The never-ending Israeli campaign to free Jonathan Pollard has accelerated ahead of President Obama's visit to Israel (AP Photo)
President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Israel later this month has led to a predictable torrent of calls to release the convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. While the pleas for Pollard’s release largely emanate from the right of Israeli politics, centrist Zionist figures as well as a prominent former American official have joined the campaign.
Pollard is an Israeli citizen who has renounced his American citizenship. Since he was arrested in 1985--and convicted of spying for Israel in 1987--securing his release has been a major priority for Israeli officials and American Jewish organizations. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison for the crime of passing along information on Arab states, Pakistan and the Soviet Union to Israel, which were gathered from his work as a US naval intelligence analyst.
So far, the Israelis and American Jewish organizations have come up empty, but they’re engaging in another push because of Obama’s visit, which reportedly begins March 20. Pollard’s poor health has also fueled the calls for his release. But it remains unlikely that Obama will grant their wishes.
The renewed campaign to free Pollard comes two and a half months after the National Security Archives at George Washington University released new documents on the spy:
When Naval Investigative Service analyst Jonathan Pollard spied for Israel in 1984 and 1985, his Israeli handlers asked primarily for nuclear, military and technical information on the Arab states, Pakistan, and the Soviet Union – not on the United States – according to the newly-declassified CIA 1987 damage assessment of the Pollard case, published today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (www.nsarchive.org).
The damage assessment includes new details on the specific subjects and documents sought by Pollard's Israeli handlers (pages 36-43), such as Syrian drones and central communications, Egyptian missile programs, and Soviet air defenses. The Israelis specifically asked for a signals intelligence manual that they needed to listen in on Soviet advisers in Syria. The document describes how Pollard's handler, Joseph Yagur, told him to ignore a request, from Yagur's boss, for U.S. "dirt" on senior Israeli officials and told Pollard that gathering such information would terminate the operation (page 38)
Member of Knesset (MK) Moshe Feiglin, who has frequently visited Pollard in prison in North Carolina, told supporters in Queens last month that he would boycott any Obama speech to the Knesset if Pollard was not released by the time he came. (Yesterday, Haaretz reported that Obama would not be speaking to the Knesset.) Feiglin, a far-right wing member of Likud, said that “if God forbid [Obama] will come without Pollard, he will speak to my empty chair, and I hope my chair will not be the only empty chair.”
Feiglin’s strident advocacy for Pollard was followed by USA Today giving space to Danny Danon, another Likud member who holds a seat in the Knesset, to advocate for Pollard’s release. “It is my hope that the president will use his upcoming trip not only to meet our political leaders, but to forge a bond with the people of Israel. The best way to do this is to finally pardon Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. citizen convicted of spying for Israel, and allow him to come home to Israel ahead of the presidential visit in March,” wrote Danon last month. “Jonathan Pollard has been imprisoned for almost twenty eight years. It is now clear that in passing information to an American ally about dangerous nations that threatened Israel's security, Pollard thought he was acting in the best interests of both nations.”
Yesterday, members of the Israeli Knesset discussed the Pollard case. “This is a very painful issue. Please God we will not have to have another discussion about how to secure Pollard's freedom,” remarked Yuli Edelstein, another Likud member, according to Haaretz. “I believe that Israel made two mistakes in the case of Jonathan Pollard. It was a mistake to use him in the first place and it was a mistake that it took over a decade to admit that he was an Israeli agent.”
But it’s not only Likud stalwarts calling for Pollard’s release. Israeli President Shimon Peres has joined in on the action, as the Associated Press reports. Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say they will raise the Pollard issue with Obama when he arrives in Israel. Yair Lapid, Israel’s new kingmaker, has advocated for Pollard as well. A phone conversation with the convicted spy, arranged by Pollard’s wife, who is in Israel, reportedly made Lapid cry. Lapid added his name to a petition calling on Obama to release Pollard. Over 100,000 people have also signed the petition. Meretz has said it supports Pollard's release, and a Labor member initiated the discussion on Pollar in the Knesset.
And besides American Jewish organizations, who have long called for Pollard’s release, former U.S. official Lawrence Korb is once again advocating for Pollard. Korb, who is a fellow at the Obama-connected Center for American Progress, has long been calling for Pollard’s release. His latest move was a trip to Israel, where he met with Israeli officials on the Pollard case. “He was not convicted of treason, and that, of course, is a key thing,” Korb told the Voice of America. “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.”
Still, others involved in prosecuting Pollard say he should not be released. “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,” Joseph E. diGenova, a former attorney who was the chief prosecutor during the Pollard trial, told the Voice of America.
The White House has also given no indication it is ready to free Pollard. Asked during a press conference whether the Obama administration is considering commuting Pollard’s life sentence, Press Secretary Jay Carney simply answered: “No, our position has not changed.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have “bitterly resisted” any calls to free Pollard, according to the Washington Post.
“The White House has also given no indication it is ready to free Pollard. Asked during a press conference whether the Obama administration is considering commuting Pollard’s life sentence, Press Secretary Jay Carney simply answered: “No, our position has not changed.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have “bitterly resisted” any calls to free Pollard, according to the Washington Post.”
good, let him rot.
link to nytimes.com
“The lesson of the Sabra and Shatila tragedy is clear. Sometimes close allies act contrary to American interests and values. Failing to exert American power to uphold those interests and values can have disastrous consequences: for our allies, for our moral standing and most important, for the innocent people who pay the highest price of all.”
Pollard will be released, if not this year, then until 2016, when he will be 30 years at jail. You should remember that his trial was a slut. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger passed secret memorandum to the eyes of the judge only without the knowledge of Pollard’s attorney. His document was full of false allegations against Pollard as if he had betrayed and revealed to the Russians some CIA agents that were caught at the same time. What was not known at the time that whoever passed the intelligence to the Russians were three Americans who spied for the Russians. Unfortunately, these spies were uncovered only after Pollard’s trial was over. It turns out that Pollard received the bulk of his sentence because the Americans suspected that he had passed information to the Russians too, proved to be incorrect later. However, the American legal system would not make Pollard retrial in light of the new facts that shown Weinberger allegations as simple lies. Ironically, two American spies working for the Soviet Union whom caught after Pollard were already released from prison! Something rotten in the American justice!
Contrary to the widespread belief, the 2012’s 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.
More ridiculously, that most of the information Pollard passed to Israel was also passed to Israel by the U.S. military intelligence in the daily life sharing knowledge between both countries.
It should be noted that in the 80’s Israel caught three Israelis employed by American intelligence officer in the US embassy in Israel. One of them was an Air Force’s major. But on this issue the United States asked Israel not to make noise in these cases, preferring to judge them to minor penalties and without a lot of buzz.
My feeling is Pollard case is still on topic just because he is a Jew who spied for Israel, which further infuriates Americans, especially the Jews who feel strange remote from Israel. Like Weinberger feared that if not work hard against Pollard, there will be some people around him thinking that he is playing still the hidden Jew.
