Jonathan Pollard, American who spied for Israel, freed after 30 years

After spending 30 years in prison for spying on the USA for Israel, Jonathan Pollard was released Friday.

Ed Ross, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, said that “as of this morning, Jonathan Pollard is no longer in BOP custody”. The organization did not specify Pollard’s location.

Pollard will remain in the USA for five years, CBS News’ Paula Reid reports. As part of the standard terms of the parole, he is not allowed to leave the country, foiling his desire to move to Israel.

Pollard suffers from a condition called weeping edema, which causes chronic swelling and requires him to wear orthopedic stockings, as well as severe diabetes, which make it “dangerous” for him to wear any restraint on his ankle or leg, they said in court papers.

Pollard’s involvement with spying began after he joined the US Navy, and eventually received sufficient security clearance to access Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information.

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.

Netanyahu is supposedly trying to keep the release as low-key as possible, and has told his cabinet to refrain from discussing the issue.

Netanyahu this week asked ministers to refrain from commenting on the Pollard case, while his supporters have become increasingly tight-lipped amid speculation that a less aggressive approach might see his parole conditions lifted.

Outside the prison Pollard was greeted by his wife Ester. “Throughout the years, we have felt Jonathan’s pain and felt responsible and obliged to bring about his release”. We continue to demand the removal of any restriction on your freedom of movement, communication or other violation of your rights. “We will not rest until you are free to depart the United States for any destination of your choosing, first and foremost – Israel”, he wrote.

Anne Pollard, his ex-wife, told Army Radio in Israel that she has “been waiting for this day for 30 long years”.

“Anyone who obtained as much information as Mr. Pollard did over an extended period of time is perfectly capable of revealing… information that he might have in his brain locked away somewhere”, he said.

“There is nothing good that came as a result of my actions”, he said.

Despite the high profile campaign to secure a pardon, including a recent personal appeal to Obama by Netanyahu, in recent weeks it has become clear that Israeli politicians and Pollard’s supporters have changed tack.

When Pollard came up for parole this summer, the Justice Department did not oppose his release, saying he was automatically eligible for “mandatory parole” after serving three decades.

Netanyahu has instructed Israelis to stay low-key about Pollard’s release because of concern that too warm a celebration might damage efforts to persuade the U.S. government to let him leave for Israel sooner. “We heard about Jonathan Pollard being released so we altered our schedule and slowed it down and changed it so we would be here”, Jackson said.

A spy drama that lasted three decades, sowed suspicion between two allies, and that sent a Jewish American behind bars for half his life, ended unceremoniously Friday with the opening of a door in the middle of a dark night in North Carolina.