After meeting recently with the staffers of six US Senators regarding the Jonathan Pollard case, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that most of our political leaders have turned a blind eye to his unbearable suffering. Through their silence, our Senators and

Morrison sold satellite photographs to Great Britain... served three months in prison.

Congressmen have acquiesced to the government's blatant violation of Jonathan Pollard's constitutional rights. Even more disturbing, our leaders seem to have no problem with the government holding Jonathan Pollard to a harsher standard because he is a Jew. The Jewish community's pleas for executive clemency have fallen on deaf ears.


One staffer incorrectly told me that his Senator did not have jurisdiction to raise the issue of executive clemency for Mr. Pollard. In 1999, sixty US Senators sent an inflammatory letter to President Bill Clinton urging him to not commute Mr. Pollard's sentence. The letter proved to be influential in President Clinton's decision to skip over Mr. Pollard. Instead, President Clinton chose to pardon FALN terrorists from Puerto Rico in 2000.


If the Senators in 1999 believed they had jurisdiction to oppose executive clemency for Mr. Pollard; they certainly have the absolute authority today to urge President George W. Bush to commute Mr. Pollard's sentence.


Why, then, are our leaders adverse to the plight of Jonathan Pollard? Unfortunately, supporting executive clemency for a Jew who spied for the Jewish state is risky business. The Senators are afraid of angering the anti-Jewish elements within the CIA, which regularly spreads lies about Pollard. Our leaders' inability to decry the government's disgraceful treatment of a Jewish citizen due to a fear of offending the CIA, reinforces the fact that anti-Semitism continues to be a powerful force in America.


The week of October 15 tragically marked 8,000 days that Mr. Pollard languishes in prison for a crime for which the median sentence is two to four years incarceration. Mr. Pollard is the only person in the history of America to receive a life sentence for spying for an ally. Prominent legal authorities across the US, such as Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz and Former Solicitor General Ted Olson, unequivocally state that Mr. Pollard was not deserving of a life sentence. Former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, the very man who is responsible for Mr. Pollard's life sentence, even admitted that the whole Pollard case "was made far bigger than its actual importance."


The fact of the matter is that Mr. Pollard did not provide the Israelis with the identities of American agents, troop dispositions or war plans. In their briefings to the Senate, the prosecution never alleged that Mr. Pollard compromised codes or US satellite communications. Mr. Pollard did not have access to codes as a GS-12 Navy Analyst.


Despite Senator Thompson's (R-Tenn) erroneous assertion at the Republican Jewish Coalition Forum that Jonathan Pollard "spied against my country," the prosecution never charged Mr. Pollard with harming the US. Israel had already been receiving the type of intelligence it obtained from Mr. Pollard as part of a legally binding agreement, before the CIA deliberately and without just cause decided to cut off the flow of information. Therefore, Mr. Pollard could not have harmed the US.


In what amounts to a procedural atrocity of monumental proportions, the prosecution submitted falsified evidence in the form of the Weinberger Memorandum, which inflamed Judge Robinson, causing him to impose a life sentence.


If Senator Thompson is concerned that Mr. Pollard compromised national security, which

If President Bush is serious about his pledge to eradicate worldwide anti-Semitism, then he should start in the US.

clearly did not occur, then where was his outrage when Samuel Morrison sold satellite photographs to Great Britain? Morrison served three months in prison. Likewise, where was Senator Thompson‘s outrage when Abdel Kader Helmy transferred arms shipments to Egypt which ended up in the hands of Saddam Hussein? Helmy served two years in prison.
How is it possible for a Muslim or Christian who spies for an ally to take a catwalk into prison, but a Jew convicted of the same crime, causing no harm to the US, is subjected to severe, cruel and unusual punishment, as well as intense physical and psychological torture? What ever happened to the legal principle that the punishment must fit the crime? That principle does not apply to American Jews who spy for an ally?


I suggest that if President Bush is serious about his pledge to eradicate worldwide anti-Semitism, then he should start in the US and immediately grant Jonathan Pollard executive clemency. As long as Jonathan Pollard unjustifiably remains in prison, America's purported image of having a fair and equitable judicial system will be in disrepute.