Newt Gingrich: U.S. should consider clemency for Jonathan Pollard

Haaretz ^ | Dec. 8, 2011 | Natasha Mozgovaya

[wvcon]

"Leading Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich discusses Jonathan Pollard in an Interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN Wednesday. Gingrich says he is leaning towards clemency in the case of Jonathan Pollard, but hasn’t all the information needed to make up his mind. . . ."

[man_in_tx]

Jonathan Pollard was not convicted of treason. He spied for Israel and he has served enough time the life sentence was not the recommendation of the prosecutors. Pollard spied at a time when James Baker was our secretary of state under Ronald Reagan. It just amazes me the mob mentality here on FR.
I like the fact that Gingrich answers to tough questions as this and illegal immigration. I am not going to ignore the fact the government failed our responsibility to both cases
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Sir, you get it with respect to Pollard. However, I do not concur with Newt on the softening of our stance on illegal immigration. The difference? We have actually enforced the law in Pollard’s case (thus far, without mercy), while Newt is calling for mercy for the illegals, when... the law was never brought to bear in the first place.

Respectfully agreeing to disagree: The two situations are apple and oranges. Nonetheless, thank you for speaking up with moral insight regarding Pollard.

[bmwcyle]

Now so is Newt.

[man_in_tx]

I support Israel with the best of them but Gingrich is scooping near the bottom. Soon, very soon, he’s going to demand we move our embassy to Jerusalem.
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Right! If you were truly a supporter of Israel, you would know that it is already a matter of US Law that the US Embassy in Israel should be moved to Jerusalem.

The reason that — despite the law — the US embassy remains in Tel Aviv, is that each year, the President issues a cop-out statement to the effect that, as such a move would undermine US Security interests (read: Kissing Arab derrieres), he is postponing the move.

In fact, if memory serves, Rove’s boy campaigned on that during his first run for the White House. (Of course, he never kept the promise — and probably never intended to do so, as he issued the cop-out statement annually during both his terms.)

In a word, Sir, yes: Newt should advocate moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem — to comply with US law.

Now, if you were being sarcastic, I apologize for getting taken in. (Otherwise, you do appear to be 180-degrees off the mark on this issue.)

[SoJoCo]

Aldrich Ames’ treatment was far more benign...

If you consider the maximum security prison he's held in more benign than the medium security prison that Pollard's sorry butt is in. Ames will never see the outside of prison again. Pollard will be released in about four years. He can wait.

[lbryce]

You are very much missing the point and I say this most respectfully that you just don't get it.

Hint:Whether the US legally politically, diplomatically, recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in this case, in regards to the specific perspective of this thread is so far beyond the point, it is off the scale.

COMMENT FAIL!

[sand lake bar]

“Giving up Pollard would be a low-cost goodwill gesture that an incoming Republican President could make to Israel by way of apology for the four years of hell they have had to put up with during the despotic, Jew-hating Obama regime.”

I lean this way also. At least consider it. A good political move by Newt to raise it.

[the_daug]

I see the (assume illegal) immigrants and their families that come to church. They are mixed with children that are citizens here and not citizens. If the the government didn't do their job for 10, 15, 25 years I think there is a time limit just like if I don't protect my property rights I could loose them. We failed to enforce the law then it is of non effect. The children are innocent and will be ill-equipped to cope in their parents home land. I don't like amnysty, didn't like it in 86 but then I can not help that so much of the rest of the world is hell hole.

[LibLieSlayer]

Pander newt pander. I love Israel... I support her and despise obama and how he treats her. newt is feeling some heat from today's news cycle... so he is pandering... it is just what comes naturally to what we now refer to as a “lifelong politician”.

Did I mention that newt reaffirmed his support for the Individual Mandate today... yeah he did... and Rush confirmed it on today's show. newt... what a guy!

LLS

[the_daug]

I see the (assume illegal) immigrants and their families that come to church. They are mixed with children that are citizens here and not citizens. If the the government didn't do their job for 10, 15, 25 years I think there is a time limit just like if I don't protect my property rights I could loose them. We failed to enforce the law then it is of non effect. The children are innocent and will be ill-equipped to cope in their parents home land. I don't like amnysty, didn't like it in 86 but then I can not help that so much of the rest of the world is hell hole.

