(Video) Esther Pollard's Heartfelt Appeal to President Obama

FreePollard..
11 March '13..

In an exclusive feature interview with Israel Channel 2 TV News, Esther Pollard was asked by journalist Udi Segal,"If you could speak to President Obama to ask him for Jonathan's freedom, what would you say to him?" Esther responded with a heartfelt appeal, first in Hebrew, and then in English. The English appeal aired on the prime time nightly news on Channel 2 TV, March 11, 2013, with Hebrew subtitles as shown here on YouTube.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.

.

Newly declassified CIA damage assessment a game changer

JPost Editorial..
18 December '12..

The newly declassified 1987 CIA damage assessment bolsters official calls for the immediate release of Jonathan Pollard. While portions of the CIA document remain redacted, the disclosures officially confirm that Pollard spied for Israel, not against the United States.

Moreover, the document puts the lie to American allegations that have been used for over a quarter of a century to justify Pollard’s continued incarceration. For example, Pollard’s full cooperation with the prosecution was one of the welcome admissions in this document, as was the confirmation that the volume of information Pollard transferred to Israel was far less than claimed.

The CIA document also reveals the subterfuge used by the US government to breach its plea agreement with Pollard.

The report brazenly states that Pollard was jailed for life because of an “unauthorized” interview he gave to The Jerusalem Post. This is preposterous. No reporter, much less one carrying a camera and a tape recorder, could possibly gain access to a prisoner in a US federal prison without authorization.

Another canard used to justify Pollard’s life sentence is the claim that he did enormous damage to US national security. While the declassified CIA document does not deal with the damage done by Pollard, this issue is fully addressed in a concurrent damage assessment known as The Victim Impact Statement (VIS), written by the US Department of Justice.

Letter by 19 Former Prisoners of Zion to Obama: Free Pollard!

IMRA
Justic4JPnews
February 20, 2011





February 16, 2011

To the Honorable President of the United States

Dear President Obama:

We, former Soviet Prisoners of Zion, spent many long years in Russian prisons because we fought for the right of Jews to live in their own Jewish Land.

We appeal to you on behalf of a Prisoner of Zion who has been imprisoned in your country for 26 years – Jonathan Pollard. Several top U.S. Government officials who served office during the initial years of Mr. Pollard’s arrest and imprisonment have written to you, asking you to grant clemency to Mr. Pollard. They emphasize that Mr. Pollard’s prison sentence was unwarranted in its severity, and that he is wasting away in a United States penitentiary without just cause.

The Prime Minister of Israel and the members of the Knesset also appealed to you to grant clemency to Mr. Pollard, who has already suffered greatly for his deeds. All of the people of Israel look to you in the hopeful expectation that you will act in the best tradition of American justice and free Jonathan.

Your silence worries us. We, former Prisoners of Zion in Soviet Russia, know the danger of silence. We know the terrible suffering that comes with each passing day in prison. Therefore, we appeal to you with a heartfelt cry – end this Jewish prisoner’s prolonged and terrible ordeal!

You are the only one who can do so. Please, Mr. President, free Pollard now!

May God bless you from Zion.

Respectfully yours,

Former Soviet Prisoners of Zion:
Yosef Mendelevich
Ida Nudel
Yosef Begun
Silva Zalmanson
Dov Shperling
Felix Kochubivsky
Anatoly Altman
Aaron Spilberg
Alex Kholmiansky
David Maayan
Lassal Kaminsky
Lazar Lubarsky
David Mazur
Roald Zelichonok

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Tens of thousands pray for Pollard's release

Ynet
Israel Jewish Scene
Published: 01.20.11
Posted before Shabbat

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4016143,00.html

Encouraged by Netanyahu's official request to free convicted spy, Bnei Akiva organizes special prayer session at more than 80 branches in Israel. 'It's our national duty,' rabbi says

Tens of thousands of people from all across the country took part in a special prayer session Tuesday evening for the release of Jonathan Pollard, who was sentenced by a US court to life in prison 25 years ago for spying for Israel.

The prayer session was organized by Bnei Akiva and held at more than 80 of the organization's branches in Israel. The prayer session was attended by members and non-members alike.

