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Jonathan Pollard



 
 
Jonathan Jay Pollard (born August 7, 1954 in Galveston, Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
) is a former United States Naval
United States Navy

The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
 civilian intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence is not information, but the product of evaluated information, valued for its currency and relevance rather than its detail or accuracy —in contrast with "data" which typically refers to precision or particular information, or "fact," which typically refers to veracity information....
 analyst who was convicted of spying for Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
. Pollard waived the right to trial as part of a plea deal for himself and his wife, pleaded guilty and was convicted on one count of spying for Israel. He received a life sentence in 1987 with a recommendation against parole
Parole

Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French language parole, meaning " word." Following its use in late-medieval Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their word of honor to abide...
. He was incarcerated at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois
United States Penitentiary, Marion

The United States Penitentiary is a former supermax prison, located in Marion, Illinois, Illinois. It was built in 1963 to replace the Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, which closed the same year....
 in solitary confinement for seven years, then transferred to Butner Federal Correctional Institution
Butner Federal Correctional Institution

Federal Correctional Complex, Butner is a List of U.S. federal prisons complex located in Butner, North Carolina, in the Research Triangle area of Durham, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Chapel Hill....
 in North Carolina
North Carolina

North Carolina is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north....
.






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Jonathan Jay Pollard (born August 7, 1954 in Galveston, Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
) is a former United States Naval
United States Navy

The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
 civilian intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence is not information, but the product of evaluated information, valued for its currency and relevance rather than its detail or accuracy —in contrast with "data" which typically refers to precision or particular information, or "fact," which typically refers to veracity information....
 analyst who was convicted of spying for Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
. Pollard waived the right to trial as part of a plea deal for himself and his wife, pleaded guilty and was convicted on one count of spying for Israel. He received a life sentence in 1987 with a recommendation against parole
Parole

Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French language parole, meaning " word." Following its use in late-medieval Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their word of honor to abide...
. He was incarcerated at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois
United States Penitentiary, Marion

The United States Penitentiary is a former supermax prison, located in Marion, Illinois, Illinois. It was built in 1963 to replace the Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, which closed the same year....
 in solitary confinement for seven years, then transferred to Butner Federal Correctional Institution
Butner Federal Correctional Institution

Federal Correctional Complex, Butner is a List of U.S. federal prisons complex located in Butner, North Carolina, in the Research Triangle area of Durham, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Chapel Hill....
 in North Carolina
North Carolina

North Carolina is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north....
. Israel granted Pollard citizenship in 1995 but publicly denied that he was an Israeli spy until 1998. Israel now actively lobbies for his release.

Early life

Jonathan Pollard is the youngest of three siblings. In 1964 the family moved from Texas to South Bend, Indiana
South Bend, Indiana

South Bend is a city on the St._Joseph_River_ and a Twin cities of Mishawaka, Indiana. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total of 107,789 residents; its South Bend-Mishawaka metropolitan area had a population of 316,663....
, where his father, a microbiologist
Microbiologist

A microbiologist is a scientist who works in the field of microbiology. Most have a university degree in the subject.Specialists in the broad field of microbiology include:...
, became director of University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a private Roman Catholic Church University located in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. It was founded by Father Edward Sorin, Congregation of Holy Cross, who was also the school's first president....
's Lobund Institute.

Jay, as he was called in his youth, was known to be very intelligent and articulate, but was also regarded as a "smart aleck." Being small for his age, he became an easy target for bullies. After being beaten up many times in different venues (he was even roughed up by a non-Jewish boy during a visit to Israel in his teens), he began to blame the hostility directed at him on anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is prejudice against or hostility towards Jews.This prejudice or hostility is usually characterized by a combination of Religion, Race , cultural and ethnic group biases....
. He began to focus on Israel as a place where Jews could be free from attack.

Pollard earned a degree in political science
Political science

Political science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior....
 from Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
, where he met his future wife, Anne Henderson. They married after a five-year courtship. He attended graduate school at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, also called simply The Fletcher School, is the oldest school in the United States dedicated solely to graduate studies in international relations....
 at Tufts University
Tufts University

Tufts University is a private research university in Medford, Massachusetts/Somerville, Massachusetts, near Boston, Massachusetts, United States....
 for two years, but did not finish his degree.

