114 Facts About Jonathan Pollard

Jonathan Jay Pollard was born on August 7,1954 and is an American former intelligence analyst who was jailed for spying for Israel.

In 1984, Pollard sold numerous state secrets, including the National Security Agency's ten-volume manual on how the US gathers its signal intelligence, and disclosed the names of thousands of people who had cooperated with US intelligence agencies.

Jonathan Pollard was apprehended in 1985, and in subsequent proceedings agreed to a plea deal, pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel.

In defense of his actions, Jonathan Pollard said the American intelligence establishment collectively endangered Israel's security by withholding crucial information.

Jonathan Pollard revealed aspects of the US intelligence gathering process, its "sources and methods".

Jonathan Pollard was released from prison on November 20,2015, in accordance with federal guidelines at the time of his sentencing.

Jonathan Jay Pollard was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1954, to a Jewish family, the youngest of three siblings born to Morris and Mildred "Molly" Klein Pollard.

At an early age, Jonathan Pollard became aware of the horrific toll the Holocaust had taken on his mother's family, the Kleins from Vilna in Lithuania, and shortly before his bar mitzvah, he asked his parents to visit the Nazi death camps.

Jonathan Pollard's family made a special effort to instill a sense of Jewish identity in their children, which included devotion to Jewish supremacy.

Jonathan Pollard grew up with what he termed a "racial obligation" to Israel, and made his first visit to Israel in 1970, as part of a science program visiting the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.

One Weizmann scientist remembered Jonathan Pollard as leaving behind "a reputation of being a troublemaker".

Jonathan Pollard claimed that his father, Morris Pollard was a CIA operative, and to have fled Czechoslovakia as a child during the Prague Spring in 1968 when his father's CIA role there was discovered.

Later, Jonathan Pollard enrolled in several graduate schools, but never completed a post-graduate degree.

Jonathan Pollard began applying for intelligence service jobs in 1979 after quitting graduate school, first at the Central Intelligence Agency and then at the US Navy.

Jonathan Pollard was refused for the CIA job after taking a polygraph test in which he admitted to prolific illegal drug usage between 1974 and 1978.

Jonathan Pollard fared better with the Navy, and on September 19,1979, he was hired by the Navy Field Operational Intelligence Office, an office of the Naval Intelligence Command.

The Navy asked for but was denied information from the CIA regarding Jonathan Pollard, including the results of their pre-employment polygraph test revealing Jonathan Pollard's excessive drug use.

Jonathan Pollard was given temporary non-SCI security clearances pending completion of his background check, which was normal for new hires at the time.

Jonathan Pollard was assigned to temporary duty at another NIC Department, the Naval Intelligence Support Center Surface Ships Division, where he could work on tasks that did not require SCI clearance.

Two months after Jonathan Pollard was hired, he approached the technical director of NOSIC, Richard Haver, and offered to start a back-channel operation with the South African intelligence service.

Jonathan Pollard lied about his father being involved with CIA operations in South Africa.

Haver became wary of Jonathan Pollard and requested that he be terminated.

However, Haver's boss believed that Jonathan Pollard's supposed connection with South African intelligence could be useful, and he reassigned him to a Navy human intelligence operation, Task Force 168.

However, Shapiro's office followed up with a request to TF-168 that Jonathan Pollard be investigated by the CIA.

The CIA found Jonathan Pollard to be a risk and recommended that he not be used in any intelligence collection operation.

Jonathan Pollard recommended against Pollard's being granted access to highly classified information.

Jonathan Pollard subsequently filed a grievance and threatened lawsuits to recover his SCI clearance.

In 1982, after the psychiatrist concluded Jonathan Pollard had no mental illness, Jonathan Pollard's clearance was upgraded to SCI.

In October 1984, after some re-organization of the Navy's intelligence departments, Jonathan Pollard applied for and was accepted into a job as an analyst for the Naval Intelligence Command.

Jonathan Pollard told Sella that he worked for US naval intelligence, told him about specific incidents where US intelligence was withholding information from Israel, and offered to work as a spy.

Jonathan Pollard was warned that either the Americans were offering a "dangle" in order to root out foreign intelligence operations, or if this was a genuine spy, Sella would have to pay careful attention to his work.

Jonathan Pollard was paid $10,000 cash and given a very expensive diamond and sapphire ring, which Pollard later offered to his girlfriend, Anne Henderson, when proposing to her.

Jonathan Pollard was paid well by the Israelis: he received a salary that eventually reached $2,500 a month, and tens of thousands of dollars in cash disbursements for hotels, meals, and jewelry.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigator Ronald Olive has alleged that Jonathan Pollard passed classified information to South Africa, and attempted, through a third party, to sell classified information to Pakistan on multiple occasions.

Jonathan Pollard stole classified documents related to China on behalf of his wife, who used the information to advance her personal business interests.

Jonathan Pollard kept these secret materials in the house, where investigating authorities discovered them when Pollard's espionage activity was revealed.

