Guest Blog: The Pollard Affair, a conspiracy theory

The Jerusalem Post ran an editorial recently describing events leading to the tragedy of Jonathan Pollard. The Pollard spat was among the most factual and level presentations I have read in recent years. Since the editorial was limited to describing events directly related to his incarceration and Israel's efforts at seeking his release, I feel it might by helpful to give some background, to describe the environment which gave rise to the Pollard Affair. I will limit myself to just two issues I have never seen discussed or acknowledged, the Iran-Contra Affair, and the involvement of then Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger.

1. In the years preceding Pollard's arrest the Reagan administration was embroiled in the highly illegal Iran-Contra arms debacle and were looking around for a victim to hang blame on. When a US administration finds itself in an international bind Israel seems a likely address on which to hang blame (Iraq was another example where administration officials and their neocon supporters a few months ago accused Israel of instigating the war when, in fact, Israel strongly urged Bush NOT to invade). In the run-up to Irangate, Israel was approached by members of the Reagan administration to use its good offices to broker the arms end of Iran-Contra (the arms were for right-wing guerillas seeking to overthrow the left-wing government of Nicaragua). The Saudis were also asked to participate, to discretely provide the finances for the adventure, to provide, in other words, laundered money.

According to the planners Reagan and the administration would be distanced from the highly illegal venture thanks to their foreign cutouts and surrogates. And the plan did work, at least until Iran-Contra began to unravel in the press.

2. Reagan's Secretary of Defense was Casper Weinberger, one generation removed from the Jewish heritage his name suggests. Uncomfortable and insecure, Weinberger was known to distance himself as much as possible from both Jews and Israel. In fact some who knew him described Weinberger as both antisemitic and anti-Israel.

It is at least coincidental that, having been turned down for employment by the CIA, that Weinberger's Naval Intelligence (NI) would have hired Pollard, an openly Zionist Jew. Perhaps more curious is that Pollard was then assigned to the team tasked to supply Israel with intelligence materials mandated under the 1983 Memorandum of Understanding between the two states. Put another way, Pollard was somehow assigned to the precise position allowing him oversight of which intelligence was being passed to Israel, and what was being withheld. Pollard could not fail to appreciate that critical information was being illegally denied Israel in violation of the Memorandum. Which either describes Naval Intelligence as an service completely inept and naïve, or perhaps some more devious purpose was at play? 

In order to avoid an open trial which the government feared might have compromised US intelligence sources and methods the prosecution proposed a plea agreement in which Pollard was assured "leniency in sentencing" in exchange for a closed court hearing. Pollard, whose interest was in helping Israel, not in harming the United States, agreed. Barely twenty minutes before sentencing Weinberger arrived at the judges chambers with his infamous "secret memorandum." In apparent acquiescence to the defense secretary's demand Judge Robinson ignored the plea agreement and sentenced Pollard to life without parole. Clearly not satisfied Weinberger addressed the press to denounce Pollard as a traitor. A former Halliburton attorney the defense secretary clearly knew that Pollard's crime, charge and conviction were not for treason. Pollard, Weinberger was quoted as saying, should have been given a death sentence, not life in prison.
 
So some incumbents and their bureaucracy protectors within government on both sides of the Atlantic might find exposure of the facts leading up to and following the hiring, espionage, trial and conviction of Jonathan Pollard an embarrassment better left dormant. And it is possible that, as those in the US bureaucracy never tire of reminding us, Pollard continues to have information that could be compromising. The only question is, what kind of intelligence twenty-three years old could so compromise, be so dangerous to American interests? And the answer may well be that the "compromising information" is not related to the field of intelligence as assumed but rather compromising to governmental and intergovernmental activities best left unspoken.

The Pollard Affair may well have been hatched, if not as a cover-up, then as a distraction from criminal White House activities. Once incarcerated it may have been realized that Pollard was a continuing asset in serving as a control and embarrassment issue whenever Israel had to be called to heel. Recall that prior and during the Wye River conference with Clinton, Netanyahu and Arafat, and the later Camp David negotiation with Barak in place of Bibi, Pollard mysteriously reappeared in the press prior to the conferences, a reminder to Israeli negotiators of the implied disloyalty of the Jewish state towards its benefactor and protector.

Directly stated I believe Pollard continues in prison not to satisfy American justice, since clearly the Affair is more representative of Soviet rather than any American ideal of Justice. More likely Pollard was and remains an instrument of persuasion by anti-Israel Arabists in the US government, a tool of control whenever their ideological patrons interests are at stake.

Pollard is more a victim of politics, not justice.