Member of House Armed Services Committee: Release Pollard, he Poses No Threat To National Security

Member of House Armed Services Committee: Release Pollard, he Poses No Threat To National Security.(Matzav).Representative Robert Andrews (D-NJ) is the latest member of Congress to formally urge President Obama to commute Jonathan Pollard’s sentence to time served (the full text of Congressman Andrews’ letter to the President appears below). In his letter to the President and Attorney General Eric Holder, Congressman Andrews, who is a member of theHouse Committee on Armed Services, notes that Pollard’s release poses no threat to national security. He also notes the disproportionate nature of Pollard’s sentence and remarks that he was sentenced to life in prison without benefit of trial, as the result of a plea agreement which Pollard honored and the government abrogated. Pollard has spent more than 26 years of an unprecedented life sentence languishing in a federal prison for passing classified information to Israel, an ally of the United States. The median sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years. No one else in the history of the United States has ever received a life sentence for this offense. “I write to you out of concern for the ailing Jonathan Pollard and request that you commute his sentence to time-served, a position supported by former CIA director James Woolsey, former Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Dennis DeConcini, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger,” wrote Congressman Andrews in his letter to the President. “If Mr. Pollard were released today he would pose no threat to national security and any intelligence that he once possessed is undoubtedly irrelevant 27 years later,” continued Congressman Andrews. “Commutation will not grant him pardon for his actions rather it will recognize that he has served more than ample time for his crime. I urge you to seriously consider this case and decide to commute Jonathan Pollard’s life sentence to time-served.” Congressman Andrews’ letter to the President comes as a bi-partisan “Dear Colleague” letter is being circulated in the U.S. House of Representatives in support of clemency for Jonathan Pollard. Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ) are soliciting signatures on a letter to President Obama, which urges the President to commute Pollard’s sentence to time served.Read the full story here.