Pilloring Pollard

For those unaware, I coordinated the activities of the Knesset Lobby on behalf of Jonathan Pollard between 1987 until 1994 and continue to be involved in its work. I visited him twice in jail in 1990 and 1993. I played host to his then wife, Ann, and his family and I maintain communications on a regular basis with his sister.

This sentence from a Haaretz story on a new book, "Capturing Jonathan Pollard" (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2006) by Ronald J. Olive, I think needs highlighting:-

On the basis of Pentagon and law enforcement sources, Olive concludes that the nature of the information Pollard passed on to Israel did cause real damage to U.S. security. It is also believed that what Pollard still remembers could still undermine U.S. national security if it gets out.

Let me state that as far as I know, the "damage" to the U.S. was to the pride of the members of its intelligence community and nothing else. All other "damage" was done by many other, too many other, spies that almost all, among them who were resonsible for the deaths of American agents, received lesser jail time.

In addition, this is hogwash, unadulterated non-kosher hogwash, about what he still knows. He was arrested in 1985. Twenty-years (21) have passed. The Iron Curtain is down. The new enemy is the Islamic axis. The world has changed. But the American intelligence establishment hasn't.

And that's the danger to America as much as it is to Israel and Jay Pollard.

If the rest of the book is as shoddy, self-serving and misleading as this, it proves the danger existing to America's security structure is unfortunately shaded by discriminatory and ideological irrationality.