Let Pollard Go, Demands Commentary Editor
Pollard's first request for parole since his 1985 imprisonment was denied on
grounds that are inarguably false, writes Jonathan Tobin.
By Gil Ronen - Arutz-7 News - November 26, 2014
​http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/187905#.VHc5fGfNBac

Jonathan Tobin, the Senior Online Editor of Commentary magazine, has penned
an angry article calling for Jonathan Pollard's release after learning that
a parole board denied Pollard's request for parole, and that it did so on
false grounds.

“Throughout the decades during which the fate of convicted spy Jonathan
Pollard has been debated, those advocating for his freedom have been told
that they need to follow the legal process rather than relying on political
pressure, whether from sympathetic Israelis or Americans, to grant him
clemency,” wrote Tobin Tuesday.

“In particular, once the time drew near for his first parole hearing, those
who considered his life sentence disproportionate were warned to focus on
that avenue rather than others that merely provoked the usual round of
apoplectic responses from the U.S. security establishment.

“But now that the news has belatedly come out that Pollard was summarily
denied parole in August after his first request for parole since his 1985
imprisonment on grounds that are inarguably false, the arguments for some
sort of presidential intervention in the issue appear much stronger.”

The man convicted of spying for Israel is “no hero,” claims Tobin, yet
“Pollard’s sentence was far greater than that given to anyone who has ever
spied for a nation that is a close ally of the United States.”

While claims made in the past by then Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger
that Pollard’s espionage was the worst in American history have been belied,
he writes, “if reports of the Parole Board’s deliberations are correct,
Weinberger’s outdated claims were precisely what led to Pollard being denied
parole.”

"One doesn’t have to think well of Pollard or even of some of his vocal
supporters to understand that there is something egregious about the desire
of some in the government to see him die in prison after so much time
served,” added Tobin.

It is “time for someone in the U.S. government to put an end to this mockery
of justice and let him go,” he summed up.

SEE ALSO:

Commentary Magazine: Pollard parole denial is unjust - by Jonathan S.
Tobin - http://jonathanpollard.org/2014/112414b.htm


Letter from 8 Senior US Officials to President Obama slamming unjust denial
of parole to Jonathan Pollard - http://jonathanpollard.org/2014/111414.pdf

JUSTICE FOR JONATHAN POLLARD
Website: http://www.JonathanPollard.org
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