Thanks for that lovely piece if fictional prose AbeBird. Even if any of it were true, there is no way you could know any of that without high security clearance.
Pollard said that he viewed the US as a host that should be used up and spat out for Israel’s benefit. The fact
The fact is that we haven’t been told just how damaging Pollard’s actions were but all evidence indicates it is worse than we have been led to believe. After all, all the players who were behind the push to put Pollard away and have been replaced by Israeli shills. If they also agree he should not be released, then what Pollard did must be extremely severe.
If half of what you claimed were true Abe, it would havench of tin foil hat arguments you read on some fringe Zionist conspiracy web site.
Abe you are wrong about one thing. Pollard was never accused of passing information to the Soviets — he served a single master. It was the Israelis who traded those secrets in exchange for Russian immigrants to Israel. (Ohh those demographic wars are a bitch now are they not).
It is Israel’s behavior that magnified Pollard’s crime and a very good reason for enhanced sentencing. Let the traitor continue to rot in jail.
@ ToivoS
Further, the secrets he sold to Israel were not at the time among those secrets being traded by our government agents with Israel’s secrets traders. And the amount was HUGE compared to the normal trade in secrets between US and Israel. Lastly, that he sold such a HUGE supply of secrets drained the available secrets inventory the US had with which to trade for Israeli information.
Abe you are wrong about one thing.
Well he’s completely wrong about a number of things. Pollard entered a guilty plea to a charge that carried a maximum term of life under a deal negotiated by his own lawyer to get his wife off-the-hook.
The Weinberger affidavit was submitted during the sentencing phase, not as evidence at trial. Pollards’s own website indicates his lawyer read the affidavit and reminded the Judge about some of it’s contents:
–http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2007/062507b.htm
Portions of Weinberger’s memo were deemed to be classified and placed under seal. There’s no proof that it swayed the Judge’s decision one way or the other. It’s just something hasbarists use as a stage prop when they ask you to remember or believe in the unknown, while ignoring the fact that Pollard plead guilty to a charge that allows the government to impose 1) a death sentence; or 2) imprisonment for any term of years; or 3) imprisonment for life. He was given the latter rather than the death penalty thanks in large part to the exonerating nature of the contents Weinberger’s memo that his lawyer cited. See the US Code for the particulars on the death penalty. link to law.cornell.edu
P.S. I’ve always wondered if Weinberger’s memo wasn’t intended to keep the Judge from rejecting the plea deal. It specifically addressed the elements required by the statute in order to impose a death sentence, and stated that they did not exist in Pollard’s case.
That detail didn’t escape the notice of Pollard’s lawyer, who recited it to the Judge (as I noted above).
“”while ignoring the fact that Pollard pleaded guilty to a charge that allows the government to impose 1) a death sentence; or 2) imprisonment for any term of years; or 3) imprisonment for life.”
No one is ignoring that. The debate is over whether, considering that the government was willing to plead him out to 5, sentencing him to life made sense when he screwed up. I can only guess that either Pollard had something to give, or that the case was embarrassing enough for the government and that they did not want the spectacle of a trial. That’s how these things generally happen. It was, and usually is, vindictive when this happens. The government can ask for anything it wants in these cases (obviously within the bounds of the statute) after the defendant screws up. In a case where the agreement is for 5, I think it’s a bit unusual for the government to ask for life. Then again, statutes where any term of imprisonment is possible, up to the death penalty, are also rather unusual.
If you have any familiarity with federal plea agreements, you know that stuff like this happens all the time; cooperators sign for low amounts and if they mess up, they end up with many times that. Pollard messed up, and he got what he deserved, in my view, given the leniency of the original agreement.
There would have been no reason for the judge to reject the plea deal if, like most such documents, it was structured to allow the government to ask for anything up to the max if Pollard broke the terms of the agreement.
The idea that Weinberger’s memo was meant to keep Pollard from getting the death penalty is unlikely. I doubt the death penalty was ever on the table in this case, though I can’t know for sure without taking a look at the plea agreement. However, it would have been highly unlikely. The memo was meant to make sure Pollard’s sentence was high.
The memo was meant to make sure Pollard’s sentence was high.
Yeah sure, that’s why Pollard’s lawyer was able to cite the portions which said Pollard’s actions hadn’t resulted in any consequences that could result in the death penalty. Weinberger could have omitted that portion altogether.
He is a spy for a foreign country he renounced his US citizenship. If he is released he would be a candidate fir a drone attack!
It would probably be better if he stay in prison until his end.
It would be a PR problem for Zionists. Where would he go? Stay
in the US or relocate to Israel? Israel would be naming streets in his honour. A traitor to the US is a hero in Israel? Is that more of the shared values?
And no US President is going to want to appear ‘soft’ on releasing a
traitor.
My thoughts exactly. We have got to stick together.
Oh, you mean that they did to Pollard the same thing that they’ve done to the poor schmucks in Guantanamo as well as the patsies set up by the FBI? Not to mention what ISreal itself does to the Palestinians in exactly the same vane. Well, if nothing else, you make it appear that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Something which, of course, it’s frowned upon in all matters ISreal.
The moment Pollard is released from jail the American media will turn the story from an American Jew who spied for Israel and Israel’s repeated lies about it, to a gross injustice FINALLY being righted. For that reason alone he should rot in prison; that his treachery will always be the story.
And anyone remember Sam Sheinbein? Lived in Maryland, he and some others killed, dismembered, and burnt a young man by the name of Alfredo Tuillo jr., or something like that. With his father’s assistance, Sheinbein fled to Israel, and Israel refused to return him. (A Jew getting a fair trial in America?!?)
Would like to know what good old Sam is up to in Israel. Is he even in jail? And what price did his father pay? I’m guessing none.
Israeli Supreme Court blocked his extradition to the US, citing a 1978 law banning the extradition of Israeli citizens. ‘This resulted in a severe strain in U.S.-Israeli relations and outrage from the Latino-American community.’
‘There was also concern in Israel over the ruling, including the fear that the country might become a haven for Jewish criminals.’
‘Sheinbein was then indicted in Israel. He was charged for murder with intent to kill: the equivalent of first-degree murder in the United States.’
‘Sheinbein’s trial took place in the Tel Aviv District Court. After Sheinbein accepted a plea bargain with prosecutors, the three-judge panel sentenced him to 24 years in prison, with eligibility for parole after 16 years.’
‘Sheinbein is currently serving his sentence at Ayalon Prison, an infamous maximum-security prison in Ramla.
Parents:
Sheinbein’s parents subsequently moved to Israel to be closer to him. They live in Tel Aviv, where his father works as a patent law consultant.
For assisting his son in escaping the United States, Sol Sheinbein was disbarred as a Maryland patent lawyer, and he is wanted on an arrest warrant for hindering or obstructing a police investigation, but could not be extradited due to it being a misdemeanor.’
