Labels: Ayatollah Khomeni, Barack Hussein Obama, Caspar Weinberger, Iran, Islam, Ronald Reagan
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:19 PM
2 comments
Key portions of a critical classified document on which the US government has cited as justification for keeping Jonathan Pollard in jail have been declassified – and his lawyers say the government has been "dishonest" in "hiding behind the mask of 'classified information' to materially mischaracterize the nature and extent of the harm caused by Mr. Pollard."
Lawyers Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, who have represented Pollard for 15 years pro-bono, say the newly disclosed material shows that any harm possibly caused by Pollard was only "in the form of short-term disruption in foreign relations between the United States and certain Arab countries."
"That is not at all the same thing as harm to U.S. national security," they write in a World Net Daily op-ed, "and it was dishonest for the government to pretend that it is."
The government position for 30 years has been that Pollard must remain in prison because a secret note from then-Secretary of State Caspar Weinberger stated that Pollard caused greater harm to U.S. national security than had ever occurred previously.
"The government has been able to present this harsh characterization of the Weinberger declaration without fear of contradiction," Semmelman and Lauer write, because "no one representing Mr. Pollard [was ever] allowed to see the Weinberger declaration since the day Mr. Pollard was sentenced" – until now.
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The lawyers state that the U.S. government's "deception had its most blatant and prejudicial impact at Mr. Pollard's parole hearing held in July 2014, during which the government invoked the Weinberger declaration and - without showing it to the parole commission - urged the commission to accept its representation that the document substantiated more harm to the national security of the United States than had ever occurred previously."
"In its decision denying parole, the commission took the government at its word and essentially parroted the government's characterization of the Weinberger declaration when it wrote that Mr. Pollard had caused 'the greatest compromise of U.S. security to that date,'" noted the lawyers.
"That is an outright falsehood," the lawyers write, "and the recent revelations prove it... [It] is now revealed that Mr. Pollard provided Israel with information concerning the 'political-economic affairs of Middle Eastern nations,' various 'Middle Eastern orders of battle,' and the 'technology of Soviet weapons and radar systems' used by various Arab governments."
"The potential consequence [thereof] is described by Mr. Weinberger as 'a high probability of harm to the foreign relations of the U.S. with friendly Arab nations'" – and nothing more than that.
The op-ed details the type of information Pollard gave Israel, and the modest and temporary damage it caused to U.S. relations with some countries – but not to U.S. security.Hang your heads in shame chickens**t American Jews. Maybe you should worry more about why your government has been holding an American Jew imprisoned for 30 years for a crime that normally carries a 2-4-year sentence than you worry about accusations that you hold dual loyalties (as if any of you holds any loyalty to the Jewish state).
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bill Clinton, Binyamin Netanyahu, Caspar Weinberger, Central Intelligence Agency, Jonathan Pollard, spying
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:13 PM
2 comments
Even as Israeli leaders have regularly petitioned their American counterparts for Pollard’s release, so little has been known about the details of the Pollard case that it was easy to assume the very worst. For instance, there was the widespread belief that Pollard had committed “treason,” as then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger wrote in a memorandum to the judge sentencing Pollard. There was also speculation that the intelligence he sold to Israel had found its way into the hands of the Soviet Union, which had led to the deaths of several American agents. Perhaps the truth was even worse: Why else would former CIA director George Tenet have threatened to resign when President Bill Clinton considered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to have Pollard released?
After more than 25 years of speculation, documents released last week to the National Security Archives at George Washington University provide us, for the first time, with many of the details of the espionage activities that have made Pollard one of the most controversial figures in the history of the U.S. intelligence community. What the documents, particularly the CIA’s 1987 damage assessment of Pollard, show is that both Pollard’s detractors and supporters possess vastly distorted views of him. But it is the narrative put forth by those who insisted that Pollard was the most treacherous U.S. spy since Benedict Arnold that has caused real damage to the fabric of this country—more damage, in fact, than Jonathan Pollard ever did.
Contrary to the widespread belief, the CIA report reveals that Pollard did not procure secrets about the United States—nor did Israel ask him to. The intelligence he provided his Israeli handlers consisted of the information that the United States had acquired concerning Arab and other Middle Eastern states. This information may not change the minds of long-time detractors, but it vindicates those who have argued that Pollard, having already served a punishment that fit his crime, should be released.
