"Pollard Released on Parole" - by Walrus.

The Associated Press is reporting the release on parole of Jonathan Pollard, Thirty years to the day after his conviction.

A few questions: Why was "parole" even available, given the severity of the offences?

Exactly which "New York investment firm" has given him a job in its finance department? Surely such an action signals to the country that every employee of the firm has unquestionable allegiance to Israel? There are prudential controls in most countries that prevent a convicted felon like Pollard from having anything to do with the management of other peoples money.

Does this event imply that on the basis of equity, other convicted spies should expect release after Thirty years?

How long before Pollard breaks his parole and is spirited to Israel?

What did we get in return, Mordechai Vanunu?

Pollard Released. 

Vanunu

 

Comments

[Fred]

Walrus,

"What did we get in return..." Nothing.

[confusedponderer]

"What did we get in return"

Well, since the US is dealing with Bibi the Netanyahoo, nothing of course.

[David Lentini]

I'm sure we got a lot of nice warm piss on our shoes.

[annamaria]

There should be a story comparing Snowden and Pollard. What would those Israel-firsters in the US government that have been bashing Ed Snowden could tell us about Pollard? The Wall Street Journal, this nest of ZionistsIs, has been particularly active in slandering Snowden, but WSJ is very fond of Pollard: "If Mr. Pollard is ultimately released, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to cast that as a moral achievement for Jews everywhere...." http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-israel-support-for-pollards-release-is-broad-1437785809
This moral achievement? - http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/pollard-motivated-much-money-israel-investigator-says-n70201
As compared to this: https://www.aclu.org/blog/edward-snowden-patriot
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150416/06575630674/wall-street-journal-suggests-snowden-gave-china-great-cannon-software-based-pure-random-speculation.shtml

[steve]

Maybe Obama et al were feeling guilty over the Iran deal and decided to seek forgiveness. The battered spouse kisses and makes up to the batterer.

Or, the US got some promise in return that Israel will do or not do something of importance to the US. Doesn't matter because Israel will renege on any deal.

Or, maybe this is an effort by the dem party to cement donor support for Hillary in 2016.

Maybe some combination of all three.

[turcopolier]

All

IMO opinion we should insist that Israel take him back in the hope that they will give him a national hero's welcome. pl

[Herodotus]

What are the actual (stips) stipulations on his parole?

[confusedponderer]

Nice way of thinking about it ^^

Actually, I am betting on that happening, too, considering what a braggart Bibi is. IMO he must rub the US nose in this, he just must.

[Cortes]

What happens if an American patriot "takes him out"?

Does.the US government use polling data to formulate a response?

[Allen Thomson]

Apparently the 30-year conditional mandatory parole was baked into his sentence in 1985, and he, in the opinion of the United States Parole Commission, satisfied the conditions. So, legally, he had to be set free, though subject to various restrictions for the next five years.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/doj-jonathan-pollard-is-eligible-for-mandatory-parole-in-november/2015/07/24/7f8990ca-324b-11e5-8f36-18d1d501920d_story.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Parole_Commission

BTW and quite coincidentally, Ronald Pelton is going to get sprung next Tuesday. Pelton was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences plus 10 years for doing stuff that was, IMO, even more injurious to the national security interests of the US at the time than what Pollard did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Pelton

[The Twisted Genius]

pl,

That's a great idea. That may open some eyes here, I'm afraid such a blatant disrespect of the U.S. by Israel would be lost on most of the steeple and grifter/politicians.

