Today, the IRmep Center for Policy and Law Enforcement released a internal briefing video produced by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency that it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The video, called “Jonathan Pollard: A Portrayal,” was produced to convince American government employees to “report suspicious activities” of their colleagues.
From the video’s YouTube page:
This public domain video was released under the Freedom of Information Act on June 25, 2012 to the IRmep Center for Policy and Law Enforcement. It encourages government employees to report suspicions of espionage. An actress portrays “Susan” who observes Jonathan Pollard’s suspicious activities and tall tales, but fears reporting might lead to investigators “climbing all over” the offices.
The video reveals how the investigation was in fact discreet and highly effective, and urges people debating whether to report to immediately contact their security officer.
Jonathan Pollard has been serving life in prison since 1987 after being caught selling classified documents to Israel. Lately there has an increased effort to persuade President Obama to pardon him.
Kudos to IRmep! Another great example of its use of FOIA. Grant Smith needs to give tutorials to sympathetic organizations on how to use FOIA.
However, despite supporters’ fears that Pollard will die in prison unless Obama grants clemency, the notorious spy’s days behind bars are already numbered, and it won’t be long before he goes free.
In an exclusive interview with AMERICAN FREE PRESS, Ronald J. Olive, author of Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to Justice, told this reporter: “Pollard is due to get out of jail in three years. Nov. 21, 2015 is his scheduled date to leave prison. He just needs to stay there [until then], because no other spy in the history of our country has stolen so many highly classified secrets [and] in a short period of time—nobody!”
link to americanfreepress.net
so I am guessing that the lobby is trying to twist the US’s arm and show the world just how powerful they are by getting him out a tad earlier
hmmm,,,,the arrogance…
Well, if Obama pardons Pollard it will likely be tomorrow. The media noise surrounding the SCOTUS individual mandate ruling will drown out the news for most of the public who haven’t followed Pollard. Obama will hope to gain support from a smaller subset of pro-Israel fanatics who see Pollard more as an Israeli hero than a United States traitor.
Interesting this video just came out under FOI. Intel people tend to be nearly universal in opposing his release. I suspect there reasons are solid.
Boy, is that one scary vid!!!
Scary b/c if that vid represents the level of sophistication the US intelligence agencies operate at, we are screwed. It looks like it was made by a high school thespian club. I mean the Star Wars opening . . . c’mon.
What was the point? Why was a video required at all after Pollard was busted and sent up for life? I mean, hullllo, these are INTELLIGENCE people, didn’t they hear the news? Like, from Walter Cronkite? Wouldn’t a few staff meetings with follow-up memos be sufficient to make the point?
A FOIA was necessary to get this vid b/c the vid is so embarrassing. It proves that intelligence people are not all that intelligent.
BTW, lest we forget: Peres has come, and gone off with his little medal, and Pollard is still sitting in prison. Kudos to Obama. He was under intense pressure from the Israel-firsters. But it was Biden who famously said: Over my dead body. I’m sure Mossad’s ears pricked up when they heard that.
Denis, I have to take issue with you. I think the video is fine. It’s not intended to be a sophisticated production, just sensible, clear cut advice to a very limited number of people. The stages of the lady’s decision making will doubtless echo when/if others who have seen it find themselves in a similar position. What is further good about it is it’s low key, doesn’t make a big drama out of the threat of espionage that might send people on a witch hunt. It’s also good that it can be viewed and considered quietly by individuals; a staff meeting, as you suggest, would have turned it into a group thing when the importance is that it is precisely aimed at individual, often very subtle, barely explainable suspicion.
…it wasn’t Star Wars that came to my mind but Dune…a secret message from within the Guild….
“It looks like it was made by a high school thespian club”
Dude, it was made like, close to 30 years ago.
Nick & Mark, I can tell you guys defending the quality of the vid on the basis that it was made 30 years ago are young whipper-snappers. Probably don’t believe that it was possible to shoot a quality vid in 1987. Well . . . I mean, c’mon, they didn’t exactly need computer-generated Harry Potter special effects to get the point across here. Just a writer who could write a script without it being 80% mindless repetition. Waste of tax-payers’ money — and a lot of it.
I’ve often wondered about those employees in the DIA library who watched Pollard walk through the door day after day after day with classified docs under his arm, mostly on Fridays b/c he was making his drops over the weekends. Bells should have been going off all over the place. I mean what were they running there — a public library? It’s surprising they didn’t have bookmobile service and deliver what he wanted to his house, maybe with a Hebrew translation.