Early career

In 1979, after leaving graduate school, Pollard began applying for intelligence service jobs, first at the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the Federal government of the United States. It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services formed during World War II to coordinate espionage activities between the branches of the US military services....
 (CIA) and then the Navy. Pollard was turned down for the CIA job after taking a polygraph test. He fared better with the Navy and was hired by the Naval Fields Operational Intelligence Office (NFOIO) as an intelligence specialist working on Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 issues. A background check was required for the job as well as security clearances, but no polygraph test. In addition to a 'Top Secret' clearance, a more stringent 'Sensitive Compartmented Information'
Security clearance

For use by the United Nations, see Security Clearance A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information, e.g., state secrets....
 (SCI) clearance was required. The Navy asked for but was denied information by CIA regarding Pollard, including the results of their pre-employment polygraph test showing Pollard's excessive drug use
Recreational drug use

Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for employment, Medicine or Spirituality purposes, although the distinction is not always clear ....
. Pollard was given temporary security clearances pending completion of his background check, which was normal for new hires at the time.

Within two months of being hired, the technical director of the NFOIO, Richard Haver, requested that Pollard be terminated. This came after a reckless and inappropriate conversation with the new hire in which Pollard offered to start a back-channel operation with the South African intelligence service
National Intelligence Service (South Africa)

The National Intelligence Service was an intelligence agency of the Republic of South Africa that took over from the older South African Bureau of State Security in 1980....
 and lied about his own father's involvement with the CIA. At the time, most western democracies, with the exception of Israel, withheld intelligence from South Africa due to its policy of Apartheid. Instead of terminating Pollard, Haver's boss decided to use Pollard in an even more sensitive position, Task Force 168, which was a human-gathered intelligence operation. This was apparently because Pollard had a friend from graduate school in the South African intelligence service. The position was alongside his standard duties. A month later Pollard applied for and received a transfer to the Naval Investigative Service (NIS) surface ships division while keeping his TF-168 position. (NIS was the precursor to NCIS.)

While transferring to his new job at the NIS, Pollard again initiated a meeting with someone far up the chain of command, this time with Admiral Sumner Shapiro
Sumner Shapiro

Sumner Shapiro was a United States Navy Rear Admiral who served as Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence from 1978 to 1982....
, about an idea he had for TF 168 and South Africa (the TF 168 group had passed on his ideas). After the meeting, Shapiro immediately ordered that Pollard's security clearances be revoked and that he be reassigned to a non-sensitive position. According to The Washington Post
The Washington Post

The Washington Post is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Washington, D.C., United States and is the city's oldest paper, founded in 1877....
, Shapiro dismissed Pollard as a "kook," saying later, "I wish the hell I'd fired him".

Because of the job transfer, Shapiro's order to remove Pollard's security clearances slipped through the cracks. However, Shapiro's office followed up with a request to the TF-168 that Pollard's trustworthiness be investigated by the CIA. The CIA found Pollard to be a risk and recommended that he not be used in any intelligence collection operation. This was followed by an elaborate ruse to get Pollard to agree to a polygraph test. The results of the test were deemed inconclusive due to Pollard's apparent illness during the test. However, Pollard admitted during the test to making false statements to his superiors, prior drug use, and making unauthorized contacts with representatives of foreign governments. The special agent administering the test felt that Pollard was feigning illness to invalidate the test, and recommended that he not be granted access to highly classified information. Pollard was also required to be evaluated by a psychiatrist
Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry and is certified in treating mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy....
.

At this point, Pollard was still on probation, having been employed by the Navy for less than a year. By the end of that probationary period he was reassigned to less sensitive duties but maintained his TS security clearance. Pollard then filed a grievance and threatened lawsuits to recover his SCI clearance. He subsequently began receiving excellent performance reviews, and by the fall of 1982 had his SCI clearance restored.

In October 1984, after some reorganization of the Navy's intelligence departments, Pollard applied for and received a position as an analyst for the NIS.

Espionage

Shortly after Pollard began working at the NIS he met Aviem Sella
Aviem Sella

Aviem Sella was a Colonel in the Israeli Air Force. He was a combat veteran of the Six Day War, commanded Operation Opera and masterminded an air assault during the 1982 Lebanon War where 86 Syrian aircraft were shot down with no Israeli losses....
, an Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force

The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the Israel Defense Forces. The current Commander in Chief is Aluf Ido Nehoshtan. The Israeli Air Force has approximately 700 aircraft....
 combat veteran who was at the time a graduate student at New York University
New York University

New York University is a private university, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan....
, on leave from his position as Colonel
Colonel

Colonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures....
. Within a few days, in June 1984, Pollard started passing classified information to Sella and received, in exchange, a diamond
Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
 and sapphire
Sapphire

Sapphire refers to gem varieties of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red, in which case the gem would instead be a ruby....
 ring and $10,000 cash. He also agreed to receiving $1,500 per month for further espionage.

