General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDespite Pleas For Clemency, Obama Declines To Pardon Israel Agent Jonathan Pollard
US President Barack Obama granted clemency to 21 criminals over the weekend, as part of the pardons and commutations traditionally approved ahead of the Christmas holiday. Obama pardoned 13 criminals and commuted the sentences of eight.
Most of the convicts on the list were drug dealers and thieves, some of whom would have received lesser sentences if convicted of the same crimes today.
Despite a recent request from his close ally and former cabinet member Bill Richardson, Obama did not include Israel agent Jonathan Pollard on his holiday clemency list. Pollard is in his 29th year of a life sentence.
Richardson called on the president to commute the convicted spy's life sentence in a letter on Tuesday.
MORE...
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Despite-pleas-for-clemency-Obama-declines-to-pardon-Pollard-335740
RC
(25,592 posts)Leonard Peltier
Don Eugene Siegelman
1000words
(7,051 posts)You'll get a fair shake.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)I'm hoping that Obama will at least consider commuting his sentence at the end of his term when he will have no political repercussions to worry about.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)who turned information over to enemy agents even though he actually spied for an ally (Israel). I think that even John Walker, who spied for the USSR for nearly twenty years is due for parole in 2015. If Walker can get out of jail, then I don't see any reason why Pollard can't be released.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)As for the ally Israel did not cooperate with the investigation afterward
When asked to return the stolen material, the Israelis reportedly only turned over a few dozen low-classified documents.[41] At the time, the Americans knew that Pollard had passed tens of thousands of documents. When American investigators traveled to Israel they were treated with hostility from the moment they arrived in Israel to the moment they left.[41] The Israelis created a schedule designed to wear them down, including many hours per day of commuting in blacked out buses on rough roads, and frequent switching of buses[41] leaving them without adequate time to sleep and preventing them from sleeping on the commute.[41] The identity of Pollard's original handler, Sella, was withheld. All questions had to be translated into Hebrew and answered in Hebrew, and then translated back into English, even though all the parties spoke perfect English.[41] The Commander Jerry Agee remembers that, even as he departed the airport, airport security made a point of informing him that "you will never be coming back here again"; Agee found various items had been stolen from his luggage, upon his return to the United States.[41] The abuse came not only from the guards and officials, but also the Israeli media.[41]
Aviem Sella, Pollard's initial Israeli contact, was eventually indicted on three counts of espionage by an American court.[42] Israel refused to allow him to be interviewed unless he was granted immunity. The United States refused because of Israel's previous failure to cooperate as promised. Israel then refused to extradite Sella, instead giving him command of Tel Nof Airbase. The U.S. Congress responded by threatening to cut aid to Israel, at which point Sella voluntarily stepped down to defuse tensions.[43]
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)or "eligible for release"?
I'll try to look up more on the case later and refresh my memory. I have always been under the impression that he was never going to be released unless he is pardoned or has his sentence commuted by a U.S. president.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)At the time of Pollard's sentencing there was a rule that mandated parole consideration after 30 years of imprisonment for prisoners serving life sentences, who had maintained a clean record in prison. He is currently scheduled to be released November 21, 2015.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Thank you for that information.
DemocraticWing
(1,290 posts)The President has better tasks than to free people who passed classified information to foreign governments.