Remember Bush’s version of the old saw: “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, and it proves what an idiot I am.” Or something like that. I guess the dumbed-down vid was made in hopes that it would reach DIA employees like that. Like I say, it’s scary.
DIA tried to block the release of the vid not b/c it has one iota of sensitive information, but b/c it is such an embarrassment to the agency on a number of levels. I don’t sleep any better for having seen it.
What’s interesting is that I doubt if Israel at least even WANTS Pollard released.
I mean, they certainly have to fake it — but the fallout could be disastrous. Pollard has stayed in prison because a lot of quite powerful people are very pissed about what he did, and if he gets out, those same powerful people are likely to make it their business to make sure that what he did gets detailed coverage in the media. Adios the ‘special relationship.’
That’s the downside. The upside is Israel gets one little pathetic wannabe who is no longer of value to anyone. Sort of like risking your life savings for a chance at a broken lawnmower. I can’t see it.
Think of Pollard in the same category as Vanunu or Haim Arlosoroff; they know/knew too much and had to be controlled or eliminated.
While he is in prison, Pollard can feel pretty safe — curious, isn’t it, that he hasn’t tripped in the shower or anything like that? US prison officials most likely ensure his safety — or else.
Likewise, Israel can feel secure that the rest of Pollard’s secrets are safe as long as he is in prison — Israelis can keep him under their eye as long as he is in prison.
But if he waits it out until 2015, he may turn into a loose cannon, or US, or Russia, or any of a number of actors could make him an offer he can’t refuse. Therefore, Israel wants him out NOW, and wants him beholden to Israelis who sprung him, so that Israel owns Pollard.
Pollard will never be a free man — inside or outside of prison.
As for the unsophisticated quality of the video, remember, it was made ~20 years ago, and Spielberg & Lucas were otherwise engaged.
those who have pushed for his release
link to jonathanpollard.org
And here are the people asking demanding that Pollard be released. I hope IRMEP is asking all documents having to do with this case be released. Pollard accepted a plea deal which included these documents not being released.
“http://original.antiwar.com/weinberger/2010/10/17/caspar-w-weinberger-jonathan-pollard/
“Declassified Statement on Jonathan Pollard by Caspar W. Weinberger
by Caspar W. Weinberger, October 18, 2010
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Editor’s note: The following statement (original format [.pdf]) was submitted to the District Court of the District of Columbia on March 3, 1987, by the former secretary of defense one day before Judge Aubry E. Robinson Jr. sentenced Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard to life in prison. Weinberger submitted a 46-page classified declaration (“in camera”) of damage caused by Pollard in January 1987 (upon which this unclassified declaration was based). It has never been fully declassified. Explanatory links provided by Grant F. Smith.
I am Caspar W. Weinberger, Secretary of Defense. I offer this declaration to supplement my in camera submission, which detailed the nature and extent of the harm defendant has caused to our national security, and to make known to the Court additional facts which have been brought to my attention. I also wish to address the defendant’s self-serving contentions [.pdf] that his espionage activities were intended only to aid Israel, and the suggestion that his actions should be viewed as mere technical violations of laws intended to keep sensitive information from actual or potential enemies.
It is difficult for me, even in the so-called “year of the spy,” to conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by the defendant in view of the breadth, the critical importance to the U.S., and the high sensitivity of the information he sold to Israel. That information was intentionally reserved by the United States for its own use, because to disclose it, to anyone or any nation, would cause the greatest harm to our national security. Our decisions to withhold and preserve certain intelligence information, and the sources and methods of its acquisition, either in total or in part, are taken with great care, as part of a plan for national defense and foreign policy which has been consistently applied throughout many administrations. The defendant took it upon himself unilaterally to reverse those policies. In so doing, he both damaged and destroyed policies and national assets which have taken many years, great effort and enormous national resources to secure. Moreover, in light of the defendant’s continued disclosures of sensitive information for publication by the press, there is ample cause to believe that Pollard will continue to divulge classified national defense information without restraint.
