Pollard granted parole

[cabri]

Link

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jonathan Pollard, the former Navy intelligence analyst whose conviction of spying for Israel stoked fierce international passions, has been granted parole and will be released from prison in November after nearly 30 years.

The decision to free Pollard from his life sentence, announced Tuesday by his lawyers and then confirmed by the Justice Department, caps an extraordinary espionage case that spurred decades of legal and diplomatic wrangling. Critics have condemned the American as a traitor who betrayed his country for money and disclosed damaging secrets, while supporters have argued that he was punished excessively given that he spied for a U.S. ally.

Pollard is due to be released on Nov. 21, three decades after he was arrested while trying to gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Though American Jews have wrestled with how much leniency he should get, Israelis have long campaigned for his freedom. The government there has recognized him as an Israeli agent and granted him citizenship, even as recent American presidents have resisted efforts to free him early.

"We are looking forward to his release," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday.

White House officials strongly denied that the release was in any way tied to the nuclear deal recently reached with Iran, or that it was intended as a concession to Israel. Secretary of State John Kerry, who testified before Congress on the nuclear deal on Tuesday, told reporters Pollard's parole was "not at all" connected. And Israeli officials have said that while they would welcome the release, it would not ease their opposition to the Iran agreement.

The U.S. had previously dangled the prospect of his release, including during Israel-Palestinian talks last year, when the Obama administration considered the possibility of freeing Pollard early as part of a package of incentives to keep Israel at the negotiating table. As it turned out, the peace effort collapsed and nothing came of the proposal.

The Justice Department, for its part, noted that federal sentencing rules in place at the time of Pollard's prosecution entitled him to parole after serving 30 years of his life sentence.

Department lawyers did not contest his parole bid, which was granted following a hearing this month before the U.S. Parole Commission that took into account Pollard's behavior in prison and whether he was likely to commit new crimes if released.
...

In bold, may allow a concession to Israel regarding Iran to not actually be such.

 

[IronWing]

Can you fix your title?

 

[highland145]

Should have been executed.

"Hey, Israel, since we're letting Iran get nukes, we'll give you Pollard." Win?

 

[cabri]

Can you fix your title?

corrected

 

[Jhhnn]

Fine by me. Hopefully he'll emigrate to Israel, the country where his true allegiance lies.

Maybe he'll be greeted as a hero so we can better understand our Israeli friends, huh?

 

[IronWing]

corrected

Thanks. It looks like Pollard got no special treatment, which is good. Analysts don't get to create foreign policy.

 

[cabri]

Fine by me. Hopefully he'll emigrate to Israel, the country where his true allegiance lies.

Maybe he'll be greeted as a hero so we can better understand our Israeli friends, huh?

Per article - he is restricted for at least 5 years

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Meh its a serious crime but the spying went to Israel which isn't exactly an enemy and 30 years in jail seems appropriate to me.
The State Department or Justice I can't remember could actually approve him for a visa if they see fit.

 

[Thump553]

A couple things I didn't realize (or remember) until I read the article in this morning's paper:

-Pollard's justification was that the USA wasn't purportedly giving Israel info about supposedly Palestinian training camps

-Israel originally threw Pollard under the bus, disclaiming all knowledge, etc. Years later they flipped 180 degrees, gave him Israeli citizenship and declared him a national hero

-(worst of all in my mind) Israel passed on a lot of the top secret info Pollard stole to the USSR (our #1 enemy at the time) in order to get jews released from USSR

The Justice Department didn't oppose this parole, they say it was mandatory under our prison rules. He has served his 30 years.

Personally I'm a bit tired of US citizens and especially US politicians blindly supporting Israel. It's proven here they stole our secrets and sold them to our worst enemies. In the 1967 war they attacked an unarmed US Navy spy ship operating in international waters and clearly marked as US-two separate attacks, one done after the ship issued distress calls.

I'm not saying Israel doesn't need or deserve US support, but we should be rational about it.

 

[fskimospy]

Meh its a serious crime but the spying went to Israel which isn't exactly an enemy and 30 years in jail seems appropriate to me.
The State Department or Justice I can't remember could actually approve him for a visa if they see fit.

The information went beyond Israel, and it was a pretty huge breach of national security. The fact that Israel has celebrated this attack on our national security just makes it worse. (nice friends we have there, haha).

That being said, I agree. He's served 30 years, that sounds like more than enough to me. Let him go.

 

[Brainonska511]

I'm not saying Israel doesn't need or deserve US support, but we should be rational about it.

Yep. I don't have a problem providing US support to Israel, but we need to be rational about it and make sure it aligns with our national interests. It should never be a blank check; sometimes, we're going to have to tell them to pound sand.