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Israel “did not request or receive intelligence concerning some of the most sensitive US national-security resources,” Pollard told his CIA investigators. “The Israelis never expressed interest in US military activities, plans, capabilities, or equipment. Likewise, they did not ask for intelligence on US communications per se.” The fact that Pollard did not collect intelligence against his native country is reflected in the June 4, 1986, indictment handed down by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Pollard was charged with violating Title 18 United States Code, section 794(a), gathering or delivering defense information to aid a foreign government. This federal law “makes it a crime to deliver defense information to a foreign government ‘with intent or reason to believe’ that the information is to be used in one of two ways: ‘to the injury of the United States,’ or, alternatively, ‘to the advantage of a foreign nation.’”
Presumably recognizing that Israel is an ally and not an enemy, the indictment specifies only the second part of the statute, charging Pollard with delivering “information and documents relating to the national defense of the United States, having intent and reason to believe that the same would be used to the advantage of ISRAEL.”
“The indictment is scrupulous,” I was told by Angelo Codevilla, who has followed the Pollard case since serving as a senior staff member for the Senate intelligence committee from 1978 to 1985. Codevilla argues that the swarm of accusations against Pollard over the years is implausible on the face of it. “Pollard was an analyst. He is alleged to have given away information to which no analyst had any access,” he said. “All of what has been said about what he did, including the secret memorandum that Caspar Weinberger wrote to the court in order to influence the judge’s sentence, is nonsense.”
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Codevilla suggests that even Weinberger’s memo may have been the end result of bureaucratic bluster. “All of this started in 1981 when Israel bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak,” he said. “The CIA was aghast that the Israelis had done this, because they thought they had a good thing going with Saddam Hussein.” Even as the senators on the intelligence committee, including Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Scoop Jackson, all celebrated the Israeli strike, the CIA was incensed.
“Bobby Ray Inman [then deputy director of the CIA] came into the Senate committee stomping up and down, and said he was going to cut off the satellite intelligence they fed Israel,” Codevilla recalled. “What Pollard did was to ignore these restrictions—which he had no right to do—and continued to supply Israel with the information. His sin was more against U.S. policy than U.S. security. The reason for the animus against him was that he subverted U.S. policy.”Read the whole thing. It is long past time for Pollard to be released.
Labels: Caspar Weinberger, Jonathan Pollard, spying
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:19 PM
0 comments
The damage assessment, which was classified by the CIA and only released today–though still heavily redacted– on appeal by the National Security Archive at George Washington University reveals that Pollard’s handlers “never expressed interest in US military activities, plans, capabilities, or equipment.”
The damage assessment further details the specific information requested of Pollard: Syrian drones and central communications, Egyptian missile programs and Soviet air defenses. The document also describes how Pollard’s handler told him to ignore a request from his bosses for U.S. “dirt” on senior Israeli officials.
According to the article on the NSA’s website the documents Pollard passed along revealed information on “PLO headquarters in Tunisia; specific capabilities of Tunisian and Libyan air defense systems; Iraqi and Syrian chemical warfare productions capabilities (including detailed satellite imagery); Soviet arms shipments to Syria and other Arab states; naval forces, port facilities, and lines of communication of various Middle Eastern and North African countries; the MiG-29 fighter; and Pakistan’s nuclear program. Also included was a U.S. assessment of Israeli military capabilities.”
The damage assessment also paints a broader picture of Pollard the man, who at the time of his arrest was working as a civilian intelligence analyst.
A detailed 21-page chronology of Pollard’s personal life and professional career, including his work for the Israelis, highlights over a dozen instances of unusual behavior by Pollard that the CIA suggests in hindsight should have alerted his supervisors to the fact the he was a security risk. One such instance occurred when, upon arriving late for an interview, he gave his excuse that he spent the weekend rescuing his wife from the Irish Republican Army after they had kidnapped her.This is the man that the US considers so 'dangerous' that he's been locked up for the last 27 years and is intended to be locked up for life?
