Reactions to News that the
traitor Jonathan Pollard will go Free
Editor’s Note: the following
reactions were collected from comments from readers of the liberal-Zionist New
York Times. I would guess that the comments are representative of about
70% of the total received and published by the Times. If this estimate is
accurate, it signifies that even readers of a leading American-Zionist
newspaper detest Pollard and the cynical deal that President Obama cut
on his behalf.
Hence, outside the confines of the
circles of ignorance in the USA (Right wing Churches and their pulpit
buffoons located mainly in the Talmud-belt, i.e. the South), this would tend to
show that despite any rigged polls (like the ones that tell us that all of a
sudden a plurality of Americans favor marriage rights for men who use
the sewer of the human body for purposes of romance), most Americans
resent Israeli domination of American politics and foreign policy and Pollard
is a focus of that anger.
What is most unfortunate is that
that there is no leader on the national scene in a position to
channel this resentment and anger into a positive movement for
the restoration of our Constitutional
Republic. But at least we
can take solace in the fact that despite decades of “Holocaust" agit-prop
the American people continue to harbor a healthy disgust for so-called “Israel” and
the traitors it cultivates in our midst.
Post-script: several years ago we
watched a lecture by a reputable author broadcast on
C-Span television’s book channel, who claimed that the secrets
Pollard sold to the Israelis made their way not just to the Soviet Union,
but to Pakistan and China. If we
noted the author’s name at the time we have long since misplaced that note, but
our recollection is clear.
Michael Hoffman
at this URL: http://nyti.ms/1IH6OM2
Most of the comments are
anonymous; a few are signed, as indicated. They were published July 28.
Pollard betrayed his country and
the sacred trust it placed in him. He seems to be totally unrepentant. His
crimes were motivated by allegiance to another nation. I don't see why America should
be releasing Pollard, and at the same time trying to imprison a man who leaked
secrets to the American people, motivated by love of the Constitution and
concern for our disappearing freedoms. I'm talking, of course, about Edward
Snowden.
I DO NOT approve of this, and I
have written the White House and my representatives to say so. A spy who spies
for a 'friend' is far, far more dangerous in many ways than a spy who spies for
a nation or entity that is clearly our adversary. He should of course be treated
humanely, but he should die in prison. If Israel
chooses to spy on the USA
again, and I am certain that they have people trying to do so even today, it
should be crystal clear that the price for that is very high.
The fact that he was not executed
for treason and that relations with Israel were not permanently
affected by his spying - those things constitute a dangerous degree of
concession to a nation that is willing to undermine our security for their own
gain. He should remain in prison, and entreaties by Israel to release him should be met
with a cold shoulder.
Pollard is the worst kind of
human being, a traitor to his country. If Israel
gives him a hero's welcome, it will be proof to the American people that Israel is not a true friend of the U.S., but is
willing to sacrifice the safety and security of American families in pursuit of
its own goals. May Pollard never be allowed to return to this country when he
leaves.
Pollard stole the crown jewels of
American intelligence (documents detailing the sources and methods utilized to
safeguard American interests and agents throughout the world) and sold them to
the Israelis, who proceeded to trade the material with a number of countries,
including the Soviet Union. Pollard's
treasonous betrayal of his country has made him a hero in Israel.
Pollard's offenses are infinitely worse than any crime committed by Edward
Snowden, who exposed classified information not to a foreign government or for
money, but to inform the American people of the illegal activities directed by
their government against them. Once again, the Obama Administration proves that
justice lies not in what you do or its effects, but who you know and their
influence.
David Eason, Denver, CO
How could he have been tried and
convicted as a spy for selling secrets to Israel? Is not Israel just a
distant 51st state? Albeit a very greedy, ungrateful and entitled state that
has more influence in our Congress than the Koch brothers. A state that has no
other friend in the world but us yet insults our president and threatens our
Congress. — Ed Blau, Marshfield,
WI
Let's see, they spy on us, they
undermine our democratically elected president, they cause us to loose face in
the world for being on "their side," they cost taxpayers billions, yes
billions, every year in free money we give them and highly escalated military
costs because of them, they kill innocent woman and children, and these are
our dear friends? Yikes! No wonder no one likes us anymore.