The government said that Jonathan Pollard had "disclosed classified information in anticipation of financial gain" in other instances:.

The Australian officer, alarmed by Jonathan Pollard's repeated disclosure to him of data caveated No Foreign Access Allowed, reported the indiscretions to his chain of command.

Jonathan Pollard's espionage was nearly revealed in 1984 when a department chief noted a report on Soviet military equipment and questioned why it was germane to the office.

The coworker noted that Jonathan Pollard did not seem to be taking the material to any known appropriate destination, such as other intelligence agencies in the area.

Ultimately, that report was not acted upon as it was felt it occurred within business hours and Jonathan Pollard had business being in other offices.

Jonathan Pollard was stopped and questioned by FBI agents about a week later while removing classified material from his work premises.

Jonathan Pollard explained that he was taking it to another analyst at a different agency for a consultation.

Jonathan Pollard's story was checked and found to be false.

Jonathan Pollard requested a telephone call to his wife to tell her where he was.

Jonathan Pollard attempted to do this, enlisting the help of a neighbor.

Jonathan Pollard later agreed to a search of his home, which found the few documents which Anne had missed.

Jonathan Pollard cooperated fully with the investigation and was never charged with any crime.

Jonathan Pollard had many opportunities to do what I told him and he didn't do it.

The apartment where the documents stolen by Jonathan Pollard were kept and copied was cleared out, and all four immediately fled Washington.

The government alleged that Jonathan Pollard used classified documents to unsuccessfully broker an arms deal with the governments of South Africa, Argentina, and Taiwan.

FBI investigators determined that Jonathan Pollard met with three Pakistanis and an Iranian foreigner in an attempt to broker arms in 1985.

Jonathan Pollard eventually cooperated with investigators in exchange for a plea agreement for leniency for himself and his wife.

Israel said initially that Jonathan Pollard worked for an unauthorized rogue operation, which they maintained for more than ten years.

At the time, the Americans knew that Jonathan Pollard had passed tens of thousands of documents.

The government did eventually offer Anne Pollard a plea agreement provided that Jonathan Pollard assist the government in its damage assessment.

Jonathan Pollard promised not to disseminate any information concerning his crimes or his case, or to speak publicly about any classified information, without first receiving permission from the director of naval intelligence.

Jonathan Pollard further agreed that failure of Anne Pollard to obey the terms of her agreement entitled the government to void his agreement, and vice versa.

Three weeks before Jonathan Pollard's sentencing, Wolf Blitzer, at the time a Jerusalem Post correspondent, performed a jail-cell interview with Jonathan Pollard.

On June 4,1986, Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government.

Jonathan Pollard was then moved from FCC Petersburg in Virginia, where he had been held since 1986, to a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, to undergo a battery of mental health tests.

In May 1991, Jonathan Pollard asked Avi Weiss to be his personal rabbi.

Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu was an advocate of Jonathan Pollard, and campaigned for his release from prison.

Anne Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to five years, but was paroled after three and a half years due to health problems.

In 1989, Jonathan Pollard's attorneys filed a motion for withdrawal of his guilty plea and trial by jury due to the government's failure to abide by terms of the plea agreement.

Several years later, with a different attorney, Jonathan Pollard filed a petition for habeas corpus.

In July 2005, Jonathan Pollard again filed a motion for a new trial, this time on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel.

Jonathan Pollard sought access to classified documents pertinent to his new lawyers' efforts in preparing a clemency petition.

Israel's official stance until 1998 was that Jonathan Pollard worked for an unauthorized rogue organization.

The Jonathan Pollard family criticized the report, terming it a "whitewash" of the Israeli government's activities, although they agreed with its assertion that Jonathan Pollard had been denied due legal process.

In November 2014, Rafi Eitan, who directed Lekem from 1981 until its dissolution in 1986, admitted that he knew in advance of Jonathan Pollard's impending arrest in 1985 and alerted then-Premier Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Jonathan Pollard applied for Israeli citizenship in 1995; the Ministry of Interior initially refused on grounds that Israel did not grant citizenship to persons who had not yet immigrated, but reversed its decision and granted the petition on November 22,1995.

Some sources claim that Jonathan Pollard then renounced his United States citizenship, was now solely an Israeli citizen, and would be deported to Israel if he were released from prison.

The campaign's main points claimed that Jonathan Pollard spied for an ally instead of an enemy, that his sentence was out of proportion to those given to others who committed similar crimes, and that the US failed to live up to its plea bargain.

Jonathan Pollard loyalists blamed Luchins, who received death threats and required federal protection for a period of time.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been particularly vocal in lobbying for Jonathan Pollard's release, visiting Jonathan Pollard in prison in 2002.

Jonathan Pollard raised the issue with President Clinton during the Wye River peace talks in October 1998.

When I talked to Sandy Berger and George Tenet, they were adamantly opposed to letting Jonathan Pollard go, as was Madeleine Albright.

Jonathan Pollard claimed that he provided only information that was vital to Israeli security, and that it was being withheld by the Pentagon, in violation of a 1983 memorandum of understanding between the two countries.

