ZOA: If Pres. Obama Can Free 3 Cuban Spies, He Must Free Jonathan Pollard

ZOA: If Pres. Obama Can Free 3 Cuban Spies, He Must Free Jonathan Pollard. (Matzav).

The Zionist Organization of America  has strongly declared that President Barack Obama, who has this week freed three convicted spies who spied for an enemy regime, Cuba, must free  Jonathan Pollard, who spied for an American ally, Israel.

The ZOA further notes that one of the convicted spies freed by President Obama was responsible for the murder of an American citizen and that all three have served only 13 years for their crimes on behalf of an enemy state, whereas Jonathan Pollard has been imprisoned for 29 years for spying for an American ally.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is remarkable that President Obama, who has been repeatedly urged by U.S. officials who held responsibility at the time for national security and intelligence matters to free Jonathan Pollard, has refused to do so.

“Conversely, he has shown himself, this week, to be willing to free three convicted men who spied for a long-term enemy state, Cuba, including one man who was responsible for death of an American national. Where is the logic and justice in that?

“Jonathan Pollard passed on classified information to Israel, a U.S. ally, not a U.S. enemy. There was, thus, no treason involved. Pollard pled guilty to the charges and apologized for his crimes. His crimes did not lead to the death of Americans, as was once claimed, but rather the espionage activities of Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, whose actions came to light only after the Pollard sentencing, were shown to be responsible for those results.

“Despite, having pled guilty as part of a plea bargain, Pollard was shown no leniency and was given the maximum sentence, comparable to that of Aldrich Ames, the chief of CIA counterintelligence in Eastern Europe, who passed critical defense secrets to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and was found responsible for the deaths of at least 11 U.S. agents!

“A host of senior past high U.S. government officials with responsibility for relevant national security, international and legal affairs, such as former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George P. Schultz, former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, former National Security Advisor Robert C. “Bud” McFarlane, former Assistant Secretary for Defense Lawrence J. Korb, former Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, former Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman David Durenberger, former Deputy Attorney General Philip Heymann; former White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum, former Senate Judiciary Committee Member, Dennis DeConcini, and former U.S. Ambassadors to Israel Samuel Lewis and Thomas Pickering, have all publicly and in writing stated that Jonathan Pollard’s sentence has been disproportionate and urged President Obama to pardon him.

“Jonathan Pollard has already served nearly three decades behind bars, which is by far the harshest sentence ever meted out for the offense he committed — the average term for which is a fine or two to four years’ imprisonment.

“If President Obama can free three spies for a hostile state like Cuba, including a murderer, he can certainly pardon Jonathan Pollard. He should do so without further delay.” Hmmmm......But they were commies.......kindred spirits.

Jonathan Pollard 'Release Date' changed From U.S. Prisons Web to 'LIFE'

Jonathan Pollard 'Release Date' changed From U.S. Prisons Web Site to 'LIFE'. (Forward).

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons changed Jonathan Pollard’s release date on its website from “Nov. 15 2015” to “Life.”

A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons was unable Monday to explain the change on the bureau’s “inmate locator,” which he confirmed occurred recently.

Under sentencing guidelines in place in 1987 when Pollard, a former U.S. Navy analyst, got his life sentence for spying for Israel, he is eligible for automatic parole consideration on Nov. 21 of next year, but that does not guarantee a release, said Ed Ross, the spokesman.

“There has been no status change,” Ross said, describing the change as “administrative.”

Pollard’s wife, Esther, told the Jerusalem Post she was gratified at the change, saying the earlier status lent credence to the erroneous argument that he was likely to be released next year, and undercut efforts to get President Obama to commute Pollard’s sentence.

Leading U.S. scholars urge Obama to commute Pollard sentence

Leading U.S. scholars urge Obama to commute Pollard sentence. HT: IMRA.

An eminent group of North American legal scholars on Tuesday called on
President Barack Obama to commute the sentence of convicted Israeli spy
Jonathan Pollard to time served – which would mean his immediate release.

"Such commutation is more than warranted if the ends of justice are to be
served, the rule of law respected and simple humanity secured,” the scholars
wrote to the president.

The signatories to the letter included Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter
Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and former Canadian Minister of
Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler.