I respectfully submit that any U.S. citizen, and in particular a trusted government official, who sells U.S. secrets to any foreign nation should not be punished merely as a common criminal. Rather, the punishment imposed should reflect the perfidy of the individual’s actions, the magnitude of the treason committed, and the needs of national security. Here, although the defendant had executed an oath to protect and safeguard classified information, he betrayed the public trust and the security of the United States in exchange for money. I believe these facts should be weighed heavily in fashioning the sentence to be imposed in order to protect the public confidence in our law, and restore the public’s confidence in our ability and commitment to protect U.S. security.
It is also relevant that Pollard has recently analogized himself to an Israeli pilot shot down behind enemy lines, and has stated his hope that he will yet be able to immigrate to Israel. Whatever else his analogy suggests, it clearly indicates that his loyalty to Israel transcends his loyalty to the United States. Nor, apparently, does any residual loyalty to the United States persuade him that he should protect U.S. national defense information at all. Only a few days ago, on February 15, 1987, the Washington Post published an article about Pollard. That article contained information purporting to reflect U.S. intelligence efforts. While I do not intend publicly to confirm or deny the accuracy of those statements, it is beyond cavil that, if true, such information should never be made publicly available. The defendant initially denied having been the source of the information, but when confronted with a polygraph examination on February 25, he acknowledged that he had either provided or confirmed certain of the information contained in that article by talking to a journalist. I have no way of knowing whether he provided additional information not published in that article, but I believe that there can be no doubt that he can, and will, continue to disclose U.S. secrets without regard to the impact it may have on U.S. national defense or foreign policy. Only a period of incarceration commensurate with the enduring quality of the national defense information he can yet impart, will provide a measure of protection against further damage to the national security”
Thanks as usual, Ms. K. Coming from C. Weinberger, this statement is pretty stunning, and not widely known.
link to original.antiwar.com
Casper Weinbergers statement. Grant does the public have access to Weinbergers 46 page classified declaration
link to irmep.org
Too bad we didn’t get Dick Cheney 1.0 during GW’s term.
Weinberger’s 46 page memorandum in aid of sentencing is still classified. Pollard’s defense team tried to obtain it from the court in 2008, but were denied.
link to irmep.org
The Department of Defense office of the SECDEF refused to declassify and release the 46 pager directly.
thanks
Pollard – a noose or a firing squad? That’s the only decision you should have been allowed to make after you were convicted. America will never free you. Rot.
I wonder if seeing that video is what caused FBI translator Shamai Leibowitz to report that Congresswoman Jane Harman shared classified information with Israeli agents.
How much were the actors paid for the video?
Poor acting and a poor attempt to cover the injustice dished out to Pollard.
Release Weinberger’s secret note to the judge.
Some of Pollards superiors were antisemitic, which will make some of you happy to hear. The makers of this video fit that bill as well.
It’s a cheesy video, which is typical of 80′s productions, but I don’t see how that fact changes the facts in this case. I suspect the actors were paid pretty badly. Cheap production all ’round. So what? Makers of the cheesy video also “anti-semites”? Prove.
It’s called bad judgement. All around there was bad judgment. Pollard found that his superiors were holding back on sharing vital intelligence with Israel, in accordance with existing agreements between the two friendly nations. This was information on Iraq and Iran, primarily. Bad judgment on Pollards superiors.
The district attorney offered Pollard a plea bargain which included Pollard going to jail for 3 years. This agreement prevented the case going to open court in which the beans would have to have been spilled. Pollard had little to fear by the facts being presented in court. The judge, after having first accepted the conditions of the plea bargain, reneged on this after having received a still secret letter from Weinberger. Pollard made a mistake in accepting and trusting the system. The judge made a mistake in accepting Weinberger’s letter which, I am convinced, has many inaccuracies.
Pollard was appointed a Lebanese lawyer who just happen to forget to apply for appeal after sentencing, a massive mistake. Who is this lawyer? Why was he appointed? Smells of conspiracy. Bad judgment to appoint him and bad judgment of Pollard to accept him. Really, a Lebanese lawyer, really?
Pollard was accused of releasing info to the Russians that caused American deaths, information he had no access to. Aldridge Aims was later found out to have done this. Why was Pollard accused of something they knew he had no information of?
There is no reason, apart from the conspiracy coverup, not to release Weinbergers letter.
. This was information on Iraq and Iran, primarily.
huh?
Really, a Lebanese lawyer, really?
you’re not being racist here are you? the crime is what sunk him, not the lawyer.
