Among the stipulations the attorneys are appealing: the requirement to wear an ankle bracelet with 24-hour Global Positioning System monitoring, which they say is harmful to Pollard’s health, and government surveillance of his and his employer’s computers.
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In a sign of the case’s sensitivity, Netanyahu had asked his ministers to refrain from claiming victory upon Pollard’s release, local media reported. “I tried to serve two countries at the same time”.
That’s where he was working when he was arrested in 1985.
His commitment to Israel had grown since he attended science camp as a teen.
“He is a free man, but there are so many conditions that have been placed on his release that it hurts his freedom”, said Israeli parliamentarian Nachman Shai, head of the Knesset Caucus for the release of Jonathan Pollard.
Other senior administration officials who requested not to be identified discussing internal deliberations said on Thursday that the Justice Department wasn’t contemplating Mr. Pollard’s request either, and that it had no plans to contemplate it. Administration officials have been loath to appear to allow Mr. Pollard special consideration in the face of strong resistance by intelligence agencies that call his actions a grievous betrayal of national security.
Pollard was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit espionage and began serving his sentence in 1987. He pleaded guilty a year later. Now that he’s out, the Justice Department has continued to take a somewhat hardline stance by requiring that he stay in the USA (he is seeking to renounce his American citizenship as part of a move to Israel).
“While we still believe his sentence was disproportionate, we hope that after having paid his debt to society, he should now be able to rebuild his life together with his wife”, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said in a statement. “Because he was not indicted for anything commensurate with that”.
Though he has said his guilty plea was coerced, he has also expressed regret, telling The Associated Press in a 1998 interview that he did not consider himself a hero.
For USA officials he was seen as an unreliable Walter Mitty figure who had betrayed his country for financial gain, and American politicians, particularly those with intelligence interests, have lobbied against his release.
“The decision I made was based on fear and concern…those were emotions that got the better of me”, he said.
Pollard’s case has strained relations between Israel and the United States, two close allies. A few of the documents included Arab military and Soviet weapons intelligence, as well as information on American spycraft methods.
“After three long and hard decades, Jonathan has been reunited with his family”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
For now, Pollard has moved to NY with his second wife, whom he married while in jail.
She spoke reporters in Jerusalem about her excitement regarding his release when it was announced.
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Edelstein said that November 20 was a “happy day filled with sadness”, and added that Pollard should have been freed a while ago. “Disclosing our methods is an even greater danger than releasing what we have collected”. “I have never forgotten the needless pain and suffering I experienced for years while I was incarcerated in US prisons”. Many have argued that the secrets he sold to Israel as a U.S. naval analyst amounted to information Washington was supposed to share with the Jewish state, but was withholding.
