Posted by
Will Blesch on Saturday, February 03, 2007 12:34:21 PM
As
everyone probably knows, (at least those who are interested in
Israeli/American relations), American Israeli and American Naval
Civilian Intelligence Analyst Jonathan Pollard was convicted of being
an Israeli spy in the United States and received a life sentence in
1986.
I have posted here facts concerning the Jonathan Pollard case for those who are ignorant of what actually went down.
- Jonathan
Pollard was a civilian American Naval intelligence analyst. In the mid
1980's (circa 1983-1984), Pollard discovered that information vital to Israel's security was being deliberately withheld by certain elements within the U.S. national security establishment.
- Israel
was legally entitled to this vital security information according to a
1983 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries.
- The information being withheld from Israel
included Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian nuclear, chemical, and
biological warfare capabilities - being developed for use against Israel.
It also included information on ballistic missile development by these
countries and information on planned terrorist attacks against Israeli
civilian targets.
- When
Pollard discovered this suppression of information and asked his
superiors about it, he was told to "mind his own business", and that
"Jews get nervous talking about poison gas; they don't need to know."
He also learned that the objective of cutting off the flow of information to Israel was to severely curtail Israel's ability to act independently in defense of her own interests.
- Pollard was painfully aware that Israeli lives
were being put in jeopardy as a result of this undeclared intelligence
embargo. He did everything he possibly could to stop this covert policy
and to have the legal flow of information to Israel restored. When his efforts met no success, he began to give the information to Israel directly.
- Jonathan
Pollard was an ideologue, not a mercenary. The FBI concluded after nine
months of polygraphing that Pollard acted for ideological reasons only,
not for profit. This fact was recognized by the sentencing judge who
declined to fine Pollard. (See the addendum for further details.)
Furthermore, on May 11, 1998, Israel formally acknowledged
Jonathan Pollard had been a bona fide Israeli agent. This fact wiped
out any remaining doubt about Jonathan Pollard's motives. Being an
official agent is, by definition, the polar opposite of being a
mercenary.
- In 1985, his actions were discovered by the U.S. government. His instructions from Israel were to seek refuge in the Israeli embassy in Washington.
When Pollard and his former wife sought refuge there, they were at
first received and then summarily thrown out into the waiting arms of
the FBI.
Jonathan Pollard never had a trial. At the request of both the U.S.
and Israeli governments, he entered into a plea agreement, which spared
both governments a long, difficult, expensive and potentially
embarrassing trial.
- Jonathan Pollard fulfilled his end of the plea agreement, cooperating fully with the prosecution.
Nevertheless,
Pollard received a life sentence and a recommendation that he never be
paroled - in complete violation of the plea agreement he had reached
with the government.
- Jonathan Pollard was never indicted for harming the United States.
- Jonathan Pollard was never indicted for compromising codes, agents, or war plans.
- Jonathan Pollard was never charged with treason. [Legally, treason is a charge that is only applicable when one spies for an enemy state in time of war.]
Jonathan
Pollard was indicted on only one charge: one count of passing
classified information to an ally, without intent to harm the United States.
15. Prior
to sentencing, then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger delivered a
46-page classified memorandum to the sentencing judge. Since then,
neither Pollard nor any of his cleared attorneys have ever been allowed
to access the memorandum to challenge the false charges it contains-a
clear violation of Pollard's constitutional rights.
The
day before sentencing, Weinberger delivered a four-page supplemental
memorandum to the sentencing judge. In it, he falsely accused Pollard
of treason. Also in the supplemental memorandum, Weinberger advocated a
life sentence in clear violation of Pollard's plea agreement. The
implication that follows from Weinberger's false characterization of
Pollard's offense as "treason" is that the country Pollard served, Israel, is an enemy state.
- Pollard
was shown the supplemental Weinberger memorandum only once, just
moments before sentencing - hardly adequate time to prepare an
appropriate defense to rebut the false accusations in it.
No one else in the history of the United States
has ever received a life sentence for passing classified information to
an ally - only Jonathan Pollard. The median sentence for this offense
is two to four years. Even agents who have committed far more serious
offenses on behalf of hostile nations have not received such a harsh
sentence.
- Pollard's
attorney never appealed from the life sentence. The time to file for
such an appeal was within ten days of sentencing. Years later, with a
different attorney, Pollard filed a habeas corpus challenge to the sentence.
The Court of Appeals, in a two-to-one decision, rejected the challenge, largely on procedural grounds.
