No Treason in Pollard Case

Pollard's Wife to Globe and Mail: Set the Record Straight

October 25, 1998
by fax and by email

Dear Editor,

Re: Jewish-American Spy A Cause Celebre Around the World - M.Gee & G Abbate Globe and Mail October 24, 1998.

When a man's fate and his very life hang in the balance, the Globe and Mail has an obligation to do its homework first, instead of recycling old canards and allegations. Contrary to what the Globe and Mail published, here are the facts:

JONATHAN POLLARD DID NOT COMMIT TREASON.
He was never accused of treason. He was never indicted for treason. He was not charged with spying against the US, only with spying on behalf of Israel.

JONATHAN POLLARD DID NOT COMPROMISE US SOURCES AND METHODS.
This is an old canard that the CIA trots out for the media with predictable regularity. In fact, Jonathan Pollard never had access to sources and methods, or codes information .

Even though the real culprits, (Aldrich Ames, David Boone and others), who compromised this sensitive information have since been arrested, the CIA has never stopped scapegoating Pollard for their crimes.

JONATHAN POLLARD DID NOT HARM US SECURITY.
Jonathan Pollard has never been indicted for harming the United States, its agents, its property or its installations. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE THAT WOULD SUPPORT SUCH A CHARGE.

The only information that Jonathan Pollard gave over to the Israeli Government was information related to the vital security of the State of Israel - information that the US had legally pledged to share with Israel.

ONLY ONE INDICTMENT: ONE COUNT OF PASSING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION TO AN ALLY.
The one and only charge on which Jonathan Pollard was indicted was one count of passing classified information to an ally. This is a lesser charge of the American espionage statutes. It carries a median sentence of 2 to 4 years. Today the maximum sentence has been capped at 10 years. Jonathan Pollard is entering his 14th year of a

LIFE SENTENCE,

with no end in sight.

JONATHAN POLLARD NEVER HAD A TRIAL.
He entered into a plea agreement with the US government in which he gave up his right to a trial. At sentencing, the Government completely violated the plea agreement and gave Jonathan a LIFE SENTENCE without possibility of parole. Who plea bargains for a life sentence?

JONATHAN POLLARD WAS ACCUSED IN KAFKA-ESQUE SECRECY.
Neither Pollard nor his attorneys have ever been allowed to see a classified memorandum to the sentencing judge in which former secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger levels secret charges against him. Nothing in the indictment against him supports the grossly disproportionate sentence that he received.

(

NOTE:

IN CANADA, SUCH INTERFERENCE IN THE JUDICIAL PROCESS BY THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN A MISTRIAL, AND THE POLLARD CASE WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!)

LIFE SENTENCE FOR FRIENDLY ESPIONAGE: UNPRECEDENTED.


No one in the history of the United States has ever received a life sentence for spying for an ally. Only Jonathan Pollard. The median sentence is 2 to 4 years. Some recent cases of similar spying, (for example, Schwartz and Lee) received no prison time whatsoever!

Appellate Court Justice Stephen Williams termed the Pollard case "a complete and gross miscarriage of Justice."

JONATHAN POLLARD EXPOSED ARAB PLANS TO ANNIHILATE ISRAEL.
The information Jonathan Pollard passed to Israel concerned CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL, AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS OF WAR being massed by neighboring Arab countries specifically for use against Israel. It also concerned detailed plans for upcoming terrorist attacks on civilian targets in Israel.

VITAL SECURITY INFORMATION ILLEGALLY WITHHELD BY U.S.
Anti-Israel elements within the US security and defense establishments illegally embargoed the flow of information to Israel. For example, the US, did NOT tell Israel about the Scud missiles and poison gas that Saddam Hussein was preparing for use against it.

JONATHAN POLLARD TRIED TO RELEASE INFO LEGALLY.
He appealed right up the chain of command all the way to the Under Secretary of Defense, but was rebuffed with spurious excuses such as "Jews get nervous when we talk about poison gas, so we won't tell them that that is what Saddam is aiming at them."

JONATHAN POLLARD ACTED OUT OF FEAR FOR ISRAELI LIVES.


When all of Jonathan Pollard's efforts to legally release the information failed, he acted on his fear for the thousands, indeed millions of Israeli lives that were being jeopardized. He then approached the Israelis and volunteered to make the information available.

JONATHAN POLLARD PREPARED ISRAEL FOR THE GULF WAR.


The people of Israel call Jonathan Pollard "The Ghost of the Sealed Rooms", because it was his information that allowed the Government of Israel to prepare for and plan for the GULF WAR. For the first time, the concept of gas masks and sealed rooms was introduced into Israeli civil defense.

FICTITIOUS VOLUME OF INFORMATION ALLEGED.


The volume of information that Jonathan Pollard is alleged to have passed to Israel is an absurdity - he would have needed to use a moving van on several occasions to have transferred the volume of documents being claimed by the CIA.!

The truth is, even if only one page or a single sentence of a document was passed to the Israelis, it was counted as if the whole document had been transmitted. Even referenced documents and sources were counted as having been transmitted in toto. Using this calculation, a single page could be counted as 50 hard bound 500 page volumes.

JONATHAN POLLARD HAS EXPRESSED HIS REMORSE.


Jonathan Pollard has repeatedly expressed his regrets for having broken the law. He is sorry he did not avail himself of legal means to act upon his concerns for Israel.

JONATHAN POLLARD HAS PAID A DISPROPORTIONAL PRICE.


He has now served 3 times as long in prison as any other person in the United States convicted of a similar offense: 14 years in prison (8 years in solitary confinement), under the harshest of conditions.

ISRAEL AND THE U.S.: CLOSE FRIENDS AND STRONG ALLIES?


Israel has apologized for the Pollard affair, and given the US strong assurances of no future repetition. Israel has granted Jonathan Pollard citizenship, and has pledged to be fully responsible for him. Four Prime Ministers of Israel, 3 Presidents of Israel, and all the ensuing Parliaments of Israel have repeatedly asked the United States to release him to Israel. Between close friends and strong allies that ought to be enough.

All of the above information and more is located on our website: jonathanpollard.org

The Globe and Mail has done a grave disservice not only to Jonathan Pollard, but to the fight for equal justice in America, and for equal treatment of Israel as an ally. Set the record straight. Print the facts. They speak for themselves.

Esther Pollard
(Mrs. Jonathan Pollard)