Word: pollards
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...iron fist? Could Pollard really have been U.S. national enemy #1? Soviet, Iraqi or Cuban spies did not represent "a greater harm to national security"--the accusation Weinberger leveled at Pollard? After all, it's no secret that all nations--even allies--spy on one another. In addition, the U.S. and Israel had already signed two intelligence exchange agreements to share information collected in their respective spy networks. Pollard relayed to the Israelis information regarding Iraq, Syria and the PLO in Tunis--material necessary for Israel's survival and not intended to harm the U.S. That doesn't vindicate Pollard...
Sources close to the case later learned that the sentencing judge, Aubrey Robinson, was told that Pollard had shared with Israel information regarding U.S. satellite monitoring of joint Israeli-South African missile tests. Robinson, who is Black, told his associates that he was extremely angry that Pollard was in any way involved with issues relating to South Africa's apartheid regime and took that matter into account when sentencing...
From his jail cell, however, Pollard denied ever sharing information about South Africa, and his lawyers confirmed that the prosecution never presented any information to that effect. It was widely suspected that someone in the government, aware of Robinson's antipathy to the South African regime, provided the judge with false information to ensure a harsh sentencing for Pollard. Perhaps Weinberger himself did not whisper into Robinson's ear, but he certainly went out of his way to make sure Pollard received excessive punishment...
Many say Weinberger, whose surname is more recognizably Jewish than Pollard's, singled out Pollard because of his own religious background. In his book, Dershowitz quotes a prominent Washington lawyer close to Weinberger who said that the former Defense Secretary felt "burdened by his name and his grandfather's religion" and that, in his dealings with the Pollard case, Weinberger "leaned over backwards to show that there is absolutely nothing Jewish about...
Those involved with the Pollard affair had suspicions that Bush, in a bid to woo Jewish voters, would pardon the spy toward the end of the presidential campaign. But, as Secretary of State-turned Chief of Staff James Baker put it so bluntly in a White House meeting, Jews were not among the GOP's top concerns on Election Day. (Quite frankly, American Jews--more than 80% of whom voted for Bill Clinton--did not want four more years of Bush and his Israel-squeezing sidekick, anyway.) Bush remained firm and instead pardoned a man who helped to orchestrate Pollard...