There are claims that in addition to Israel, Pollard also passed classified information to South Africa
South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
. and attempted, through a third party, to sell classified information to Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
 on multiple occasions These claims were never raised in his trial.

The full extent of the information he gave to Israel has still not been officially revealed. According to Pollard, he gave only information regarding Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
's missile threats to Israel. Press reports cited a secret 46-page memorandum, which Pollard and his attorneys were allowed to view. They were provided to the judge by Secretary of Defense
United States Secretary of Defense

File:USSecDefflag.PNGThe United States Secretary of Defense is the head of the United States Department of Defense , concerned with the Military of the United States and Military of the United States....
 Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Weinberger

Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger GBE , was an Politics of the United States and United States Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld....
, who described Pollard's spying as including, among other things, obtaining and copying the latest version of Radio-Signal Notations, a 10-volume manual detailing America's global electronic surveillance network. One theory of the damage Pollard caused is that he compromised US worldwide signals intelligence efforts by revealing US penetration of cryptographic modules sold around the world for official use.

Pollard's routine was to gather documents during the week. He had several large identical brief cases given to him by the Israelis that he would use to remove material from work. Then he would transfer the documents to suitcases, sometimes while in his car. At the end of the week he would drop the documents off with the Israelis for copying. At the end of the weekend Pollard retrieved whatever documents needed to be returned, along with orders for what types of information to get over the next week. On occasion, the Israeli handlers would ask for specific documents by number, suggesting that Pollard wasn't the only agent illegally feeding them information. Pollard himself has discounted that claim, demonstrating that Israeli intelligence analysts would review the citation lists of documents that they had already received, and modify the document numbers to identify revised or more highly classified editions.

Ron Olive, the agent in charge of counterintelligence for the NIS at the time of Pollard's arrest, published a book about the case in 2006. Olive told the BBC that the incident was "one of the most devastating cases of espionage in US history" during which Pollard stole over "one million classified documents".


Capture


Pollard's espionage was discovered when a co-worker anonymously reported his removal of classified material from the NIS. The co-worker noted that he didn't seem to be taking the material to any known appropriate destination, such as other intelligence agencies in the area.

Supervisors began investigating, and upon finding the enormous amount of material checked out by Pollard, and that it was outside of his area of responsibility, asked the FBI to begin an investigation.

Pollard was stopped and questioned about a week later while removing classified material from his work premises. He explained that he was taking it to another analyst at a different agency for a consultation. During the voluntary interview, which went on into the late evening, his story was checked and found to be false. Pollard called his wife during a break and used the code word 'cactus', meaning that he was in trouble and that she should remove all classified material from their home, which she attempted to do, enlisting the help of a neighbor. After a period of time, Pollard agreed to a search of his home which turned up a handful of classified documents. At this point, the FBI decided to drop the case and leave it as an administrative action for Pollard's supervisors, since there only seemed to be some mishandling of documents.

The case broke wide open a few days later when Pollard was asked to take a polygraph. Instead, he admitted to illegally passing on documents but didn't mention Israel. The FBI again became involved. A short time later Pollard's neighbor began calling around the military intelligence community (he was a naval officer) asking what to do with the 70 lb suitcase full of highly classified material that Pollard's wife, Anne, gave him. After being unable to contact Anne or Jonathan Pollard he became concerned about safeguarding the documents. He cooperated fully with the investigation and was not charged with any crime.

After his partial confession, Pollard was surveilled but not taken into custody. He and his wife then attempted to gain asylum at the Israeli embassy, only to be rebuffed by the Israeli guards and taken into custody by FBI agents who swarmed the perimeter of the compound. Until this point, investigators were unaware that Pollard was spying for Israel.

Investigation

Pollard eventually cooperated with investigators in exchange for a plea agreement that a life sentence not be recommended by prosecutors, and that his wife be allowed a plea agreement.

At the time, Israel claimed that Pollard worked for an unauthorized rogue operation, a position they maintained for more than ten years. Nevertheless Israel agreed to cooperate with the investigation in exchange for immunity for their people. They needed the agreement since many of the Israelis involved lacked diplomatic immunity. However, according to Ronald Olive, the NCIS investigator responsible for capturing Pollard and a member of the delegation that traveled to Israel for debriefing, the Israelis failed to live up to their agreement.

