Glimpse Behind the Curtain

J4JPnews - January 2, 2008

An email J4JP recently received and Esther Pollard's response to it reprinted below provide a "glimpse behind the curtain."

Just like a scene out of The Wizard of Oz, when you pull the curtain back, there is nothing there. Neither Esther nor the principled writer of this email (whose name we have deleted ) wrote with the intention of publication, so where necessary for readability we have corrected spelling and grammar. The two emails are reprinted below. As you will see, once again it is indifference to truth more than anything else that keeps Jonathan Pollard in chains.


Email #1

SUBJECT: Please Advise About the Dean's Understanding of Pollard's Actions

The Dean of an American law school just visited me. He said that in America there is an understanding that Israel traded American secrets it received from Pollard to Russia so that Israel could have some leverage to increase the aliya of Jews from Russia. He said that the punishment for this type of treason is greater than if it was just for the trade of info on Iraq just to Israel. Can you comment?

(signed)
A Friend in Israel


Email #2

SUBJECT: Esther Pollard Responds

In a nutshell and in a very quick response:

First and foremost, Jonathan was never accused indicted or convicted of treason. Secondly, the excuse given by the Dean of an American Law school for Jonathan's grossly disproportionate sentence is nothing but a baseless rumour that was floated in the press years ago and which has been discredited many times over. There is nothing in the record that reflects such an accusation nor is there anything in Jonathan's indictment that reflects this baseless charge.

One would think that the Dean of a law school ought to know that in America a man cannot be sentenced for a crime for which he was never accused, indicted or convicted of in a court of law.

Moreover one would think that the Dean of an American law school would understand his civic and moral duty to inform himself rather than subscribe to baseless rumour. For example there is ample material citing the opinion of every top official who has seen the secret file and the full record of the Pollard Case, and as a result now calls for Jonathan's release--- among them the former head of the CIA, James Woolsey; the former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dennis DeConcini; NY Senator Charles Schumer; NY Congressman Anthony Weiner and Special Advisor to the Senate Intelligence Committee Prof. Angelo Codevilla. All of these officials are on record as saying that there is nothing in the Pollard file to justify the life sentence he received.

Oh and by, just for good measure, anyone familiar with the rudimentary facts of the Pollard case knows that the information that Jonathan Pollard gave to Israel dealt principally with Soviet arms and weapon systems which had been sold to neighboring Arab States for use against Israel. Jonathan obtained the unclassified titles of the documents he supplied to Israel which were used as evidence against him, and these titles appear on the web in one of his Israel lawsuits. One has to wonder, why in the world the Soviets would have had any interest in buying information from Israel about their OWN weapons systems which they had sold to the Arabs?! It does not take a genius to realize how ludicrous this entire accusation is!

If you are a good friend of this American law school Dean you will urge him strongly to read the executive summary and legal filings which Jonathan's attorneys Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman have provided for public inquiry on the web at jonathanpollard.org Once your friend has done his homework, I am sure that Jonathan's attorneys would be more than happy to answer any further questions that he might have.

I end with the admission that I am shocked but not surprised that an American Dean of a law school who is responsible for the education of so many future attorneys and litigators could be so easily "convinced" by media hype and so willing to condemn a man through indifference to the facts. Much to our sorrow, far too many Americans in positions of responsibility prefer facile excuses rather than troubling themselves to deal with the truth, and that is really why Jonathan is still in prison.

Thanks for inquiring.

Best wishes,
Esther Pollard