← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Centinel
Thread ID: 9482 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2003-09-03
2003-09-03 00:55 | User Profile
[url=http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3375546]http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?...storyID=3375546[/url]
Judge Asked to Reopen Pollard Israeli Spy Case
Tue September 2, 2003 05:19 PM ET By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A lawyer for Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who admitted spying for Israel, argued on Tuesday his 1987 sentence of life in prison should be set aside because he received ineffective assistance of counsel.
Lawyer Jacques Semmelman asked U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas Hogan to reconsider a different judge's ruling in 2001 that denied a request to set aside the sentence, which Pollard, 49, is serving at a federal prison in North Carolina.
Pollard, wearing dark green prison garb and white yarmulke, sat at the defense table, never addressing the court during the 90-minute hearing. His wife and father were in the crowded courtroom, along with numerous supporters.
The judge took the request under advisement, along with a second request that the lawyers be given access to highly classified government documents from sentencing so they can more effectively pursue clemency for Pollard. It was not known when the judge would rule.
Pollard's lawyer argued he received ineffective assistance of counsel by his initial lawyer who represented him when he pleaded guilty and was sentenced, and then by his lawyer who represented him in his first appeal in the early 1990s.
"He asks only for justice and a fair sentencing," Semmelman said.
"He has never had that," the lawyer added, asking the judge to "correct this miscarriage of justice."
Semmelman argued the lawyer's performance during and after sentencing had been "woefully deficient," in that he failed to file a notice of appeal and did not object to what Semmelman called breaches in the plea agreement.
He argued Pollard's lawyer in the first appeal also had been ineffective.
A government lawyer said the court does not have legal jurisdiction to reopen Pollard's claim, and that the request should be denied.
Pollard's other lawyer, Eliot Lauer, asked the judge to give them access to the classified documents, including a declaration by then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger filed by the government right before sentencing.
Lauer said the lawyers could better respond to the "innuendo" about the damage caused by Pollard's spying if they could see the declaration.
Pollard's initial lawyer had access to the declaration. Requests for access to it have been turned down by a federal judge in 1990, a U.S. appeals court in 1992 and twice by a federal judge in 2001.
Arrested in 1985 outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Pollard was sentenced for selling tens of thousands of pages of classified U.S. information to Israel. His former wife, Anne, was sentenced to five years in prison for assisting him.
2003-09-03 01:18 | User Profile
Just heard The Savage Nation and was surprised that Savage thinks Pollard should be hanged, this from a very pro-Israel Jew. He makes a couple of sharp points, all of which I agree with. First, this is a bad move on Pollard's side because many will see this as another Jew selling out this country for his tribe and the question of Jewish loyalty will be raised, and rightfully so. Second, Pollard was not a religious Jew up until he got caught, and like Meyer Lansky, he found religion at a very convenient time. Third, and this is the weakest point, and one I couldn't care less about, this is a bad time for Israel to be distracted while it's fighting for its survival, Fourth, the only people interested in Pollard are American Jews and Israelis, no one else is calling for his release among any other groups, and it makes the Jews look bad, possibly igniting anti-Jew feelings again, Fifth, too many important people in govt. at the time were vehemently against his release, including Tenet who threatened to resign. This is a very bad thing, said Savage. I applaud him for his honesty.
2003-09-03 01:27 | User Profile
**Just heard The Savage Nation and was surprised that Savage thinks Pollard should be hanged, this from a very pro-Israel Jew. **
I'm listening too. Savage is a shrewd Israel-Firster, and he's basically telling all the Jewish partisans out there that they're playing with fire by barking so loud for Pollard's release, which of course they are.
2003-09-03 09:22 | User Profile
All good points made above, particularly about Savage.
"He asks only for justice and a fair sentencing," Semmelman said.
Some of us also wanted the same thing.
**"He has never had that," the lawyer added, asking the judge to "correct this miscarriage of justice."
**
I agree with the lawyer. Hang the son of a bitch.
We will never know just how much information got into the hands of the Soviet Union that would have put U.S. servicemen at risk because of Pollard and Israel cutting deals.
Dakota, check your e-mail please. I sent you some information.
2003-09-03 10:48 | User Profile
It wouldn't surprise me if Bush caves in to Jewish demands and comes up with some way to release Pollard. Any protests would be ruthlessly quelled, and it would show who really runs America.
-Z-
2003-09-03 13:21 | User Profile
By 9:00pm Savage hadn't completely fleshed out this topic. He alluded to one very important point and that was this purloined information most likely found its way to the Russians, bringing up all kinds of questions. I read the same thing. What he didn't touch on was the lie promoted by the Jews, that Pollard only stole information that the US promised Israel about Syria and then renegged, so Pollard was only trying to help Israel protect itself. Bull. The information found in Pollard's possession had nothing to do with Syria. Yet the Jews keep insisting on this falsehood. They're hoping most of us are once again ignorant or asleep.
Savage is right. If the Jews persist in this crusade, parallels will be drawn between Pollard and the Rosenbergs and from there, the American Jews involved in Soviet spying when Sen. McCarthy opened his Army-McCarthy hearings.