Some of the examples he cites are; when asked to return the stolen material, the Israelis handed over a few dozen lowly classified documents. At the time, the Americans knew that Pollard had passed tens of thousands of documents, possibly over a million. The Israelis created a schedule designed to wear down the Americans, including many hours per day of commuting in blacked out buses on rough roads, and frequent switching of buses. This left the Americans without adequate time to sleep and prevented them from sleeping on the commute. The Israelis refused an American request to move to a closer hotel, finally relenting only after the Americans threatened to leave. The identity of Pollard's original handler, Sella, was withheld. All questions had to be translated into Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 and answered in Hebrew, and then translated back in to English, even though all the parties spoke perfect English. Olive also claims that the Americans were treated with hostility from the minute they arrived in Israel to the moment they left, and that his own luggage was ransacked and items stolen while in the custody of officials. The abuse came not only from the guards and officials, but also the Israeli media.

Aviem Sella
Aviem Sella

Aviem Sella was a Colonel in the Israeli Air Force. He was a combat veteran of the Six Day War, commanded Operation Opera and masterminded an air assault during the 1982 Lebanon War where 86 Syrian aircraft were shot down with no Israeli losses....
, Pollard's initial Israeli contact, was eventually indicted on three counts of espionage by an American court. Israel refused to allow him to be interviewed unless he was granted immunity, America refused because of Israel's previous failure to cooperate as promised. Israel then refused to extradite Sella and instead giving him command of a prestigious air force
Israeli Air Force

The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the Israel Defense Forces. The current Commander in Chief is Aluf Ido Nehoshtan. The Israeli Air Force has approximately 700 aircraft....
 base. The U.S. Congress responded by threatening to cut aid to Israel, at which point Sella stepped down.

Plea agreement and trial

Pollard's plea discussions with the Government sought both to minimize his chances of receiving a life sentence and to enable Anne Pollard to plead as well, which the Government was otherwise unwilling to let her do. The government, however, was prepared to offer Anne Pollard a plea agreement only after Jonathan Pollard consented to assist the government in its damage assessment and submitted to polygraph
Polygraph

A polygraph is an instrument that measures and records several physiological responses such as blood pressure, pulse, Respiration breathing rhythms body temperature and Galvanic skin response while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions, on the theory that false answers will produce distinctive measurements....
 examinations and interviews with FBI agents and Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice is a United States Cabinet department in the United States government of the United States designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans ....
 attorneys. Accordingly, over a period of several months, Pollard cooperated with the Government's investigation, and in late May 1986, the Government offered him a plea agreement, which he accepted.

By the terms of that agreement, Pollard was bound to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government, which carried a maximum prison term of life, and to cooperate fully with the Government's ongoing investigation. He promised not to disseminate any information concerning his crimes without submitting to pre-clearance by the Director of Naval Intelligence. His agreement further provided that failure by Anne Pollard to adhere to the terms of her agreement entitled the Government to void his agreement, and her agreement contained a mirror-image provision.

In return for Pollard's plea, the Government promised not to charge him with additional crimes, entered into a plea agreement with Anne Pollard, and made several specific representations that are very much at issue in this case. The critical provisions are paragraphs 4(a) and 4(b) of the agreement, in which the Government "agreed as follows":

When [Pollard] appears before the Court for sentencing for the offense to which he has agreed to plead guilty, the Government will bring to the Court's attention the nature, extent and value of his cooperation and testimony. Because of the classified nature of the information Mr. Pollard has provided to the Government, it is understood that particular representations concerning his cooperation may have to be made to the Court in camera. In general, however, the Government has agreed to represent that the information Mr. Pollard has provided is of considerable value to the Government's damage assessment analysis, its investigation of this criminal case, and the enforcement of the espionage laws.

Notwithstanding Mr. Pollard's cooperation, at the time of sentencing the Government will recommend that the Court impose a sentence of a substantial period of incarceration and a monetary fine. The Government retains full right of allocution
Allocution

Generally, to allocute in law means "to speak out formally." In the field of apologetics, allocution is generally done in defense of a belief. In politics, one may allocute before a legislature in an effort to influence their position on an issue....
 at all times concerning the facts and circumstances of the offenses committed by Mr. Pollard, and will be free to correct any misstatements of fact at the time of sentencing, including representations of the defendant and his counsel in regard to the nature and extent of Mr. Pollard's cooperation. Moreover, Mr. Pollard understands that, while the Court may take his cooperation into account in determining whether or not to impose a sentence of life imprisonment, this agreement cannot and does not limit the court's discretion to impose the maximum sentence.

