(Republished from March, 2013)
“The time has long since come for Jonathan to go free,” Netanyahu said at the outset of the meeting. “This issue will come up during President Obama’s visit. It has already been raised countless times by myself and others, and the time has come for him to go free,” he said. Esther Pollard echoed Netanyahu’s words, saying “Jonathan can’t anymore. This is a golden opportunity now that the president of the United States is coming. If not now, when?” Pollard’s wife was joined in her meeting with Netanyahu by Lawrence Korb, who was US deputy secretary of defense during the Reagan administration in 1985 when Pollard was arrested, and is currently a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank, which is considered close to the Obama administration. Also attending was Effie Lahav, who heads the Committee to Free Jonathan Pollard." JPost
—————————
OK. How about this deal?
1- The US frees Pollard and in the announcement reiterates the simple fact that he is a traitor to the United States who spied for Israel.
2 -At the same time Israel publicly admits that it betrayed its friendship with the United States in the Pollard affair.
3- POTUS orders the Secretary of the Navy to convene a full scale investigation with regard to the attack on the USS Liberty by the IDF in 1967. The previous naval investigation of the incident conducted by Admiral Kidd in 1967 was a farce and completely inadequate. Jim Webb should be asked to conduct the investigation. pl
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=305271
Great idea. Chance of its happening? Zilch.
Indeed. I read the line “Okay how about this deal?” and started smiling, because I knew the USS Liberty was coming. Jim Webb as investigator is a nice touch.
Col Lang,
I voted for Senator Webb and was very pleased that he won. However, he seemed to disappear from view especially on items concerning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Do you have any idea why? I like him and wish that he could have had more of an impact on the discussion and policy.
Regards,
charles
Webb is not a man who hungers for notoriety or public office. that does not mean that he wuld not be suited to this task. pl
Col: How hard is it to say, “We don’t pardon traitors”?
I would reverse the order.
lars
I had no particular order in mind. pl
I don’t even care if they agree to your proposal Col…I just would like to see them go public with it. But I am not holding my breath with this guy in the White House. Or, for that matter, anyone that has been in the White House since Ike.
Well done Col. Lang! Concise and to the point. I do think that all of these three requirements need to be met and, most importantly, item three — the USS Liberty investigation — should be well underway before Pollard’s release is even discussed.
If I was dictator I would proclaim that if we send you money and you turn around and use that money to buy our politicians, then you don’t need that money anymore.
p s How bout giving all those nukes we gave you back.
Israel went from asset to liability awhile back and I am tired of American Servicemen dying for their interest. If any country should reject fascism it should be them yet they seem to embrace it with gusto.
Colonel,
How about adding to the deal that the Isrealis return all the classified material that Pollard stole.
Off topic, but the Guardian (London) and the BBC have just come out with an investigation on purported U.S. links to Iraqi torture centers. Not good for Pertraeus. And the hiring of Shia to work in detention centers against Sunni was an epic blunder, which helped lead to civil war….
Revealed: Pentagon’s link to Iraqi torture centres
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/06/pentagon-iraqi-torture-centres-link
From El Salvador to Iraq: Washington’s man behind brutal police squads
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/06/el-salvador-iraq-police-squads-washington
It’s not for me to say but I would take that deal.
Colonel,
Sounds good to me. Clean out the stables. Webb is an excellent man to do it.
One more to add to the category of “now we know – but not if you stick to the NYT.” Eric Holder sent a memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee Monday declaring that the President of the United States has the same legal authority to kill an American citizen on U.S. soil, if he judges it necessary on national security grounds, as he does outside U.S. jurisdiction. Nancy Pelosi adds that she’s not sure that the public should be informed of such killings.
Before any deal Israel would have to confirm what Pollard stole, return what they have, and make full disclosure of what they did with the information. (This last is crucial.) Also if Israel does that, any accompanying acknowledgment that they betrayed US trust in the matter will be superfluous. Not holding my breath.
We should not release any traitors to Israel even if they only spied for “our good ally” Israel. Not now, not in this lifetime.
Sorry, this one pushes one of my buttons.
@mbrenner…
Its worse….Looks like Lindsey Graham is suffering from an acute case of cranial rectal inversions either that or he has been assimilation by the borg….
http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=18669421
I have a deal! How about Israel forfeitting the $3b and any other military or economic aid we give it every year and we let them have Pollard….
Pat,
I would echo Jackie’s comments. I think many/most of us working Middle East issues in the community at the time Pollard was stealing our secrets would never concur in his release for any reasons.
Russ
russ
You know that my conditions will not be met. pl
IMO US lost personnel because of Pollard so should not reparations be paid in full?
A bit OT:
Anyone watch Colbert with Oren last night
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/424390/march-05-2013/obama-s-israel-trip—michael-oren
“What about Iran, when do you guys start bombing… When does the bombing start?… Ambassador Oren, I want you to tell Netanyahu when you get back there that the Colbert Nation is behind you on this one, and if you do bomb Iran we are right behind you with just as many nuclear weapons as you admit to having.”
