That’s unlikely in Pollard’s case, considering he has not had access to any secrets for 30 years.
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Mr Pollard – a former US Navy intelligence analyst – was jailed for life in 1987 for passing documents to Israel.
“He has no classified information, so he should be able to talk to the press, go online and go to Israel, where he’s a citizen”, Dershowitz said.
Now 60, Pollard has said he wants to immigrate to Israel where his second wife lives and where he can expect to receive substantial Israeli government back-pay. Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler, have also written U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, saying that Pollard should be allowed to renounce his American citizenship and emigrate to Israel.
Sources close to Netanyahu said the prime minister considered the matter to be a “very sensitive issue”, and the directive was an effort to prevent a spat with US President Barack Obama for not commuting Pollard’s life sentence.
The Parole Commission must review the terms of parole after two years and every year after that, although it has the discretion to lift the terms of parole at any time.
The United States turns the page on one of the most contentious chapters in its relations with ally Israel when it releases convicted spy Jonathan Pollard on Friday. Pollard had been open about wanting to become an Israeli spy since he was a teenager and was exposed quickly and easily by the US.
“The Pollard affair will be remembered as a shameful episode in Israel’s history”.
In the United States too, Pollard has proved a divisive figure. While a number of USA senators and congressmen have lobbied for his release, the US Department of Justice has always opposed it, pointing out that the crime of espionage – no matter who the information is passed on to – is a serious one and should be treated as such.
Pollard’s probation officer must approve any travel outside the district in advance, the Justice Department spokesman said.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, Pollard is scheduled to be released on Saturday, November 21.
Israeli media said Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested the USA allow Pollard to move immediately to Israel instead of completing five years’ parole in America.
“Pollard was an emissary of the state of Israel for good and bad”, Bennett added.
The head of the Free Pollard campaign, Effi Lahav, said the day is bittersweet, because Pollard suffered through “10,956 black days” in prison.
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He left South Bend for college at Stanford University, and eventually became an intelligence research specialist at the Naval Ocean Surveillance Information Center in 1979. In 1984 he met a prominent Jewish-American businessman who he told of his willingness to spy for Israel and was then connected with an air force pilot working for Lakam.