Jonathan Pollard's defense claimed that Israel had the legal right to the information that Jonathan Pollard passed to Israel based upon the 1983 Memorandum of understanding and the United States was violating that Memorandum.

Lee Hamilton, a former US congressman from Indiana who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee at the time of Jonathan Pollard's sentencing, wrote an emotional letter to President Obama in 2011 endorsing commutation of Jonathan Pollard's sentence.

In November 2010, Weiner stated: "No one in the history of the United States who did something similar to Jonathan Pollard served a life sentence, nor should he".

Jonathan Pollard stated, "I am impressed that the people who are best informed about the classified material he passed to Israel, former CIA Director James Woolsey and former Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dennis DeConcini, favor his release".

Some now argue that Jonathan Pollard should be released because it would improve US-Israeli relations and enhance the prospects of success of the Obama administration's Middle East peace process.

The reason is that Jonathan Pollard has already served far too long for the crime for which he was convicted, and by now, whatever facts he might know would have little effect on national security.

On February 16,2011, Arlen Specter wrote a letter to President Obama, stating that, as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he believed Jonathan Pollard should be pardoned.

Jonathan Pollard wrote, "I know I share similar views with many past and current American elected officials" and "therefore, I respectfully urge you to use your constitutional power to treat Mr Pollard the way others have been treated by our nation's justice system".

Frank said Jonathan Pollard has paid a price much higher than anyone else that spied for a friend of the United States and more than many who spied for its enemies.

Jonathan Pollard pled guilty under a plea agreement with which he fully complied, but which was ignored by the sentencing judge.

Mr Jonathan Pollard is the only person in the history of the US to receive a life sentence for passing classified information to an ally.

Central Intelligence Agency director George J Tenet initially denied reports that he had threatened to resign if Pollard were to be released, but eventually confirmed that he had.

The next day, at a dinner attended by several ministers of the Israeli government, the subject of Jonathan Pollard's release was again discussed.

The New York Times reported on September 21,2010, that the Israeli government proposed informally that Jonathan Pollard be released as a reward to Israel for extending by three months a halt to new settlements in occupied territories.

In October 2014, Elyakim Rubinstein, an Israeli Supreme Court Justice, former attorney general, and the acting Israeli ambassador to the US at the time of Jonathan Pollard's arrest, advocated for Jonathan Pollard's pardon.

Many intelligence officials are convinced that at least some of the information Jonathan Pollard sold to Israel was acquired eventually by the USSR, although officials interviewed by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh acknowledged that they had no good evidence.

Jonathan Pollard betrayed worldwide intelligence data, including sources and methods developed at significant cost to the US taxpayer.

Olive wrote that Jonathan Pollard stole classified documents related to China that his wife used to advance her personal business interests and attempted to broker arms deals with South Africa, Argentina, Taiwan, Pakistan, and Iran.

Jonathan Pollard wrote in his defense memorandum that his wife never profited from his espionage.

Jonathan Pollard was a self-serving, gluttonous character seeking financial reward and personal gratification.

Laws in effect at the time of Jonathan Pollard's sentencing mandated that federal inmates serving life sentences be paroled after 30 years of incarceration if no significant prison regulations had been violated, and if there was a "reasonable probability" that the inmate would not re-offend.

On July 28,2015, the United States Parole Commission announced that Jonathan Pollard would be released on November 20,2015.

The terms of release set by the Parole Commission stipulated that Jonathan Pollard must remain on parole for a minimum of five years.

Jonathan Pollard was ordered to wear electronic monitoring devices to track his movements.

Jonathan Pollard's attorneys appealed the conditions to the Parole Commission's appeals board, which eliminated only one restriction, that of requiring prior permission to use the Internet.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said that Jonathan Pollard would be granted a government stipend equivalent to the pensions granted to former Mossad and Shin Bet agents.

Jonathan Pollard had been hospitalized for two weeks after contracting COVID-19.

Jonathan Pollard was honored by Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion at a Jerusalem Day gala in 2021.

Jonathan Pollard gave the main address to the gala, in which he accused the US government of anti-Semitism, termed the USState Department and the United Nations enemies of Israel, and referred to the Biden administration as "Amalek".

Jonathan Pollard refused an offer to campaign for the Knesset on the Otzma Yehudit party's electoral slate in the 2022 Israeli legislative election, saying that he had "suffered enough".

On November 23,2023, Jonathan Pollard posted on X that Israel should have arrested the families of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during the Gaza war to prevent them from interfering in Israel's war plans.

Jonathan Pollard's story inspired the movie Les Patriotes by French director Eric Rochant in which American actor Richard Masur portrayed a character resembling Jonathan Pollard.

Jonathan Pollard's story inspired the stage play The Law of Return by playwright Martin Blank, which was produced Off-Broadway at the 4th Street Theater NYC.

In 1995, a play named Jonathan Pollard debuted at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv.

The part of Jonathan Pollard was played by Israeli actor Rami Baruch.