The NSA (should) investigate the
corrosive effect of Israeli lobbying on American Security. When the Senate
Minority leader (Democrat Charles Schumer-NY) puts Israel's interests over that
of his own country's, or at least says he needs to weigh the Iran deal through
the lens of Israel's security needs, as opposed to those of his own country's,
and when the Israeli Ambassador (born American) has open doors to anybody's
office in the US Congress, this is an insidious relationship. Those who support
Pollard's release just on the basis of his Jewish faith (presumably coinciding
with their own faith), really need to check their passports in.
***
The Hoffman Wire is made possible
by donations from readers and the sale of Mr.
Hoffman’s recordings and publications. ***
at this URL: http://nyti.ms/1IH6OM2
Most of the comments are
anonymous; a few are signed, as indicated. They were published July 28.
Jonathan Pollard, Spy for Israel, to Be
Released on Parole
WASHINGTON — In July 2014, after Jonathan J. Pollard had
served 29 years of a life sentence for spying on behalf of Israel, his hopes for
freedom were thwarted when a federal panel denied his request for parole.
But that hearing set in motion an
intense scramble by lawyers for Mr. Pollard to ensure a different result a year
later, when he would be eligible for parole after serving 30 years. They wrote
letters, cited statistics and introduced evidence that their client met two
legal standards for parole: that he had behaved well in prison, and that he
posed no threat of returning to a life of espionage.
On Tuesday, the effort finally
succeeded, as the United States Parole Commission announced that Mr. Pollard,
60, met the legal standards and would be released just before Thanksgiving.
On Tuesday, the effort finally
succeeded, as the United States Parole Commission announced that Mr. Pollard,
60, met the legal standards and would be released just before Thanksgiving.
Mr. Pollard, one of the country’s
most notorious spies, will walk out of federal prison in Butner, N.C.,
on Nov. 20. Eliot Lauer, one of the two lawyers who have been working pro bono
for the past 15 years to free Mr. Pollard, called his client on Tuesday with
the news.
“Thank God,” Mr. Pollard replied,
according to Mr. Lauer. The lawyer added, “Right now, after many, many years of
hoping for this day, we are going to sit back and celebrate.”
Mr. Lauer said it was an “absurdity”
to think that Mr. Pollard, who was convicted of passing classified materials to
his Israeli handlers, would return to spying. He noted that any information Mr.
Pollard retained from his time as a Navy intelligence analyst was more than 30
years out of date. He said the parole commission appeared to have accepted that
assurance.
In the months before Mr.
Pollard’s latest parole hearing several weeks ago, the Justice Department asked
intelligence and law enforcement agencies to determine the effect his release
would have. “They didn’t articulate how he was going to commit more crimes,”
one senior American official said, referring to the agencies.
Mr. Lauer also praised the
government for deciding not to oppose Mr. Pollard’s release after years in which
the intelligence agencies had vehemently opposed any deal to release him early.
Justice Department officials said publicly last week for the first time that
they would not oppose parole for Mr. Pollard.
“Clearly, having the government
accept our presentation, which involved several months of communication with
the government, was clearly a boost in the parole process,” Mr. Lauer said.
Mr. Pollard’s fate has been a
source of tension between the United States
and Israel
for decades. In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he
had spoken to Mr. Pollard’s wife, Esther. He also appeared to take some credit
for the parole decision.
“After decades of effort,
Jonathan Pollard will finally be released,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Throughout his
time in prison, I consistently raised the issue of his release in my meetings
and conversations with the leadership of successive U.S. administrations. We are
looking forward to his release.”