On June 4, 1986 Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government. Before sentencing, and in violation of the plea agreement, Pollard and his wife Anne gave defiant media interviews in which they defended their spying, and attempted to rally American Jews to their cause. In a 60 Minutes
60 Minutes

or 60 Minutes 60 Minutes is an United States investigative television newsmagazine on United States television, which has run on CBS News since 1968....
 interview, Anne said, "I feel my husband and I did what we were expected to do, and what our moral obligation was as Jews, what our moral obligation was as human beings, and I have no regrets about that". Three weeks before Pollard's sentencing, Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Blitzer

Wolf Blitzer is an United States journalist who has been a CNN reporter since 1990. Blitzer is currently the host of the newscast The Situation Room and was the host of the Sunday talk show Late Edition until it was discontinued on January 11, 2009....
, at the time a Jerusalem Post correspondent, conducted a jail-cell interview with Pollard and penned an article which also ran in The Washington Post
The Washington Post

The Washington Post is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Washington, D.C., United States and is the city's oldest paper, founded in 1877....
 headlined, "Pollard: Not A Bumbler, but Israel's Master Spy." published on February 15, 1987. Pollard told Blitzer about some of the information he provided the Israelis: reconnaissance satellite photography of Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization regarded by the Arab League since October 1974 as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."...
 (PLO) headquarters in Tunisia
Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast....
, specific capabilities of Libya
Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
's air defenses, and "the pick of U.S. intelligence about Arab and Islamic conventional and unconventional military activity, from Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 to Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
 and every country in between. This included both 'friendly' and 'unfriendly' Arab countries."

According to an opinion piece by Joseph C. Goulden, the breaking of the plea agreement (in which Pollard swore not to disclose classified material he obtained while working for the Navy and swore not to "provide information for purposes of publication or dissemination," unless it was reviewed by the Director of Naval Intelligence) remains one possible reason for Pollard's remaining in prison despite a change in U.S. parole laws.

Before sentencing, as noted above, Secretary
United States Secretary of Defense

File:USSecDefflag.PNGThe United States Secretary of Defense is the head of the United States Department of Defense , concerned with the Military of the United States and Military of the United States....
 Weinberger
Caspar Weinberger

Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger GBE , was an Politics of the United States and United States Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld....
 delivered a 46-page classified memorandum to the sentencing judge. According to an American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union

The American Civil Liberties Union consists of two separate non-profit organizations: the ACLU Foundation, a 501 organization which focuses on litigation and communication efforts, and the American Civil Liberties Union, a 501 organization which focuses on legislative lobbying....
 amicus brief in support of Pollard's motion to grant his security-cleared lawyer access to classified material in his court file, Wolf Blitzer, former U.S. District Court Judge George N. Leighton (see below) and even Pollard's own website the contents of the memo were shown to Pollard's attorneys at the time. On the day before sentencing, Weinberger delivered a supplemental four-page memorandum to the judge. Pollard and his attorneys were shown the supplemental memorandum only briefly before sentencing. Pollard alleges that, in the memorandum, Weinberger accused him of treason
Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of loyalty to one's sovereignty or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife ....
 and suggested a lifetime prison sentence.

Pollard never faced treason charges and was convicted within the boundaries of the charge he pleaded guilty to, although many speculate that the Weinberger memorandum outlined (and the classified memorandum to the judge detailed) treasonous activities by Pollard, due to the overwhelming assertion by U.S. defense and intelligence officials that Pollard should stay imprisoned for life.

The primary investigator in the Pollard case, Ron Olive, stated in his 2006 book Capturing Jonathan Pollard, that Pollard offered classified material to four other countries besides Israel, including Pakistan. Seven former U.S. secretaries of Defense have written petitions to keep Pollard imprisoned for life, and CIA chief George Tenet
George Tenet

George John Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University....
 threatened to resign when the issue of releasing Pollard was put forward by the Clinton administration.

Sentencing and incarceration

Pollard was sentenced to life in prison on one count of espionage on March 4, 1987. The prosecutor complied with the plea agreement and asked for "only a substantial number of years in prison"; Judge Aubrey Robinson, Jr. imposed the life sentence after hearing the statements of the Secretary of Defense, the Director of Central Intelligence, and other U.S. government officials (plea agreements are not binding upon judges). In 1987, Pollard began his life sentence, which he is still serving. Pollard's wife, Anne, was sentenced to five years in prison but was released after three and a half years because of health problems.

