Posted on 05/26/2003 9:17:56 PM PDT by Nachum
As supporters of Jonathan Pollard prepare for a prayer rally on his behalf at the Western Wall on June 4, it appears that one of the most important questions surrounding his case has been answered. Former federal prosecutor John Loftus, in an article in the June issue of Moment Magazine, writes the following:
"There is a good reason why neither Congress nor the American Jewish leadership supports the release of Jonathan Pollard from prison: They all were told a lie - a humongous Washington whopper of a lie. The lie was [that] Pollard had supposedly given Israel a list of every American spy inside the Soviet Union... Soviet agents in Israel, posing as Israeli intelligence agents, passed the information to Moscow, which then wiped out American human assets in the Soviet Union...
"A week after [Pollard was sentenced to life in prison], the Washington Times reported that the United States had identified Shabtai Kalmanovich as the Soviet spy in Israel who supposedly worked for the Mossad but was actually working for the KGB; he had betrayed American secrets to Moscow. Washington insiders winked knowingly at one another: Pollard's contact in Israel had been caught. Just to make sure that Pollard was blamed, U.S. intelligence sources, several months later, leaked word to the press of the Kalmanovich connection...
Citing 'American intelligence sources,' the UPI announced that the 'sensitive intelligence material relayed to Israel by Jonathan Pollard had reached the KGB.'"
Loftus then fires off his bombshell:
"But it was all untrue. Every bit of it. Pollard wasn't the serial killer. The Jew didn't do it. It was one of their own WASPs - Aldrich Ames, a drunken senior CIA official who sold the names of America's agents to the Russians for cash. Pollard was framed for Ames' crime, while Ames kept on drinking and spying for the Soviets for several more years… Ames was arrested in February 1994, and confessed to selling out American agents in the Soviet Union, but not all of them. It was only logical to assume that Pollard had betrayed the rest of them, as one former CIA official admitted shortly after Ames' arrest…
"No one dreamed that yet another high-level Washington insider had sold us out to Soviet intelligence. Years passed, and eventually a Russian defector told the truth. A senior FBI official - Special Agent Robert Hanssen - had betrayed the rest of our agents. Hanssen was arrested in February 2001, and soon confessed in order to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole."
Loftus then writes that a low-level decision was finally made in the Navy's intelligence service to re-examine the Pollard case, and "with sickening chagrin, the Navy discovered that the evidence needed to clear Pollard had been under its nose all along" - namely, that Pollard did not have the special "blue stripe" clearance needed for access to the room in which the list of secret American agents inside Russia was kept. "There is no way on earth," Loftus concludes, "that Jonathan Pollard could have entered the file room, let alone the safe where the list was kept."
Loftus also writes that he then "began to realize that Pollard's tale was only the beginning of a much bigger story about a major America intelligence scandal" - a cover-up of the deep ties between Saudi Arabia and terrorists such as Osama Bin-Laden. "Whenever the FBI or CIA came close to uncovering the Saudi terrorist connection," Loftus writes, "their investigations were mysteriously terminated. In hindsight, I can only conclude that some of our own Washington bureaucrats have been protecting the Al Qaeda leadership and their oil-rich Saudi backers from investigation for more than a decade."
Loftus continues:
"I am not the only one to reach this conclusion. In his autobiography, Oliver North confirmed that every time he wanted to do something about terrorism, [then-Defense Secretary Weinberger, whose secret memo led to Pollard's life sentence] stopped him because it might upset the Saudis and jeopardize the flow of oil to the U.S. "John O'Neill, a former FBI agent and our nation's top Al Qaeda expert, stated in a 2001 book written by Jean Charles Brisard, a noted French intelligence analyst, that everything we wanted to know about terrorism could be found in Saudi Arabia. O'Neill warned the Beltway bosses repeatedly that if the Saudis were to continue funding Al Qaeda, it would end up costing American lives, according to several intelligence sources. As long as the oil kept flowing, they just shrugged. Outraged by the Saudi cover-up, O'Neill quit the FBI and became the new chief of security at the World Trade Center. In a bitter irony, the man who could have exposed his bosses' continuous cover-up of the Saudi-Al Qaeda link was himself killed by Al Qaeda on 9/11..." "Pollard never thought he was betraying his country. And he never did, although he clearly violated its laws. He just wanted to help protect Israelis and Americans from terrorists. Now in prison for nearly two decades, Pollard, who is in his late 40s, grows more ill year by year. If, as seems likely, American bureaucrats choose to fight a prolonged delaying action over a new hearing, Pollard will probably die in prison. There are people in power inside the Beltway who have been playing for time. Time for them ran out on 9/11. Sooner or later, they are going to be held accountable. I hope that Pollard lives to see it."
