Monday, March 22, 2010
355th post
Tomorrow will be Jonathan Pollard's 8,888th consecutive day in prison.
There's nothing terribly significant about the fact in and of itself. It's just a number. 8 8 8 8. It just means that 8,887 days of jailtime have already passed, with G-d only knows how many more to go.
Jonathan Pollard is a spy.
Perhaps you may have noticed I keep a running tally of Pollard's days at the bottom left of the blog. It's not automatic, so I have to sign in every day and update it in the template. It helps me remember.
No one should ever forget Jonathan Pollard.
In case you don't know who he is, and you probably don't, here's the score: Jonathan Jay Pollard, a Jewish American intelligence analyst, was recruited by Israel's secret service to pass on to them classified information. The reports Pollard passed on did not contain information about the American military, but rather were about enemy countries--reports that America should have been passing along to Israel (a friendly nation), but wasn't.
Jonathan Pollard was discovered and tracked down; when he sought sanctuary at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, he was kicked out (!). At his trial, Pollard entered a plea bargain by which he would plead guilty and therefore receive a reduced sentence, in addition to cooperating fully with the governmental investigation. Instead, at the last minute, the judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole, based on "secret evidence" submitted by then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger that only he saw.
Pollard's lawyer forgot to submit an appeal before the deadline (!!), sealing the deal.
Jonathan Pollard has now been in a maximum security prison for eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty-seven days. That's twenty-five years, four months and one day. He is serving the longest American prison sentence ever handed down to a spy of an ally nation. Just to compare, David Barnett (KGB spy) received 18 years, David Boone (USSR) was sentenced to 24 and a third, Chi Mak (China) got 24.5. Andrew Daulton Lee served 18 years; William Kampiles was sentenced to 20 years and served 18; Christopher Boyce served 25 of 40; Ronald Pelton is scheduled for release in 2015. The list goes on. Recently, Ronald Montaperto--who passed classified information to China for over a decade--got sentenced to three months in jail.
Let me reiterate: Jonathan Pollard is serving a life sentence without parole.
This is unconsciable.
The United States needs to free Jonathan Pollard. The man has served 25 years in jail, incarcerated alongside murderers and rapists, for a crime that did not harm national security, and is now sick with a variety of illnesses.
It's time to end this debacle. It's time to let Jonathan Pollard go.
TODAY'S BOOK: "Fast-Talking Dolphin", by Carson Davidson ((c) 1978)
There's nothing terribly significant about the fact in and of itself. It's just a number. 8 8 8 8. It just means that 8,887 days of jailtime have already passed, with G-d only knows how many more to go.
Jonathan Pollard is a spy.
Perhaps you may have noticed I keep a running tally of Pollard's days at the bottom left of the blog. It's not automatic, so I have to sign in every day and update it in the template. It helps me remember.
No one should ever forget Jonathan Pollard.
In case you don't know who he is, and you probably don't, here's the score: Jonathan Jay Pollard, a Jewish American intelligence analyst, was recruited by Israel's secret service to pass on to them classified information. The reports Pollard passed on did not contain information about the American military, but rather were about enemy countries--reports that America should have been passing along to Israel (a friendly nation), but wasn't.
Jonathan Pollard was discovered and tracked down; when he sought sanctuary at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, he was kicked out (!). At his trial, Pollard entered a plea bargain by which he would plead guilty and therefore receive a reduced sentence, in addition to cooperating fully with the governmental investigation. Instead, at the last minute, the judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole, based on "secret evidence" submitted by then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger that only he saw.
Pollard's lawyer forgot to submit an appeal before the deadline (!!), sealing the deal.
Jonathan Pollard has now been in a maximum security prison for eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty-seven days. That's twenty-five years, four months and one day. He is serving the longest American prison sentence ever handed down to a spy of an ally nation. Just to compare, David Barnett (KGB spy) received 18 years, David Boone (USSR) was sentenced to 24 and a third, Chi Mak (China) got 24.5. Andrew Daulton Lee served 18 years; William Kampiles was sentenced to 20 years and served 18; Christopher Boyce served 25 of 40; Ronald Pelton is scheduled for release in 2015. The list goes on. Recently, Ronald Montaperto--who passed classified information to China for over a decade--got sentenced to three months in jail.
Let me reiterate: Jonathan Pollard is serving a life sentence without parole.
This is unconsciable.
The United States needs to free Jonathan Pollard. The man has served 25 years in jail, incarcerated alongside murderers and rapists, for a crime that did not harm national security, and is now sick with a variety of illnesses.
It's time to end this debacle. It's time to let Jonathan Pollard go.
TODAY'S BOOK: "Fast-Talking Dolphin", by Carson Davidson ((c) 1978)
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# posted by MetFanMac @ 9:44 PM 