Labels: anti-Semitism, Caspar Weinberger, Jonathan Pollard
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:29 PM
4 comments
Former Reagan National Security Adviser Bud McFarlane has called for Jonathan Pollard's release. Former National Security Advisor Robert C. “Bud” McFarlane, who served under President Ronald Reagan from 1983-1985, recently wrote to President Obama and asked that he commute Jonathan Pollard’s sentence to time served. In his correspondence to the President, McFarlane calls former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger’s affidavit in the Pollard case part of the “manifestation” of Weinberger’s “recurrent episodes of strong criticisms and unbalanced reasoning when decisions involving Israel were being made.” Similar criticism of Weinberger had been made by former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb, who stated that Pollard’s life sentence was due to Weinberger’s “visceral hatred of Israel.”If the poll numbers are close, Pollard will be released by Obama around October 30. Mark your calendars. If not, Pollard will have to wait for a Republican to be elected.
In his letter to President Obama, McFarlane cited Weinberger’s inaccurate affidavit as the primary cause for Pollard’s disproportionate sentence. McFarlane noted to the President that Weinberger’s well-known bias toward Israel undoubtedly led him to file the damaging affidavit that essentially sealed Pollard’s fate.
“In this case, the resultant imprisonment of Mr. Pollard for more than 26 years is more than excessive and well beyond what any court would award for the same action today,” wrote McFarlane. “Mr. Weinberger’s unduly harsh and unwarranted severity was disgraceful and mean-spirited. It has resulted in a great injustice that I encourage you to mitigate by awarding clemency and commuting Jonathan Pollard’s sentence to time served.”
While rumors of the role that Secretary of Defense Weinberger’s anti-Israel sentiments played in the Pollard case have been debated for years, McFarlane, who as National Security Advisor dealt closely with Weinberger on matters of national intelligence, unequivocally confirms that Weinberger had an anti-Israel agenda in mind when he weighed in on the Pollard case.
McFarlane’s call for clemency for Jonathan Pollard is especially significant in that he was the National Security Advisor at the time when Pollard was investigated and ultimately charged with disclosing classified information to an ally without intent to harm the United States.
McFarlane’s letter is also extremely noteworthy in that it conveys to the President that the major decision makers who were intimately involved in the Pollard case and who were most informed on the impact of Pollard’s actions have all issued public calls for Pollard’s release, including former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Senator David Durenberger, who served as Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at the time of Pollard’s conviction, former Congressman Lee Hamilton, who served as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee at the time of Jonathan Pollard’s sentencing, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb, and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane.
Labels: Caspar Weinberger, Jonathan Pollard
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:15 AM
0 comments
Morris Pollard, the 95-year old father of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, passed away this evening in an Indiana hospital.Morris Pollard had been hospitalized for more than a week, suffering from the impact of a severe bladder infection. His rabbi at Temple Beth-El in South Bend, Eric Siroka, sent out a letter to his congregants informing them the funeral service would be held on Monday.Pollard's mother passed away in 2001. At the time, the Jew-hating Caspar Weinberger was still alive (and no, I don't just refer to him that way because of Pollard). Weinberger died in 2006. Maybe this time, Pollard will be allowed to attend his father's funeral?
Pollard's family, American Jewish leaders and Knesset members had been lobbying for Jonathan to be granted what is called "compassionate leave" for 24 hours to allow him to see his father before he died. Jonathan spoke to Morris on the phone last weekend for the last time.
The effort will now shift to lobbying to enable Pollard to attend his father's funeral. He was not allowed to attend the funeral of his mother.
Morris Pollard was professor emeritus of biological sciences at Notre Dame University and an internationally recognized prostate cancer researcher. He published more than 300 scientific articles and studied disease mechanisms for more than 40 years.
His World War II research in the US Army's Veterinary Corps on typhus and exotic viruses from the Pacific Southwest earned Pollard a commendation medal and three presidential citations.
Morris Pollard led an unsuccessful battle to bring about his son's release from jail. He was responsible for initiating the latest wave of public calls upon US President Barack Obama to commute his son's sentence by persuading Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defense at the time of Pollard's arrest, to join the cause.
Pollard wrote before his death that he cannot sleep at night knowing the injustice of his son's sentence.
"In more than two decades, no evidence has been put forth of damage caused to the United States as a result of Pollard's actions," he wrote in the Washington Post in November. "Nothing that could begin to justify a life sentence."
Labels: Caspar Weinberger, Jonathan Pollard
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:09 AM
1 comments
Caspar Weinberger's former assistant, Lawrence Korb, says that it's time to release Jonathan Pollard. Over the past 20 years, I have spoken to one of Pollard's prosecutors, a judge on the court of appeals who considered the case, a top lieutenant of former CIA Director George Tenet, several of Pollard's lawyers, and Pollard himself. And I have become convinced that Pollard's sentence of life was disproportionate to his crime.Read it all.
