After 30 yrs, Israeli spy Pollard released from USA jail

Jonathan Pollard was released from prison Friday after 30 years behind bars for spying for Israel, and his lawyers immediately went to court to challenge tough parole conditions seemingly created to ensure he doesn’t spill any USA military secrets he might have left.

Jonathan Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, sentenced to life in prison for selling classified US secrets to Israel, has checked himself into a federal probation office in New York City.

After spending 30 years in prison for spying on the USA for Israel, Jonathan Pollard was released Friday. “After three long and hard decades, Jonathan is finally reunited with his family”.

He will serve five years of parole in NY, during which time Pollard will wear an electronic monitor, CNN.com said.

Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said returning Pollard to Israel is an issue “Netanyahu has regularly raised”.

His release caps one of the most high-profile spy sagas in modern American history – a case that over the years sharply divided public opinion and became a diplomatic sticking point.

According to the filing by Pollard’s lawyers, the U.S. Parole Commission, after announcing his pending release in July, released parole conditions that would require Pollard to submit to Global Positioning System monitoring, obtain Commission approval to access the Internet, and agree to monitored computer use, with unannounced inspections of his equipment at any time. Meanwhile, an Israeli source close to the family speculated that the Department of Justice might choose to compromise with Pollard, allowing him to leave the United States once he renounces his American citizenship, and by that removing most of the concerns the government may have about his future activities. But the talks fell apart, and Pollard remained in prison.

American Jews complained bitterly that the Pollard operation had exposed them to questions about their loyalty to the USA, while some Israelis responded that their nervousness was proof that life in the diaspora was untenable.

His attorneys said Friday that the stipulations placed on Pollard make it all but impossible for the former civilian naval analyst to find a job. Those supporters include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who applauded Pollard’s freedom.

 Mr. Pollard’s release was the subject of numerous campaigns in both the United States and Israel for many years.

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.

Pollard made contact in June 1984 with an Israeli colonel, Aviem Sella, who was studying in NY, and offered to provide him with classified information.

Pollard and the USA government agreed to a plea deal by which, if he and his then-wife cooperated, he would be spared a life sentence and she get less than 10 years. It was his imprisonment that was a cause célèbre, and now that it’s over, so too may be Pollard’s status – in Israel and in the US. He pleaded guilty in 1986 to conspiracy to commit espionage.

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.