Pollard, a citizen of the United States, received a life sentence in 1987
for passing classified information to Israel while working as a civilian
intelligence analyst. He was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995.

In the letter, the legal experts stipulated 10 considerations which, they
wrote, should guide the president in his exercise of executive clemency in
the Pollard case.

Pollard, they wrote, is now serving his twenty-ninth year of an
"unprecedented life sentence" for a crime that is normally punished by "six
to eight years, with actual jail time before release averaging two to four
years." That punishment is “excessive, grossly disproportionate, unfair and
unjust.”

The life sentence, the letter continues, was "a breach of the plea bargain,
wherein the prosecution had agreed not to seek life imprisonment in return
for Pollard’s guilty plea." That breach was described as a “complete and
gross miscarriage of justice," by Appeal Court Judge Stephen F. Williams.

In addition, the scholars wrote, the life sentence itself was "secured as a
result of the submission - after the plea bargain and in violation of it -
of a prejudicial ex parte affidavit to the sentencing judge."

Pollard, they stressed was not only "excessively and disproportionately
punished" for the crime he committed, but "effectively punished and maligned
for the crime of treason," which he never committed and for which he was
never charged or convicted.

According to the signatories of the letter, the person guilty of "having
compromised U.S. security and American lives in Eastern Europe," an
allegation levelled against Pollard, was in fact the head of the CIA’s
Soviet/Eastern Europe Division Aldridge Ames, who, they said, was also "the
original source of the false allegations against Pollard."

Finally, the letter said that "virtually everyone who was in a high position
of government – and dealt with the ramifications of what Pollard did at the
time – now supports his release." In that regard, they mention former
secretary of state George Shultz and former FBI and CIA director William
Webster.

“It is precisely for standing injustices like this – and where the justice
system has failed – that the U.S. Constitution has vested in the President
the power of executive clemency," the letter concluded." We urge you to
exercise this power in the pursuit of justice, the rule of law and simple
humanity.”

The other signatories of the letter were professors Charles J. Ogletree,
Philip B. Heymann, Gabriella Blum, Frank Michelman, Nadine Stroessen, Monroe
Freedman and Suzanne Last Stone.

Miss Israel forgets about Jonathan Pollard....Pres Obama: 'world-class hunk'.

Miss Israel forgets about Jonathan Pollard....Pres Obama: 'world-class hunk'. (Politico).By Katie Glueck.

President Barack Obama has earned a new title: world-class hunk.

That was the assessment of Miss Israel, the 21-year-old Ethiopian immigrant Titi Aynaw who met Obama on Thursday.

“He’s an exciting man, a world-class hunk, charming and an extraordinary gentleman,” she told the Israeli publication Yediot Aharonot.

Aynaw and Obama were introduced by Israeli President Shimon Peres during the state dinner that occurred on Obama’s first presidential trip to Israel, according to Israeli news accounts.

“You are very beautiful,” Obama told her, according to the report. He added, “And Michelle would have been very happy to be as tall as you are.”

When asked in an interview in Israel whether she was worried that Michelle Obama would be “jealous” when the president met Miss Israel, the beauty queen dismissed the question.

“No, I am not worried,” she said with a laugh. “She is a beautiful woman and she looks like a model, really… I don’t think she will be jealous.”

Hmmmm.....It seems the memory of Jonathan Pollard was quickly forgotten, How shallow the sea of models is.Read the full story here.

All over Israel's streets and avenues there is a message for Obama!

Some Words of Advice to Obama on His Israel Visit.

Some Words of Advice to Obama on His Israel Visit.(TOI).By David Haivri.

Dear Barack Obama, First of all, we welcome you to Israel - as we would any world leader. In the Jewish culture, the land of Israel is considered to be above all other lands, and I am sure that visiting here will be an uplifting experience for you.
I suggest that instead of thinking of ways to influence this region, you should open yourself to the possibility of taking some of our high spirits and morals back with you to America and using our examples to solve some of the problems that your nation is dealing with today.
Many journalists, in their efforts to milk a story out of your visit here, are working hard to launch a balloon that reads: “Obama’s visit to Israel will restart the Two State program and put Israel in reverse gear to remove itself from the lands that it possesses.”
I advise you to bring down your expectations on that front. We here are tired of arrogant western leaders who think that they can impress us with shallow ideas of how we should be living our lives and interacting with our neighbors. 

