Keeping Him Cut Off From The Outside World

An editorial addendum to "Jonathan Pollard Speaks"
September 25, 1995 - Ben Caspit

The words of Jonathan Pollard that appear here are not an interview. The American Administration and other officials in the American Naval Intelligence Department continue to do everything in their power to keep Jonathan Pollard away from the media, and to perpetuate cutting him off from the outside world.

Nevertheless, these are the words of Jonathan Pollard, edited and abbreviated. They were said to his wife, in conversations which the two of them held recently, at the request of Ma'ariv. The newspaper can verify and prove the authenticity of every word that appears on these pages.

Pollard willingly agreed to be interviewed by Ma'ariv. Prison authorities at FCI Butner in North Carolina, where Pollard is held, agreed as well. The story was stopped by the offices of Naval Intelligence, by a Lt. Commander William Roos Jr.

Roos did not forbid Pollard to be interviewed. Rather, he prevented him from doing so, using other means - much more insidious means. In order to carry out the interview, both Ma'ariv and Pollard had to sign an endless number of promissory documents: "Among others, we had to commit that any recorded film or pictures would, at the end of the interview, be turned over to American Intelligence and would become the private property of the United States of America. And only sometime later - if they deemed it proper - the Americans might release some part of the material. If they felt like it, of course." And neither the newspaper nor Pollard would have any right to legal redress for whatever reason, even if the government made improper use of the materials at some future date.

In conferencing with his lawyers, amongst them the well-known professor Alan Dershowitz, Pollard learned that the demands of the American Government represented a clear and striking negation of his right to freedom of speech, according to the First Amendment of the Constitution.

And a question must be asked. Why is it that Aldrich Ames, the spy who was recently caught, whose activities led to the deaths of many American agents by the KGB, why has he already been interviewed far and wide by all of the American media possible? Did Wolf Blitzer, the CNN interviewer, also sign the same kinds of contracts that were demanded of Ma'ariv?

Pollard himself read an interview that Aldrich Ames gave to the Washington Post, and in it the newspaper declared, clearly, that the only restriction imposed on Ames is that an Intelligence monitor must be present at interviews. Moreover, there is no doubt that Aldrich Ames committed much more serious offences and his deeds were much worse - they do not in any way resemble the activities of Pollard who worked on behalf of a friendly nation and did not lead - in spite of published slander and lies - to the loss of any American lies.

Nevertheless, the Americans themselves - the greatest democracy in the world that dedicates itself to freedom of expression almost at the cost of every other value - are behaving in this instance like some forsaken little banana republic.

We have in our hands at Ma'ariv, a medical report written by Dr. James Hilkey, Head of the Department of Psychology at FCI Butner, where Jonathan Pollard is held. This report was written at the request of the lawyer, Larry Dub, Jonathan Pollard's current legal counsel. This report comes as a welcome tiding to all of Israel at the start of the New Year. Pollard is stable, sharp, intelligent; is aware of his situation and of his surroundings; he knows exactly what is going on; and he displays brilliance and analytical ability that is outstanding, it states in the report.

In the coming days, Jonathan Pollard's lawyers, Gidi Frishtik, Larry Dub and Mordechai Ofri, will be filing papers with the Israeli Supreme Court regarding the Government's refusal to grant citizenship to him. The papers will include many surprises, among other things, a letter from Pollard himself. One of the arguments that can be made is that Pollard and his former wife Anne, in the past received Israeli passports during the time that Pollard worked on behalf of Israel. These passports, completely legal ones, were issued in Tel Aviv and were held by one of Pollard's Israeli handlers to safeguard him against risk. They were supposed to be used in the event of an emergency, to allow the Pollard couple to leave for Israel safely.

However, when the emergency occurred, Pollard's handler disappeared with the passports in hand. It is reasonable to assume that Pollard's lawyers will, sometime in the future during the legal process, summon this man to give testimony. His name is held in confidence at the newspaper. It is not Aviem Sella.