Vindictive. merciless souls abound in this topic.
Chu’s remarks about Sheinbein suggest
but this contradicts what happened to Meyer Lansky. According to wikipedia link to en.wikipedia.org
And Chu you enjoy inverting history, making baseless insinuations that Israel likes to name streets after criminals. Have you forgotten about the Palestinian football tournament that was named after a female suicide bomber?
Vindictive. merciless souls abound in this topic. Chu’s remarks about Sheinbein
Are 100 percent accurate. Unlike Lansky, whose crimes were committed before he obtained Israeli citizenship, Sheinbein’s father was an Israeli. So according to the 1952 Nationality Law, Sheinbein was an Israeli citizen covered by the Kneset’s 1978 “Offenses Committed Abroad Act”.
The Jewish Virtual Library has an article on “Israeli Policy on Extradition”, which provides the low-down on the Sheinbein case. link to jewishvirtuallibrary.org
And why D Suter of Urban Moving is not being extradited? He fled NY for Israel leaving his underwear hanging on the window and food left over table after the dancing Israeli were cornered. he is on FBI wanted list . He is in Israel.
Mayhem,
Reading comprehension is NOT your strong suit.
Israeli Supreme Court blocked his extradition to the US, citing a 1978 law banning the extradition of Israeli citizens.
I bolded the date-”1978″ to make it easier for you to follow along. Your quote about Meyer Lansky refers to events that happened up to 1974. This may come as a great shock to you, but a law passed in 1978 can have no bearing whatsoever on what happened years prior to it. Its a temporal impossibility. SO your argument is totally invalid and, frankly, just stupid.
BTW, this is from the same Wikipedia that you cited with respect to Lansky. in regards to the US’s attempted extradition of Shenbein:
link to en.wikipedia.org
Mayhem,
Why are you defending murderers and gangsters? When did we defend Hamas naming blah blah after suicide bombers?
You aren’t criticizing Israel for naming blah blah after Jewish terrorists or electing Jewish terrorists to office or celebrating Jewish terrorism.
You aren’t criticizing Israel for allowing Jewish criminals to flee to and be sheltered on Israel.
You’re just changing the subject to a straw-man.
Pathetic.
Sheinbein is serving a 24 year prison term in Israel for the killing, part of a plea deal that Israel brokered with the US, rather than extradite him to the US. He’s eligible for parole after 16 years, which happens in 2015. A pretty light sentence for such a gruesome pre-planned murder, which was allegedly carried out to “practice” for a future intended murder of a romantic rival of Sheinbein’s. His father was disbarred in the US and still faces misdemeanor charges for obstructing justice. He also moved to Israel and is a lawyer there. He can’t be extradited on misdemeanor charges.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Thanks.
Call me a cynic — but it’s a certainty Sheinbein remains in jail that long?
This makes me very happy indeed! I hope they manage to free Pollard. At the very least, I hope they make a very noisy and odiferous stink about it in public. I hope it makes the headlines of every newspaper in the country. Oooh – and make sure to publicly rub Obama’s face in the dirt while doing it!
Come all ye I-firsters, out of the closet and into the bright sunlight. Display your plumage in all its resplendent glory.
Most of the Israeli first crowd isn’t that stupid, but their Israeli cousins
want his release.
Even Hophmi is giving mealy mouthed replies about Pollard.
“Even Hophmi is giving mealy mouthed replies about Pollard.”
I’m trying to correct one misstatement in Kane’s report, where he suggests American Jewish orgs have long been active on Pollard’s behalf, citing the only mainline American Jewish org that actually has. I have a good sense of what their thinking is, and mostly, they couldn’t care less about Pollard. The campaign for Pollard’s release has always been a hard-right campaign, and there has long been a division between Israel and the American Jewish community on the issue of releasing Pollard. They’re not in lockstep, as Alex suggests here.
The campaign for Pollard’s release has always been a hard-right campaign…
Which totally explains the letter that Barney Frank and 38 other Democrats sent to Obama in 2010 urging Pollard’s release…. oh wait….Frank’s not a member of the “hard right”.
link to jta.org
Well, I guess now we know that the Conference, B’nai Brith, the Rabbinical Council and the Religious Action Center are all “hard right” organizations.
And by the way, the ADL, AJC and JCPA are all member organizations of the Conference. And by attending the meeting of American Jewish leaders with Vice President Biden in 2011, which was requested to discuss the possible release of Pollard, the heads of both the ADL and the JCPA have promoted such a release.
From the JCPA’s website:
link to engage.jewishpublicaffairs.org
Israel keeps hundreds of Palestinians in jail without charge.
Israel tortures Palestinians in jail.
Israel tortures and Illtreats children–see UNICEF REPORT issued this week.
Israel allows hunger strikers to die in jail.
And Israel wants to get a Traitor to America freed.
GRRRRR.
Good point Amigo,
It’s absurd to witness this political theater just after the whole Ben Zygier saga has come to light. Israeli officials still refuse to even discuss that case, so apparently, when it comes to national security, they are perfectly happy to shut the door and throw away the key.
Then there’s Vanunu.
Makes one quite angry. They want a different set of rules for them.
An odd sort of caste system, or royalty, masquerading as a victim.
i hate to admit it, but i’ve come around on this. i think he should be released in exchange for something of significance. and in a bit of schadenfreude, the reception this traitor would get in israel would help shine a spotlight on what a duplicitous ‘ally’ israel is. (most) zionists are too stupid to recognize that his release would be bad PR.
How about agreeing to freeing him when Israel returns permanently to its legal boders?
How about agreeing to freeing him when Israel returns permanently to its legal boders?
sold.
“(Yesterday, Haaretz reported that Obama would not be speaking to the Knesset.)”
How long before Obama will be accused of being an anti-semite and anti-democratic for not speaking to the Knesset?
Is he not insulting the holy democracy of the chosen people?
Oh, the first comment on the Haaretz article:
“Snubs the Knesset. He won’t address the Knesset,unlike all his predecessors. Even Angela Merkel addressed the Knesset!”
Even that dirty German nazi Angela Merkel addressed the Knesset!
Obama must be much worse than nazis….?
“When Naval Investigative Service analyst Jonathan Pollard spied for Israel in 1984 and 1985, his Israeli handlers asked primarily for nuclear, military and technical information on the Arab states, Pakistan, and the Soviet Union – not on the United States ”
Well that’s bullshit. Bowman, (Navy Intelligence) who was involved and had access to all the documents Pollards stole says Pollard give Israel all the secrets and information on how ‘the US spied on’ countries. Plus information on how the US monitored Israel so Israel could prevent the US from monitoring Israel.
So Israel wasn’t just stealing info on their ME enemies and to trade US info to Russia for release of Jews.
link to voices.washingtonpost.com
Now another key official at the time of Pollard’s arrest, former FBI and Navy lawyer M.E. “Spike” Bowman, is weighing in — against his release — in a forthcoming article.