Bnei Akiva usually dedicates Tuesdays to routine activity, but after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially requested US President Barack Obama to pardon Pollard, the organization's secretary-general, Rabbi Benny Nechtailer, instructed members to hold special prayer sessions.

Pollard's wife Esther recently told the Knesset her husband was suffering from multiple ailments that had accumulated over his time in prison.

Rabbi Nechtailer said, "We must continue to call on the prime minister to make every effort to free Pollard. This is not the personal story of Esther and Jonathan; it is the national duty of the entire Israeli nation to save a man who sacrificed himself in the defense of the nation."

The rabbi, who prayed for Pollard at Bnei Akiva's branch in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood, said later, "It is hard to comprehend that these kids (Bnei Akiva members) were born more than a decade after Jonathan was imprisoned. We pray for his return home."

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Pollard Attorneys Respond to DiGenovas Lies in Washington Times

IMRA
15 January '11

Justice4JPnews – January 15, 2011

Jonathan Pollard’s attorneys, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman submitted the following op-ed to the Washington Times in response to incendiary lies published by the paper and attributed to Joseph DiGenova, the former U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Mr. Pollard.

Although the essay below is consistent with the number of words and other limitations that The Washington Times sets for a right of reply response, the newspaper—apparently in keeping with its own egregious editorial position on the Pollard case – pared the essay down with wanton abandon. The truncated version, eviscerated by the Washington Times, follows the original below.
==

As pro bono attorneys for Jonathan Pollard since 2000, we never cease to be amazed at how those who are hostile to Mr. Pollard feel compelled to make up facts. Evidently these adversaries recognize that the real facts are not sufficient to justify keeping Mr. Pollard in prison any longer, as he has already served more than 25 years for delivering classified information to the State of Israel.

The most recent manifestation of this phenomenon appears in an article in the Washington Times titled "Netanyahu Seeks Pardon for Imprisoned Spy Pollard" (Wash. Times Jan. 4, 2011). In the article, Joseph DiGenova, the former U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Mr. Pollard, makes a series of false and inflammatory allegations that are directly contradicted by the public court record. Since Mr. DiGenova would be committing a crime were he to reveal anything contained in the non-public, classified portion of the court record, it is fair to presume that he is not doing so. Since his assertions are nowhere to be found in the public court record, the only possible conclusion is that his allegations are false.

For example, Mr. DiGenova now claims that Mr. Pollard was given more than $500,000 per year for his services to the State of Israel. But this allegation is nowhere to be found in the court documents filed by Mr. DiGenova in 1986 -1987, while the case was ongoing. Indeed, the sentencing judge did not even impose a fine on Mr. Pollard. Twenty-five years after the fact, Mr. DiGenova has now invented this extravagant claim, evidently for the purpose of trying to halt the powerful wave of support for Mr. Pollard's release.

Mr. DiGenova's insistence that Mr. Pollard be denied clemency after 25 years is also inconsistent with the fact that in 1986, after conducting an extremely thorough six-month investigation, Mr. DiGenova, as U.S. Attorney, signed a plea agreement with Mr. Pollard in which the U.S. Government (represented by Mr. DiGenova) agreed not to ask the sentencing judge to impose the maximum sentence of life in prison. Mr. DiGenova cannot point to a single fact that he knows now but did not know at the time he signed that plea agreement.

Mr. DiGenova's statement to the Washington Times is also incompatible with the Victim Impact Statement submitted by Mr. DiGenova to the sentencing judge in 1987. While Mr. DiGenova's statement to the Washington Times alleges that it cost the U.S. Government between $3 and $5 billion to repair the damage, the Victim Impact Statement - the court document in which the victim of a crime (in this case, the United States itself) submits a description of the damage it has suffered to the sentencing judge - makes no such reference, but instead describes the actual damage to the U.S. as follows:
"Mr. Pollard's unauthorized disclosures have threatened the U.S. [sic] relations with numerous Middle East Arab allies, many of whom question the extent to which Mr. Pollard's disclosures of classified information have skewed the balance of power in the Middle East. Moreover, because Mr. Pollard provided the Israelis virtually any classified document requested by Mr. Pollard's coconspirators, the U.S. has been deprived of the quid pro quo routinely received during authorized and official intelligence exchanges with Israel, and Israel has received information classified at a level far in excess of that ever contemplated by the National Security Council. The obvious result of Mr. Pollard's largesse is that U.S. bargaining leverage with the Israeli government in any further intelligence exchanges has been undermined. In short, Mr. Pollard's activities have adversely affected U.S. relations with both its Middle East Arab allies and the government of Israel."