The
majority placed heavy emphasis on the failure to appeal from the life
sentence in a timely manner, and on the resulting far heavier burden
faced by Pollard in seeking to challenge the sentence via habeas corpus. [Note:
"Habeas corpus" is a procedure by which an incarcerated person may
bring a court challenge to the legality of his or her incarceration -
often long after the underlying case has been concluded.]
In a dissenting opinion,
Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Williams called the case "a fundamental
miscarriage of justice," and wrote that he would have ordered that
Pollard's sentence be vacated.
In November 1995, Israel
granted Jonathan Pollard Israeli citizenship. The official presentation
took place in January of 1996. This publicly signaled to the U.S.
Israel's willingness to accept full responsibility for Pollard.
- U.S.
government sources falsely accuse Pollard in the media of passing
"rooms full of classified information" and "hundreds of thousands of
documents" to Israel.
This volume of information is an absurdity! Pollard would have needed
to make numerous "drops" using a moving van to have transferred such a
large volume of information. In actual fact, Jonathan Pollard made a
grand total of eleven "drops" to the Israelis, using only a small briefcase to hold the documents.
The government used an insidious formula to exaggerate the volume of information that Jonathan Pollard passed to Israel. The formula was: if only one page or a single sentence of a document was passed to the Israelis, it was counted as if the whole document had been transmitted. Even referenced documents and sources were counted as having been transmitted in toto. Using this calculation, a single page could be counted as 50 hard-bound 500 page volumes!
- There is no Mr. "X".
The CIA claim that another highly-placed spy in the U.S.
had to exist in order to give Jonathan Pollard his highly specific
tasking orders is a complete fabrication. To understand how Pollard was
tasked by Israel to secure specific documents, see: Was there another U.S. spy tasking Pollard? - Mr. ‘X' Exposed.
- On May 12, 1998
, in the same statement in which the Government of Israel publicly
acknowledged Jonathan Pollard as an Israeli agent, it accepted full
responsibility for him, and indicated its commitment to securing his
release and repatriation to Israel.
- Jonathan
Pollard has repeatedly expressed his remorse publicly and in private
letters to the President and others. He regrets having broken the law,
and is sorry he did not find a legal means to act upon his concerns for
Israel. (See Remorse Page.)
- Jonathan Pollard has been openly linked to the Middle East Peace Process since 1995.
The Israeli government recognized long ago that Jonathan's sentence was unjust, that the documents he delivered to Israel
did not remotely cause the damage that the prosecution claimed but
never proved. As a result of this recognition, various Israeli
administrations have negotiated, as a matter of basic fairness, to
secure Jonathan's release.
Since 1995, within the context of the peace process, the US has repeatedly exploited the plight of Jonathan Pollard to extract heavy concessions from Israel.
However despite express promises made by the United States to Israel, Jonathan Pollard remains in jail.
- It
was the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who, in 1995, first began
openly to negotiate for Jonathan's release as part of the peace
process.
Although President Clinton promised Prime Minister Rabin that he would release Jonathan as part of a Middle East peace settlement, the President refused to honor his promise after Rabin was assassinated.
- Rabin's
successor, Prime Minister Shimon Peres, continued to link Jonathan to
the peace process, and even went so far as to include a spy swap
proposal as part of the deal for Pollard's release.
- The Wye Plantation summit is a prime example of U.S. exploitation of Jonathan Pollard.
Both
before and again during the Wye summit negotiations in the fall of
1998, President Clinton promised to release Jonathan Pollard. Pollard
was the deal-maker at Wye which enabled the accords to be completed.
At
the last minute, with the eyes of the world focused on the Wye Accords
signing ceremony which was about to take place in Washington, Clinton
reneged on Pollard's release, creating a storm of negative publicity
for Israel.
- How the Wye fiasco came about:
In
September, 1998, just before the mid-term Congressional elections,
President Clinton (who at the time was facing impeachment hearings and
in need of a foreign policy PR victory) asked Israeli Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu to attend a three-way summit with the Palestinians
at Wye River, Maryland.
Clinton
knew that a successful summit at Wye just before the Congressional
elections would be good not only for his image, but would also reap
great political benefits for the Democrats in their bid to regain
control of Congress. As an inducement to Netanyahu, Clinton promised to release Jonathan Pollard within the context of the summit.
Understanding
the value of Jonathan Pollard for his own re-election bid, and needing
him as a sweetener to sell any kind of "peace" deal to the Israeli
people, Netanyahu ignored the entreaties of Republican friends like
Newt Gingrich and agreed to attend the summit. (Gingrich would later repay Netanyahu by leading the Republican charge of slander and lies against Jonathan Pollard.)
