President Clinton’s decision late Wednesday to deny clemency to Jonathan Pollard not only disappointed but angered the imprisoned spy’s supporters, who believed they might have one last chance to make their case to the White House.
“We had been assured that the president’s decision would be considered carefully following the Justice Department’s recommendation and that we would be permitted to meet directly with White House officials to discuss the matter,” said Ted Boutros, one of Pollard’s lawyers.
“We were denied that opportunity,” he said.
Clinton’s decision came less than four hours after White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers said the Justice Department’s recommendation in the Pollard case had not yet been reviewed by the president.
Clinton explained his decision in a statement issued late Wednesday afternoon. He noted that the former Navy analyst who spied for Israel had committed “one of the most serious crimes against our country — placing national security secrets of the United States in the hands of another country.”
Clinton said his judgment reflected the recommendation of Attorney General Janet Reno and “the unanimous views of the law enforcement and national security agencies.”
He said he based his decision “upon the grave nature” of Pollard’s offense and “the considerable damage that his actions caused our nation.”
Many Jewish groups had asked the White House to commute Pollard’s life jail sentence, which they see as overly harsh.
In his statement, Clinton said he had considered the argument that Pollard deserved a shorter prison sentence because he spied for a friendly nation.
MUCH AMBIVALENCE AMONG AMERICAN JEWS
“I nevertheless believe that the enormity of Mr. Pollard’s crime, the harm his actions caused to our country and the need to deter every person who might even consider such actions, warrant his continued incarceration,” the president said.
Despite the successful efforts of Pollard’s family to turn his case into a national Jewish issue, there remained much ambivalence about Pollard in the organized Jewish community.
While Pollard’s advocates argued that he committed his crimes out of love for Israel’s security and caused no real damage to American interests, many in the community were inclined to listen to the government’s position that Pollard had spied for money and may have jeopardized American lives.
Signals from the White House in December that it was seeking to gauge the political impact of a clemency decision met with a response from the Jewish community that “I don’t think was overwhelming,” said an official from one Jewish organization.
That ambivalence was evident in a letter mailed to the White House by the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council just hours before Clinton announced his decision.
While NJCRAC’s annual plenum approved sending the letter last month, it took until this week for wording to be approved by its member national agencies.
The letter notes that “there are many in our community for whom there remain serious questions about the sentencing proceedings and Mr. Pollard’s sentence.”
It also acknowledges, however, that the decision on clemency can only be made “by someone in authority having access to the entire record in the case,” much of which is classified.
The letter concludes: “We respectfully recommend, Mr. President, that, in your review of the Pollard case, if you determine that the sentence was inappropriate, you consider a modification of the sentence, including the possibility of commuting the sentence to time served.”
But even this weak wording, which fell well short of asserting that the sentence was unjust or even inappropriate, was too much for one of NJCRAC’s member agencies.
The Jewish War Veterans of America, which has traditionally taken a strong stance on national security issues, abstained from the letter.
Pollard was arrested while trying to seek refuge in the Israeli Embassy in November 1985. He pled guilty to passing secrets to Israel and was sentence to life in jail in 1987.
He will be eligible for parole in November 1995. but under Justice Department guidelines release is unlikely until the year 2015, according to a published report.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