These are Mr. DiGenova's words. The Victim Impact Statement says nothing aboutbillions of dollars in damage, which - if true - would surely have constituted harm and impact to the victim. The Victim Impact Statement reflects - at worst - short-term friction between the U.S. and unnamed Arab countries, and temporary reduction in bargaining leverage by the U.S., rather than the severe monetary damage now described by Mr. DiGenova.

Mr. DiGenova is not the only person who has knowledge of Mr. Pollard's case. A distinguished and growing roster of former high-ranking U.S. Government officials with extensive knowledge of the case have come forward and have called for Mr. Pollard's release. These include former Attorney General Michael Mukasey; former Senator Dennis DeConcini, who served as head of the Senate Intelligence Committee; former CIA Director James Woolsey; and Lawrence Korb, who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense under Caspar Weinberger at the time of the case. Mr. Korb was instrumental in convincing Mr. Netanyahu to request clemency for Mr. Pollard. It was Secretary of Defense Weinberger who had demanded in 1987 that the sentencing judge impose a life sentence. Decades later, in an interview with prominent journalist
Edwin Black, Mr. Weinberger described the case as “a very minor matter, but made very important. . . . It was made far bigger than its actual importance.” Those words cannot be reconciled with Mr. DiGenova's inflammatory statements to the Washington Times.

In the face of this groundswell of support for a belated measure of justice for Mr. Pollard, Mr. DiGenova apparently feels he needs to make his opposing view heard. Mr. DiGenova is entitled to his opinion. But he is not entitled to invent facts in order to support it. That he has felt a need to do so, only underscores that the actual facts can no longer justify keeping Jonathan Pollard in jail after more than a quarter century behind bars.

==

Here is the eviscerated version that was published by the Washington Times:

Obscuring facts in Pollard case http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/14/obscuring-facts-in-pollard-case/
The Washington Times - Friday, January 14, 2011

As pro bono attorneys for Jonathan Pollard, we never cease to be amazed at how those hostile to Pollard feel compelled to invent facts. Evidently, these adversaries recognize that the actual facts are not sufficient to justify keepingPollard in prison any longer. Most recently, in the Jan. 5 issue of The Washington Times, Joseph DiGenova, the U.S. attorney who prosecuted Pollard, made false and inflammatory allegations inconsistent with, and in some respects directly contradicted by, the public court record
("Netanyahu seeks pardon for Pollard," Page 1).

For example, Mr. DiGenova claims that Pollard received about $500,000 per year from Israel. However, this allegation is nowhere to be found in the court documents signed and publicly filed by Mr. DiGenova while the case was ongoing. Indeed, the sentencing judge did not even impose a fine on Pollard. Twenty-five years after the fact, Mr. DiGenova seems to have invented this claim for the purpose of trying to
impede the powerful wave of support for Pollard's release.

Mr. DiGenova's insistence that Pollard remain in prison for life is likewise
inconsistent with the fact that in 1986, after conducting an extremely thorough six-month investigation, Mr. DiGenova signed a plea agreement in which he agreed not to ask the sentencing judge to impose the maximum sentence of life in prison.

Mr. DiGenova is not the only person with knowledge of Pollard's case. A growing roster of distinguished former government officials have called for his release. These include George Shultz, who served as secretary of state at the time of the case; former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey; former Sen. Dennis DeConcini; former CIA Director James Woolsey; and Lawrence J. Korb, who served as assistant secretary of defense under Caspar Weinberger at the time of the case. In 1987, Weinberger demanded that the judge impose a life sentence. Years later, however, he described the case as "a very minor matter, but made very important. ... It was made far bigger than its actual importance."

