Posted on 06/16/2002 1:50:34 AM PDT by kattracks
June 16, 2002 --JERUSALEM.
THE only "no" that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon heard from President Bush last week in their White House meeting came when he asked the president to look into the case of Jonathan Pollard.
Otherwise, the sixth Bush-Sharon summit was conducted "in complete harmony" on Mideast issues, particularly the terrorist offensive against Israel, officials here say.
Sharon was not surprised by the negative response to his Pollard query because he raised the case in a previous meeting with Bush.
In Israel, the public has been pressing various governments to get Pollard free since the U.S. intelligence analyst was sentenced by an American court to life in prison in 1987.
Pollard was convicted of supplying top-value intelligence data to Israel about Palestinian terrorist threats and about Saddam Hussein's ground-to-ground missiles, long before "scud" became a household name.
Pollard offered to spy because he feared Israel was endangered by being denied the data - despite an intelligence-sharing agreement between Washington and Jerusalem.
Pollard was recruited in 1985 and spied until his arrest two years later. Israel was led at the time by prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres and defense ministers Moshe Arens and Yitzhak Rabin, who therefore had ministerial responsibility for his espionage.
But the Israeli officials told the Reagan administration that Pollard was part of an unauthorized "rogue operation."
Sharon, who was then industry and commerce minister and had no connection to the spying, said behind closed doors that Israel should apologize to the United States and promise there would never be another Pollard - but he was ignored.
Pollard's harsh sentence was explained by a confidential document, signed by then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, that outlined to a judge the damage the case had done to U.S. intelligence.
Media reports at the time - without any basis - suggested Weinberger's assessment was that Pollard's data had eventually reached the KGB.
Pollard's former handlers in Israeli intelligence, all fired as a result of the scandal, believe the Reagan administration was wrongfully blaming Pollard for the loss of several agents - killed by the Soviets - due to the CIA mole Aldrich Ames.
But hours before the signing ceremony, Clinton backed out of the promise, saying CIA Director George Tenet had threatened to quit if Pollard was set free.
Netanyahu was succeeded by Ehud Barak, who sought a pardon for a different American - Marc Rich.
So it was left to Sharon to take on the moral duty of raising the Pollard issue again - just as he and Bush were discussing the same issues, terrorism and Iraq, to which Pollard had alerted Israel 17 years ago.
Bush stressed that the United States regards Iraq as the biggest threat to Mideast stability.
"Israel will be safer without Saddam," he said.
Ariel Sharon couldn't agree more.
Netanyahu thought Pollard's freedom would make it easier to sell Israelis the controversial agreement, which turned over another 13 percent of the West Bank to Arafat.
And clinton needed a legacy.
Netanyahu was succeeded by Ehud Barak, who sought a pardon for a different American - Marc Rich.
A fugitive from American justice, whom clinton ea$ily pardoned.
Good Night
Bonus question, name the only country in the middle east that used it`s military to kill 34 American sailors?
One of the easiest ways to prove that we're no longer a nation of laws is to start releasing convicted criminals because they're favored by the governments of other countries. That would create a dividing line between prisoners with highly placed "friends on the outside" who could spring them, and prisoners with no such clout. In other words, it would create a class of political prisoners, men who are behind bars because they lack the necessary political protection. This is something the United States has never had and must not have.
Whatever merit there is to the argument that Jonathan Pollard was unfairly sentenced should be taken up by the appropriate appellate courts and their support systems. Ariel Sharon was wrong -- morally wrong -- to raise the matter with President Bush, and Dubya was spot-on to refuse to consider it.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
Name the country which bombed a country which, though headed by a scumbag, had not threatened the former country in any way. Tip: it's the same country which bombed a Chinese embassy. Like Israel, it claimed the bombing was an accident. (Not that I don't think bombing the Chinese embassy was a good idea if the rumors are true.)
Name the country which bombed a Sudanese aspirin factory on pretty thin evidence.
Not that I am apologizing for Pollard; he knew what the risks were if he got caught; he did get caught; and then he received a fair trial, so no one can complain. Israel may have felt using him was necessary in light of our bad habit of bailing out the Palestinian terrorists going back at least to the Reagan administration, but Pollard ended up hurting his alleged cause in the process by betraying the US in an important trust. He did not have the right to endanger US assets by revealing any information to a third party. And he wasn't in a position to play judge on whether information leaks would or would not endanger the US or its personnel. The simple fact is, he didn't know how that information would ultimately be used, but he did know that it wasn't his to give...or sell. If any Israeli wants to consider him a hero they can do so but they should reconsider the damage he did not just to their ally, but to Israel as well.
In any case, to America Pollard is a convicted spy, and if some Israelis want him back I suppose they shall have to catch an American spy in Israel to trade for Pollard, just as the USSR would catch an American asset to trade for the Soviet spies we had caught. Problem is... there doesn't appear to be an American spy available to Israel, and I sure as heck won't trade a person who had betrayed the US for an arrested pinko pantywaist American peace protestor. Perhaps Israel should review why there hasn't been an American spy captured in Israel. They might learn something.
Well said, bears repeating.
Same thing Israel said about the Lavon Affair. If Bill Clinton were a country, he would be Israel. They never admit anything.
But the kneejerk, 'hang him' crowd is suspiciously uninterested in any kind of dialogue
comparing Pollard's treatment and other spies.
That's the story for me, why no curiosity?
regarding the fairness of throwing away the key for Pollard,
compared to plea bargaining, and rationalizing weak sentences of other spies and traitors??
How can the anti-Pollard crowd agitate more against him than against Clinton?
How can Bush not go for Clinton blood seeing more numerous and serious treasonous acts Clinton committed?
And why are there Freepers willing to let this question go on and on unanswered?
It feels like it has X41's fingerprints on it.
"Son, remember to be ready when POLLard's name comes up."
"Sure Dad, I remember my oath."
Two reasons: One, U.S. intelligence relies on "national technical means," so there are few humans to arrest. The second is that the Israelis are compromised by accepting U.S. foreign aid. Because of this, if we did have a human asset violating Israeli law, and the Israelis caught him, the Israeli government would be sorely tempted to let him go so as to avoid antagonizing the U.S.
Henry Stimson was wrong. Gentleman do read each other's mail. Of course, if they get caught it is all to the good that there be a high price to be paid.
Why suspicious? Most here believe that Pollard's sentence is much closer to fair than those handed out to comparable spies, men who, as documented on pro-Pollard web sites (see Comparison of Pollard's Sentence With Others ), only served a year or two. The problem is with the short sentences, not the long one.
What I really can't understand is why some question the morality of Israel asking for Pollard's release. I guess that these are the same folks who blame the Mexican government for the U.S. not solving its own illegal alien problem. Detering our own citizens from spying against us is the the job of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, not Ariel Sharon.
Sure, there is the arguement, "We need to know what they've divulged", they're probably lying about that too.
Shoot the bastards.
"Ready, Aim, Fire!"
That is why Pollard will never see the light of day outside prison walls.
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