Pollard was handed a life sentence for providing large amounts of classified United States government information to Israel.
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“I have waited for this day for 30 long years, unbelievable”, Anne, his ex-wife, told Israel’s Army Radio. It’s an unbelievable moment’.
Pollard had been granted parole this summer from a life sentence imposed in 1987.
Pollard used his position as a navy intelligence analyst to pass reams of classified material to an Israeli handler – suitcases stuffed with documents, including information on the capabilities and programmes of Israel’s enemies.
Pollard was released on parole Friday after spending 30 years behind bars on espionage charges, but he can not leave the country to join his wife in Israel under the terms of his early release.
“The notion that, having fought for and finally obtained his release after serving 30 years in prison, Mr. Pollard will now disclose stale, 30-year-old information to anyone is preposterous”, his lawyers, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, said in a statement.
Between 1984 and 1985, Pollard stole classified documents and passed them to Israel in exchange for cash payments.
“The decision I made was based on fear and concern…those were emotions that got the better of me”, he said. In 1987 he pleaded guilty for passing information to Israel.
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.
Edelstein praised the low-profile release and said that “if we don’t make waves” then “it’s possible that he will be able to fulfill his dream and come here, leaving behind all the suffering he endured”.
The Parole Commission may end his parole at any time, but is not obliged to reconsider its terms for two years. “That does not work”. Now 61, Pollard has said he wants to emigrate to Israel, where his second wife lives and where he can expect to receive substantial Israeli government back pay.
United States officials have said that Pollard committed the security breach over a series of months and for a salary provided by the Israeli government.
In the meanwhile, Pollard has gotten a job with an investment firm in NY City, his lawyers said, but they did not identify the firm. Later in 1995, Israel granted him citizenship.
He’s challenging them in court.
Does anyone think that Pollard will be forced to wait five years to go to Israel?
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said he hoped Pollard’s first Shabbat as a free man “would symbolize a new path ahead for him”, while Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog wrote simply “Blessed is He who frees the imprisoned”.
Pollard, said a member of the group in a text-message to journalists, requests to respect his privacy in the coming days. His release was also seen as a bargaining chip to quiet Israeli criticism of the United States’ nuclear deal with Iran.
“It’s a very unusual situation…”
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Over the course of decades, Pollard’s prison cell became a kind of pilgrimage site for conservative Israeli politicians, who elevated Pollard’s case rather than helping him keep a low profile.
