A judge on Thursday refused to ease parole conditions for freed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard so he can begin work as a financial analyst.
The U.S. Parole Commission did not abuse its discretion when it required the 61-year-old former U.S. Navy intelligence research specialist to submit to a curfew and monitoring of work computers and his whereabouts, Manhattan U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest said Thursday.
Pollard’s lawyers had argued that the restrictions blocked him from accepting an offer to work as a financial analyst after his release from prison in November of last year.
In June 1986, Pollard pleaded guilty to conspiring to deliver national defense information to a foreign government, giving secrets to Israel. His release last year from a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina came nearly 30 years to the day after his arrest.
Prosecutors said he gave secrets to Israeli agents from June 1984 through November 1985.
At a recent hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Sol Tinio said restrictions were necessary because national security could be affected if Pollard shares knowledge from classified documents.
Pollard’s lawyer Eliot Lauer had argued that any information he had 30 years ago was “ridiculously stale” and couldn’t be remembered anyway.
The judge said a 12-hour curfew imposed on Pollard most days was not “irrational, arbitrary or otherwise an abuse of discretion.”
She said computer and travel monitoring conditions were not unconstitutional. She said the computer restriction was “reasonably related to the characteristics of Pollard and his crime.”
She noted that Pollard remains in the custody of the U.S. attorney general for the rest of his life sentence and any effort to leave the country would violate his parole.
“It would also, if successful, all but erase the United States’ ability to ensure that Pollard complied with the terms of his plea agreement and committed no further crimes,” the judge said.
A government spokesman declined to comment Thursday. A lawyer for Pollard did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
(AP)
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5 Responses
Let the man go home to Israel and get on with his life. I’m glad he’s out, but these restrictions are just another example of how messed up his case is. First the disproportionate sentence and now these silly restrictions. Such a shame
Meanwhile Barry and Hill can roam free and even run the country. Lies lies lies. Moshiach is WAY overdue!
laptop (comment #1): i’ve been struggling with this Pollard case for many years. i could not understand for the life of me why they are giving Pollard such a hard time every step of the way. you can’t just dismiss this all by saying that “we live in galus” or “anti semitism is rearing it’s ugly head again”. there has to be more to it than that. there must be a piece of this “Pollard puzzle” that is not being revealed to the public. otherwise, it flies in the face of a known proven fact that the US is a “malchus shel chessed”. there has got to be something that we are not being told (for national security reasons, or whatever).
Poor guy!
I knew from day 1 she wouldn’t relieve the conditions as wrongful as they are simply out of respect of the branches of government.
And, lest one think that Bambi-boy will act, not in light of negative relationship with Netanyahu! So in essence, this poor יונתן בן מלכה is toast!
Where are the fancy Jewish organizations? Where are we, why don’t we demonstrate en masse? He paid for his transgressions a million times over and there are Jews who still want him in chains because they’re cowards; afraid of what the non-Jews will say . Blacks, gays, women, anybody with a gripe etc, take to the streets by the hundreds when an issue affects them, and we can’t get anybody to help this man, except for a small number of dedicated people.
So many Jewish orgs, including the ADL with Obama operatchnik, Greenblatt, puny scared liberal Jews endorse Black Lives Matter, a racist anti-Semitic ragtag terrorist group , but can’t see the injustice in the Pollard case.
Where are the orthodox machers and askanim?
Oh, I forgot, we have Shabbos Nachamu to prepare for;
Catskills, Luxembourg, Havana,Jupiter, all kosher, all come with shiyurim and inspiring entertainment, and of course, the Daf.
What a heartache!