[the_daug]

I see the (assume illegal) immigrants and their families that come to church. They are mixed with children that are citizens here and not citizens. If the the government didn't do their job for 10, 15, 25 years I think there is a time limit just like if I don't protect my property rights I could loose them. We failed to enforce the law then it is of non effect. The children are innocent and will be ill-equipped to cope in their parents home land. I don't like amnysty, didn't like it in 86 but then I can not help that so much of the rest of the world is hell hole.

[the_daug]

I see the (assume illegal) immigrants and their families that come to church. They are mixed with children that are citizens here and not citizens. If the the government didn't do their job for 10, 15, 25 years I think there is a time limit just like if I don't protect my property rights I could loose them. We failed to enforce the law then it is of non effect. The children are innocent and will be ill-equipped to cope in their parents home land. I don't like amnysty, didn't like it in 86 but then I can not help that so much of the rest of the world is hell hole.

[LibLieSlayer]

pollard is indeed a traitor.

LLS

[the_daug]

Sorry about mutiple post guess the DNS hung.

[lbryce]

[af_vet_rr]

I do not condone in any way shape or form what he did, but enough is enough. Nobody died, the secrets he passed to Israel were not that critical, and we have plenty of other fish to fry.

First, unless you were his attorney or directly involved with the prosecution, you have absolutely no idea what information he was passing along in the thousands of documents had passed on to his handlers.

Second, he's a traitor and he knows what he was doing was wrong - doesn't matter if it's Israel or Iran or Russia.

Third, he was removing classified information from secure locations and was pretty sloppy with its handling, creating additional security risks in addition his passing it on to third party agents.

Fourth, he did it for money. This wasn't somebody out to help Israel like he claimed, this was somebody who wanted money for information he had access to or he wanted to benefit financially in other ways, such as helping his wife's business.

There is one other thing - Pollard could have been giving information to Russians, Iranians, etc. and just been told he was giving it to Israelis. Deception was involved on many levels and he could have easily been deceived.

I can't believe you have the nerve to come onto a forum populated with military and ex-military personnel and act like it's not a big deal.

[ArrogantBustard]

Thank you.

Pollard is scum. He belongs in prison ... or at the end of a rope.

People who support him are putting foreign interests ahead of the United States. If they love their foreign interests so much, they should be honest and emigrate.

[Ronin]

Look FRiend, I am a 13 year, medically discharged, Navy veteran myself, but I am also pragmatic realist in a lot of ways. Compared to some of the other espionage failures we have suffered — and ANYTIME a spy gets close enough to grab any goodies, that’s a failure — this guy is chickenfeed.

We’ve fed him for 24 odd years, anything he ever knew or was ever passed to anyone is so long obsolete most of it is reported to already be on the Internet. George Shultz, a man of the greatest integrity (even though he’s not always as Conservative as I want him to be), has said that Pollard’s release would not be harmful to the interests of the United States. And Shultz knows exactly what Pollard had access too and passed.

Suspend the rest of his sentence, yank his citizenship, take him to the airport, boot him out and make sure it’s clearly understood he is not ever coming back — or if he does, he goes right back in the clink.

He’s an irritant issue at best. In case you haven’t been listening and looking, we are somewhat short of friends in that area of the world, and after four years of the Bamster, they deserve a break. Besides, he’s due for parole in 2015, you think the libs won’t fall over themselves to let him go?

Actually, the only thing I am worried about at this point in time is that the Bamster might think of this himself and use it to draw the Jews back into the fold — just at the time that Republicans are starting to gain some traction.

Grow up!

[KantianBurke]

“he’s due for parole in 2015”

Let the spy for $$$ scumbag wait till then for a release.

[af_vet_rr]

He’s an irritant issue at best.

He betrayed his country for money and to help his wife's business, and an Israeli happened to be the first person he came into contact with that would buy his secrets. It could have easily been Russia or Iran.

In case you haven’t been listening and looking, we are somewhat short of friends in that area of the world, and after four years of the Bamster, they deserve a break.

In case you haven't been following the conversation, Israel was paying for classified stolen United States information.

We give them billions every year in military aid and they thank us by paying somebody to subvert our security and give them access to thousands of classified documents.

I love Israel, but give me a break, Israel was stealing from us through Pollard. If we didn't consider them our friends, we would have cut off all of that foreign aid after we caught Pollard.

[mas cerveza por favor]

Gingrich has jumped the shark.