NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6455

Text File | 1992-09-11 | 6.3 KB | 120 lines

Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
From: [e-mail]
Subject: B'nai B'rith/Jonathan Pollard
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Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 17:50:45 GMT
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 Here is a press release that I received earlier today. I am not sure
whether it was issued by B'nai B'rith International or by Jonathan
Pollard's lawyers.
 I am posting this press release because I think it might be of interest
to readers of this newsgroup, not because I agree with it.

 B'nai B'rith International Calls on President Bush to Commute
Life Sentence of Jonathan Pollard
 To: National Desk
 Contact: Carol Pollard, 203-389-0033,
          or Michael W. Robinson, 202-842-3600

   WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- B'nai B'rith
International has overwhelmingly passed a resolution that calls on
President Bush to commute Jonathan Pollard's life prison sentence.
   The resolution was passed during the group's bi-annual
convention in Washington, D.C., this week.
   Citing humanitarian grounds, the resolution calls on President
Bush to commute to time served (almost seven years) Pollard's life
sentence.  The final resolution represented the joint efforts of
B'nai B'rith District I (New York and New England), District 3 (New
Jersey and Pennsylvania), District 4 (California and western
states) and District 5 (Florida and southeastern states).  B'nai
B'rith Canada and B'nai B'rith Israel also submitted companion
resolutions.
   With more than half a million members, the inclusion of B'nai
B'rith's resolution brings to more than 5 million the number of
supporters in the United States and Canada that have called for
Pollard to be released.  The estimate is based on signed petitions
coupled with the support of elected Rabbinical Councils that
represent more than 3.5 million Jews.
   Dr. Morris Pollard, Jonathan's father, attended the convention
and was in the audience when the resolution was passed.  "Our
entire family is very pleased by the convention's decision to
support a call for the commutation of my son's sentence," he said.
"It is especially gratifying to note that the resolutions calling
on the president originated on the grassroots level."
   At a June rally in New York City, more than 3,000 people echoed
B'nai B'rith's call on the president.  Led by Nobel Peace Prize
winner Elie Wiesel and Christian broadcaster and former Republican
Presidential candidate Pat Robertson, the rally highlighted the
need for fair treatment.  "I am outraged at this miscarriage of
justice," Robertson said.
   Also addressing the rally were Dr. Pollard, a noted biologist at
Notre Dame University; Theodore Olson, Pollard's attorney and
former assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration;
Seymour D. Reich, immediate former chairman of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Rabbi Avraham
Weiss, Jonathan's spiritual advisor; and Fr. Robert F. Drinan, S.J.,
professor of Law at Georgetown University and former member of the
U.S. House of Representatives.
   Last July, Pollard's lawyers asked the Supreme Court of the
United States to review the life sentence Pollard received after
pleading guilty to spying for Israel.
   In his petition to the court, Pollard contends that a March 1992
decision by a divided three judge panel of the United States Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia applied incorrect legal
standards in rejecting Pollard's claim that the government breached
the 1986 plea bargain it made with him.  An objective analysis of
the government's conduct, Pollard argues, will show that the
government broke its word and that he, therefore, is entitled to be
re-sentenced, Pollard also claims that the plea agreement was
unconstitutional because the government extracted a guilty plea
from him by using his seriously ill wife as a bargaining chip.
   Pollard's initial appeal of his life sentence was rejected 2-1
by the federal appellate court.  Dissenting Judge Stephen Williams
said that the government had "complied in spirit with none of its
promises" and breached the plea agreement with Pollard, resulting
in a "complete miscarriage of justice." Judge Williams said he
would have set aside Pollard's life sentence and sent the case
back to the U.S. District Court in Washington for resentencing.
   Carol Pollard, Jonathan's sister and founder of Citizens For
Justice, an international organization dedicated to obtaining
Jonathan Pollard's freedom, pointed out that, "my brother's life
sentence for spying for Israel, a U.S. ally, stands in stark
contrast with the considerable lesser penalties imposed on many
others who have spied for nations hostile to the U.S., such as
Iraq, East Germany and the former Soviet Union.  Jonathan was wrong
and he knows it, but he has been punished enough."
   In recent cases:
   -- Specialist Albert Sombolay, an American soldier, who spied
for Iraq during the Gulf War by passing along troop deployment data
about U.S.-led allied forces, along with samples of chemical
weapons protection equipment and identification documents, received
a 19-year sentence.
   -- Abdelkader Helmy, an Egyptian-born American citizen was
sentenced to just 46 months in prison for illegally exporting to
Egypt, for the benefit of the Egyptians and the Iraqis, 420 pounds
of a material used in Stealth aircraft, along with missiles and
rockets.  This technology was used by the Iraqis to extend the
range of their Scud missiles.
   -- Samuel Morison, an analyst at the U.S. Navy's ultra secret
Naval Intelligence Support Center, was sentenced to two years in
prison for selling classified photographs of Soviet naval vessels
to Jane's Defense Weekly.
   Pollard, who has been in prison since his arrest in November
1985, pleaded guilty in May 1986 to transmitting intelligence
information to Israel, including information concerning the
development of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons by Arab
states hostile to Israel, such as Iraq, Syria and Libya.
   A complete list of organizations and individuals who support
Pollard is available on request from the contacts listed above.
 -30-