Let Pollard stay where he belongs until he’s too sick or old to function or think well anymore.
Let him never be allowed to leave this country to go to Israel or anywhere else.
And please God, let us find the strength to free ourselves from the control of one Israeli government after another and from all the Israel lobbiests.
By the way, what would we do if any of our real allies talked they were President of the United States, like this jerk Netanyahu?
Jackie,
It pushes my buttons too. Every time this comes up, I get madder.
We have no good reason to let him out now and many good reasons not to. Once again, his supporters show their contempt for America.
The people Pollard exposed are unknown heroes and martyrs who went to prison and/or died because of what he did. I wish we could do something for them or their survivors.
Would Israel release all the pertinent information?
I would think not.
Without that, then wouldn’t any new investigation be another travesty?
How ’bout they return those years John Crossman spent in the slammer for being a “traitor”/whistle-blower.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu
Hey whats a few fudged test amoung “major allies”?
http://articles.courant.com/2013-03-04/business/hc-utc-pratt-and-whitney-testing-scheme-20130304_1_east-hartford-engine-maker-jet-engines-pratt-spokeswoman-stephanie-duvall
Nice…you just raised my blood pressure a couple more points.
Thanks for the info.
Great. I wonder how many aircraft losses were due to this sabotage?
“… Carmel Forge Ltd. in Israel, changed test results for more than 40,000 forged disks over 15 years”
He really had at Israel for most of the show before Oren’s segment in a fairly energetic emperor-has-no-clothes manner, quite a sight.
I expect the traitor’s release during the Weakling In Chief’s knee crawl to the Zionist Entity. And how come is it that I think this? Why, it’ll be as a reward to The Lobby for not – you know – going completely nuts to derail the Hagel nomination. Chicago horse trading at its finest.
Would you like another example of said unprincipled horse trading? Yours but to ask…
http://www.alternet.org/outrage-some-banks-are-too-big-prosecute
So much for defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic, eh?
Thanks for the link. I work in that industry, and, yes, people get fired quick for fudging Quality data – sometimes.
Not sure this happened because the subsidiary is (based in?) Israel, but it may have been a factor. Pressure to produce more/faster/cheaper is global, and normal in modern corporations. It takes Managers with a moral center and/or a long-term view to resist that pressure to make the numbers look good today.
Judging by the results of their elections, it’s easy to imagine that leaders with a moral center and long-term view might be hard to find there.
To be fair, the same could be said about the USA.
I wonder how many american airmen were either hurt or killed? But what the hell! 40,000 forged disks or the USS Liberty. Its only an oversight, an accident, no one knew it was american don’t ya know? No one will be prosecuted for this either….
It certainly happens here. I used to work in the nuclear industry. Lack of quality controls forced a longterm shutdown of a nuclear plant, costing the rate payers millions:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/vessel-head-degradation.html
Of course the management screw up that closed Crystal River unit 3 was worse, but don’t worry the CEO who got fired is walking away with 44million. The thousand or so people who are losing their jobs won’t have such a nice payout.
Well boys and girls looks like the fix is in… Who wants odds Pollard gets released?
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/
And
http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/03/07/the-jonathan-pollard-spy-case-plot-thickens/
Yes it happens here. But we normally prosecute. The question remains will we prosecute in this case?
Still no governing coalition in Israel?
When if ever was Bibi an American citizen and has he renounced that citizenship?
We now send whistleblowers to prison, and release individuals within our government that spy for foreign governments?
Based on conversations with two retired Navy JAG Corps officers, they would love to see the USS Liberty attack reinvestigated. If for no other reason than to demonstrate that Navy JAG Corps can perform an objective and robust investigation when free to do so.
Unfortunately, due to the passage of time, some key witnesses are now dead and others have corroded memories of events. But as I have demonstrated with my research, there is much that can be discovered simply by reviewing and analyzing evidence presented during the original inquiry.
How about this for a possible deal # 4?
“Immediately and without preconditions cease the settlement activity and to initiate a process of withdrawal from the settlements” and Pollard goes free.
IIRC Bush tried something similar with loan guarantees. Israel would say yes, and hold up their end of the bargain exactly as long as it took to get what they wanted, then go back to business as usual.
I think that Col. Lang’s proposal is a wise one. I have one added recommendation: That he be appointed to be the chief investigator into the Liberty probe. I would also like to see more of the Pollard file declassified, especially the aspects dealing with Israel’s double-dealing with the Soviets, using Pollard’s stolen documents as trading material for Soviet agreement to allow Soviet Jews to migrate to Israel. I recall that then-Secretary of Defense Weinberger did a sealed affidavit to the Court in the Pollard sentencing process, in which he made clear the level of Israeli-Soviet collusion, which is why everyone inside the U.S. intelligence community who was privy to the Pollard file is adament that he should rot in an American jail until his dying day.
These words should be send in affirmative to all members of the Senate. Let’s see what the big-mouth patriots’ real allegiance is, to the US or the state of Israel…
It appears that the author of the Jewishpress story is yet another American who served in a army of a foreign country because he puts their interests ahead of those of the United States. Why are people who serve in foreign armies allowed to keep US citizenship?