“Since I was the only person who actually touched all aspects of the case I thought it was incumbent on me to lay out the facts,” Bowman, the top legal adviser to Navy intelligence at the time, and who later worked as senior counsel at the FBI and as deputy director of the National Counterintelligence Executive, told SpyTalk.
In a piece written for a forthcoming journal of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, founded years ago to support the CIA, Bowman notes that there have been “few rebuttals of this escalation of calls for Pollard’s release…mainly because so few were cognizant of the scope of Pollard’s disclosures, or the misuses of those disclosures, and the damage they did to our own operations and sources.”
The true extent of the spy’s damage remains locked in government vaults, Bowman writes, “because when a plea agreement was reached, it was no longer necessary to litigate issues that could have exposed the scope of Pollard’s treachery — and the exposure of classified systems.”
But the retired Navy captain singles out three of Pollard’s leaks, the first being “the daily report from the Navy’s Sixth Fleet Ocean Surveillance Information Facility (FOSIF) in Rota, Spain, a top-secret document filed every morning reporting all that had occurred in the Middle East during the previous twenty-four hours, as recorded by the NSA’s most sophisticated monitoring devices.”
“Probably the most serious disclosure (of those of which we are aware) was the TOP SECRET NSA RAISIN manual, which lists the physical parameters of every known signal [or electronic communication], notes how we collect signals around the world, and lists all the known communications links then used by the Soviet Union,” Bowman writes.
“It is certainly the thing that stood out in the mind of the sentencing judge; particularly when Pollard alleged at sentencing that there really was no harm done. The judge interrupted and brought him up short, pointing specifically to disclosure of the RAISIN manual.”
Bowman also writes that “Pollard disclosed information to the Israelis that could prevent the U.S. from monitoring Israeli activities in the Middle East — clearly a foreign policy nightmare.”
A wise person would test the resolve of Peres, Netanyahu et. al. by requesting
the prior release of Marwan Barghouti to Gaza as a condition of the release of Pollard.
Marwan Barghouti, Vanunu, and every prisoner who has done less harm to Israel than Pollard did to the the US.
“Member of Knesset (MK) Moshe Feiglin, who has frequently visited Pollard in prison in North Carolina, told supporters in Queens last month that he would boycott any Obama speech to the Knesset if Pollard was not released by the time he came.”
Gosh. That is some challenge to Obama. Getting John Boehner and his rabid Republicans to agree to tax increases over Grover Norquist’s lifeless body is nothing compared to a threat by some tinpot settler MP to leave the Knesset if he talks. I bet Obama is really scared.
So special.
Obama needs to explain to these whackos, that if he were ever to consider releasing a convicted traitor of the US, Israel would have to stop building settlements and return to the 1967 lines without preconditions.
Neither Clinton nor Bush freed him. This year old article from last April says some top CIA guys think he did not work alone and the Israelis know who worked with him, but won’t say: link to vosizneias.com
If Obama ever decides to grow a backbone he will tease this issue out in the press and hint that he is considering releasing Pollard, until the zionist chorus lines are all singing Pollard’s praises at full volume.
Then Obama can very publicly disclose the full nature of the damage Pollard caused and ‘upon review’ decline to release him, and all at once deal the lobby a near fatal blow.
“Yesterday, members of the Israeli Knesset discussed the Pollard case. “This is a very painful issue. Please God we will not have to have another discussion about how to secure Pollard’s freedom,”
Meanwhile Israel holds 14000 Palestinian children without charge. But Untermenschen don’t feel pain.
seafoid: “But Untermenschen don’t feel pain.”
How could they? Perhaps mon-Jews have neither souls nor nerves. Must remember to ask an orthodox rabbi sometime, next time I see one. Maybe before 2016. I’m sure such an emnent person would have an opinion on the subject.
“ remarked Yuli Edelstein, another Likud member, according to Haaretz. ‘I believe that Israel made two mistakes in the case of Jonathan Pollard. It was a mistake to use him in the first place and it was a mistake that it took over a decade to admit that he was an Israeli agent.’”
How about, “It was a mistake to spy on the US”, you rat.
Is it true that the harm that came to US National Security via Pollard’s treasonous actions will never be released because of the plea deal. That we will never really know exactly what Pollard gave Israel. If the I firsters keep pushing this as Cloak and Dagger said above demands for all info will be loud and clear.
What actually transpired as a result of what he did? Was it something to with the Soviet Union ? Did anyone die ?
seafoid, i think it was huge. along the lines of all our codes being released. representing billions of dollars of data. or something to that effect. iam sure there are people heremore informed than myself. someone explained it once on a past thread. a mega leak.
The full extent of what damage he did is one of the most closely guarded secrets. There were definitely deaths, but the full number is classified. Whenever a US politician gets close to being influential enough to potentially move Pollard’s release along, he gets a very detailed private chat from some highly placed folks in the intelligence community. After this conversation the said politician does not bring up the subject.
Thanks annie. There is something in the zionist mentality that is ultra machiavellian. The end is what counts. Even allies are dispensable. Kastner, Pollard, those 2 jewish sergeants they hung in 47, the 1967 us ship, the South Leb Army, arafat, the 82 sharon assurances to reagan that were followed by shatila. They do not think long term. When tshtf there won’t be support as expected. I guess a lot of senior decisionmakers privately hate them.
““Probably the most serious disclosure (of those of which we are aware) was the TOP SECRET NSA RAISIN manual, which lists the physical parameters of every known signal [or electronic communication], notes how we collect signals around the world, and lists all the known communications links then used by the Soviet Union,” Bowman writes.” Bowman just explained it. The “TOP SECRET NSA RAISIN manual” represented the collective efforts of all American intelligence efforts since the end of WW2. The value was incalculable. It told any adversery the limits of our electronic vision world-wide. It also put Soviet nuclear attack subs on the tails of all U.S. missile firing boomers within weeks of the Soviets receiving it. Set us up to lose WWIII.
To date, the Israelis have refused to return the information which fills a large room for an accounting. Pollard’s high level accomplice that was providing document number lists for him to collect has not been publically identified. Two conditions which should be met before even discussing the disposal of this traitor.
He provided Israel, Pakistan, south Africa, and Russia with classified material. I had read that he gave the soviets material in exchange for Russian Jews to Israel.
link to voices.washingtonpost.com
He gave that information to Russia indirectly. It was Shamir’s decision to give it to Russia in exchange for Russia allowing emigration to Israel. Of course, Pollard should have realized that, once he gave Israel that information, there was no way he could control what Israel did with it.
I say give him another life sentence or two. He’s lucky that he was spared the death penalty for espionage.
It does expose the utter selfishness of the ardent zionists here and abroad.
@ just
At least before he “got sick” and was put in a prison hospital, Pollard was big inmate buddies with Madoff. The prison is the softest one in USA.
What’s the state of play on Vanunu? I haven’t been paying attention recently.