[Eugnid]

Netanyahu is pushing all buttons for only one reason: to avoid snap elections as much as possible in reaction to his mismanagement. Lets recall that several generations later most Israelis are Sabras with nowhere else to go but Israel, just like anyone else in the Middle East has nowhere else to go. Consequently, when all is said and done, like people in Eastern Europe, Israeli Sabras are fed up with their standard of living at the same time that their personal futures and that of their families is totally unpredictable. To them, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is an incomprehensible non-issue. The real issue to them is law and order-- people are dying at the hands of enraged young Palestinians with no sense of hope; they in no way consider the Palestinians' issues. They can't afford to as Palestinians will not tolerate a foreign culture living in the same place by stepping on their heads. And so, Netanyahu knows that everything he does that is on a vector consonant with their rage and worry will make them "stick with Bibi" because they see no alternative. To Sabras, the issue is that the stronger the kicking back at Obama by Netanyahu, the less chance of more threats to law and order by Palestinian rage.

While one can understand their predicament and can offer them policy alternatives, everything demands a long rage perspective while the Sabras' perspective is myopically fearful: anything than makes me safe NOW!

Nowhere in this perspective fits the push for Pollard's release. It is totally a manifestation of Obama's "go along to get along" attitude. For Netanyahu, the Pollard release, is a cred with the Zionist Right and a show of unrelenting power-influence in America to calm the Sabras' fear that with his insolence Netanyahu has kinked the financial umbilical cord to an American financial placenta without which Israel can't survive. One can well understand how one living in the Middle East inferno of today thirsts for anything that clams anxieties like those of the Sabras with no other place to go. But the most dangerous aspect is the silent deep underground torrent of anti-Semitism this release provokes in America-- dangerously producing a sink-hole into which may fall many American Jews who are, nevertheless, as American as apple pie,also WITH NO PLACE ELSE TO GO but America, just as the Sabras have nowhere else to go but Israel. But to the Ziocrazies, such Diasporic Jews, like OUR American Jews, without first loyalty to Israel but to the US, their homeland (the mass majority of American Jews) are "Parasitic Jews." Whatever dangerous consequences anything Netanyahu does to brings upon these "parasites," is therefore seen by these Zionist Right as acceptable because, at the very least, it would force the Diasporics to stampede in fear into an "aliyah" to Israel with all their wealth; most Sabras, however, are too busy with their day to day crises to think of the well-being of Diaspora Jews and how the Zionist Right might endanger it.

What is down-right reckless is Netanyahu's celebration of success in his efforts to release Pollard, a US Naval office that, according to the reportage of the time, was enticed into espionage by the Israeli Mossad with drugs and money, is greeted by Netanyahu as if he were welcoming home a Hero of the State. The silence of Middle Americans now is more dangerous than the noise of those who are outspoken because the silent resentment of the many is fuel for hate mongers. I can only hope that we all realize that the Pollard outrage is a small issue used to save Netanyahu's political future with the Zionist Right that had cursed him for failing to force Obama to abandon the Iranian nuclear deal. In the balance of History, the Pollard Case is a sordid episode that is best let pass only because to dwell on it may make some of us Americans something other than the fair and united Americans we've always been. Already, we are giving in to our worst fears about Muslims, the other Semites. But if the US is to remain as a world leader, we must show that small crap like what Netanyahu feels he has to exploit to stay in office is best let fly by while we as responsible citizens wishing our better side to rule our judgement concentrate on the big challenges before us. In closing, Pollard is scum from a long time ago that should not preoccupy us and distract us from the massive global challenges NOW. Let the good wife, Mrs. Pollard have him quietly, for if we mis-focus on him, we do so at the peril of our kids who expect us to pass on to them an America devoted to freedom and human diversity that absorb people from everywhere to make them into what is best about us as a people.

[BabelFish]

Pat, the optics would be priceless, eh?

[different clue]

Walrus,

In the last Pollard thread somebody wrote that parole is available based on uninterrupted good behavior by the prisoner for the entire length of the sentence up to the very minute when parole first becomes an available possibility. Apparently the possibility of parole after a time was built right into the sentence. If so, it would be illegal to not-even-consider parole in the normal way if/when this prisoner became eligible for it. If I remember right, it was Adam Silverman who pointed that out.