At the time of Pollard's sentencing there was a rule that mandated parole at thirty years for prisoners like him if they had maintained a clean record in prison. That parole date would be November 21, 2015. Also, Pollard was eligible to apply for parole after eight years and six months, though he has never done so.

Pollard is federal prisoner #09185-016 and is incarcerated at the Butner Federal Correction Complex in Butner, North Carolina
Butner, North Carolina

Butner is a town in Granville County, North Carolina, North Carolina, United States. The population was 5,792 at the 2000 census. Butner was managed by the state of North Carolina from 1947 through 2007....
.

Appeals

In United States of America v. Jonathan Jay Pollard 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11844, Pollard's attorney filed a motion to withdraw the plea, among other things. The motion was denied. Several parts of the plea agreement are mentioned in the appeal, United States of America v. Jonathan Jay Pollard 295 U.S. App. D.C. 7; 959 F.2d 1011; 1992 U.S. App. LEXIS 4695. The appeal was also denied. Several years later, with a different attorney, Pollard filed a Habeas Corpus
Habeas corpus

For the Living Things CD, see Habeas Corpus Habeas corpus is a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek justice from the unlawful detention of him or herself, or of another person....
 petition. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled two-to-one to deny Pollard's petition, primarily due to the failure of Pollard's original attorneys to file his appeal in a timely manner. The dissenting judge, Judge Stephen Williams, stated that "because the government's breach of the plea agreement was a fundamental miscarriage of justice requiring relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, I dissent."

In July 2005, the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Pollard's latest appeal. Pollard had sought a new trial on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel, and he sought to receive classified documents pertinent to his new lawyers' efforts in preparing a clemency petition. The Court of Appeals rejected both arguments, however, and Pollard remains imprisoned. On February 10, 2006, lawyers for Pollard filed an appeal with the United States Supreme Court to attempt to gain access to the classified documents. The brief was based on the notion that the separation of powers doctrine is a flexible doctrine that does not dictate the complete separation of the three branches of Government from one another. The Court of Appeals violated this principle in asserting sua sponte
Sua sponte

Sua sponte, Latin for "of one's own accord," is a legal term that means to act spontaneously without prompting from another party. The term is usually applied to actions by a judge, taken without a prior motion or request from the parties....
 that the judiciary has no jurisdiction over the classified documents due to the fact that access was for the ultimate purpose of clemency, an executive function. In fact, the President's clemency power would be wholly unaffected by successor counsel's access to the classified documents, and the classified documents were sealed under protective order, a judicial tool. The Supreme Court denied this appeal on March 20, 2006.

The courts have been criticized for denying Pollard's current attorneys' access to the sentencing memorandum. In a 2002 letter to IMRA, former U.S. District Court Judge George N. Leighton
George N. Leighton

George Neves Leighton is a retired African-American judge....
 wrote:

Israel and Pollard

Pollard applied for Israeli citizenship 1995, his petition was granted the same year on November 22.

For thirteen years Israel publicly denied that Pollard was an Israeli spy. Their official line was that he worked for an unauthorized rogue operation. In 1997, Pollard initiated legal action with the High Court of Israel to force the government to admit he was its agent. On May 11, 1998 Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the new Prime Minister-Designate of Israel. He is Chairman of the conservative Likud Party and was previously the 9th Prime Minister of Israel from June 1996 to July 1999....
 admitted Pollard was a known and sanctioned agent, handled by high ranking officials of the Israeli Bureau for Scientific Relations (LAKAM).

The Israeli government has paid for at least two of Pollard's trial attorneys—Richard A. Hibey and Hamilton Philip Fox III—and continues to ask for his release.

Official requests for clemency

Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin

was an Israeli politician and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
 was the first Israeli prime minister to ask for the release of Pollard, requesting US President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the fifteenth Democrat elected to that office....
 to pardon him in 1995 . Among the many requests for Pollard's release was one at the 1998 Wye River conference
Wye River Memorandum

The Wye River Memorandum was an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestine Authority to implement the earlier Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip....
, where Netanyahu recalls; "... if we signed an agreement with Arafat
Yasser Arafat

Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his Kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian people leader....
, I expected a pardon for Pollard". President Clinton declined to release Pollard.