Should anti-nuke folks (and isn’t the USA, with all its cruel turmoil against N.Korea and Iran just a bit anti-nuke?) call out to Israel to release (and redeem) Mordechai Vanunu? (Vanunu has been characterized internationally as a whistleblower and by Israel as a traitor.Daniel Ellsberg has referred to him as “the preeminent hero of the nuclear era”.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu
)
I can just feel how the local “humanitarians” will react to this piece.
I wonder what they have to say about Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning was a whistle-blower highlighting abuses by his government.
He sought out American news stations. His allegiance was his conscience.
Pollard was a traitor and his allegiance was not based on morality but ethno-nationalism and self-interest.
That’s the difference, Zionist.
I wonder what they have to say about Bradley Manning.
why don’t you remind us, olerg, which foreign government did bradley manning approach to sell military secrets to?
“I can just feel how the local “humanitarians” will react to this piece.”
Local “humanitarians”, is that Russians on stolen Palestinian land?
I wonder what you have to say about Bradley Manning?
How did you react to Ben Zygier Oleg, or do you not claim to be a humanitarian?
Some of the sentences handed down in the US seem outrageous, in the UK a life sentence could mean possibly 15 years, with many years taken off for good behaviour, undoubtedly Pollard does deserve a long sentence but US policy to jail people for 300 years or more, or for instance in some states three minor thefts and and your out, or 25 years in jail, smacks to me of American vindictiveness, but that’s from a left of centre Labour party supporter or in American equivalent a raving communist.
Harrylaw – Speaking of sentencing in the US, we here call the guy lucky who comes out still alive after having been disrespectful to a cop (and that is within sentencing, as cops have full rights of low and high justice.) As for the Rosenbergs, there was no certainty or confession but got grilled anyway. So Pollard is hugely privileged.
At 12:15 PM EST, on CSPAN, a 20 minute panel discussion on the recent AIPAC Conference. Some Israeli general, Senator Kirsten Gilibrand, McCain on the panel.
McCain: There’s no space or daylight between Israel and US, although Iran thinks there is. Can’t be any space or daylight.
Kirsten G: Our security is intertwined with Israel’s, no matter what others say. US leaders must show continually we walk hand in hand with Israel, no sunlight between us.
Maj Gen Yadlin (Ret.): We are on same page, goal to stop Iran from getting nukes. But times is running out in 2013. Different trauma (Holocaust v Iraq), different timeline.
Dan Senor is asking the questions.
McCain: I have not seen ME in more dangerous situation in my lifetime. Syria is a shame US has not done anything about it while Russians and Iranians send weapons into Syria. Lebanon is shaky, Jordon too. Time we arm those in the region who are pro-Israel.
K Gillibrand: Risk posed by Egyptian, Syrian, Jordon’s regimes. We need to help Jordon to keep some measure of calm due to chaos of Syrian refugees. Re Egypt, it has to stop flow of arms through Sinai. We just gave Egypt 250 million to stabilize Egypt.
Yadlin, the X-Israeli fighter-pilot buddy with McCain: Tells the same story he did at AIPAC how he knew McCain broke his legs when same type of jet hit, and so, unlike McCain, he did not eject. Only ally US can really count on is Israel. Israel is another US aircraft carrier. They love America for giving them arms. Israel and US are daily enmeshed re their intelligence. Terrorism is US security interest, Israel is the best US defense. God (“The Almighty”) is listening to our (joint) prayers. We need to democratize Iran, and cope with the Arab Spring.
K Gillibrand:
How to make case for Israel? Talk to your legislators. Engage the EU central bankers to stop power of Iranian banking. (Gee, that would make Rothschild’s # 1 agenda)
Yadlin:
fight the wrong narrative about Israel. Israel “should be in same values we all believe” and we must fight the lies saying differently. We must create a structure to fight this type of war, which is really important. Come to Israel, talk to our young people who are very innovative and we love you.
McCain: Trots out the same thing he said at AIPAC conference re how it’s hard to do god’s work. We must condition aid to Egypt on what it does for Israel, but we can’t break the Camp David Accords either. We are in the most dangerous times.
Oh, the show’s over; it was actually a side show at the AIPAC conference, where the three repeated all they had already said–I guess for some attendees who missed it first time around?
Oh, now the AIPAC Conference is back on CSPAN right now–12:40PM today EST:
AIPAC Prez Kassen is speaking, Beiden at his side. Thanks Beiden for taking a principled stand against Palestinian bid for statehood at UN. Thanks for US funding of Iron Dome. Please, Mr Beiden, pass our thanks to Obama, and for going to Israel shortly, which shows Israelis Americans have Israel’s back.
Beiden:
“Kirsten G: Our security is intertwined with Israel’s, no matter what others say”
Yes. Torturing and dehumanising Muslims will stop the next hurricane.
“it’s hard to do god’s work”.
God is a DJ
link to youtube.com
She couldn’t possibly be a Zionist.
Kristen is a robot senator from NY. Jewish power in NY is unreal.
Whomever is senator they will have to treat Israel like the golden
child.
Look at Hillary’s campaign, saying she would wipe Iran off the map.
A little too much ziocane pumping around here.
“securing his release has been a major priority for Israeli officials and American Jewish organizations. . . [Jewish orgs] have long called for Pollard’s release”
Not true. Israeli officials, yes. American Jewish orgs, not really. The Conference, which focuses on the Executive Branch, has supported his release, but I wouldn’t call it a priority, and they’re about the only major Jewish org to do so. The ADL, AJC, and JCPA have never taken public stands calling for Pollard’s release. Most of the organized mainline Jewish community knows Pollard is something of a crank. The energy behind the campaign to free him has come almost exclusively from the right.
The campaign did pick up some steam last year when several mainstream Jewish leaders met with VP Biden to discuss the case, probably driven by Pollard’s health decline, but that is in stark contrast to their non-involvement over the past 25 years and even today, their organizations have not taken stands on Pollard.
Like many cases of this kind, it’s mostly a issue of sentencing, not of culpability; everyone acknowledges that Pollard spied, but think the life sentence was excessive and vindictive, particularly given that the government was willing to give him five years. Pollard ended up with a long sentence because he broke his plea agreement and spoke to the press; had he kept his mouth shut and behaved, he probably would have gotten five years or less. So in organizations like AJC and ADL and JCPA, people generally understand what happened and many hate the guy just as anyone else would. And they know Pollard is an unbalanced nutjob on top of everything else. That said, it has long been a sticking point for many that Weinberger gave the judge a classified dossier, which was said to influence sentencing; I’m sure most of you are not fans of convicting or sentencing anyone on secret evidence to which the defense is not privy. Korb’s name comes up because he apparently says today that much of Weinberger’s dossier turned out to be false.
At this point, Pollard’s been in for 27 years and is sickly, so privately, some of the mainstream Jewish leaders have begun to get involved a little. They understand it’s a futile effort because Pollard’s case is a matter of honor for the FBI. When I visited the FBI as a high school students years ago, they featured the Pollard case in their educational literature and included a clip of FBI agents putting Pollard in a car in a video they showed us. It’s also likely a matter of particular embarrassment for the CIA, who employed Pollard for quite a while even though it should have been clear as day that there was something wrong with him.
