Pentagon official: "Pollard is serving a far more serious severe than he deserved"
Ilil Shahar - IDF Radio - October 12, 2010
- View original news item in Hebrew. Translation below courtesy of IMRA news.
- Listen to audio of newscast.
Exclusive:
U.S. Pentagon official, Lawrence J. Korb, calls upon President Obama to release the prisoner Jonathan Pollard, who spied for Israel. "The punishment was so severe due to lack of sympathy for Israel from the former U.S. Defense Secretary, Caspar Weinberger," he said. According to Korb, Pollard received a "disproportionate punishment", noting the average penalty for this offense is 10 years today
IDF Radio received the letter sent by the former assistant secretary of Defense Secretary, Dr. Lawrence J. Korb to President Obama two weeks ago about Jonathan Pollard. Korb wrote that the sentence Pollard was serving was far more serious than he deserves, in relation to those crimes committed.
"Based on the knowledge that I have first hand, I can confidently say that the punishment was so severe because of lack of sympathy for Israel by the U.S. Secretary of Defense at the time, my boss, Caspar Weinberger," the letter stated.
According to Korb, Weinberg made great efforts to convince the judge to punish Pollard severely. "Although Pollard pleaded guilty, cooperated with the government and asked for clemency - he received disproportionate punishment," wrote Korb. "In the end Weinberg himself did not put the Pollard story in his biography. Weinberger said that the reason for this is because the affair had been exaggerated beyond minor importance - that is, he finally understood and admitted that the story had been blown beyond proportions. "
Korb emphasized that the average penalty for the offense Pollard committed is two to four years, and even today when the law changed - the maximum sentence is 10 years. "So if he was sentenced today he would not sit 25 years in prison. Justice will be done if the sentence is shortened to what has already been served to date," Korb's letter concluded.