Another Israeli request for Pollard's release was made in New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 on September 14, 2005 and was again declined by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
. A request on Pollard's behalf that he be designated a Prisoner of Zion was rejected by the High Court of Justice of Israel
Supreme Court of Israel

The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system in the State of Israel. It is the highest judicial instance. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem....
 on January 16, 2006. Another appeal for intervention on Pollard's behalf was rejected by the High Court on June 8, 2006.

On January 10, 2008, the subject of Pollard's pardon was again brought up for discussion, this time by Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel

The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and is the most powerful political officer in Israel . He or she wields executive power in the country, and has an official residence in Jerusalem....
 Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert is the incumbent Prime Minister of Israel. Olmert was the Mayor of Jerusalem of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003. In 2003 he was elected to the Knesset and became a minister and Deputy leaders of Israel#Acting Prime Minister in the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon....
, during President George W. Bush's first visit to Israel as President. Subsequently, this request was turned down by President Bush. The next day, at a dinner attended by several ministers in the Israeli government (in addition to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice was the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second in the administration of President of the United States George W....
), the subject of Pollard's release was again discussed. This time however, Prime Minister Olmert commented that it was not the appropriate occasion to discuss the fate of the convicted Israeli spy.

As President Bush was about to leave office, there was an intense worldwide campaign from Israel to Europe, to the USA requesting and pleading with President Bush to give clemency to Jonathan Pollard while he was still chief executive. In an interview to Newsweek former CIA director James Woolsey gave a qualified support to Pollard's release, on two conditions: that he show contrition and renounce any profits from books or other projects linked to the case. Bush declined to pardon him.

Public campaigns

In addition to the release requests by the Israeli government, there has been a long running public campaign to free Pollard. The organizers include the Pollard family, his ex-wife, Anne, and Jewish groups in the US and Israel. The campaign's main points claim that Pollard spied for an ally instead of an enemy, that his sentence was out of proportion when compared to similar crimes, and that the US failed to live up to its plea bargain. Pollard is sometimes referred to as a 'hero' in Israeli media, while U.S. President Bush is compared to Hamas leaders who've taken Israeli soldiers prisoner.

Pro-Pollard efforts


Pollard's supporters argue that his sentence was excessive: "The median sentence for the offense Pollard committed - one count of passing non-injurious classified information to an ally - is two to four years". Although Pollard pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain
Plea bargain

A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence....
 for himself and his wife, he was shown no leniency and was given the maximum sentence. Pollard was never charged, indicted, or convicted of treason.

Pollard maintains that he provided only information that, at the time, he believed was vital to Israeli security and that was being withheld by the Pentagon
The Pentagon

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia, Virginia. As a symbol of the Military of the United States, "the Pentagon" is often used Metonymy to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself....
, in violation of a 1983 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries regarding the sharing of vital security intelligence. According to Pollard, this included data on Soviet arms shipments to Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i and Syrian chemical weapons, the Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
i atomic bomb project, and Libya
Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
n air defense systems.

Since then, however, he has publicly expressed remorse for operating outside the law: and

In recent years, others have argued that Pollard's punishment is too harsh while some, including Moshe Feiglin
Moshe Feiglin

Moshe Zalman Feiglin is an Israeli politician. In 1993, he co-founded Zo Artzeinu movement with Shmuel Sackett to protest the Oslo Accords. He is one of the founders of the Israeli civil disobedience movement that developed in protest against the accords....
 have called him a "hero" who "saved the Israelis from American treachery." Caspar Weinberger, who was the driving force behind Pollard's life sentence, has stated that the case was a minor problem made much larger than it really was. In an interview in 2002, Weinberger was asked why he had omitted all mention of Pollard in his memoirs. Weinberger replied, "Because it was, in a sense, a very minor matter but made very important." Asked to elaborate, Weinberger repeated, "As I say, the Pollard matter was comparatively minor. It was made far bigger than its actual importance."

The Jerusalem City Council, in support of Pollard, changed the name of a square near the official prime minister's residence from Paris Square to Freedom for Jonathan Pollard Square.