Let me ask a probably dumb question. What is the driving interest Netanyahu has in freeing Pollard? Is it to placate elements in the Mossad, and if so, what could be afoot/at issue there after all this time has passed? Are significant elements in Israel’s body politic consumed by the issue of Pollard’s fate? Are there things that Pollard could do or say that would be of great use to Israel if he were released? What am I missing here?
LK
Effective espionage groups place a high premium on retrieving their people from situations like this. the word gets around if they don’t and the work is more difficult. Any thought that the Mossad or IDF GS intelligence did not run Pollard behind a cut out or two is just laughable. The interest of political groups, rabbis and Pollard’s wife is helpful to them. actually I testified about this kind of thing before a congressional panel in the Plame affair. Its on Utube. pl
How about we say No, no f**king way, and f**k you jack.
Our excuse? We’re not freiers.
To the uninitiated: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=freier
He probably wouldn’t have to renounce US citizenship, if he ever had it. Israeli’s can have dual citizenship.
Col Lang:
Ater viewing the Youtube testimony
one could conclude our assets with
regard to any humint have been vastly
degraded as witness to all the “surprises”
and “reactionary” responses to events
of late. Congress is indeed supine and
irrelevant to all matters regarding the
rule of law and Constitution issues a
virtual doormat to the Current Occupant
whomever that may be.
I say we take the tip from Nancy Reagan and “Just Say No.”
OK. How about this deal?
1-
2 –
3-
pl
should also include;
4 – Free Mordechai Vanunu alive to leave izi.
I’m a big supporter of the Palestinians, mostly for reasons to do with sibling birth order I’m sure.
But if your country did this one could reasonably conclude that its over-riding aim is to manifest as a pussy-whipped(sorry ladies) pusillanimous practitioner of quivering suckupism to a punk colonial power.
Never mind Pollard, recognize Palestine, ship over a few planes and billions, bns, that’d grease a few skids.
Just kidding.
Sorry, but I could not stomach Oren. Unfortunately the media demographics subscribing to Colbert can’t distinguish fact from fiction…..
At this stage it would be interesting to find out how many Pollards there are in circulation and how deeply they are embedded in USG. Who is feeding them classified hootch, and on which committees they are sitting or chairing.
More terrifying is what might be getting transferred to who at this moment in exchange of what?
Probably it is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJLt60Fu4pY
I know you’re a bit angry about this but aren’t you too old to ask for ponies? 🙂
I kid, I kid.
shanks
If you take a soft line you might get half of that. pl
Col: It seems that the Palestinians have had enough of the phony talks. Does that make all this Pollard talk moot?
For some reason, we the people, just never want to give up Pollard. I know I don’t, no matter how many times this trial balloon is floated.
Unfortunately none of this may matter. Pollard received his life sentence prior to enactment of the sentencing reform act of 1987. Under that new law parole is abolished. Pollard however is subject to the old law. The sentence of life that Pollard received has parole eligibility after 30 years. Assuming he had a period of custody prior to his plea he will be eligible for parole shortly.
At the very least the Israelis should cough up everything Pollard gave them and detail where it went. Rumor has it that they dealt with the Soviet Union, for example – what did the Evil Empire get?
This is plainly just a trial balloon, and given the reaction of the major press organs it’s unlikely to become more than that, but it’s astonishing that this particular balloon is being loosed so early in the current “peace process.” What on earth are they thinking?
A chance to remind of the tragic fate of the servicemen on the USS Liberty and the treasonous, ungrateful, manipulative attitude of Israel and Israel-firsters to the US citizens – a fat one.
There should be a story about the victims of Pollard’s betrayal.
much as I am against capital punishment, one might idlywonder, is Pollard such a threatÉ
Well the reason surely is when you trade an
Abel, you are supposed to get a Powers, not platitudes adn foreign future considerations.
All,
A bit off-thread, perhaps, but not very much so should one be interested in seeing an alteration in the dynamic between Israel and the US.
I have noted several posters seemingly of the opinion that Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky might be a change agent in this regard. But before putting down too much weight on that foot, you might wish to read and reflect upon this:
http://spectator.org/blog/22498/rand-paul-and-israel
Well, one might say, this was a position articulated in the heat of a campaign, and things get said in that context that often later fall by the wayside. Frankly, I don’t see this as anything other than obeisance, and heartfelt obeisance at that, to the interests of the Lobby. Consider this, too; in our current political system, with campaigning being a perennial state, particularly in the Senate where a) monetary requirements are enormous for electioneering, and b) where treaties (or in the case of Israel, sub rosa understandings functionally equivalent to treaties) are validated, this position is likely one that is considered and final.
It would be a cardinal mistake to confuse the views of Rand Paul with those of his father, Ron Paul, merely because occasional flickers of libertarianism appear in Rand Paul’s words.
Colonel,
All your suggestions are good. I like this one the best:
“Jim Webb should be asked to conduct the investigation.”
I recall that Webb wanted Pollard executed and this was one of the reasons he resigned.