Posted on 03/20/2006 7:56:46 AM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to give Jonathan Pollard, now serving a life sentence for spying for Israel, access to records that could bolster his case for a presidential clemency.
Pollard's lawyers wanted the justices to reopen his case, so that they could pursue secret documents the government submitted to the judge who sentenced Pollard in 1987.
Pollard sold military secrets to Israel while he worked at the Defense Department's Pentagon headquarters. He was arrested in 1985 and pleaded guilty. The Supreme Court had already refused to let the former Navy intelligence analyst withdraw the guilty plea.
The latest Supreme Court case was not about spying, but about government authority to keep records used in court sealed from the public.
A federal appeals court said last summer that it had no authority to review requests for the documents which Pollard contends will help his bid for presidential clemency.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Ok here's the answer to your piss-ant question. Yes I can read.
Hard work is not involved. I merely take his statements at face value. It's sort of interesting, actually; I've noticed that people almost always say exactly what they mean--but, luckily for them, almost nobody seems to notice.
On another topic, I notice your partisan defense and protection of Pollard. This would mean that, if you had been offered the same opportunities, you would have done the same thing, or you would be a hypocrite.
I would not accept a job like Pollard's, since I'm a conscientious objector. However, your reasoning is faulty anyway; I've clearly stated that he deserves prison time for his espionage. I've merely said that serving over 20 years is far out of proportion to his crime.
By way of comparison: Pollard told Israel some things she needed to know, without harming US interests in the process; Clinton sold technology to China with which they will be able to target the US with MERV-based nuclear missiles. Pollard gets life without parole; Clinton gets six-digit speaking fees.
The questions were the things with question marks at the end. But thanks for playing.
ML/NJ
There's something cute about assertions made with no attempt whatsoever at logical justification. You can say absolutely anything you want to, and the absurdity is less apparent than if you tried to justify your statement. "Yeah, 20 years? Sheesh! He should have been gassed and cremated, for telling those d--n Israelis about those PLO weapons shipments!"
Who cares? What's "logical" about 20 years? 10 years? 5 years? 6 months? House detention?
In every single sentence handed down ever, some though it too lenient, some though it too harsh.
What's your point?
He should have been put through a wood chipper. Or used in medical experiments.
Let see if I have this correct...you're a bible-believing Christian, pro-Israeli, libertarian, anarchist that calls those that disagree with you morons, fools, and idiots while at the same time slapping the abuse button and crying to the mods....who just happens to believe the traitor pollard got too harsh of a sentence for giving TS/SCI information to the Israelis, which they had a right to anyway.
In addition, you wouldn't have done the same thing pollard did because you just happen to also be a conscientious objector.
That's just from this thread. You lady, are a liberal troll...flowery prose aside.
Evidently.
I am persuaded by the opinion of former Notre Dame President Father Hesburgh that Pollard has not been "fairly" treated by the government.
You mean, Hesburgh of "Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament", "Free Mumia," "Free Tookie," and "End the Death Penalty" fame? That Hesburgh? The one that Clinton presented a gold medal to on the Mall, for his services to the Left?
He is far from unique, this Catholic priest that believes that no criminal should pay for his crime. This is typical of a style of Catholicism that has rejected religion per se and sees the mission of Jesus as being a mission of social justice. I suppose it's a handy substitute for belief in God.
I have no respect for the man. The Bible is not the Communist Manifesto -- not even the Catholic version.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
ML/NJ
In addition to what CN18f has told you,Hesburgh sold Catholic higher education down the river for the sake of government bucks.
| S. Morrison [sic] | Great Britain | 3 months | 1985-86 |
Samuel Loring Morison (one "r") was an analyst who provided a classified photo, not to a foreign country, but to Jane's Publishing Group, where it was published on the cover of Jane's Defence Weekly in 1984. (Where I saw it, actually, and recognised it, and said, "oooh, heads will roll..."). The theft was quickly traced to Morison, who confessed and cooperated with a damage assessment, revealing that he had provided three satellite photos (inclusing the cover shot, of an aircraft carrier under construction), and information paraphrased from a classified document on an explosion in a Soviet shipyard.
Morison, well-represented legally, also pursued his case to the Supreme Court, losing in 1988 [nytimes.com].
Some differences between Morison and Pollard:
Don't feel too bad about Morison. After serving part of his time for leaking classified material to the media, Morison (prisoner number 12824-083, you can look him up) was released on Jan. 23, 1989 and finished his two-year sentence under parole.
He was pardoned by President Clinton, who actually considered pardoning Pollard, too, but for possibly the only time in his eight years in office listened to his DCI.
Finally, here is a thorough list of military espionage cases of the last thirty years. The case most nearly parallel to Pollard's is probably Larry Wu-Tai Chin, who was another member of the Spy Class of 1985. Like Pollard, Chin tried to say he was just trying to smooth over some relationship bumps between his ancestral homeland and his land of nominal citizenship, the USA. Like Pollard's judge, the Chin jury didn't buy it and found him guilty on all counts.
Chin died in prison, although he did it by his own hand, before sentencing. If Pollard doesn't like prison, let him look to Larry Wu-Tai Chin for an example.
Then again, if he's released, he'd have to wonder what really happened to Ed Howard.
You could also select some of Pollard's partners in treachery and make a different table. Walker: two life sentences plus ten years; Pelton: three life sentences; Trofimoff (another ethnic-homeland spy): life; Hansen: life; Regan: life without parole; Anderson (islamic convert): life; Hernandez, Labanino and Guerrero (Cuban spy ring): life for each; Lessenthien: Life, parole after 27 years; Ames: life without parole... and the hits just keep on coming.
Finally, think about the effect that Pollard's treachery had on loyal Jews, casting a light of suspicion on all of them, quite unfairly, but that's how people's minds work. A Jew is already going against most of his community and often against his family by serving in the military or intelligence agencies. Now he also has to get the hairy eyeball from the goyim. "Hmm, can I trust Steinberg with this sensitive project?" Fortunately, most people answer that question "sure I can" but it's a shame, and it's Pollard's shame, that they ask. The mossad used to claim that it never used local Jews. Well, they still claim that, but after Eli Cohen, Wolfgang Lotz, and the Norwegian and Danish members of the 1973 assassination team, not to mention Pollard, it's a transparent fiction.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
LMAO. Now that would truly be a match made in heaven. And Father Hesburgh could sign strident petitions to free the both of them.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
LOL. Well I gave ya a couple links, ML. I don't think the good Father is a bad man, but there is a type of clergyman that can only see the good in anyone, and whose heart cries out when a man is imprisoned or executed.
He may, for that, be a better man than I, for I believe that the interests of the nation and the world are served by robust law enforcement and unpleasant consequences for violators; in proportion, of course, to their trespasses. What that means, exactly, is something that we as citizens and as a society will frequently debate on.
I don't believe that justice can be served in all cases; that's an unattainable ideal, although a worthwhile object to keep in mind. All we can do is ensure that justice is served on a grand statistical basis; and so we try to bias the system towards the rights of the individual, so that most of our errors are in the direction of too much leniency rather than too much punishment.
So we will always have our Jesuits who would throw wide the gates to the prisons, and our reactionaries who would have every second prisoner shot pour encourager les aûtres. Just part of the workings of the system.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Shoot him and send Israel a bill for the bullet.
L
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