So bottom line, while the Israelis have tried to have Pollard released for a while, it really has never been a priority for the American Jewish community outside of the right, and most of the mainline orgs have never advocated for Pollard at all.
link to jpost.com
Another article wherein Abe ‘Anti-semitism’ Foxman supports pardon for Pollard:
link to haaretz.com
So hoppy mouths Foxman’s opinion here.
And you call us extreme for opposing Zionism and apartheid and colonialism, by citing superficial opinion polls.
Pathetic.
“We never said it was anti-Semitism”
Christ. Who appointed Foxman as the Imperial Witchfinder General?
This is today an issue that has a consensus among the American Jewish community.
excellent. if we’re deciding on his release by poll, what do the other 98% of americans think?
We never said it was anti-Semitism, and he deserved what he got – but it got over the top in terms of punishment.
the sentence was not based on prejudice? so stfu. anti-defamation league my ass.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Foxman could find the same level of compassion for Vanunu.
Beiden speaking:
He’s blabbing about how he was brainwashed by Zionists, and reciting how he’s gone to a million AIPAC conferences, etc. Lantos, great, so’s the Israeli defense minister, etc. So are 2000 young AIPAC members in attendance. “This is the life blood, this is the connective tissue, this is why no American will ever forget ” to support Israel with a blank check. OK, I see this is a rebroadcast of the conference. Now he’s blabbing about how his father supported a Jewish state, and how “everybody knows it’s real” that Jews cannot trust even a noble country, like USA.
Considering the passion with which many AIPAC loyalists advocate for US attacking Iran and given that Biden is on record as saying that he told Obama that the US would attack Iran over Biden’s dead body, I hope that Biden has extra protection from the Secret Service while he’s mingling among any possibly rabid AIPAC supporters at the conference.
Like the Washingtonpost says Biden had to go show his loyalty! Imagine loyalty toa foreign country…
This is one of those stories that tough to comment on – cuz even though im repulsed by this guy, i realize it’s a nationalist repulsion i feel, and im no nationalist. That said, Barry should free the guy, right after they make the court/intel records public. “Im letting this guy walk, and here’s what he’s walking from….”
Dan, what you smokin this afternoon?
Barry should free the guy, right after they make the court/intel records public.
Political suicide.
MRW – as Yellowman makes clear: When dey smell da Sensemilla dey ahsk me for sum
I’m saying they’ve proved themselves to be quite lawless, the O administration, why not let the guy out – all the pols pledge fealty to Israel, so how big a deal can it be? Just let the whole case be public. It’s pretty clear there won’t be “Israel Reform” among the big institutions, people are going to have to do it themselves, so better to be informed. I think this is a case where americans would be completely outraged if he were let go free, and would at least be kindling, and could even provide a spark for americans to reject the status quo. I’m perfectly happy for this guy to go free, there would be whistleblowers, leaked documents etc etc….. i have to think something good would come of it.
“i realize it’s a nationalist repulsion i feel, and im no nationalist.”
I get what you’re saying. I’m not completely there, because I still have some national pride/feelings that is too close to nationalism even for my own comfort. But even if I put that aside, I would still come down on the side of saying “don’t pardon him because the israelis want him to walk and everyone in the world benefits when the israelis don’t get what they want.” The only way I might go the other way was if, by releasing him, the US gov’t was shown to be the lap dogs they are, which had the effect of changing that policy to where the US ends up taking a better stance regarding this issue. I could support releasing him only under that circumstance.
trade the slime for wolfowitz, perle, feith, wurmser(s), and abrams. toss in the dersh for arranging the plea bargain that kept pollard alive.
Pollard, the man, doesn’t mean anything to Isreal. The Israelis want him released purely as a demonstration of power over US.
Absolutely.
Syrian drones in the 1980s ??? Israel needs a US spy to check on things it can see in the air next door?
The 1987 CIA assessment report as ‘released’ by the National Archives smells like the reverse of Sandy Berger stealing from the National Archives a few years ago. Smells to high heaven. In fact, bullshit.
Pollard got caught stealing the equivalent of a 10-ft cube of the most highly sensitive nuclear information, including our entire nuclear capability, defense stations, NATO positions, and US nuclear codes. He revealed the names of assets. Agents, assets, and their families were murdered.
He was convicted of espionage until Dersh got the charges changed to one that gave him parole, which he is eligible for in another two or three years.
Ron Olive, the Assistant Special Agent at US Navy Counterintelligence who cracked the case, told a BBC interviewer:
Olive got it from the horse’s mouth.
Olive says:
Interview with agent who caught US-Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard
More: Ex-[Israeli] diplomat: US thinks Israeli spy Pollard was not acting alone
What people tend to forget now, in the 21st C, is that it was the height of the Cold War then. As Sy Hersh and others have written, Israel was trading this info with Russia. We didn’t know the USSR was going to fall. A lot of maniacs had their finger on the red button.
What Pollard did threatened the life of you and me, and the life of every American citizen. So did Israel. Pollard undid the 30-year nuclear gate we had around this country as a deterrent. The only way he should go back to Israel is in a pine box.
Richard Sale, UPI’s intel reporter, wrote this on Colonel Lang’s site two years ago: Pollard 2 – A Brief Comment Richard Sale
and don’t forget that israel was selling weapons to the iranians during this same period, from 1981 onward, sometimes in cooperation with the US and other times independently.
Unlike Palestinian prisoners suffering in Israeli dungeons, Pollard seems to have gained a lot of weight since his arrest.
A traitor gets fat in prison, while innocent Palestinians starve to death in Israeli prisons.
I vividly recall a jailhouse interview from the 80′s with the soon-to-be ex Mrs. Pollard. She was having some kind of health issue (pain in her stomach area) and was sitting doubled over in the chair. Maybe it was the pain but she claimed that her prison experience was as bad as Auschwitz. Yet I could not help note that she had done her hair and her makeup was perfect.
These people truly live in their own strange bee-zarre world.
Is that Pollard picture current?
He doesn’t look like his health has deteriorated. Not at all.
He’s been catered to the entire time. The United States Prison service has made sure that all of his food is in line with jewish dietary laws, for a start.
Since Pollard, like all Zionists, hates Muslim people, wouldn’t it be funny if the prison services told him “the best we can do for you is provide you with Halal food,”? Pollard would probably go insane (even more so).
I seem to remember Cap Weinberger as saying Pollard “deserved to be shot”.
If the U.S. releases Pollard the Israelis will celebrate it as a huge victory over the United States with parades, speeches, public appearances, frenzied dancing, all accompanied by denunciations of the U.S.’s allegedly cruel and unusual treatment of Pollard while in U.S. custody and attacks on our President. This would profoundly depress me, given that Israel has won so many other victories over the US in recent decades, starting with their attack on the USS Liberty. I hate to hand them another one, especially one that suggests Israeli and AIPAC control over the American government is powerful and ubiquitous.