Responses

At the 1998 Wye River Conference
Wye River Memorandum

The Wye River Memorandum was an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestine Authority to implement the earlier Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip....
, Clinton initially agreed with Israel's request for Pollard's release, said Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the new Prime Minister-Designate of Israel. He is Chairman of the conservative Likud Party and was previously the 9th Prime Minister of Israel from June 1996 to July 1999....
; "... if we signed an agreement with Arafat, I expected a pardon for Pollard". Clinton had to withdraw his offer when George Tenet
George Tenet

George John Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University....
 threatened to resign if Pollard was released. This kicked off a reaction in the American intelligence community, which according to Olive was ``incredulous that Israel would dare use Pollard as a bargaining chip in such sensitive and highly politicized peace process". Four past directors of Naval intelligence (William Studeman, Sumner Shapiro
Sumner Shapiro

Sumner Shapiro was a United States Navy Rear Admiral who served as Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence from 1978 to 1982....
, John Butts and Thomas Brooks) wrote a response to the Washington Post:


Eric Margolis
Eric Margolis

Eric Margolis is an American journalist. He is a contributing editor to the Toronto Sun chain of newspapers, writing mainly about the Middle East, South Asia and Islam, and appears frequently on Canadian television broadcasts, as well as on CNN....
 alleges that Pollard's spying may have led to the capture and execution of CIA spies in the Eastern Bloc after Israel sold or bartered Pollard's information to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld is a United States businessman, politician, the 13th United States Secretary of Defense under President of the United States Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st United States Secretary of Defense under President George W....
 was an opponent of the release or sentence commutation of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. In late 1998, in response to media reports that President Clinton was considering issuing a pardon to Pollard, Rumsfeld sent a letter to President Clinton, urging him not to grant clemency. Seven former U.S. Secretaries of Defense, (namely Rumsfeld, Melvin R. Laird
Melvin R. Laird

Melvin Robert Laird is an American politician and writer. Laird was a United States Republican Party congressman who also served as Richard Nixon's United States Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973....
, Frank C. Carlucci, Richard B. Cheney, Caspar W. Weinberger, James R. Schlesinger
James R. Schlesinger

James Rodney Schlesinger was United States Secretary of Defense from 1973 to 1975 under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He became America's first Secretary of Energy under Jimmy Carter....
 and Elliot L. Richardson) signed the letter urging Clinton not to pardon Pollard or commute his sentence.

Ron Olive, retired Naval Criminal Investigative Service
Naval Criminal Investigative Service

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is the United States Marine and Navy's primary security, counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism, and law enforcement agency and successor to the former Naval Investigative Service ....
, led the Pollard investigation and in 2006 published the book Capturing Jonathan Pollard - How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to Justice. In his book, Olive claims that Pollard was not necessarily loyal to Israel and that Pollard confessed to passing secrets to South Africa and to his financial advisers, shopping his access to Pakistan and recruiting others for money.

Pollard's pro bono attorneys, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, in an article published in the Jerusalem Post, assert that "The book and op-ed piece contain numerous accusations that are nowhere to be found in the public sentencing docket, and that could not be disclosed if they were in the classified sentencing docket. They are therefore in neither place, and cannot be considered even remotely reliable."

Miscellaneous

Pollard divorced his first wife, Anne, after her release from prison. Anne moved to Israel for a time in the late 1990s and then settled in California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
, where she then took up employment working in fashion design
Fashion design

Fashion design is the applied art dedicated to clothing and lifestyle accessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific time....
. Following his divorce, Jonathan fell in love with Elaine "Esther" Zeitz, a Canadian
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
 whom he had met as a teenager and who was involved in the effort to free him. Jonathan is now married to Esther. Although Anne Pollard, in an interview, says she has not spoken to her ex-husband since the divorce, she has continued her involvement to free him.

His story inspired the movie Les Patriotes
Les patriotes (film)

Les patriotes is a 1994 in film French language film by director ?ric Rochant which focuses on certain activities carried out by the Mossad, as well as describing some of their operational tactics....
 (The Patriots) by French director Éric Rochant
Éric Rochant

?ric Rochant, born February 24, 1961, is a France film director and a script writer....
 in which US actor Richard Masur
Richard Masur

Richard D. Masur is an United States actor who has appeared in over 80 movies during his career. He served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1995 to 1999....
 portrayed a character resembling Pollard.

Works cited


External links

  • . BBC News, 12 May 1998
  • by Edwin Black, published in The Forward
    The Forward

    The Forward is a Jewish-American weekly newspaper published in New York City.As of 2008, the Forward is published as a weekly news magazine in separate Yiddish and English language editions....
     and archived in the Internet Archive
    Internet Archive

    The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free and openly accessible online digital library, including an archive site of the World Wide Web....
    . A shorter version of this article was published in the The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
    The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

    The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles is an independent, nonprofit community weekly newspaper serving the Jewish community of greater Los Angeles....
    .
  • - Federation of American Scientists