- Once the Wye summit was underway, Clinton quickly "forgot" his promise to free Jonathan Pollard and there was little Netanyahu could do.
- Talks at Wye broke down over the release of Palestinian murderers with Jewish blood on their hands and over Israel's request for the extradition of Ghazi Jabali, the chief of Police in Gaza who was wanted for his role in planning and executing terrorist attacks in Israel.
- To
break the stalemate, the Palestinians suggested Jonathan Pollard as the
solution. They proposed that Pollard be sold to Netanyahu once again:
the US would give Jonathan to Israel in return for Israel's freeing of hundreds of Palestinian terrorists and immunity for Ghazi Jabali.
- The US and Israel agreed to the Palestinian plan to swap Pollard for terrorists and murderers.
President
Clinton personally worked out the details of the deal in a late-night
private session with a Palestinian and an Israeli representative.
- According
to the deal, Prime Minister Netanyahu was to receive a side letter from
President Clinton the next morning (one of approximately 30 side
letters the Americans had promised) guaranteeing Pollard's release for
November 11, 1998, one week after the US House elections.
The
Pollard negotiation was the deal-maker at Wye which allowed the summit
to be successfully wrapped up and a signing ceremony to be planned for
the next morning in Washington, on Friday October 23, 1998.
- Only
hours before the signing ceremony, P.M. Netanyahu received all of the
American side-letters that had been promised to him, except one - the
one guaranteeing the release of Jonathan Pollard.
Netanyahu threatened not to attend the signing ceremony unless he got the Pollard side letter. Clinton said, "Trust me." Netanyahu, knowing he was about to be double-crossed by Clinton over Pollard for the second time, refused.
Netanyahu
demanded that in the absence of a side letter of guarantee, Pollard
should be freed into his custody immediately, or no signing ceremony.
Arik Sharon supported Netanyahu and they threatened to leave Wye
without signing the accords.
- In
order to take the pressure off of President Clinton, CIA chief George
Tenet quickly leaked the news of Pollard's imminent release to the
media in a deliberate - and ultimately successful - attempt to torpedo
the deal.
He
sent emissaries to Capitol Hill to hold emergency meetings with leading
Senators and Congressmen to enlist their support in publicly denouncing
Pollard's release. Many lies were told by the CIA emissaries about
Jonathan Pollard to convince the legislators to act swiftly and in
unison. Believing the lies, the legislators complied and began an
unprecedented series of public actions to prevent the release of
Jonathan Pollard.
- Meanwhile
at Wye, under heavy pressure and still fearful that Netanyahu would not
back down, Clinton quickly negotiated a private fall-back position with
Netanyahu: Clinton would publicly promise to do a "speedy review"of the
Pollard Case and he would use that review to free Pollard a few months
later, parallel to the release of the 750 Palestinian terrorists who
were part of the price Israel had agreed to pay for Pollard.
Under heavy public pressure and betrayed by his own Minister of Defense, Yitzhak Mordecai*, who closed ranks with Clinton, Netanyahu folded and accepted this private deal. The signing ceremony was held in Washington as scheduled. *(Mordecai himself is now on trial in Israel in 2001 for sexual assault.)
Netanyahu's
capitulation at Wye, the public spectacle of his being brought to heel
by the Americans, and the lopsided deal he brought home from Wye now
that Pollard was no longer perceived to be a part of it, would shortly
cost him his premiership.
- After Wye, the White House falsely accused Netanyahu of having injected Pollard into the Wye summit at the last moment.
However,
eye witnesses to the Pollard deal at Wye, including the Israeli and the
Palestinian who had negotiated the deal with Clinton and the former
Israeli Cabinet Secretary, all later contradicted the White House
version of events and affirmed that President Clinton had committed
himself to the release of Jonathan Pollard as an integral part of the
Wye Accords.
Note: Prime Minister Netanyahu was the first prime minster of Israel
to agree to free Palestinian terrorists with Jewish blood on their
hands. That is the price the Americans demanded for Pollard at Wye. To
this day, this represents a keen embarrassment for Netanyahu and his
party, even more so since he did not receive Pollard but the
Palestinian murders were released nonetheless. That is why no official
source from the Netanyahu government ever wants to publicly admit to
it. They keep the details to a minimum, but all concur that Pollard's
freedom was bought and paid for by "concessions"at Wye.
- When Netanyahu returned to Israel after Wye, he created a firestorm of publicity by releasing 200 Palestinian common criminals from Israeli prisons.
