Posted on 06/18/2011 10:29:06 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
Morris Pollard, the father of Jonathan Pollard, has died at age 95. HIs family has sent an urgent plea to President Obama, asking him to show mercy and allow Jonathan Pollard compassionate leave to attend his father's funeral. Jonathan Pollard was convicted for passing classified information to a foreign country and has been incarcerated for 26 years Pollard's father had been hospitalized for the last several months. During this period, activists on Pollard's behalf and various well-known Israelis, attempted to no avail to obtain permission for Jonathan to visit his father on a 24 hour leave.
The refusal prompted MK Aryeh Eldad to send a message of condolence to Jonathan, saying: "The people of Israel will not forget President Obama's cruelty in ignoring all the requests to free you. A president who lacks the basic human feeling that would allow a son's visit to his dying father should not wonder that the Jewish people will make every effort to prevent his re-election."
A petition signed by a 75 israeli MK's, asking Obama to allow Pollard to visit his dying father was to have been handed to Vice President Joe Biden shortly. It came too late.
MK Nachman Shai (Kadima), initiator of the petition, said that its signers represented a broad spectrum of parties and opinions, who united for this humanitarian purpose. "I hope that we will succeed in opening President Obama's heart," he had said.
Recent efforts on the part of various persons to convince President Shimon Peres, considered by Deptury Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon the natural choice to turn to Obama on this issue, had been unsuccessful.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
You sound desperate if you’re pretending I’m promoting treason.
Will you explain your moral equivalency to equate Pollard with Spies of enemy states whose actions resulted in deaths.
Because this is the one the thread is about. Some people don't read past the title, but you didn't even read that far. Are you really too lazy to read the title.
It’s creepy.
What's creepy is your defense of an admitted/convicted traitor, and your attempt to deflect to other unrelated topics, and then blame the US for deserving this.
BS. You have promoted treason throughout this thread. You don’t even bother trying to sugar coat it or conceal it. You’re openly proud of your anti-American sentiments. You said the US deserved it because according to you we sided with the enemies of Israel, so we deserved to have our secrets sold to other nations. There is no defense for your position.
“Listen troll....”
Look it’s bad enough you can’t defend your disproportionate blood thirst for Pollard (who served time, as he should have) by trying to twist it to call me anti-American, and yadda yadda, all while thinly disguising your own prejudice.... but it’s another to then go ping people uninvolved in this discussion.
Again - Will you explain your moral equivalency to equate Pollard with Spies of enemy states whose actions resulted in deaths?
“You said the US deserved it because according to you we sided with the enemies of Israel, so we deserved to have our secrets sold to other nations”
So you’re a morally bankrupt liar. Okay. No wonder you can’t fathom how the fact that it turned out this is one case where it was a good thing our secrets got exposed. It benefited the United States as much as anyone.
Oh, and last I heard, Iraq wasn’t just an enemy of Israel....but you’re about a step away from saying what you really want to say finally, aren’t you?
We will never know the whole background or how it was prosecuted. I would keep an open mind that it is possible he made a deal and agreed to lesser charges that did not include the death penalty. The fact that he plead guilty and went quietly speaks volumes.
What prejudice? What are you accusing me of? Say it, you coward. You’ve been suggesting it about everyone who defends the US. So come on coward. Say it, you cowardly lying POS.
“The fact that he plead guilty and went quietly speaks volumes.”
He went quietly? Hardly.
Look, I do agree we’ll never entirely know, and yes he did make a deal which one dissenting appeals judge say was breached.
Either way, he deserved to do some time, but the only ones with life sentences gave secrets to enemy states...treating him in their league is an injustice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_spies
In your distorted world, is it patriotic to wish Pollard kept his mouth shut so Iraq and Syria had achieved their nuclear goals or think he should be treated like a Communist spy?
Bury him with his father. Both positions solved.
Pollard huh?
Get a rope/
BykrBayb >>“Listen troll....”
I don't believe you are merely trolling, harmonium. I believe you are honestly trying to convince people to support this traitor.
harmonium>Will you explain your moral equivalency to equate Pollard with Spies of enemy states whose actions resulted in deaths?
Your use of "moral equivalency" is a clear indication that you are distracting from the main points. Fact after fact that gets pointed out to you, you sidestep.
He did not merely "warn Israel"--he was giving classified information to others (fortunately, one of our other allies warned us).
He was not merely acting out of altruism, but admitted he was trying to make money from his thefts. There are allegations he gave material directly to enemies of the US, but it doesn't even have to be true--he had no way of knowing who was getting the information he was giving out to various parties, in any case.
Anyone dealing with espionage knows that his initial payment of $20,000+ plus $40,000/year (let's use today's dollars) was more than peanuts, and got him "on the hook" for future work.
And he gave away far more than "warning Israel to get gas masks"...he gave away secrets on our own espionage networks.
BykrBayb is right. He was paid for his treason.
...and he hasn't paid back that debt.
When you take a plea deal, it’s not because you weren’t guilty of a more serious crime; it’s because you are hoping for a lighter sentence-—and the alternative if you go to trial on the more serious crime could be much worse.
Apparently he didn’t want to face a jury on the more serious charges he could have been charged with.
Pollard rolled the dice and the judge saw it as more serious than the five year sentence he was hoping for—but it was his choice.
The questions you keep bringing up have to do with his trial and sentencing as though that mattered now. That ship has sailed.
What should be discussed is whether he’d return to prison after a short compassionate parole. If he thinks he was treated unfairly in his trial—and has supporters in Israel’s government—then he probably is a flight risk.
Are you ready to see a fight with Israel over him if he refuses to return and hides out there? Want to put Israel on the spot with the proclivity for anti-Israeli behavior in this administration?
Israel hasn’t started a war over that poor soldier that was captured by the Palestinians and has been illegally held for years. Why? Because one man’s life sometimes has to take a back seat to the considerations of national interest and politics.
Yeah, lets let an American traitor/spy who gave vital intelligence to China and Israel for cash during the Cold War that ended up in Russia a chance to leave prison for a funeral.
I am pretty sure he will happily return to jail once the service is over and not flee.
Yes, our true colors are the Red, White and Blue. Pollard is a traitor and deserved a traitor’s death. He was shown mercy. No more is warranted nor should it be forthcoming.
HAHAHA! So he accepted a plea bargain and this makes him a hero? I suppose OJ is a saint to you as well.
Most folks don’t realize Pollard is eligible for parole in a few years.
“At the time of Pollard’s sentencing there was a rule that mandated parole at thirty years for prisoners like him if they had maintained a clean record in prison. That parole date would be November 21, 2015. Also, Pollard was eligible to apply for parole after eight years and six months, though he has never done so.[35]”
I wonder if the defense of Pollard’s treason would be so spirited if he was a different religion. You don’t see the same support for the Walker Spy ring participants who spied for Russia.
Typical. If someone doesn’t agree with you they are evil, nazis, need to put on an SS uniform, etc ad infinitum, ad nauseum. You have no credibility with that liberal tripe.
The information the U.S. ignored and didn’t share with its allies included Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare capabilities. It also included information on ballistic missile development by these countries and information on planned terrorist attacks. Pollard is the only person ever charged with giving information to U.S. allies! Those who gave information to our enemies were given far shorter sentences. The plea bargain promise of the U.S. government was breached in this case. He was to receive a sentence of a few years in proportion to the crime. There has been a lot of anti-Israel falsehoods about Pollard and his case perpetuated. History will call Pollard a hero who placed human safety first, even at the risk of going to jail for his choice to shared information that could save millions of people.
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