Therefore, as a matter of simple justice, President Barack Obama should grant Netanyahu's request. Pollard has now been in prison far longer than anyone else who had spied for a friendly country -- the average sentence for a spy convicted of passing intelligence to an allied country is seven years. Information has come to light since Pollard's arrest that shows that the intelligence he passed to Israel never made its way to the United States' enemies, such as the Soviet Union. Furthermore, as U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross noted in a 2006 article in the Canadian Jewish Tribune, "Pollard has been in jail for so long that whatever facts he might know would have little if any effect on national security today."
Netanyahu was correct in saying that support for Pollard's release has come from a broad segment of American political and cultural life. In the last two months, the White House has been deluged with letters from 39 members of Congress, 500 religious leaders from all faiths, a former attorney general, and a former head of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, all urging the president to commute Pollard's sentence.
Of course, such a step will not come without a cost for Obama. Netanyahu learned this lesson in 1998, when he first pushed for Pollard's release in a meeting at the Wye Plantation with President Bill Clinton as a way of facilitating an Arab-Israeli peace agreement. Clinton had to back off when Tenet threatened to resign.
Every time the issue of Pollard's release comes up, intelligence professionals and prosecutors rise up against it. After Netanyahu's request in 1998, a group of retired admirals wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post condemning the request. Late last year, after 39 members of Congress wrote to Obama requesting clemency, a retired navy captain argued in The Intelligencer, a journal of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, that clemency would be ill-advised. And the day after Netanyahu's public request, the attorney who prosecuted Pollard told the Washington Times that the idea of Israel seeking clemency is "a joke."
Most of these claims have been refuted by people such as former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, former Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey -- all supporters of granting clemency to Pollard. But I can say from personal experience that these claims resonate with some elements of the public because of concerns over Jewish Americans' supposed dual loyalty to the United States and Israel. That is, because Israel is a Jewish state, some Jewish Americans might place a commitment to Israeli survival over the interests of the United States when the two are in conflict. Since I became involved in the Pollard case two decades ago through public speeches, letters to the president, and op-eds in major newspapers, I have received volumes of hate mail for my stand.
Labels: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Caspar Weinberger, Jonathan Pollard, Lawrence Korb
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:16 PM
0 comments
Former US Secretary of State George Schultz has called on President Obama to release Jonathan Pollard. I am writing to join with many others in urging you to consider that Jonathan Pollard has now paid a huge price for his espionage on behalf of Israel and should be released from prison.Schultz, it will be recalled, was Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan - the same administration in which Caspar Weinberger (who pushed for the heavy sentence imposed on Pollard) served as Secretary of Defense.
I am impressed that the people who are best informed about the classified material he passed to Israel, former CIA Director James Woolsey and former Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dennis DeConcini, favor his release.
I find the letter you received from former Attorney General Michael Mukasey of the Bush administration particularly compelling.
"This is huge because he is the only one out of the Reagan-Weinberger-triumverate who were involved in the case who is still alive, and he is saying enough is enough," Pollard's wife Esther said. "This is significant news that a man of his stature has gotten involved. It adds dramatically to the compelling nature of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's dramatic call for Jonathan's release." Schultz is the first former US cabinet minister to openly call for Pollard's release and is a respected Republican figure. People involved in the effort to release Pollard said Schultz's endorsement would go a long way toward persuading other Republicans to join the campaign.That's kind of like being the only country in the history of modern warfare to return land conquered in a defensive war. It's not a title about which I am happy in either case.
As Secretary of State, Schultz handled some of the first high level contacts with the Israelis when the case first broke. According to the 1987 Eban Report by The Knesset committee that investigated the Pollard affair, Schultz requested and secured from then prime minister Shimon Peres a commitment to return the documents which Pollard provided to Israel.
These documents were then used by the Americans to indict Pollard, and served as the only evidence against him.
This cooperation by Israel with the US was virtually unprecedented. It was reportedly the only time in the history of modern espionage that any country ever cooperated in the incrimination and prosecution of its own agent.
Labels: Caspar Weinberger, George Schultz, Jonathan Pollard
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:38 PM
2 comments
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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