616554.html