In the face of growing support for Pollard's release, Mr. DiGenova apparently feels the need to make his opposing views heard. He is entitled to his opinion, but not to invent facts. That he feels a need to do so underscores that the actual facts can no longer justify keeping Jonathan Pollard behind bars.

ELIOT LAUER
JACQUES SEMMELMAN
Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, LLP

==
Click here to view the January 5th article to which the attorneys are responding :
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/4/netanyahu-seeks-pardon-forimprisoned-spy-pollard/

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Justice for a Spy

Justice for a Spy
by Lawrence Korb
Foreign Policy Magazine
12 January '11
(h/t IMRA)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/12/justice_for_a_spy?page=full

It's time for Obama to grant Jonathan Pollard clemency for his crimes.

On Jan. 4, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood in front of the Knesset to read a letter that he had sent to the president of the United States, calling for the release of Jonathan Pollard. The Israeli leader admitted that Pollard, a former U.S. naval intelligence analyst serving a life sentence for espionage, "was acting as an agent of the Israeli government." He nevertheless contended that Pollard's 25 years in prison represented a sufficient punishment for his crimes and pointed to the support of a number of former U.S. officials and congressmen for clemency.

Netanyahu's request did not come as a surprise to me. On Dec. 20, 2010, after speaking to the Knesset, I met with the prime minister and urged him to go public with his request. Unless he did so, I argued, the issue would not gain the traction it needed. I also pointed out to him that he needed to publicly apologize and pledge to never again recruit Americans to spy against their country, which would allow supporters of Pollard's release to respond effectively to the argument that the Pollard case was business as usual for Israel.

The invitation to speak to the Knesset and meet with the prime minister was the culmination of two decades of my involvement with the case. I became involved when Jonathan's father, Morris Pollard, a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, wrote to me asking why my former boss, Caspar Weinberger, had written such a strong statement about the damage done by Jonathan's spying for Israel.

I answered his letter not to score political points or settle scores, but as one father to another. However, it eventually found its way into the press. As the press began to ask questions about the letter, I began researching the issues of the Pollard case more closely. Over the past 20 years, I have spoken to one of Pollard's prosecutors, a judge on the court of appeals who considered the case, a top lieutenant of former CIA Director George Tenet, several of Pollard's lawyers, and Pollard himself. And I have become convinced that Pollard's sentence of life was disproportionate to his crime.

Netanyahu’s Plea for Pollard

Opportunity Knocks for President Obama

Editorial of The New York Sun
www.nysun.com
06 January '11

Opportunity rarely knocks as unambiguously as it has knocked on President Obama’s door in respect of Jonathan Pollard. It follows from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s letter to the president, reiterating Israel’s remorse for the spying operation that, more than a generation ago, paid Pollard to hand over some of America’s most sensitive secrets. Mr. Netanyahu asked Mr. Obama for clemency for Pollard, who has been in prison for 25 years of a life sentence. Were Mr. Obama to grant clemency, he would ameliorate a failure of due process, address a humanitarian issue, and take a step toward healing his own frayed relations with a Jewish community that has offered little but support for his administration.

It happens that we don’t think a life sentence is too long a punishment for conviction of secretly passing classified information to a foreign government, even, in serious cases, if conviction is for only one count, as it was in the case of Pollard. The one-time civilian analyst for the Navy did commit a serious crime. But it also happens that the sentence meted out to Pollard was vastly disproportionate to sentences handed down against other spies, including some who spied not for a friend of America, which is what Pollard did, but for countries that could be expected to use the fruits of spying in actions against us, like the Soviet Union or communist China.

The circumstances in which that disproportionate sentence was handed down against Pollard are what rankle American Jews even after all these years. The sense of it was caught in 1992 in a magnificent dissent by a rider of the District of Columbia Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, Judge Stephen Williams. He was one of three judges who heard Pollard’s plea for a new sentencing hearing. The two other judges on the circuit panel, Laurence Silberman and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, sided against Pollard in a highly technical opinion. Judge Williams's dissent accused the government of having broken both the spirit and, in one respect, even the letter of the binding agreement under which it had obtained Pollard’s guilty plea.