But Mr. Pollard’s lawyers and
American officials insisted Tuesday that the parole decision was not an effort
to ease friction between Mr. Netanyahu and President Obama over the agreement
that world powers reached this month with Iran to curb its nuclear program.
Mr. Netanyahu has said the deal will lead Iran to construct a nuclear weapon.
Secretary of State John Kerry,
who testified before Congress on Tuesday on the Iran deal, told reporters after the
hearing that there was no connection between Mr. Pollard’s parole and the
agreement. “I haven’t even had a conversation about it,” he said.
Longtime observers of the Iran negotiations said it would have been a
mistake for Mr. Obama to try to connect Mr. Pollard’s release to the nuclear
deal, especially since the fate of four Americans who are being held prisoner
in Iran
is not addressed by the agreement.
“Any perception that an Israeli
spy was released as a result of the Iran
deal and not the Americans in Iranian jails would have been a P.R. disaster,”
said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East
adviser to Democratic and Republican administrations. “Netanyahu would have had
to protest even harder against the agreement to make sure nobody thought he was
being bought off.”
In 2014, before the parole
commission rejected Mr. Pollard’s request that year, Obama administration
officials reportedly discussed the possibility of releasing him as a way to
avert a collapse in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Officials said at the time that
Mr. Kerry considered the possibility that the early release of Mr. Pollard
might coax additional concessions from Mr. Netanyahu in the peace talks. Among
the sticking points was whether Israel
would release Palestinian prisoners.
The peace talks eventually broke
down, leaving the parole commission as Mr. Pollard’s only real hope for
freedom.
At the time that Mr. Pollard was
sentenced, federal law required that he be reviewed for parole after he had
served 30 years of his life sentence, a deadline that falls on Nov. 21. A
spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons said Tuesday that Mr. Pollard would be
released on Nov. 20, since the 21st is a Saturday.
Mr. Pollard’s lawyers said that
if he had not been granted parole, he would have had to serve 15 years more in
prison. But an official said that Mr. Pollard would have been eligible for
parole every two years.
At the last hearing, which took
place at the North Carolina prison on July 7,
Mr. Lauer presented his case to the parole commissioners, using what he called
statistical evidence to prove that Mr. Pollard was unlikely to break the law in
the United States
again. He also said that Mr. Pollard had been a model prisoner.
“The absurdity of it,” he said,
“to think that Mr. Pollard would do anything that would violate United States
law that could bring him back to prison.”
Lawyers for the government also
made presentations at the hearing, Mr. Lauer said. He said that “the
government’s position was confirmatory of the presentation that we had made.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Pollard expressed
a desire to be reunited with his wife, Mr. Lauer said. He added that parole
rules may prevent his client from immediately leaving the United States, but that Mr. Pollard was eager to
visit Israel
when he could.
“His preference is to restart his
life,” Mr. Lauer said. “Obviously, he has great affection for Israel, and
that is a place he’d like to visit and perhaps to spend time there. It’s too
early to predict what his tangible plans will be.”
Reporting was contributed by
Michael R. Gordon, Mikayla Bouchard and Michael S. Schmidt from Washington, and Diaa
Hadid from Ramallah, West Bank.***
Recent Comments
Sherr29
2 minutes ago
He's no better than a thief as
well as being a traitor. He should have been executed instead of supported in
prison by US taxpayers for 30...
zDUde
3 minutes ago
Let's push past the rhetoric. Mr.
Pollard was convicted and given a life sentence. Mr. Pollard sough out Israel, but he
also gave...
Omar ibrahim
3 minutes ago
By any honest standard who is,
who are, more dangerous to USA
security ?convicted Americn spies etrusted with national security affairs OR...
***
Officials said at the time that
Mr. Kerry considered the possibility that the early release of Mr. Pollard
might coax additional concessions from Mr. Netanyahu in the peace talks. Among
the sticking points was whether Israel
would release Palestinian prisoners.
The peace talks eventually broke
down, leaving the parole commission as Mr. Pollard’s only real hope for
freedom.
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