The full text of Pollard's attorneys' largely-laudatory response to Loftus' article is available at "www.jonathanpollard.org/".
Pollard gave the Israelis exactly one piece of information, and it was information that the US was treaty-bound to give to Israel. When time came that the information was important, the US reneged on the treaty, which is an old story when it comes to the traditional relationship between USA and its smaller partner. Pollard then took it on himself to pass the information, even though his superiors forbade him to do so.
Had he not done that, Israel would not exist today, which is quite likely the reason his superiors would not hand it over.
The information in question jeopardized no agents, no secrets were "passed on to China" (or Russia for that matter), and it's an open question who actually broke the law in handling it.
His loyalty should have been to the United States of America, he was given orders, he ignored them, he did commit treason, he is guilty. Those are the facts, everything else is window dressing.
Now that's one piece of conspiracy-theory material that the Bush administration would prefer to keep muzzled. According to anti-Bush conspiracy theorists, O'Neill quit his FBI job only two weeks before 9/11, therefore he may have known about the impending attack on the WTC. Given how much he knew about the Bush administration's reluctance to confront the Saudis, his death was not a bitter irony, but quite a convenient one for the White House, so the theory goes.
I can only begin to wonder which Democratic leader might have the boldness and cunning to present a case against Bush for negligence before 9/11 at some point in the future.
Oh, the rot in the FBI (and the CIA, and all around the place) is of a far earlier date than the Bush administration, not that it has sole roots in Democrat administrations. But Bush is cleaning house as well as possible. Remember that these guys have protection, and just firing them isn't an off-the-cuff sort of thing even for a president.
Bottom line, though: I think that if the dems tried, it would splatter themselves too badly. People might start asking pointy questions about all sorts of stuff. And believe me, there's worse than just a few criminal officials.
Pollard should stay behind bars, since we weren't allowed to execute him after his trial.
Clinton, to help Hillary get the jewish vote, was ready to pardon him, but Pollard would have been far more controversial then any of the other pardons, and he knew he would, in essence, possibly ruin Hillary, if Tenet resigned, and start yacking.
Isn't that special? Nothing like not letting those irksome little things called laws get in the way of your desires, right?
Loftus is doing a great job of making Pollard into Dreyfuss. Was it a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy that sent Pollard to prison, just because he was a porr wittle Jew?
Graham from Florida has been trying to pull some of the conspiracy crap, however, the other canidates are basically treating him like a kook. If the dems were to play that game, it could ruin Hillary Clinton, leave Clinton an even bigger disgrace, and destory numerious members of the democratic party.
Honestly, who's going to get more blame for the lapses, a Vice President who just came back from the private sector and was retired untill the 2000 election, a secretary of defence who had no plans on ever coming back and was happy in the private sector,an attorony general who thought he would still be a senator, or, the previous administration, that had been recieving warnings, had dealt with al quada numerious times, and then killed its own airline security study.
Alot of this is coincedenc, Al Gore did have a good reason to suppress the airline security study (Gary Hart wasn't to happy though), he needed campaign donations from the airline industry and he got them.
A few little problems however: 1) I have never before heard that Pollard was blamed for the deaths of Soviet agents. The whole awfully convenient "blue stripe" angle is totally new to the story. Could Loftus be creating a charge against Pollard just to clear him of it?; 2) Hansen and Ames have long been associated with the deaths of Soviet agents, but I have never seen their names linked to Pollard in any way; 3) Pollard's most serious traitorous acts have never been disclosed, just as Cap Weinberger demanded, so how can anyone be sure Loftus knows what he's talking about?
What others? Where are they? Or are you and Loftus channelling John O'Neill from beyond the grave?
Blaming Pollard for these agents is common. It's been on this forum quite often.
Influence? Its a matter of commonsense politics really. Israel produces nothing which keeps the economy humming (excepting humbug like this perhaps), Saudi produces tons of it. When oil prices rise, its the regular folks back home complaining to congress, not the Saudi's or their registered agents. Saudi has revealed its power twice - 1973 and 1979. Do we really need another 4 year recession to remind us of it? Most people think not.
In any case, I fail to see the connection that would make the Saudi's gravely interested in getting Pollard behind bars. Or does he have the explosive proof of Saudi guilt for everything ... if only he could be freed to tell it. I've heard of a lot of prisoners with explosive proofs of this or that if only you would free them. You believe that tripe?
Hmmmm.... Israel is a hi-tech country which produces, among other things, medical wizardry and improvements for US armamante, is selected by Intel as the place to be, and has developed the latest generation of Intel chips. Saudi is producing terrorists and camel dung by itself, and with the help of foreigners living there (in "open prison" conditions), oil.
You're pretty transparent, Hermann. Why are you here and not on LibertyForum?
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