Should Jonathan Pollard be released?

IMRA

Justice4JPnews
02 January '11

Urgent! Please help us to get this short video to go viral on the internet!

How? Here are the steps:

1) Please watch the short video: "Should Jonathan Pollard be released?"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX8KY4VxoXk

2) Please send it to at least 10 people (or more) with a request that each person who receives it from you, should please send it to 10 more people, who should in turn send it to 10 more people who should in turn send it to 10 more people and so on.

3) Please send the video and link to anyone who has a large email distribution list and ask them to distribute it to their mailing list as a matter of "Pikuach Nefesh" (literally to save a Jewish life -- Jonathan's!)

4) Please send the video and link to Jewish organizations and groups, and ask them to share the video with their mailing lists, as a matter of Pikuach Nefesh (literally to save a Jewish life -- Jonathan's!)

5) Anyone who can post the link to their website or blog is encouraged to do so.

6) Please take a few moments of your time to do your part in the mitzvah of pidyan shvuyim by ensuring that all of your friends and family receive the video link and that they watch it!

May all who participate in the mitzvah of pidyan shvuyim by disseminating this video and by calling the White House at 202-456-1414 to tell President Barack Obama to Free Jonathan Pollard Now! Be abundantly blessed!

Thank you for your help.

JUSTICE FOR JONATHAN POLLARD
Website: http://www.JonathanPollard.org

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Fictionalizing Facts on Pollard

By Kenneth Lasson, Angelo Codevilla, Lawrence Korb, and John Loftus
The Arizona Republic -
29 December '10

'Tis the season, apparently, for leaking and spinning government secrets, from both the right and the left.

Now comes retired Navy Capt. M. E. Bowman, who claims to know the real damage Jonathan Pollard, an American serving a life term for spying, caused the United States by passing on classified data to Israel more than a quarter-century ago. And the New Republic's Martin Peretz asserts Pollard "spied . . . for both Israel and Pakistan."

Both are entitled to their opinions, but not to fictionalize the facts.

Do either presume to know the particulars better than James Woolsey, former director of the CIA; or Dennis DeConcini, former chairman of the Senate's Select Intelligence Committee; or Michael Mukasey, former U.S. attorney general under George W. Bush; all of whom have publicly supported commuting Pollard's sentence to time served?

Do either have greater moral suasion from both sides of the political aisle than the Rev. Theodore Hesbergh of Notre Dame or Pastor John Hagee, each of whom have expressed similar sentiments?

It is now acknowledged by intelligence professionals that the vague, secret charges initially leveled against Pollard for somehow causing the then-unexplained loss of U.S. agents working in the Soviet Union were for crimes committed by two others: Aldrich Ames, who had been in charge of CIA counterintelligence for Eastern Europe but was actually a Russian mole, and Robert Hanssen, an FBI special agent who confessed having betrayed American agents. (Ames was finally caught and convicted in 1994, Hanssen in 2001.)

The intelligence community had been chasing a false trail. Moreover, its failure to realize Pollard lacked the Blue Stripe clearance necessary to betray our spy networks seriously impaired the subsequent search for the real traitors.

There is no credible evidence Pollard ever passed information to a third country. In fact, he kept his part of a plea bargain with federal prosecutors under which he agreed to cooperate fully with its investigation in return for a less-than-maximum sentence. By all indications the government did not. The judge ignored the agreement and sentenced Pollard to life in prison. Most who were there believe he was heavily swayed by secret declarations from then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.

The Goldstoning of Jonathan Pollard

Arye L Ben Harav
28 December '10

(Excellent! Y.)

I was amazed to find a young Jewish College student today who argued articulately for the case to just leave Jonathan Pollard in jail and that due to Pollard’s own actions he pretty much deserved whatever he got and we should not spend time or resources on extricating him from prison. To this fellow’s credit, as a second year college student, I am impressed with the depth of his knowledge and research on the subject and I offer my advice as a professional legal recruiter that he should consider obtaining a law degree and thereafter practicing litigation as a prosecutor for the state or federal government.