If he is out on parole, then he has to follow certain conditions to stay eligible for that parole, doesn't he? If so, how onerous and drawn out can those conditions be and still be legal?

[Niccolo]

Why was "parole" even available?

At the time he was sentenced, parole was written into the statute, and a "life" sentence meant parole after 30 years for a well behaved prisoner. That federal sentencing system was later changed, but he and everyone else sentenced before the change got the benefit of the law as it existed at the time.

[dan of steele]

or there could be something else going on. if this pollard guy did as much damage as many reports i have read from "intelligence sources" resulting in death of foreign agents and severely compromised communications and supposedly all for money, just why is it that he wasn't killed while attempting to escape or commit suicide with a garbage bag in his cell?

just why was and is he protected?

enquiring minds and all that...

[Amir]

He has been convicted of nuclear proliferation related treason in U.S.? Does that mean that additional international prosecution or sanctions are awaiting him for trading in nuclear secrets?

[Ryan]

I couldn't agree more, sir. This would be the best thing for those of us who are fed up with the antics of Israel and its lobby of traitors and useful idiots. Freeing Pollard outright would be akin to making a pawn sacrifice for greater gain elsewhere. It would go a long way to knock a slew of people off the fence along with removing the scales from the eyes of others

I would particularly take pleasure with the collection of zealots consisting of the "flag waving" fools who seem to confuse Israel with America and the dispensationalists who seem to equate worship of Jews with that of God. With the first you have people who have failed their American history and civics courses while the second there are people who don't seem to comprehend the simple English of the first commandment in their devotion to all things Israel.

[oofda]

Pollard was not an U.S. Naval officer- he would never have been allowed in the recruiter's door. And we should not forget Pollard and what harm he did to the U.S. and we should not forget what Bibi did in relation to Pollard. Being a great power doesn't entail letting small fry piss on your shoes and insist that it is rain. Nice try, but Pollard is not a small issue- it is a symptom of a relationship between two countries that has gone way off the rails. Israel's cost to the U.S. and U.S. security is getting out of proportion to any benefit Israel can give us. The realization of that is what people are realizing now and Pollard has been a catalyst.

[JJackson]

They wanted to give Aaron Swartz 35 years for downloading scientific journal articles from JSTOR.

[Allen Thomson]

I Am Not A Lawyer, but apparently 18 USC 4206 and 28 CFR 2.53 are the relevant authorities for mandatory parole. See

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/28/2.53

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-90/pdf/STATUTE-90-Pg219.pdf

If a real lawyer wished to comment on this, it might be interesting.

[William R. Cumming]

IMO Pollard paroled for fear he would start revealing even more than ever indicated he did.

The Wall Street job is indicative of the deep ties between the US and Israel on finance, but an even better indication is the appointment of a dual citizen to be Vice Chairman of the US Federal Reserve which has its own Foreign Policy IMO! STANLEY FISCHER!

[ex-PFC Chuck]

Good idea except for the fact that the MSM cloak it into a memory hole and most US people wouldn't know about it.

[Ryan]

I'll say. "Bibi" and his supporters will have a field day rubbing this in the face of Obama. I can well imagine the celebrations that will take place in the "Freedom for Jonathan Pollard Square". The images and words spoken will the priceless to those of us who put America First.

Here's sidenote. Uber Zionut Bret Stephens of the WSJ editorial page wrote an op-ed two years ago against pardoning this worthless traitor and wanting the square renamed for the reasons I suspect above.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323869604578368200275334358

Please, Obama, let this person go!

[Allen Thomson]

It seems that the Parole Commission can impose conditions for up to the end of the original sentencing period -- in Pollard's case, for life. As it is, the conditions that have been reported are five years of no foreign travel, wearing a GPS ankle cuff, no interviews, monitoring of his computers. (The ankle cuff is being protested on the grounds that he has severe diabetes.) I'd guess he also has to report to a parole officer periodically.