A final point, if Israel is the slightest bit remorseful about the Pollard affair, why don’t they return the stack of documents he stole–said to fill a room ten feet on a side?
Carowhat “…starting with their attack on the USS Liberty”
But this Pollard thing is a much stiffer act of war than the attack on the Liberty.
Look at this: Our best ally-without-daylight gets our Cold War defense plans and gives them to our then main enemies, the Soviets. That crass. Impossible to wrap one’s head around it.
And we continue showering such “allies” with money and arms, instead of bombing the living daylights out of them.
To compensate for the frustration, we go and invade Iraq, which unlike Israel never attacked us, on a request by declared Israelian agents in PNAC.
At this point, not releasing that dirty spy doesn’t really make that much of a point.
War criminal? WC? In the process, Tony Blair WC let Pinochet go. War criminals, friends amongst each other.
the only “release” Pollard deserves is to be let out of his cell to be marched down to the gallows or firing squad
You know, the sickening aspect of this is that Pollard and many of his shills couldn’t even have the fucking decency to just ask for his release on compassion grounds, period. Instead, using their standard operating procedure, they just couldn’t resist trying lying first about this or that purely factual matter, then accusing those involved of lying themselves and/or anti-semitism and/or whatever, and on and on and on. The prosecutor, Weinberger, the Judge … you name it.
And then of course the unthinking insult against the entire U.S. and its justice system itself in screaming that there was some “travesty” perpetrated here, despite the full-bore appeals courts hearing their case and going against them even.
It’s like dealing with people who can’t even recognize how to behave like decent human beings; even when their own best interest is to just say “sorry,” they just can’t restrain showing how utterly non-sorry they truly are by spewing venom on anyone and everyone else.
Just what is it exactly that turns such Israeli partisans into such repulsive people?
Thank you Sin Nombre – you nailed it.
Well said Sin,
But the problem is that Israel have already sanctified Pollard. They have backed themselves into a corner, because if he is released, he will receive a hero’s welcome and is already a national hero. They can’t say sorry because they aren’t.
Thus, their only recourse is to claim that Pollard was innocent and the victim of an anti semitic conspiracy, or even worse.
weiss has commented on this indirectly, SN, when he talks about the need to gently engage zionists at the psychological level, rather intellectual or political. in other words, we’re dealing with a mass case of arrested development. my pre-teen has already matured beyond the stage that the dershowitzes and kristols of the world seem frozen in. ‘me, me, me’ is the ultimate psychological form. or, as lawrence summers crudely put it, ‘the world’s a shitty place’, as his behavior confirms.
‘behave like decent human beings’
They tell us they’re Extra-Ordinary Human Beings. Why should they have to play on a human level of decency?
And don’t forget the Holocaust. They have to restore all those that were lost, no matter what the cost – many people here will tell you this.
“Just what is it exactly that turns such Israeli partisans into such repulsive people?”…..SN
imo and observation, (and in the opinion of some more qualified to say than me) Zionism is made up some true power-psychopaths like Netanyahu et al , and a mixture of those with a victim mentality and narcissistic tendencies, as well as others who just believe in the eternal anti semitism-holocaust threat.
I see no way to change zionism, because there is no ‘mechanism’ by which to cure a “collective”. Someone could possibily do a massive propaganda campaign like the zionist have done to reverse their ‘ teachings”, but that’s highly unlikely and would take a long time. Meanwhile you might disabuse some individuals of their faulty beliefs or conceptions but that’s about it.
I think Zionism will keep going till it collides with something bigger that ends it or at least defeats it in a way that drives it underground into some fringe like Aryan Brotherhood or some similar ideological movement.
If anybody says that American Jews are likely to be Israeli spies, organizations like AIPAC and the ADL go nuts, denouncing this as the vilest kind of anti-Semitism. But in the case of Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew who really did spy for Israel, some of the same people say, “let him out! Free Pollard!!”
These folks have no idea what kind of damage they are doing to most American Jews.
The historian Tony Judt, himself once an important Zionist, wrote “Israel today is bad for the Jews.”
“It is my hope that the president will use his upcoming trip ……. to forge a bond with the people of Israel. The best way to do this is to finally pardon Jonathan Pollard…
What billions of dollars to Israel when the people of the USA are suffering, sharing of sensitive American intelligence and technology with a country that’s repeatedly been shown to be untrustworthy with same, complete and total subservience of American Middle East policy to Israeli demands and 100% diplomatic cover to Israel no matter what it gets up to and all this still isn’t enough to “forge a bond with the people of Israel?”
Don’t ask for a lot these Zionists do they?
“Feiglin… said that “if God forbid [Obama] will come without Pollard, he will speak to my empty chair…”
He doesn’t need to leave, even when he’s in the chair it’s still empty.
Oh, if only Obama would have the balls to tell the Israelis, “I’ve got a deal for you–Pollard for Vanunu. How ’bout them apples?”.
I really don’t understand what Israel/AIPAC ‘gets’ by getting Pollard released …
What exactly is the core motivation of Israeli interest in this?
Is it so they can just run spies and be able to tell them – ‘look – we even got POLLARD released’
Can someone really get at the heart of what the core Israeli motivation is for this whole thing and explain it to me?
Is it the raw power that they could do it? I can’t imagine they need to debrief Pollard on all that ‘old stuff’?
What is it?
ginger, someone posted this yesterday on one of the threads, and i think it explains a lot:
link to youtube.com
this is a 12 years old girl whose family has just been slaughtered and who is she talking about? he’s become a cult figure, it’s symbolic at this point. but evidence suggests people on the radical end of the spectrum are the sparkin having him released and their desires are packaged and then repackaged and so on until they become a policy decision pushed by the lobby by any other name. but the ‘reasoning’ is cult like. and listen to her reasoning. that’s what’s behind this push for his release, my hunch anyway. as well as the fact israel won’t budge on their position which symbolizes they want their way without paying any price, again, and to the ultimate.
it’s symbolic at this point
First the categorical thinking: Pollard good
Then the innumeracy: Failure to understand # of deaths he caused, consequences of treason to US in national treasure both human and material
Then the symbolic action: Free Pollard
he’s freaking hero in Israel. They love him. He’s a hero that help build Zion
and the criminal global network lattice.
His wife Ester is waiting for him in Israel.
Barney Frank:
“In August 2011 Barney Frank sought permission from Congress to discuss the incarceration of Jonathan Pollard and called on Barack Obama to “answer the many calls for Pollard’s immediate release”. According to activists promoting the release of Pollard, Frank said Pollard has paid a price much higher than anyone else that spied on a friend of the United States and more than many who spied for its enemies.”
One could think it’s a matter of pragmatics: It’s tough to keep your tribe thinking tribally if, when one of your tribe is in trouble, you throw them overboard.