My friend’s problem with Jonathan Pollard is that the man is not ‘pure enough’. He is not innocent enough. If only my friend could get his hands on a clean cut case of “Innocent Man Incarcerated” then he would be willing to add his support to that noble cause. Pollard broke laws, he violated his agreement to keep quiet and all of his dealings are classified, and so we must assume that the Government has a good enough reason to consider him a traitor and to lock Pollard up and throw away the key.

This is, in some strange way, reminiscent of the 1960’s. Jews were at the fore of the Civil rights movement. We worked for the human rights, and particularly the judicial rights of non-Jews to insure that they, although poor and less socially connected than the average middle class white man, or middle class Jew , would get a fair shake in court. Countless Jewish students and attorneys spent decades in the 60’s and 70’s building cases for the benefit of the indigent, the wronged indigenous, the formerly enslaved, the poorly raised, the drugged, the drunk, the confused and the insane.

Alan Dershowitz, in his book , Chutzpah , describes how the judge for whom he clerked for would constantly beg Alan to find a little loophole, a little ‘Rachmones’ (mercy in Yiddish), for each poor soul who would appeal to his court. The judge took into account the fact that the defendant was poor, non-white, uneducated or had endured severe family hardships or a nasty childhood. It was only later when Dershowitz asked Angela Davis, (whom he had defended) an avowed anti American Communist, to assist with the case for Soviet Jews, that he received the standard anti Semitic slap in the face; the Jews in question weren’t worthy of support or defense based on their status as educated members of the upper class and obviously counter revolutionary, reactionary and anti Soviet (from whence came her political and monetary support). It is interesting to note that few of the Jewish individuals or groups involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s made efforts on behalf of 3 million Soviet Jews, who were systematically discriminated against in education, employment, housing and political positions. They were systematically denied the right to religious freedom and upon asking to leave the country were summarily fired from their jobs and left destitute and harassed by the KGB. Many were imprisoned. Natan Sharansky, former Israel MK and now head of the Jewish Agency was one who spent 8, (eight) years in solitary confinement in the Gulag. The first groups to make the plight of Soviet Jews into a worldwide Jewish struggle were Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Chabad , and Meir Kehanah’s group of followers. The State of Israel was indeed always active if mostly in a quiet way, on behalf of Soviet Jews during those years, if for no other reason than to try to convince a few more poor Jewish refugees to make Aliyah to the struggling Jewish State.

The Damning of Jonathan Pollard, by my friend, follows a litany of charges from treason to spying to outright avarice. His contributions to Israel’s security are insignificant to my friend and as for the reason he's spent so much time, that's his fault - his fault because he *didn't* keep his mouth shut , his prolonged sentence is now, his own fault. (“As for the reason he's spent so much time, that's his fault - his fault because he *didn't* keep his mouth shut not because he did.”) (“In exchange for violating his plea deal he received a harsh sentencing, as is usually the case when people violate their plea deals.) Yes, my friend, and there are those who despite having broken every single law and plea deal, have served little or no time and they are afforded attorneys at the expense of the state to defend and appeal their cases.

Full Court Press For Pollard – Everyone In the Tent

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
Weekly Commentary
23 December '10

Unprecedented.

The Prime Minister of the State of Israel, after over a quarter of a century, will formally and officially request that the President of the United State free Jonathan Pollard.

Numerous former U.S. government officials are also calling for President Obama to release Pollard.

American political leaders are also appealing to President Obama to free Jonathan Pollard.

There is a place for everyone in the “Free Jonathan Pollard Tent”.

The logic is overwhelmingly straightforward: the fact that Jonathan Pollard has already been incarcerated for more than 25 years justifies his release regardless of what one may think about either Pollard’s activities or the legal proceedings he has undergone since his arrest.

What now?

Call the White House (202) 456-1111 (If busy call the switchboard at (202) 456-1414) fax (202) 456-2461.

Leave no stone unturned.

If you belong to an organization that hasn’t yet joined the call then now is the time to ask that they do.

If you know someone whose voice might make a difference in convincing President Obama to sign the papers freeing Pollard now is the time to try to get them to speak out.

