[IMRA: View the original letter
http://bit.ly/1BQAFxP ]
Ex-US officials decry Pollard’s ‘unjust denial of parole’
Signatories in letter to Obama condemn ‘deeply flawed’ legal process, say
the board knowingly relied on a false claim to deny US-Israeli spy freedom
By Marissa Newman - The Times of Israel - November 20, 2014http://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-us-officials-decry-pollards-unjust-denial-of-parole/
Eight former high-level US officials penned a strongly-worded letter to
President Barack Obama Thursday denouncing a decision to deny
Israeli-American spy Jonathan Pollard parole in August, and charging the
administration with basing the decision on a “patently false” claim.
“The Parole Commission decision document mischaracterizes Mr. Pollard’s
actions and makes a patently false claim upon which it bases its denial of
parole,” the letter from the formal officials said.
A former US naval analyst, Pollard was found guilty of passing sensitive
documents to Israel, and sentenced to a life term in prison. On Friday, he’ll
mark his 30th year in prison.
In Israel, he remains a cause celebre, and there have been repeated efforts
throughout the past twenty years to secure his release.
The American intelligence and defense community has for years dug in its
heels over keeping Pollard imprisoned, even as calls for his release have
grown in worldwide Jewish communities and mainstream Israeli politics.
A statement from the Campaign for the Release of Jonathan Pollard released
Wednesday charged the Obama administration of seeking to quash the spy’s
chances of being freed for political reasons.
The letter from the formal officials echoed that claim.
“The Commission’s allegation that Mr. Pollard’s espionage ‘was the greatest
compromise of US security to that date’ is false; and not supported by any
evidence in the public record or the classified file. Yet it was this
fiction that the Parole Commission cited to deny parole,” it stated.
The assessment of the severity of Pollard’s spying was based on a “stale,
largely discredited, 28-year-old classified memorandum written by former
Secretary of Defense, Casper Weinberger,” which he later backtracked on, it
said, citing a 2002 interview in which Weinberger conceded that the Pollard
affair was “a very minor matter but made very important.”
The ex-officials said that the parole board ignored all evidence in Pollard’s
favor, his high score on a test measuring “suitability for release,” his
age, his family situation, poor health, and wife’s cancer.
They denounced the “grossly disproportionate” treatment of Pollard, and said
his “unconditional release (let alone his release on parole, which does not
address the disproportionality of his sentence) is long overdue.”
“It is clear that his sentence is far more severe than others in the US
convicted of the same offense,” the letter maintained.
The eight former senior officials called on Obama to pardon the incarcerated
spy.
“Denying a man his freedom based on a claim of damage that is patently false
while ignoring exculpatory documentary evidence and hiding behind a veil of
secret evidence is neither fair nor just, and it simply is not the American
way.”
Pollard, being held at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, turned to
the parole board for a first time in April, but canceled his hearing at the
last minute amid reports that his release could be secured as part of a
political deal to salvage US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the
Palestinians.
In January, Israeli president Shimon Peres was given a petition signed by
106 out of 120 MKs calling for Pollard’s release, to be passed on to US
President Barack Obama. The same petition was later given to a group of MKs
to present as well to Obama.
Joshua Davidovich and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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