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.
Hang Pollard? Go right ahead, but the guy probably knows much more about the truth on 911, Waco, Ruby Ridge and other FBI scandals than anyone would like to hear.
As opposed to running our tails between our legs doing what the terrorist want? In Christianity compromise does not include the wholesale slaughter of people, eating grass as sheeps in Israel maybe, but certainly not their slaughter for sake of satisfaction of terror gods.
He's been in prison since 1987. Just what kind of math produces that sort of product?
Pollard had inside info and previsions for the coming down of the US intelligence infrastructure. He was jailed because of that. The plea bargain included a limited prison sentence, but the racist black judge saw Pollard as an Israel Appartheid leader and gave him life.
Um. Got it. You're one of "them". Sorry to have posed a rational question. I know it must have hurt.
Pollard had gotten inside info on US supplying illegaly arms to Iraq before the Gulf war. Pollard har inside info on US sattelite data indicating Iraq was building atom bomb in Osirak but US would do nothing to stop the now villified but then excused Saddam. Granted he transfered this data illegaly to Israel so that Israel could bomb Osirak. And that makes one of them?
You are not going to rebuild your country by focusing on bogey men or spewing stories about "them". THe Gulf War would have not been won had Osirak not been bombed.
I don't think Bush is into lunatic conspiracy theories and internet hoax's.
Furthermore, committed partisans of Israel should let this issue drop. Post 9-11 Israel is riding high in many American quarters where once existed much wavering and lukewarm support. Strong Israel supporters should welcome this development and display their gratitude by refraining from loud bleating about an American traitor whose release would surely infuriate their new comrades-in-arms.
FYI.
Israel is our ally. Hamas is our enemy.
And here all this time I thought the scumbags who killed 3 thousand Americans were radical muslim shit. You mean to tell me it was the JEWS?
He was clearly a traitor! Despite his (supposedly) best intentions, there were many other ways he could have helped Israel as a volunteer, or an Israeli citizen. But the means he chose were that of Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen--treason and treachery.
His friends should be happy he has kept his life. They have to be joking if they think he will ever be released. Enough already.
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