This is a message to literally each and every person reading this commentary.

You can make the difference.

Israel’s modern history is full of stories of critical outcomes that can be traced back to the action of someone who knew someone who knew someone.

That’s how, for example, Israel was able to retain the Negev after the War of Independence. An American woman who happened to know someone who happened to know someone participating in a diplomatic team put in a critical word at a critical moment.

You can indeed make the difference.

“It is not for you to finish the work…but neither are you free to desist from it” (Pirkei Avot. 2:21)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Let him go

Fresnozionism.org
22 December '10

So Israel will finally send an official letter asking the US to release Jonathan Pollard after 25 years.

I won’t go into the details of why he should be freed — how his sentence was disproportionate, how he was blamed for damage done to the US by spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, how he was offered a plea bargain and then hit with a life sentence, how he was treated in prison. I won’t discuss the speculation that he has been kept locked up because of what he knows about the US relationship with Saddam Hussein when he was our ‘ally’, or about the Iran-contra affair. You can find all of this and much more on the Justice for Jonathan Pollard site.

I’ll say that his release now, if it happens, may only mean that the gravely ill Pollard will die in Israel instead of the Federal Prison in Butner, NC. Wouldn’t that be ironic, considering that the Lockerbie Bomber, granted ‘compassionate release’ as a ‘dying man’ is alive and well in Libya a year and a half later!

This has been a dirty business ever since former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger submitted a secret memo to Judge Aubry E. Robinson Jr. that caused him to abrogate the plea agreement that Pollard would serve no more than 10 years, and to throw him in prison for life.

(Read full "Let him go")

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

A time to shout

The odds are poor that a public campaign to win Pollard’s release will succeed. But if Israel is going to do anything at all, its actions should be concentrated in the public realm.

Caroline Glick
carolineglick.com
21 December '10

The new campaign calling for the release of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard from prison in the US is in many ways a curious development. Pollard was arrested in 1985 and convicted on one count of transferring classified information to Israel during his service in US Naval Intelligence. He pleaded guilty to the charge in the framework of a plea bargain in which the US attorney pledged not to request a life sentence.

Despite this, Pollard was sentenced to life. So far, he has served 25 years, much of it in solitary confinement and in maximum security prisons. His health is poor. He has repeatedly expressed remorse for his crime.

Pollard’s sentence and the treatment he has received are grossly disproportionate to the sentences and treatment meted out to agents of other friendly foreign governments caught stealing classified information in the US. Their average sentence is seven years in prison. They tend to serve their sentences in minimum or medium security prisons and are routinely released after four years.

The only offenders who have received similar sentences are Soviet spies Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames. While Pollard transferred documents to Israel over a period of 18 months, both Ames and Hanssen served the Soviets – the US’s primary enemy – for decades. Their espionage led to the death of multiple US agents operating behind the Iron Curtain.

Pollard was given a life sentence because then secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger wrote a classified victim impact assessment to the sentencing judge in which he insinuated that he had transferred information to the Soviet Union as well as to Israel. Weinberger reportedly attributed the deaths of US agents to Pollard’s activities.

Weinberger’s accusations were proven false with the subsequent arrests of Hanssen and Ames. As it turned out, the damage Weinberger ascribed to Pollard was actually caused by their espionage.

OVER THE past five years, and with increased urgency over the past several months, several former senior US officials who had firsthand knowledge of Pollard’s activities have called for his immediate release. Former CIA director R. James Woolsey has stated that, contrary to Weinberger’s allegations, none of the documents Pollard stole were transferred to the Soviets or any other country. A few months ago, former senator Dennis DeConcini, a past chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to immediately release Pollard from prison. And in October, Lawrence Korb, who served as assistant secretary of defense under Weinberger, became one of the most outspoken champions for Pollard’s release. Korb currently works for the Center for American Progress, which is closely allied with the Obama White House.

(Read full "A time to shout")

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Jonathan Pollard # 4

boxerbroscom
25 July '10

4th of many awareness videos that will be coming out regarding Jonathan's case and situation. Please pass this link to whoever you know and ask them to do the same. Make sure to check back here every week for the new video that will be released weekly.



