Jonathan Pollard, who has spent 30 years in prison for passing US secrets to Israel, is being released on parole Friday, ending a saga that bitterly divided two close allies. Here is the background on the case:
Who is Pollard?
Pollard, 61, is an American born in Galveston, Texas to a Jewish family. A graduate of Stanford University, he was hired by the US Navy as an intelligence analyst in 1979, eventually obtaining security clearances that gave him access to Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information.
When did he begin spying?
Pollard made contact in June of 1984 with an Israeli colonel, Aviem Sella, who was pursuing graduate studies at NYU, and offered to provide him with classified information. He soon began supplying a stream of intelligence to the Israelis, reportedly thousands of documents. Pollard is also alleged to have passed classified information to South Africa, and to have given his wife, Anne, documents on China for use in her personal business.
How was he caught?
Pollard had come under suspicion well before he was caught, but he did not face investigation until a boss noticed unsecured, unclassified information on his desk that was unrelated to his work. Asked to take a polygraph test, he admitted to passing classified information. He was placed under surveillance and arrested November 21, 1985 as he and his wife tried but failed to gain asylum at the Israeli embassy in Washington. He pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to pass classified information, but was sentenced to life in prison March 4, 1987.
What did he take and how great was the intelligence damage?
The full scope of Pollard's take has never been publicly disclosed. He claimed only to have passed information vital to Israel's security that had been withheld by the Americans. He told journalist Wolf Blitzer, in a 1987 jailhouse interview, that the information included satellite images of the Palestine Liberation Organization's headquarters in Tunis and US intelligence on Arab military activities. Then US defense secretary Caspar Weinberger said the material also included a 10-volume manual on the US global electronic surveillance network, according to journalist Seymour Hersh in a 1999 New Yorker article. CIA director George Tenet threatened to resign in 1998 if then president Bill Clinton agreed to release Pollard. A string of former US defense secretaries also opposed his release, and opposition to his early release has remained strong within the US intelligence community.
What motivated Pollard -- patriotism or money?
Pollard has cast his actions as a misguided attempt to help protect Israel, telling the judge who sentenced him he accepted money only as recognition of the good work he was doing. He was paid 10,000 dollars and a diamond and sapphire ring when he began, and was subsequently paid $2,500 a month for his efforts. Where his supporters credit him with patriotism, his opponents have denounced him as a "greedy, arrogant betrayer of American national trust."
What has been the impact on US-Israeli relations?
The case has been an open wound in relations between the two allies from the beginning. Israel initially claimed Pollard worked for a rogue operation, admitting only in 1998 that he had been an Israeli agent. Successive Israeli governments have lobbied heavily for his release, arguing the life sentence was too harsh, only to be rebuffed. In July, the US Parole Commission announced Pollard would be released on parole November 20 after serving 30 years.
Jonathan Pollard, who has spent 30 years in prison for passing US secrets to Israel, is being released on parole Friday, ending a saga that bitterly divided two close allies. Here is the background on the case:
Who is Pollard?
Pollard, 61, is an American born in Galveston, Texas to a Jewish family. A graduate of Stanford University, he was hired by the US Navy as an intelligence analyst in 1979, eventually obtaining security clearances that gave him access to Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information.
When did he begin spying?
Pollard made contact in June of 1984 with an Israeli colonel, Aviem Sella, who was pursuing graduate studies at NYU, and offered to provide him with classified information. He soon began supplying a stream of intelligence to the Israelis, reportedly thousands of documents. Pollard is also alleged to have passed classified information to South Africa, and to have given his wife, Anne, documents on China for use in her personal business.
How was he caught?
Pollard had come under suspicion well before he was caught, but he did not face investigation until a boss noticed unsecured, unclassified information on his desk that was unrelated to his work. Asked to take a polygraph test, he admitted to passing classified information. He was placed under surveillance and arrested November 21, 1985 as he and his wife tried but failed to gain asylum at the Israeli embassy in Washington. He pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to pass classified information, but was sentenced to life in prison March 4, 1987.
What did he take and how great was the intelligence damage?
The full scope of Pollard’s take has never been publicly disclosed. He claimed only to have passed information vital to Israel’s security that had been withheld by the Americans. He told journalist Wolf Blitzer, in a 1987 jailhouse interview, that the information included satellite images of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s headquarters in Tunis and US intelligence on Arab military activities. Then US defense secretary Caspar Weinberger said the material also included a 10-volume manual on the US global electronic surveillance network, according to journalist Seymour Hersh in a 1999 New Yorker article. CIA director George Tenet threatened to resign in 1998 if then president Bill Clinton agreed to release Pollard. A string of former US defense secretaries also opposed his release, and opposition to his early release has remained strong within the US intelligence community.
What motivated Pollard — patriotism or money?
Pollard has cast his actions as a misguided attempt to help protect Israel, telling the judge who sentenced him he accepted money only as recognition of the good work he was doing. He was paid 10,000 dollars and a diamond and sapphire ring when he began, and was subsequently paid $2,500 a month for his efforts. Where his supporters credit him with patriotism, his opponents have denounced him as a “greedy, arrogant betrayer of American national trust.”
What has been the impact on US-Israeli relations?
The case has been an open wound in relations between the two allies from the beginning. Israel initially claimed Pollard worked for a rogue operation, admitting only in 1998 that he had been an Israeli agent. Successive Israeli governments have lobbied heavily for his release, arguing the life sentence was too harsh, only to be rebuffed. In July, the US Parole Commission announced Pollard would be released on parole November 20 after serving 30 years.