The
Palestinians were outraged, and insisted that these common criminals
were not the prisoners that they had bargained for at Wye. The
Americans angrily protested. Netanyahu reminded the Americans that the
Wye Accords do not specify exactly which prisoners Israel must release. Critics wondered if the Prime Minister had lost his mind to antagonize the Americans this way.
Only
those close to Prime Minister Netanyahu understood that this was
Netanyahu's private, pointed reminder to Bill Clinton that if he was
thinking of double-crossing him yet a third time over Pollard, he
should think again. No Pollard, no release for the Palestinian
murderers and terrorists.
Unfortunately for Jonathan Pollard, Netanyahu's government fell before he was able to act on this.
- In
a meeting with Netanyahu right after his electoral defeat in the Spring
of 1999, Jonathan Pollard's wife, Esther, received assurances from the
former prime minister that the new prime minister, Ehud Barak, had been
fully briefed about what had been agreed to at Wye and about the
fall-back position; that is to say, Israel had yet to free the 750
terrorists with blood on their hands and was still supposed to receive
Pollard home in a "parallel gesture" from President Clinton.
- Not
long after Barak took office, the 750 Palestinian murderers and
terrorists walked out of prison as free men. Jonathan Pollard remained
in his American jail cell.
- In an attempt to justify Clinton's reneging at Wye, a story was leaked to the press that George Tenet, a Clinton appointee, had threatened to resign as head of the CIA if Pollard were released.
The
story, though not logical, sounded plausible and it became popular to
cite the opposition of the American Intelligence community as the
reason Clinton did not honor his commitment at Wye to free Pollard.
This was soon exposed as the lame excuse it was when Clinton freed a group of unrepentant FALN terrorists in the fall of 1999, in an attempt to improve his wife's popularity with New York State's Hispanic community in her election bid for the Senate. (See Senate Race Page.)
To this day, the same lame excuse continues to be used to justify the unjustifiable failure of Clinton to honor his commitment.
- In
September of 1999, despite strenuous opposition from all of his
government advisors and agencies, President Clinton freed 14
unrepentant Puerto Rican terrorists, members of the FALN, charged with
bank robbery and various acts of terrorism, including over 130 bombings
in the US, and the deaths of American police officers.
Clinton
ignored a solid wall of opposition from the Justice, Intelligence and
Defense departments and Congress, invoked his powers of executive
clemency and set the FALN terrorists free. In doing so, he
unequivocally put the lie to the notion that any government agency
might tie his hands or influence his decision in matters of clemency. (See FALN Page and Clemency Page.)
- More than two years elapsed after Wye. President Clinton did no review. Jonathan Pollard remained in prison while the US continued to extract Israeli concessions for his release.
- Those
who still believed the myth that it was the American Intelligence
Community that was tying the hands of President Clinton, also clung to
the belief he would finally honor his many promises to release Jonathan
Pollard - including the commitment he had made at Wye - at the end of
his term, when he could do so without fear of political reprisal.
- Beginning in 1991 Rabbi Mordecai Eliyahu, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel,
and Jonathan's rabbi, offered himself to the U.S. Justice Department as
Jonathan's guarantor. The offer was ignored.
Rabbi Eliyahu repeated the same offer every year after that in private letters to President Clinton.
Every
offer went unacknowledged until the fall of 2000, when Esther Pollard
received a letter from the White House indicating that the President
was aware of the former chief Rabbi's offer and that it would be part
of the President's consideration in reaching a final decision on her
husband's case.
- President Clinton never kept his promises.
When he left office in January 2001, Jonathan Pollard was not included among those that to whom Clinton granted clemency:
- in spite of his repeated express commitments to Israel to free Pollard in return for numerous heavy concessions
- in spite of his commitment to free Pollard as an integral part if the Wye Accords
- in spite of the appeals of the Jewish community, and
- in spite of the gross injustices of the Pollard case which include:
- a grossly disproportionate sentence
- a broken plea agreement
- use of secret evidence
- a false charge of treason
- ineffective assistance of counsel
- ex parte communication between prosecutors and judge
- a lack of due process
- a sentencing procedure infected by false allegations and lies
On his last day in office, Clinton
granted clemency to 140 people. Many who received executive clemency
had been convicted of very serious offenses, including murder, robbery
and drug dealing. Some of those pardoned had served no prison time at
all before being pardoned. Among those pardoned were Clinton's brother, and a former head of the CIA. (See Clemency Page.)
