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| By israelinsider staff May 21, 2007 |
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| Cooking up an anti-Semitic stew ... with Rice? Ambassador Richard Jones meets with the Secretary of State (Photo: www.state.gov) |
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The US ambassador to Israel on Monday said it is unlikely that convicted Pentagon spy Jonathan Pollard will ever be freed, adding that the fact that he has not been executed should be seen as an act of "mercy" by Washington.
Responding to a written question during an academic conference, Ambassador Richard Jones became visibly agitated, proceeding to make intemperate and inaccurate remarks about Pollard that he may have cause to regret.
"It came out in the trial very clearly," he claimed. "Jonathan Pollard took money for what he did, he sold out his country," Jones at Bar Ilan University, near Tel Aviv. "The fact that he wasn't executed is the mercy that Jonathan Pollard will receive."
Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy, passed military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon. He was arrested in 1985 and pleaded guilty at his trial, as part of a bargain that was never honored. He is serving a life sentence in a US federal prison and is reportedly in ill health.
"This is a very emotional issue in the United States," Jones said. "I know he was helping a friend but that's what makes it even more emotional for Americans, if a friend would cooperate in aiding and abetting someone who is committing treason against his own country."
Jones' unprecedentedly blunt attack on Israel for "aiding and abetting someone who is committing treason" (sic) raised eyebrows in the audience, and caused outrage among Pollard's supporters. Two current Israeli ministers, Vice Premier Shimon Peres and Minister of Pensioners Rafi Eitan were directly responsible for overseeing and authorizing Pollard's activities.
The wife of the imprisoned spy decried Jones' remarks as "malicious incitement" and "gross slander" against her husband, and urged Prime Minister Olmert to send the US Ambassador packing for "lies and slander."
"Jones's declaration that Pollard 'got off easy' because he deserved to be shot is wantonly malicious, especially since he knows that Jonathan did not commit treason, which is the only crime which carries a death penalty," Esther Pollard said in a written response.
"In point of fact, Jonathan was charged with the least serious of the espionage statues: one count of passing classified information to an ally. The median sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years," she added.
Pollard said that Jones's claim that her husband sold out his country is without foundation.
"Jonathan's indictment specifies that he was not charged with harming the United States, and his sentencing transcript clearly shows that the court recognized this fact. Consequently the court did not impose a monetary fine as it would have if he had spied for money. Most important of all, Israel formally admitted in 1998 that Jonathan Pollard was a bona fide Israeli agent. The formal recognition of Jonathan as an Israeli agent puts the lie to any claims that Jonathan spied out of mercenary motives," she said.
Pollard's noted that no one in American history has every gotten a life sentence for spying for an ally.
She added that former US special envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross states, in his book 'The Missing Peace,' that Pollard continues to be held by the US as a bargaining chip against Israel.
[Esther Pollard's full remarks are here.]
Pollard was used as bait in persuading former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign off on the Wye accords. Ross himself was reportedly instrumental in persuading the U.S. that Israel would agree to the deal even without getting Pollard.
Some analysts speculate that the Ambassador's inciteful remarks were tied to pressure on Israel to make concessions and part of a concerted effort to raise the specter of American Jewish dual loyalty in the run-up to the public trial of former AIPAC executives. |
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