Fantasies?
This occurred under the purview of the Reagan Administration in 1985.
Jonathan Pollard, the American-Israeli convicted of spying for Israel, was freed on Friday after 30 years in prison, his wife Esther told Israeli media. Mr Pollard, 61, served a life sentence in a North Carolina correctional facility and was released under a parole decision reached in July, bringing to an end one of the most painful episodes in the history of US-Israeli relations. In 1985 the American pleaded guilty to one count of espionage for providing top-secret classified information to Israel while working for US naval intelligence, and was sentenced to life.
He was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995. In Israel, where many feel the length of his sentence was unduly harsh, calls for his release have been a cause célèbre across the political spectrum. “The people of Israel welcome Jonathan Pollard’s release,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Friday. “I wish for Jonathan that this Shabbat will bring him happiness and quiet that will mark the rest of his life” — a reference to the Jewish sabbath, which begins at sunset on Friday. In the US, the case has brought to the fore painful accusations of divided loyalty among Jewish-Americans with strong ties to Israel. Successive Israeli governments have pressed the US for Mr Pollard’s release, including that of Mr Netanyahu, who raised it as a bargaining chip in Israel’s most recent round of peace talks with the
Israeli officials, however, have been reserved in their statements this week. Naftali Bennett, Mr Netanyahu’s far-right education minister, told Israel’s Army Radio on Thursday that government ministers had been asked not to comment about the case. “He did not do what he did for himself, he did it for the Jewish people,” Mr Bennett said. “Even if this was a mistake by the leadership, he did what he could for the state of Israel’s security, and he deserves appreciation for this. And we are pleased that he is finally being released.”
Mr Pollard has asked to move to Israel to join his wife, whom he married while in prison and who lives in Jerusalem. But under the usual restrictions for federal parolees, which are likely to last for five years, Mr Pollard would need permission even to travel outside of his immediate area and would not be able to visit Israel.
Mr Pollard’s lawyers have said little about his post-prison life, other than that he plans to live in the New York area but would like to move to Israel. Earlier this month, one of his longest standing supporters, Rabbi Pesach Lerner of New York, said Mr Pollard’s movements would be tracked by a GPS unit and that he had instructions to stay off the internet, although this has not been confirmed by the US Parole Commission. Two leading New York Congressmen, Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler, both Democratic House members, wrote this week to Attorney-general Loretta Lynch asking that Mr Pollard be allowed to move to Israel.
However, the White House has indicated that it does not intend to intervene in Mr Pollard’s case and expects his parole to be conducted according to the rules. “President Obama has not intervened in the judicial process here in the United States, and that’s been his consistent approach,” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, said earlier this month. “With respect to the case of Jonathan Pollard, he’s made clear that he wants there to be fair treatment under the law, as there should be with any individual.”
Financial Times, 20 Nov 2015.
In defense of his actions, Pollard declared that he committed espionage only because “the American intelligence establishment collectively endangered Israel’s security by withholding crucial information.”[3] Israeli officials, American-Israeli activist groups, and some American politicians who saw his punishment as unfair lobbied continuously for reduction or commutation of his sentence.[4] The Israeli government acknowledged a portion of its role in Pollard’s espionage in 1987, and issued a formal apology to the U.S.,[5] but did not admit to paying him until 1998. Over the course of his imprisonment, Israel made repeated unsuccessful attempts through both official and unofficial channels to secure his release.[6] He was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995.[7]
Numerous active and retired US officials—including Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, former CIA director George Tenet, multiple former U.S. Secretaries of Defense, a bipartisan group of U.S. congressional leaders, and members of the American intelligence community—opposed any form of clemency.[8][9][10][11] They maintained that the damage to U.S. national security due to Pollard’s espionage was far more severe, wide-ranging, and enduring than publicly acknowledged. Though Pollard argued that he only supplied Israel with information critical to its security, opponents pointed out that he had no way of knowing what the Israelis had received through legitimate exchanges, and that much of the data he compromised had nothing to do with Israeli security. Pollard revealed aspects of the American intelligence gathering process, the “sources and methods”.[12]
He sold numerous closely guarded state secrets, including the National Security Agency’s ten-volume manual on how the U.S. gathers its signal intelligence, and disclosed the names of thousands of people who had cooperated with U.S. intelligence agencies.[10] Though Benjamin Netanyahu argued that he did not work for anyone but Israel,[13] Pollard admitted shopping his services—successfully, in some cases—to other countries.[14]
Wikipedia, 20 Nov 2015.