- In September of 2000, Jonathan Pollard's attorneys, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, filed a motion in the US District Court of Columbia to vacate his sentence.
The
motion, supported by documentation, presents a compelling and very
disturbing picture of serious government misconduct that went unchecked
by Mr. Pollard's then-counsel. As a result of that misconduct, and as a
result of his attorney's ineffectiveness Jonathan Pollard was sentenced
to life in prison on the basis of false allegations, and under
circumstances that violated his plea agreement. (See Legal Doc: Declaration of Jonathan Jay Pollard In Support of Motion for Resentencing. See also Legal Doc: Memorandum of Law in Support of Jonathan Jay Pollard's § 2255 Motion for Resentencing.)
- Since
he was sentenced in 1987, none of Jonathan Pollard's security-cleared
attorneys have been able to see the classified portions of the docket
in order to challenge them in a court of law or to defend him in a
clemency proceeding.
In
September of 2000, Jonathan Pollard's attorneys filed a separate motion
requesting that attorney Eliot Lauer be allowed access to the secret
portions of the Pollard court docket. (See Legal Doc: Motion to Unseal the Pollard Record.)
- On January 12, 2001,
Chief Judge Norma Holloway Johnson denied the attorneys' request to
allow Eliot Lauer access to the complete Pollard docket, upholding the
government's claim that Lauer's seeing the secret portion of the record
poses a risk to American national security.
Both
Lauer and Semmelman hold TOP SECRET level security clearances, which
they obtained from the Justice Department in order to be eligible to
see their client's full record.
A motion for reconsideration was filed January 18, 2001. (See Legal Doc: Motion for Reconsideration of Court Order.)
- Amicus briefs supporting Jonathan's new legal cases have been filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as by top American legal authorities. (See Amici Briefs on the Court Case Page.)
- Five Prime Ministers of Israel and three Presidents of Israel have requested Jonathan Pollard's release from the United States. Israel
has pledged to be responsible for its agent who has served many years
in prison under harsh conditions, and who has fully and repeatedly
expressed his remorse. (See Remorse Page.)
Between close friends and strong allies, that ought to be enough.
55. On November 21, 2006, Jonathan Pollard entered the 22nd year of his life sentence, with no end in sight.
Now, on Thursday, February 8th 2007
there will be a world wide rally and protest to encourage the American
government, and specifically George W. Bush to pardon Jonathan Pollard
and allow him to leave the United States for Israel.
The following information is for those who wish to participate in the rally and protest:
NEW YORK PROTEST FOR POLLARD
Thursday, February 8th at 6:00PM
Broadway Avenue Between 46th and 47th Streets
(NYC - Near Times Square)
Enough
is Enough! Jonathan Pollard stays in prison for over 21 years. However
there is hope, President Bush will leave his cabinet and will pardon
1,500 prisoners. If we raise our voices loud enough this year,
hopefully Pollard will be placed on that list. As Bnai Elim, we will
have peaceful, legal and productive rallies. Bnai Elim is making
rallies through out the U.S. and in Jerusalem on the same day and at
the same time, February 8th, 2007 6:00PM EST or 3:00PM WST. The rules
are simple, bring along no weapons, drugs or alcohol. When you arrive
at the location; all you have to do is lie down or sit in the street.
Those who don't feel comfortable may stand, but it will have less
effect. Wear old clotheing so they won't get ruined, and make sure you
are warmly dressed. We have hope and faith that we will attract the
media's attention and that the Preisdent will be well aware of our
position. Reserve the date, rain or shine.
For more information contact Gennadiy, NY Director of Operations at director@bnaielimny.org
List of other cities where the rally will take place:
USA
Merrit Island, FL
Cooper City, FL
Chicago, IL
Boston, MA
Philadelphia, PA
Los Angeles, CA
San Francisco, CA
Atlanta, GA
Taylorsville, UT
Israel
Jerusalem
Russia
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Moscow Belorussia Minks Ukraine Kiev Oddessa Dnepropetrovsk
A note for those interested as well. It is almost certain that at least in New York,
the Neturei Karta will also be present holding a separate rally in
opposition to that of Bnei Elim. Please remember to neither verbally
nor physically attack the Neturei Karta in any way. The Bnei Elim rally
is much more important than the minor nuisance the Neturei Karta are
sure to try to be.
If
you are an American, whether you are Jewish or not, you should see the
inherent injustice of what has happened to Jonathan Pollard, and I
encourage you to attend and join in the rally and protest if you reside
in any of the cities listed above, or can get to those cities easily.
Be well!