Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Admiral Shapiro unmasks traitor Jonathan Pollard

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1998 | 11:15 a.m.

THE JONATHAN POLLARD spy case has always been of great interest to me because I was working on an Israel Defense Forces base when it was uncovered. Later, Pollard, a U.S. Naval Intelligence analyst, was convicted for participating in a rogue Israeli spy scheme and sentenced to prison. That was in 1985 and he is still in prison.

During more recent years there has been a cry from some American and Israel groups that say he has been locked up too long and deserves to be released. Others say he was doing it only because he loved Israel and the United States wasn't sending that country sufficient intelligence information.

Over the years I have written four columns pointing to his guilt and putting down some of the arguments given for his release. Pollard is in prison and, as an American, I can think of no better place for him. In the July-August 1998 issue of The Jewish Veteran magazine, retired Navy Rear Adm. Sumner Shapiro gives some valuable views on this issue. Shapiro was the director of Naval Intelligence when Pollard first came to work for the Navy.

The admiral writes that our government allowed a plea bargain for Pollard that it has honored. He points out that "in retrospect, this plea bargain may have ultimately worked to the government's disadvantage, since it prevented the U.S. public from learning the full extent of Pollard's espionage activities, and the potential damage to ongoing and future U.S. intelligence operations worldwide. In open testimony, it would have been revealed that Pollard sought to sell classified information to three other countries before he approached the Israelis, and that he turned over classified information to his wife for her to use in obtaining employment. Further, that the massive amounts of classified and highly sensitive information which he absconded with and passed to his Israeli handlers went far beyond anything bearing directly on the security of Israel, could well have fallen into unfriendly hands, and jeopardized U.S. intelligence sources and methods. Or that he not only sought and received considerable money and other items of great value for his services, but that he was even negotiating for a raise when he was caught. Had this information been made public, perhaps there would be fewer questions about the seriousness and consequences of Pollard's traitorous activities."

So much for Pollard's love of Israel, which has recently made him a citizen and asked for his release. He was willing to sell out his country and he didn't care who was the highest bidder.

The admiral goes on to say, "Similarly, complaints about Pollard's time in solitary confinement are specious. That segregation may well be the only reason he is alive today. I seriously doubt that anyone could have guaranteed his survival and well being, had he been placed with the general prison population, where he would have been a prime target for abuse and worse."

Shapiro's entire article should be read and digested by apologists for Pollard before they write more letters of sympathy to me. In the meantime, they should recall the bravery of Israeli soldier Uri Ilan, who took his own life rather than betray his country when being tortured by Syrian soldiers. When Ilan's body was returned, they found a piece of perforated paper in his clothes that read "I did not betray my country."

Not the same can be said for U.S. citizen Jonathan Pollard.

According to the book "Lionhearts," Moshe Dayan said, "Most of our soldiers fall ... for a reason ... but few fall for (a principle) ... like Uri Ilan." And poet Natan Alterman wrote:

"This nation will remember that it has sent the fallen to their fate,

"And not from the enemy alone should their blood be redeemed.

"Time will turn many poems with morals into flying dust,

"But there are crumpled paper notes

"That will be sealed in the nation's heart."

Jonathan Pollard can never be considered an Israeli hero. Even more important, he is a traitor to the country that gave him a position of trust which he sold for money.