Soccer Dad

I hate to have to disagree with your post regarding the pardon of Pollard. The other three I am not familiar enough with to venture an opinion.

Pollard on the other hand did not operate as an agent of Israel out of love or loyalty for the state of Israel. He first attempted to contact the South Africans. He dealt with the Israelis, but for gemstones and cash. He attempted again to deal with the South Africans and even Pakistan.

I was involved with Signals Intelligence and Electronic Warfare at the time he went down and felt firsthand the impact the release of the Signal Volumes had on the worldwide collection effort.

Sorry. Any sympathy for Pollard is misplaced.

Do you have sources for claiming that he attempted to contact South Africa?

According to JonathanPollard.com:

The CBS newscast alleges that Jonathan Pollard spied for South Africa.
This allegation is completely false. There is no evidence. Jonathan Pollard was never indicted for spying for South Africa.

There is evidence however that the Government communicated this false allegation about South-Africa, ex-parte - without facts or evidence- to Aubrey Robinson, the black sentencing judge, in order to incense him and create a personal animus against Pollard.

Alan Dershowitz, a former Pollard attorney testified in a sworn affidavit that he was told about this ex-parte communication with the sentencing judge by Justice Arthur Goldberg, (now deceased) who was personally informed of it by Robinson himself. Dershowitz's affidavit states that "Goldberg told me that Robinson had told him that the alleged Pollard-South African connection had weighed heavily in his (Robinson's) decision to impose a life sentence."

For further information, see the Washington Post Weekend Magazine "A Plea Bargain That Was No Bargain For A Crime Of Conscience".

I haven't heard of the South African connection before.

I'm not sure I would consider JonathanPollard.com an unbiased site.

I never stated he had spied for the South Africans. I stated, "He first attempted to contact the South Africans." Then later stated, "He attempted again to deal with the South Africans and even Pakistan." Nothing ever came of these attempts.

Olive, Ronald J. (2006). Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to Justice. Annapolis, Maryland: Ron Olive was the agent in charge of counterintelligence for the NIS at the time of Pollard's arrest.

A common mistake made by many is on viewing this guy as an Israeli patriot, when in fact he was a mercenary agent. His history is that of a sad little man who should never have been granted a security clearance, much less a SCI clearance. In fact, the CIA had turned him away. Within two months of Pollard being hired by the Navy, technical director of the NFOIO, Richard Haver, requested his dismissal due to inappropriate conversations and lying about his background.

I guess my biggest question at the time and even now is why Israel was sponsoring an agent in our intelligence services. Spying on the USA. To wit, Aviem Sella who was a General in the Israeli Air Force who was posing as a student in New York. It might be noted Pollard's Israeli handlers were granted immunity from prosecution in the US in exchange for cooperation after Pollard's arrest. Sellas role wasn't known and immunity didn't extend to him.

I am not saying that JonathanPollard.org is unbiased--I have no way to check out what they say. Then again, I have no reason to believe that Mr. Olive is unbiased either.

JonathanPollard.org addresses Ronald Olive's book.

For example, on the issue of Pakistan:

In assessing the credibility of this allegation, it is important to know that no such allegation appears anywhere in the public record docket materials. And, since we have to assume neither Olive nor any of his "sources" would risk going to prison by disclosing something that appears in the classified docket materials, it is apparent that this allegation is not found anywhere in the U.S. Government's voluminous pre-sentencing memoranda. It therefore has no credibility whatsoever. If the U.S. Government believed this and other allegations made by Olive, it would have included them in the pre-sentencing memoranda. The U.S. Government took an extremely aggressive approach toward Mr. Pollard, and would have relished the opportunity to inform the sentencing judge that Mr. Pollard had violated the law by delivering classified information to Pakistan-and with mercenary motives, to boot.

I no nothing about Mr. Olive, but is someone writing a book about such a sensational case automatically assumed to be any more unbiased?

In the end, we have 2 conflicting stories.

Mr Olive was the head investigator whose work is already done. He is apparently now making a buck off it. (not a point in his favor in my book) The web site for Pollard is run by his attorneys trying to get him out. However, Mr Olive and his agents were the ones that were following Pollard as well as backtracking his movements over the course of his employment.

I'm not sure there would be any reason for the South African/Pakistani issues to be brought up in court other than to attest to his motivations. Seeing as a deal was struck, there was simply no reason at all to bring the issue of motivations and previous attempts up. Communication with foreign powers in and of itself is not a criminal action although It would have impacted his clearance for sure. I can visit drug dealers all day long with no impact except the police can use that information to further an investigation on me. Until I commit a concrete act such as buying drugs, I have done nothing illegal. Such is the case here.

In the end, you are right, we both have our sources. However; I have the fact he admitted to spying and he received pay for that spying from Israel. Kind of blows any "love for Israel" motivations right out the proverbial window. So, we are left with an American working for the American government that sold his countries secrets to another nation. He BETRAYED his country. It doesn't matter that Israel is our friend and ally.

The issue of money that you raise is addressed here:

Pollard sought out the Israelis and volunteered to give, not sell, information to Israel about nuclear, chemical and biological weapons under construction by Iraq and others for use against Israel. Pollard worked for six months without receiving any payment from the Israelis, and never did ask for any money in exchange for his services. He was eventually persuaded to accept small sums of money only at the instigation of the Israelis. This was an effort on the part of the Israelis, common in the espionage world, to assert greater control over an ideologically-motivated agent.

Much of the money Pollard was given went for operational expenses, and no evidence was ever presented that he benefited personally from any of the funds provided by Israel. (Pollard actually went into debt to cover these expenses.)

...The sentencing judge, Aubrey Robinson, who obviously was not sympathetic to Pollard, recognized and acknowledged that Pollard was an ideologue and not a mercenary. This is made clear by the fact that Robinson did not fine Pollard, a penalty typically imposed on those who have spied for mercenary reasons.

You and I could go on and on along these lines.

At this point the issue comes down to whether Pollard got a raw deal on the agreement according to which he confessed, whether he has served an appropriate amount of time in terms of what he did, and also in terms of how others accused of similar crimes have been treated.

There are strong indications that Pollard was not treated fairly in accordance with the law. On that basis, it is not unreasonable--I think--to pursue a pardon.