Exclusive: Pollard lawyers file clemency request with Obama
By GIL HOFFMAN The Jerusalem Post 10/17/2010 00:56
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=191625

In light of new revelations of government malfeasance, Pollard lawyers ask
for his immediate release from prison.

The petition comes amid a wave of calls for the release of the Israeli agent
and following new revelations of apparent government malfeasance made public
by senior officials with first-hand involvement in the case - former
minister Rafi Eitan and former US assistant secretary of defense Lawrence J.
Korb.

Eitan, who was Pollard's handler, revealed on Thursday after press time that
the US had violated an oral agreement with Israel to release Pollard after
10 years. In an interview with Israel Radio, Eitan also accused the US of
deliberately perpetrating a travesty of justice by violating Pollard's plea
agreement and slapping him with what he called a grossly disproportionate
life sentence.

He pointed out that at the time of Pollard's sentencing in 1987, secret
charges were laid against Pollard blaming him for the crimes of a Russian
mole within American intelligence, Aldrich Ames. Pollard was neither
informed of these charges nor given a chance to challenge them in a court of
law.

Eitan said the US steadfastly refused to release Pollard even after Ames was
exposed and arrested in 1994, "for their own reasons."

Eitan called for the US to release Pollard at once, saying that 25 years was
at least 15 years longer that he should have served.

Korb, who was assistant secretary of defense under Caspar Weinberger at the
time of Pollard's arrest, wrote a letter to Obama calling for Pollard's
release that was released last week.

The letter called Pollard's sentence "grossly disproportionate" and said it
was the result of Weinberger's "visceral dislike" of Israel, and not because
of the offense Pollard had committed.

In addition to Korb, former CIA director James Woolsey and former head of
the Senate Intelligence Committee Dennis DeConcini, as well as a
cross-section of other notable Americans, and the Conference of Presidents
of Major Jewish Organizations have all recently called for Pollard's
release.

All major Jewish religious organizations across the spectrum including the
Reform Movement's Religious Action Center, the Orthodox Union, the National
Council of Young Israel, and Agudath Israel, have also recently issued calls
for Pollard's release.

Adding to the groundswell of support, four democratic congressmen - Barney
Frank of Massachusetts, Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, and Edolphus Towns and
Anthony Weiner, both of New York - have been circulating a petition among
their colleagues with a letter addressed to Obama showing support for
Pollard's immediate release.

Weinberger said in a 2002 interview that the Pollard case was a "minor
matter" that had been "made much more important than it was" in order to
serve another agenda. Weinberger died in 2006.

Pollard's new petition for clemency contains documents and statements
designed to show not only the injustice done to Pollard, but also the
support for his freedom.

The Korb letter and the DeConcini letter to Obama are part of the filing,
along with statements from other relevant American officials in support of
Pollard's immediate release.

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of
Young Israel, who spearheads efforts in the US on behalf of Pollard, said,
"The injustice is well known. All that is needed now to correct it is Mr.
Obama's signature on Jonathan's new petition for clemency.

"The American Jewish community and the people of Israel hope that the
president will take this opportunity to restore honor to the American system
of justice by releasing Jonathan Pollard now, and sending him home to
Jerusalem to his wife, Esther, and to his people."

Esther Pollard stressed, "Jonathan's petition for clemency does not ask for
a pardon, only for clemency.

A pardon expunges the offense as if it never happened.

Jonathan is not asking for his offense to be erased. All he is asking is for
President Obama to commute his life sentence to time served.

"Because the president's powers of executive clemency are unlimited and not
subject to review by any other government office or official, the president
can correct this decades-long injustice in virtually a few seconds with a
single stroke of his pen," she said.

Jonathan Pollard, 56, relayed to The Jerusalem Post via his wife that he
appreciates the efforts his attorneys made to complete the petition
expeditiously and submit it without delay.

"Twenty-five years is a long time," he said. "Esther and I hope that
President Obama will see to it that justice does not have to wait any
longer."