To me though I don’t think that’s it: If it was just pure pragmatics in this case especially it would be over-ruled by the stronger pragmatic of not appearing to endorse what Pollard did/inflame the belief in “dual loyalties” and etc.
Instead I think it’s just genuine: You are a member of the tribe, some non-tribe is imprisoning you … for what you did for the tribe, and nothing else matters. The metric is the tribe, always.
The funny thing is … even if it’s not exactly the height of humanism (ahem), one can at least argue that’s the way the world does and should work. There is after all no stone found inarguably from God that says the I have to care for every single human being on earth; so what says it’s wrong to care for those of your own tribe and your own tribe only and let others care for theirs?
But the problem is of course that we are constantly told this is not just wrong but, per “jewish values” or “ethics,” actually *evil.* “Tikkun olam!!” and all that jazz. Even if, when you dig just a touch deeper into jewish theology, that “we are chosen and better” idea does come screaming out. But that’s really “old religion” stuff that I don’t think many really follow, so of course all we hear of constantly is the “tikkun olam” business so that for all the *rest* of us, thinking tribally is once again the height of evil. Hitler, David Duke, you name it.
I don’t think it’s a conscious hypocrisy or trick though, to their credit: I think they take the history of oppression and torment that’s been inflicted on jews and say that this in essence validates whatever double standard that might exist. And certainly there’s only a very very few jews who are full nutbags and don’t care anything for anyone else. So that “tikkun olam” is genuine no doubt, it’s just felt to be justifiably weighted so that jews can be first concerned with jews and then everyone else perhaps somewhat lower “down the list.”
Genuine as it may be however, it’s still insulting to all the rest of us when it’s employed beyond the bounds even of any defensible double-standard. Sure, that is, I think everyone understood world jewry’s rather focused concern on the plight of Soviet jews after the Soviets turned rather anti-semitic and allowed such sentiments to afflict their jews. So sure, make a hero out of an Anatoly Sharansky, and make him someone to rally around.
But a Jonathan Pollard? That’s where my understanding stops and says to those shilling for him “fuck you and your tikkun olam too; I know now where you *really* put me on the list.”
And while not pretty or right it’s also understandable when others say “well gee now we’re gonna put jewish suffering or concerns way down on *our* tribe’s list too, so there.”
Not that same is right, but … geez, what the fuck can the “free Pollard” people *expect* after all? If that isn’t spitting in the face of gentiles then what the hell is? (Especially given the tactics tried.)
Just where in the hell does *any* list of priorities get off not only saying it *does* establish priorities, but that it then can positively spits on everyone else and they are just supposed to take it, like cattle or something?
Pollard worked for Israel. Israel wants him freed. Aipac lobbies for what Israeli government wants.
gingershot,
If Pollard gets released, by far the biggest bonus would go to the mosad. It would be tantamount to a mosad coup over not just American intelligence, but global intelligence altogether. It would be a gigantic mosad recruitment tool: after all, if you can GUARANTEE your agents immunity against even a superpower, well… who wouldn’t sign up?!
We can laugh hard though while they try to get him released. It’s NEVER gonna happen – not even in a million years.
Suckers!!!
Team Pollard keeps sending out the wrong message about the American jewish community.
There are graver consequences to a US President who releases him prematurely. Tainted in history forever as a leader who gave a traitor against his own country back to his paymasters, seen forever as a milquetoast, a traitor even to his own people. The contents of Weinberger’s secret 46-page letter to the court will be made public in future, contents Obama already knows. It would cover Obama’s legacy with a stench that he won’t be around to control.
Can you imagine the celebration in Israel if he were released? What effect do you think that will have on the US military, US intel groups? People like the upper echelon of the CIA and other alphabets who vowed in the past to resign? Even ‘Slam Dunk’ Tenet threatened Clinton and Bush with resignation.
And then there’s the unspeakable. Obama needs his security detail on his side, watching his back, while he’s there.
Actually, Pollard wasn’t working for Mossad. He worked for LAKAM, Rafi Eitan’s rogue intelligence agency set up by the Likud government.
I’m aware of that, lysias. Perhaps I should have said ‘israeli intelligence’ would score a mega coup with a Pollard release.
@MRW,
I soooo look forward to when “The contents of Weinberger’s secret 46-page letter to the court will be made public in future”.
If the “unspeakable” should happen to Obama on his visit to israel, actually throughout his term, I’d say most of America will pretty much know the short list of able haters and their motives. Thanks to the internet, all kindsa information is out there. Thanks to the internet, even Aipac is now a household name. A fairly recent phenomenon. Frothing and pulling fists at the undesirable spotlight over their heads.
Unfortunately, ISrael spying on the US didn’t end with the capture and conviction of Pollard. In fact, ISreal is the country that spies the most and worst on the US. Our bestest friend and only ally in the Middle East, eh? Good thing too, imagine if they were a foe and not a friend. Ha!
And this is my all-time favorite. Of course, it’s since been yanked from FAUX NOISE’s website. He he he…
MK..and what is the lobby up to today
The Lobby is demanding full funding for Israel’s war machine. They want to be exempt from sequestration—the mandatory reduction of all federal expenditures. Social Security payments are undergoing cuts. FBI expenditures are being reduced. Education Department services are decreasing. What about trimming the $3.2 billion in American military aid to Israel? Not one dime if the Israel Lobby gets its way. While not a specific bill, they are lobbying Congress for subtle changes to its sequestration statutes and procedures so Israel’s military pipeline to American tax dollars will not be affected.
New legislation is in the works that would make Israel a “major strategic ally,” a privileged relationship that no other nation enjoys. The bill, H.R. 938 United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2013, was introduced in the House by Ileana, a Republican and Ted Deutch, a Democrat, both from Florida. It would also protect aid to Israel from any future across-the-board budget cuts.
The legislation will make permanent a number of Washington-Tel Aviv interactions including annual defense assistance, military technology, energy research, and cyber security. It also calls for Israel to join the program that waives pre-arranged visas for select nationals entering the United States. Israel’s espionage activities are well-documented: lowering of visa standards can only lead to more infiltration. This bill creates a relationship that even Canada and Great Britain, who fought alongside American soldiers in WWII, do not enjoy.
does anyone else find this as just getting too much
PS – Thanks everybody! – these explanations help quite a bit
So “(MK) Moshe Feiglin” will boycott Obama. Oh, my! Could serve as a mini example of one third of what Israel should be now facing; namely, BDS. Also, as to Pollard, why not some quid pro quo here: release the jerk on condition that Israel complete an open and thorough investigation, monitored by an independent party, of the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967, which resulted in the slaughter of 34 American sailors, well over a hundred wounded, and a ship beyond repair. There was, and continues to be, an obscene cover-up both in the U.S. and Israel. I often wonder if Israel’s official intention was to sink the Liberty and make sure there were no survivors; after all, dead men tell no tales.