About Us

IMRA
IMRA
IMRA

 

Subscribe

Search


...................................................................................................................................................


Friday, June 24, 2016
US Intelligence Community Petitions Against Easing Pollard Parole Conditions

US Intelligence Community Petitions Against Easing Pollard Parole Conditions
Lea Speyer – Algemeiner.com – June 21, 2016
https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/06/21/us-intelligence-community-petitions-against-easing-of-convicted-spy-jonathan-pollards-parole-conditions/

Leaders of the US intelligence community have petitioned against easing the
parole conditions of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, on the grounds that
doing so would breach national security, the Daily Beast reported on
Tuesday.

Petitioners claimed that though Pollard — a former US intelligence analyst
who shared classified secrets with Israel — was imprisoned for more than 30
years, he still holds top-secret information that, if divulged, could harm
American interests.

Since his release from federal prison last year, Pollard has been living in
New York City under very strict parole conditions. He has petitioned the US
Parole Commission to stop the monitoring of his and any potential employer’s
computer — something that caused a job offer as a research analyst to be
rescinded — and to remove the GPS monitoring ankle bracelet, which he claims
is causing him to have health problems and to violate the Sabbath and Jewish
holidays.

According to a declaration against Pollard filed on Friday by Jennifer L.
Hudson, a senior official in the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (DNI):

Intelligence Community (IC) elements have confirmed that certain information
believed to have been compromised by Mr. Pollard remains currently and
properly classified at the Top Secret and Secret levels. As such, any
unauthorized disclosure of this information could risk harm to our national
security, as it could enable terrorist organizations, foreign intelligence
services, and other hostile groups to discern and thwart the use of
particular sources and methods to collect such information…to our
detriment…Some of the sources and methods used to develop some of
intelligence exposed by Mr. Pollard not only remain classified but are still
in use by the Intelligence Community today.

Hudson is not the only intelligence official to come out against easing
Pollard’s parole. In February, invoking national security, DNI Director
James Clapper issued his own warning to the US Parole Commission, writing:

Mr. Pollard was convicted to conspiring to deliver national defense
information to a foreign government…IC elements have confirmed that certain
information compromised by Mr. Pollard remains currently and properly
classified at the Top Secret and Secret levels…the unauthorized disclosure
of which could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to
the national security…

The IC believe then, and still believes, that the imposition of special
conditions would be an appropriate means to mitigate concerns of future
unauthorized disclosures of classified information by Mr. Pollard.

In response to Clapper’s claims, Pollard’s lawyers wrote a letter to the US
Parole Commission, which stated, “Even assuming some information is still
‘classified’ as a practical matter, it is extremely unlikely that Mr.
Pollard remembers, or could possibly remember, the details of 30-year old
information to an extent that it could be of any value to anyone.”

The lawyers argued that current parole conditions would feasibly not prevent
Pollard from disclosing sensitive information, “even though he has no such
information and has not intention of jeopardizing his freedom.”

“There simply is no relationship between the underlying offense and the need
to monitor Mr. Pollard’s whereabouts, where the commission’s supposed
concern is a conversation that could theoretically occur anywhere,” they
wrote. “Mr. Pollard’s ability to disclose supposedly confidential
information could occur at any time of day. And the monitoring of Mr.
Pollard’s computer use would not prevent him from disclosing the classified
information in person, over the phone, or via regular mail.”

According to a former US intelligence official familiar with Pollard’s case
who spoke with the Daily Beast, while there is “no doubt” that Pollard
probably knows information that is still pertinent to US national security,
a different, unspoken motivation is driving the intelligence community in
relation to Pollard’s parole conditions.

“They want to f**k with him,” the former official said.

In 1987 — despite entering into a plea agreement with the US government and
pleading guilty to one count of providing defense information to a foreign
government — Pollard was handed down the maximum punishment and sentenced to
life imprisonment. Prominent US officials — such as former CIA director
James Woolsey and former US secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry
Kissinger — called for Pollard’s unusually harsh sentence to be commuted. On
November 20, 2015, following a 30-year prison term — and what some suspect
was the Obama administration’s attempt to placate Israel over the Iran
nuclear deal — Pollard was released.

Aside from having his computer activity and physical movement monitored,
Pollard has a strict curfew and is forbidden from leaving the US for five
years. This restriction is reportedly aimed at preventing him from going to
Israel, where he granted citizenship by the Knesset during his
incarceration.

See Also:

Government Backtracks on Secret Filing in Pollard Case - Hamodia [NY]
http://hamodia.com/2016/06/21/government-backtracks-secret-filing-pollard-case/

Search For An Article

....................................................................................................

Contact Us

POB 982 Kfar Sava
Tel 972-9-7604719
Fax 972-3-7255730
email:imra@netvision.net.il IMRA is now also on Twitter
http://twitter.com/IMRA_UPDATES

image004.jpg (8687 bytes)