Parole for Pollard Sheer Madness!

May 6, 1994 - The Jewish Press

If there is merit to the popular demand that Jonathan Pollard's life sentence be commuted to time served - as all moral and decent people believe there is - then it is nothing short of madness to consider a moratorium of

two years

on the issue while Mr. Pollard continues to languish in prison.

Those who would argue that yet another review, two years down the line, is an acceptable compromise, are co-operating with the administration in perpetuating what Appeal Court Judge Stephen Williams termed "

a fundamental miscarriage of justice

."

Indeed, Mr. Clinton's statements concerning Mr. Pollard have virtually guaranteed that Mr. Pollard will

never be paroled

. The deck of powerful recommendations against parole is so thoroughly stacked, that the last card added by the president virtually guarantees that

no parole board will ever have the audacity to rule differently

.

In refusing Mr. Pollard's appeal, President Clinton declared that he would not show clemency because of the alleged "harm" that Mr. Pollard had done to the United States. Harming the United States is an indictable offence.

Mr. Pollard has never been indicted on such a charge.

Mr. Clinton's statement is an affront to the integrity of all American citizens. After all, it has never been "the American way" to jail people on false charges with neither indictment nor benefit of trial.

By lending his support to the prejudicial and fraudulent damage assessment of a discredited and anti-semitic intelligence regime,

Mr. Clinton has abdicated the constitutional responsibility of his office

; and that is, to guarantee that all branches of the administration operate within the law, and free of racial or political bias.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

Rose Caron