Sorry Annie, but you are exposing ignorance, naivety or both. Had he appealed, the case could have gone back to court after which key people, including Weinberger would have had to appear and testify in court. The bungling lawyer played his part.
gilad, please explain to me what you meant by ‘This was information on Iraq and Iran, primarily‘, i have no idea what you mean.
also, i’m sure you’re aware pollard could have gotten one of his many fans to provide him with another lawyer. it’s not like the one he got was shoved down his throat. still, it doesn’t address the toxicity of your comment. if you want to make the point you think his lawyer sunk him that is different than implying it was because lebanese lawyers are incompetent. or what else were you implying by Really, a Lebanese lawyer, really?
what is that supposed to mean? and how unusual his public defenders wasn’t an american. i wonder where he was educated? a law school in lebanon perhaps? maybe that explains it? what do you know we don’t?
Firstly, I am not saying that he did not commit a crime. He did and he deserved to go to jail. The judge initially was okay with the 3 years in jail. Something happened before passing sentence and I believe that he was wrongfully accused of something else justified by someone (Casper Weinberger) taking the law into their own hands betraying the values he was obligated to uphold.
Regarding the Lebanese lawyer, I never said he was incompetent. It remains a mystery why and how he as appointed. There is too much history between Lebanon and Israel to ignore the strange appointment. He is probably a very good lawyer.
“Firstly, I am not saying that he did not commit a crime. He did and he deserved to go to jail.”
Yes, you pretty much did, and you pretty much do here, when you libel Cap Weinberger — with no evidence — of accusing Pollard of doing “something he did not do.” According to who? The traitor Pollard? Can anyone beleive anything that traitor says? What he admitted to was a crime with a punishment upto what he got. He got off easy.
“The judge initially was okay with the 3 years in jail.”
So what? He wasn’t bound by that number. It was discretionary.
“Something happened before passing sentence…”
Yes, he learned the exact nature of the vile treason this bastard committed.
“…and I believe that he was wrongfully accused of something else…”
On what evidence? I think that Casper Weinberger, the Secretary of Defense, would know better what this bastard gave to you bastards and what you bastards did with it.
“…justified by someone (Casper Weinberger) taking the law into their own hands betraying the values he was obligated to uphold.”
The value is he is obligated to uphold is to protect the United States. Pollard had that obligation, too, but he spit on his country to benefit the zionist abomination. Weinberger is a hero, and it’s too bad that the judge couldn’t hand out a harsher sentence.
“Regarding the Lebanese lawyer, I never said he was incompetent.”
No, bigot, you just make a racist judgment based on nothing other than the lawyer’s ethnicity. He is not Lebanese, he is an American of Lebanese descent.
“It remains a mystery why and how he as appointed.”
He wasn’t appointed, he was hired and his bill was paid for by israel.
“There is too much history between Lebanon and Israel to ignore the strange appointment.”
He isn’t Lebanese, you bigot, he is an American. What difference does his ancestry make?
“He is probably a very good lawyer.”
Yes, he is. But because of his ancestry you have no problem accusing him of all kinds of misconduct.
Woody, you may want to mind your language otherwise some may start calling you a hate monger. I suggest you climb back into your shell, and if not, call for the release of the Cap Weinberger’s letter. Let the public decide. There is nothing in that letter that could possibly jeopardize anyone today. We already know about the super cannon Gerald Bull, the Canadian, was building for Sadam Hussein.
“Poor acting and a poor attempt to cover the injustice dished out to Pollard.”
What attempt? What injustice? Wonder what sentence Pollard would have received if he did not take the deal offered?
“the injustice dished out to Pollard’
What injustice is that?
The injustice of being accused of something he did not do, the something that apparently convinced the judge to renege on the plea-bargain agreement. The injustice of one man, Caspar Weinberger, sending a secret letter to the judge, a letter that changed the case. One man can write a secret letter without being vetted, a letter that has profound impact on another human being? The injustice of the length of sentence for spying for a friendly country when no other sentence for similar and even worse acts received a fraction of the time he has already spent in jail and solitary confinement. Injustice you ask, you bet.