In general, it seems that Israelis are not very excited about the American presidential visit. Not even here yet, you have already succeeded in alienating an entire segment of our youth by excluding the students of Ariel University from your address to Israeli students. That is too bad; it is said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Had they been invited to your address, students of Ariel would have shown you the same respect as their peers. But being serious in their studies, they will be glad to avoid missing a day of class in order to attend the gathering from which you decided to exclude them.

Many Israelis are already convinced that you lean towards support of the Arab agenda. They have many points of reference: your repeated demonstrations of an insulting attitude towards our Prime Minister, your one sided statements regarding our borders, your misstep at Al Azhar (I will get back to that).

But most hurtful is your cruel treatment of Jonathan Pollard. This is totally unacceptable. His punishment has lasted too long. Of all points of dissatisfaction with you, Mr. Obama, I think it is safe to say that Israelis are most discontented with your shameless extended imprisonment of Pollard. It is hard to consider as a friend someone who is holding our brother in such a hopeless manner. My best advice is that if you wish to speak with the Israelis and be heard, bring Pollard home. Show just a small gesture of compassion. If you have no heart for the pain of the Jewish people, don’t expect us to consider you anything other than a modern day Pharaoh.

At Al Azhar, you insulted our very existence when you echoed the words of Ahmadinejad by tying Israel’s right to exist to the crimes of the Nazi Holocaust. That is a gross misinterpretation of history.
If the right of the Jewish people to a national homeland were connected to a debt of the nations who stood in silence while Hitler’s Germany put millions of Jews into the furnaces, that Jewish state could have been established anywhere from Uganda to Texas. But that is not the case; the Jewish connection to the land of Israel is thousands of years old. It started with the promise of G-d to the fathers of our nation, as recorded in the Bible, and led through the destiny of our great King David and the Temple of Solomon in our capital city, Jerusalem. Over 2000 years of forced exile, the Jewish people never forgot and never gave up the hope of reclaiming our own homeland.

The State of Israel, which was established here in the land of our fathers, is based first and foremost in that historical right which overrides any declaration of the United Nations or any other international body. We thank G-d, who, in his great mercy, brought us back to Jerusalem our capital and Judea and Samaria, our heartland. Don’t bother trying to pressure us to leave it, as we will not turn our backs on the land that we love.

My advice to you, Mr. Obama, is that after you send our brother Jonathan Pollard home to us, you wish us well, and we to will in turn pray for the success and well being of our friends, the good people of America.Read the full post here.

Israel - Maagar Poll(Maariv):10% Like Obama, 79% would like to see Pollard come off plane with Obama, 11% Pollard without Obama .

Israel - Maagar Poll(Maariv):10% Like Obama, 79% would like to see Pollard come off plane with Obama, 11% Pollard without Obama .(IMRA).Dr. Aaron Lerner.

The survey was conducted by Maagar - Interdisciplinary Research and Consulting Institute Ltd., managed by Professor Yitzhak Katz. It was commissioned by Maariv-Makor Rishon and published on 15 March.

Telephone survey of representative sample of adult Israelis (including Arabs). The survey was carried out 14 March 2013

How would you term Obama's relationship with Israel?

Favorable 33% 

Threatening 38% 

Indifferent 14% 

Other 15%

How do you feel about the US president?

Like 10%

Don't like but respect 32%

Indifferent 9%

Don't respect but don't hate 19%

Hate 17%

Other 13%

Do you support gestures to the Palestinians in the wake of the presidential visit?

Support 27% 

Oppose 51% 

Other 22%

Who would you like to see come off a plane next week?

Only Obama 10% 

Only Pollard 11% 

Both 79% (Among those with an opinion)

Video - Israel Radio Anchor: Boycott Obama Address Since Pollard Not Free

Israel Radio Anchor Arieh Golan opened the second hour of the morning news magazine with a call for Israelis to boycott President Obama's address in protest of President Obama's decision to leave Jonathan Pollard "rotting in prison".

Video: Channel 2 TV: Esther Pollards Heartfelt Appeal to President Obama.