No Obama Pardon for Jonathan Pollard

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formally requested that President Obama release convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. Netanyahu is simply doing what any leader does: look out for the interests of his country. I have enormous respect for Netanyahu–but he’s dead wrong on this one.

For those not familiar with the Pollard case, the facts are straightforward. Pollard was a civilian analyst for the US Navy, who sold damaging secrets to Israel during the 1980s. Pollard and some of his supporters claim that he was simply motivated out of his identity with Israel and that he wasn’t motivated by money. (As far as I’m concerned, motive doesn’t matter!) Besides, they claim, the secrets he passed along didn’t do too much damage to our security. But his supporters are wrong on all accounts. According to prosecutors in the case, Pollard made more than $540,000 selling those secrets. And the secrets he passed along were so sensitive that portions of the trial were classified and not made available to the general public. And on top of it all, many of those secrets ended up in the hands of our enemy, the Soviet Union. If you want to read a definitive and well-sourced account of the Pollard case, check out “The Case Against Jonathan Pollard,” The New Yorker, November 22, 2001.

I had the good fortune to work with and study under the late Caspar Weinberger, who was Sec Def during the Reagan Administration, for more than a decade. Cap was a true American patriot. And if you wanted to get him riled up, all you had to do was bring up the Pollard case. The damage done by Pollard was “immense,” Cap would say, shaking his head.

You can certainly understand what Netanyahu is trying to do. But how do you explain that 39 Members of Congress have signed a letter requesting clemency? (Curiously, they are all Democrats.)

So will Obama do it? With this President you never know. Anything is possible. Here’s a possible scenario: Obama throws a twig to Israel and its supporters by releasing Pollard as a “good will gesture,” which gives him cover to continue to undermine Israel’s security at the negotiating table.

That would not only be highly manipulative, it would be a dangerous precedent. A spy is a spy. If they are selling our secrets to a foreign power–any foreign power–they belong behind bars. Period.