Weinberger: Pollard Case "A Minor Matter"

Jacob Seidenberg - The Washington Jewish Week - posted August 12, 2002

Some years ago, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, whose memorandum to the court urged that Jonathan Pollard receive a life sentence, allowed that he would not object to Pollard's release.

Recently Edwin Black, reported ("Life Sentence On Technicality" WJW, June 20) that when he interviewed Weinberger regarding his recently published memoir and asked why the Pollard case was left out, the casual reply was, "Because it was, in a sense, a very minor matter, but made very important."

These comments are hardly in keeping with Weinberger's affidavit to the court:

"It is difficult for me, even in the so-called 'year of the spy' to conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by the defendant in view of the breadth, the critical importance to the U.S., and the high sensitivity of the information he sold to Israel... The punishment should reflect the perfidy of the individual's actions, the magnitude of the treason committed, and the needs of national security."*

As Secretary of Defense, as a lawyer himself, and with lawyers at his command, Mr. Weinberger must have known that according to the consitution, Pollard was not guilty of treason. Now he admits that his other testimony was equally faulty.

Pollard has remained in prison all this time for "harm" for which he was never indicted, that the prosecutor did not charge in his statement of facts, that he did not plead guilty to and that he could not be charged with under his plea agreement.

If Pollard actually did damage, why was he not indicted for it or even charged with it in the prosecutor's statement of facts? This case cries out for Pollard's release, and Weinberger's recent declarations give further voice to that demand for justice.

*

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