Weinberger and Co. hoped that the long sentence would deter others. I would hope that man will always find the strength to do the right thing. Pollards superiors allowed their hate for Jews and Israel, to hold back on insuring vital info be passed on to a strong friend and partner of the US. There will always be those who will be willing to make the sacrifice and continue to do the right thing and not go over the edge with others. Pollards superiors were not of this type. Neither was the judge in the case and Casper Weinberger as well. And then the judge who later denied late appeal. Conspiracy, injustice? Absolutely!
“The injustice of being accused of something he did not do, the something that apparently convinced the judge to renege on the plea-bargain agreement.”
Lies. First, Pollard admitted he committed the crime. Further, he admitted to that crime knowing that it could send him to prison for life. Further, the judge was not bound to any limited sentence, as the agreement merely required the government to ASK for less than the life sentence, which it did. The judge was free to disregard it, as he did.
” The injustice of one man, Caspar Weinberger, sending a secret letter to the judge, a letter that changed the case.”
Yes, when the judge learned from Weinberger the extend of Pollard’s betrayal, he concluded that life imprisonment was proper. If Pollard didn’t want to spend his life in prison, he shouldn’t have betrayed his country.
“The injustice of the length of sentence for spying for a friendly country when no other sentence for similar and even worse acts received a fraction of the time he has already spent in jail and solitary confinement.”
Since your shitty country hasn’t come clean with what information was given to it and what it did with that, you simply are pulling this out of your ass. He admitted to a crime that carried with it the sentence he got. No injustice there.
“Weinberger and Co. hoped that the long sentence would deter others. ”
Yes. Because Weinberger was concerned with America. Pollard was a traitor, who deserved death.
“Pollards superiors allowed their hate for Jews and Israel, to hold back on insuring vital info be passed on to a strong friend and partner of the US.”
Bull. But even if so? who cares? If Pollard’s superior made that decision, it’s not up to him to betray his country, as he admitted he did.
“There will always be those who will be willing to make the sacrifice and continue to do the right thing and not go over the edge with others. ”
Please. When you israel releases Mordechai Vanunu– one of the few decent people your shitty state ever produced–then you will have a place to talk about how America deals with trash like Pollard. Until then, shut your damned mouth.
“spying for a friendly country”
??
The U.K. actually fights side by side with us Yanks. I’d say we’re pretty friendly. Using your logic, an American who spies for the U.K. should not be punished if he/she were caught. French troops fight side by side with us. Any Israeli troops in Iraq or Afghanistan? There’s German troops. Germany helped us.
He spied. For a foreign country no less. He broke our laws. Israel has done heinous things with our secret info, you know, like selling it to China. That’s called biting the hand that feeds you your 3 nillion a year in welfare. But alas, our “friend” has no shame. Nice…
@giladg … wow… here we go again…its that ole worn out “zionist/Israeli trick” of waving that antisemitic flag to divert/deflect for the cause of damage control for their beloved Apartheid Israel!
“The injustice of the length of sentence for spying for a friendly country when no other sentence for similar and even worse acts received a fraction of the time”
The Rosenbergs were executed.
>> The Rosenbergs were executed.
Why did they hate America’s freedoms so much?
giladg – hope you don’t mind but I submitted your comment above as an entry to the Mondoweiss New Yorker Fiction parody Contest. Yes, it has more polemics than story telling but perhaps with my little reformating and copy editing it stands a chance?
I trust you don’t mind the collaboration – really tried to leave all your creativity intact and gave you full credit for parodic powers.
The Israeli Spy Ring
“ALL LINKS TO CARL CAMERON’S FOX NEWS STORY ON THE ISRAELI SPY RING HAVE BEEN REMOVED AT THE EXPRESS REQUEST OF FOX NEWS.
However, you can still view them at YouTube!”
Click on link below & scroll down to view a 1-4 part video on “Israeli Espionage” reported by Brit Hume & Carl Cameron:
link to whatreallyhappened.com
Watched that four part report soon after it first came out. In Cameron’s report about a “back door” being infiltrated in the Israeli communication system is the most fascinating part of that report to me. My sense is that ties into Iran some way. The I lobby jumped all over Fox for this report.
This report basically confirms that Israeli intelligence did not release all critical information about the terrorist to U.S. intelligence agencies.
I am utterly amazed to see how concerned giladgeee is about an alleged injustice being committed against one man. Oh, that’s right, it’s because Pollard is a Jew and an Israeli. That explains it. F*cking Zio-supremacist hypocrite.
Denial, racism, elitism can be a strong narcotic