Ready to help: http://www.jonathanpollard.org/

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Refuting ‘Re-Examining The Pollard Case’ – A Blood Libel Against Jonathan Pollard

Pesach Lerner
Yeshiva World News
08 March '10

Even a cursory glance at the facts which Yair Hoffman totally ignores in his article, “Re-examining the Pollard Issue” (5 Towns Jewish Times on March 4, 2010) reveals a case which Appellate Court Justice Steven Williams described as “a fundamental miscarriage of justice.” Jonathan Pollard is currently serving his 25th year of a life sentence for an offence — that of spying for an ally– that has a median sentence of 2-4 years.

Jonathan Pollard never had a trial. He received his life sentence as the result of a plea agreement which he honored and the US Government violated. In spite of the fact that he pled guilty and cooperated fully with the prosecution, at the last minute, the sentencing judge ignored the plea deal and sentenced Pollard to life.

“Pollard’s plea agreement required him to plead guilty and to cooperate. On its side, the government made three promises of significance here. First, it would bring to the court’s attention “the nature, extent and value of [Pollard's] cooperation and testimony” and would represent that the information supplied was of “considerable value to the Government’s damage assessment analysis, its investigation of this criminal case, and the enforcement of the espionage laws.” Second, it would not ask for a life sentence (this promise was implicit but is not contested by the government), though it would be free to recommend a “substantial period of incarceration”. Third, the government limited its reserved right of allocution to “the facts and circumstances” of Pollard’s crimes. The government complied in spirit with none of its promises; with the third, it complied in neither letter nor spirit…”

“…Pollard’s sentence should be vacated and the case remanded for resentencing.”

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

September 10, 1991, Argued March 20, 1992, Decided

Dissent by: Justice Steven Williams

Jonathan was indicted on one charge only: one count of passing classified information to an ally without intent to harm the United States. There were no additional charges against him.

Ever since Pollard was able to obtain the unclassified titles of the documents that were used as evidence against him, and these titles were published in a petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice, there can be no doubt that the information Pollard passed to Israel concerned Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian nuclear, chemical and biological warfare capabilities – all being developed for use against Israel. The US was deliberately withholding this vital information, despite a legal commitment to share this data with its ally, Israel.

(Read full article)
.

24 Years Later, AIPAC & American Jewish Leaders Still Don't Get It!

Justice4JPnews
July 31, 2009

J4JP Prefacing Comment:
RE: 'Anti-Semitism was behind our case'
(Jerusalem Post 07/30/09, Hilary Leila Krieger )


AIPAC and American Jewish leaders recently witnessed and/or experienced first-hand the "virulent anti-Semitism" that exists within the American Justice, Intelligence and Defense communities, but they still don't get it.

Nearly a quarter of a century after they turned their backs on Jonathan Pollard's appeals for help, they still refuse to acknowledge that Jonathan Pollard continues to be a victim of the same anti-Semitism they experienced -- not the cause of it.

Jonathan Pollard tried to warn them years ago. He cried out in anguish from the depths of Hell to these "leaders" warning them that he was being shown lists of Jewish leaders that the Feds were anxious to indict, with or without cause. He was promised that in return for fingering Jewish leaders on the list, a deal would be worked out and he would be shown mercy. Pollard flatly refused.

His heart-felt warnings to Jewish leaders fell on deaf ears as they continued for the next two and a half decades to defame him and blame him for the institutionalized, pernicious anti-Semitism which claimed other victims along the way --Adam Ciralsky and David Tenenbaum, among them.
[See related articles: www.jonathanpollard.org/ciralsky.htm ]

Twenty-four years into Jonathan Pollard's excruciating ordeal, these leaders and their colleagues are still wearing blinders. Still blaming Pollard. Still thinking that they can escape Pollard's fate if they continue to throw him to the dogs and pretend that what is happening to him is 'something else.'

It just may be that Heaven is sending a message to American Jewry and its leaders via the AIPAC fiasco. Sadly, they still don't get it.

Jonathan Pollard: 8655 days in prison

Related: Once labeled an AIPAC spy.

.