Jonathan Pollard release after 30 years

The family moved so his father, Morris Pollard, could take a job as a virologist at Notre Dame.

Under federal guidelines at the time of Pollard’s conviction, a person serving a life sentence is eligible for mandatory parole after 30 years unless the Parole Commission “determines that he has seriously or frequently violated institution rules or that there is a reasonable probability that he will commit any federal, state or local crime”.

The U.S. has repeatedly barred Pollard’s release, but when he came up for parole in July the Justice Department raised no objections.

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.

That’s where he worked when he was arrested in 1985.

His commitment to Israel had grown since he attended science camp as a teen.

Through the years, members of the defense and intelligence communities have strongly opposed calls for Pollard’s early release.

Now 60, Pollard has stated he wants to immigrate to Israel the place his second spouse lives and the place he can anticipate to obtain substantial Israeli authorities again-pay. It is believed he shared hundreds of documents including pictures from USA spy satellites and information about the nuclear programmes of Israel’s Arab neighbours.

Israeli officials are concerned that too warm a celebration over his release might hurt efforts to persuade the US government to let him leave for Israel sooner. “In such cases, the usual sentence is no more than eight years, with actual time served averaging two to four years or less”, wrote Irwin Cotler in the Times of Israel in August. USA officials condemned him as a traitor.

During his brief tenure as a spy, Pollard informed for a secret unit of the Israeli Defence Ministry, Lakam, which used foreign spies to steal data, materials and technical know-how for Israel.

He claimed only to have passed information vital to Israel’s security that had been withheld by the Americans, but security experts feared the information might have ended up in the hands of the Soviet Union, at the time Washington’s arch rival. “Finally, such disclosures will tend to expose a larger picture of US capabilities and knowledge, or lack thereof, than would be in the USA interest to reveal to another power, even to a friendly one”.

“Of course he’s guilty and should be punished”, his father said.

The head of the Free Pollard campaign, Effi Lahav, said the day is bittersweet, because Pollard suffered through “10,956 black days” in prison. He wishes he had moved to Israel to offer his help instead of resorting to spying. However, it emerged that he earned $1,500-$2,500 a month for his spying.

Although Pollard’s 30-year term technically ends Saturday, the federal Bureau of Prisons set his release for Friday because the release date fell on a weekend.

As Post reported exclusively a year ago, an apartment had been rented for Pollard in the NY area and employment had been obtained for him as an analyst at an investment firm.

“Esther Pollard fanned the flames that kept this in the headlines when it could have been on the back pages and a deal would have been made”, Shaw said.

She spoke reporters in Jerusalem about her excitement regarding his release when it was announced. I can hardly wait.