MARK SILVERBERG
March 26, 2013
During the course of President Obama's recent interview with Israel's
Channel 2
on March 21st, in response to whether he would consider commuting the
life sentence of former civilian American naval intelligence analyst and
convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, he remarked: "As president, my
first obligation is to observe the law here in the US. I need to make
sure that every individual is treated fairly and equally."
To do so, he should begin with a question. Why have former U.S.
Deputy Defense Secretary Lawrence Korb, former U.S. Senate Intelligence
Committee Chairman Dennis DeConcini, Ronald Reagan's National Security
Advisor Robert McFarlane, former CIA Director James Woolsey, former
Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former Deputy Attorney-General Philip
Heymann, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz,
39 U.S. Congressmen, 18 U.S. ex-Senators and even the European
Parliament (on September 16th, 1993) repeatedly called for Pollard's
sentence to be commuted.
This answer, quite simply, is because Pollard's punishment did not fit his crime.
McFarlane went so far as to write that Pollard's imprisonment was
"disgraceful and mean-spirited," and "well beyond what any court would
sentence for the same action today." He called Pollard's life sentence a
"great injustice" and disproportionate to the crime he committed.
In 1987, Pollard pleaded guilty in a plea agreement (a deal quashed
by the judge at the request of Caspar Weinberger, then-Secretary of
State who had a visceral dislike of Israel) to one count of providing
classified American intelligence information to an ally - Israel.
However, a newly-declassified 1987
CIA Damage Assessment
indicates that the information Pollard provided to Israeli intelligence
related to Tunisian, Syrian, Pakistani, Iraqi, Libyan, Iranian and
Soviet nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare capabilities - vital
intelligence that Israel was legally entitled to receive in accordance
with an Executive Order signed by President Reagan, but which was being
withheld as retaliation for Israel's pre-emptive strike on Iraq's
nuclear reactors.
It included photos of the PLO headquarters in Tunisia and information
on Soviet arms shipments to Syria and other Arab states; Tunisian and
Libyan air defense systems, information on Egyptian missile systems and
information on planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian
targets. With regard to Syria, in particular, Pollard provided documents
concerning a suspected research and development facility, the Syrian
electronics intelligence (ELINT) system, remotely piloted vehicles, a
national command, control, and communications center in Damascus, Syrian
military units to which Soviet advisors were assigned, and medical
intelligence information on then Syrian president Hafez al-Assad.
The common denominator in these documents was that they all related
to the existential threat posed to Israel by these hostile Middle
Eastern Arab/Persian/Asian countries.
Pollard was never charged with treason, was not motivated by profit,
and was never indicted for harming the United States or for compromising
U.S. capabilities, codes, agents, or war plans. He was indicted and
convicted on only one charge - one count of passing classified
information to an ally -
without intent to harm the United States.
Under the heading "What the Israelis Did Not Ask For," the
Assessment remarks
(at page 43) that the Israelis "never expressed interest in U.S.
military activities, plans, capabilities, or equipment."
Even the sentencing judge, Aubrey Robinson, acknowledged that Pollard was an ideologue and not a mercenary.
Moreover, contrary to the extremely damaging "worst spy in history"
and "betraying America's sources and methods" comments expressed by
Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, there is no evidence that Pollard's
actions led to the loss of a single American life over the years. No
less a figure than Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Leeper has
characterized damage caused by the release of the information that
Pollard actually gave Israel as "minimal", and in 1994, government
sources were quoted as saying that "no one died as a result of Pollard"
(Washington Post,
Apr. 23, 1994). As former U.S. federal prosecutor John Loftus writes
..... "Pollard was stealing Soviet secrets for Israel, not American
secrets for the Soviets."
It is true of course that Pollard committed a serious crime and his
espionage should not be condoned nor should the gravity of his crime be
underestimated, but his 28-year sentence is outrageous considering that
the average sentence for passing classified material to an ally is 10
years, and the median time served for such an offense is between 2 to 4
years.
Pollard is the only person in U.S. history to receive a
life sentence
for spying for a U.S. ally - Israel. Even agents who committed far more
serious crimes on behalf of hostile nations did not receive such a
harsh sentence. In fact, of the more than 50 recently convicted Soviet
bloc and Chinese spies (except for Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen both
of whom also received life sentences for espionage activities that
caused irreparable damage to U.S. interests and the loss of U.S.
intelligence assets in the Soviet Union) two-thirds served or were
sentenced to less time than Pollard has already served.
Pollard spied in the U.S. but
not against the U.S. He has more
than paid his debt. It is time for justice to be done and to commute his
sentence to time served.
Mark Silverberg is a foreign policy analyst for the Ariel Center for Policy Research (Israel).
He is a former member of the Canadian Justice Department, a past
Director of the Canadian Jewish Congress (Western Office) based in
Vancouver, a member of Hadassah's National Academic Advisory Board and a
Contributing Editor for Family Security Matters, Intellectual
Conservative and Israel National News (Arutz Sheva). He also served as a
Consultant to the Secretary General of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem
during the first Palestinian intifada. His book "The Quartermasters of
Terror: Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamic Jihad" and his articles have been archived under www. marksilverberg .com.
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