The Real Reason Why Jonathan
Pollard Sits |
I n early May, '03, I was hired by a group of Israelis
now organizing rallies on behalf of Jonathan Pollard's freedom
to find out why, defying all reason, Jonathan Pollard
is still sitting in prison. Jonathan Pollard people who approach
Jonathan Pollard me were highly dissatisfied with Jonathan Pollard's
official Jonathan Pollard organization run by Esther Pollard and
in fact, suspected Esther Pollard of sabotaging all alternative
efforts to liberate her spouse. Since I took on the project, I
have noted Esther Pollard's interference with demonstrations,
speakers and even one webmaster (http://www.jonathanpollard.com)
working on behalf of justice for
Jonathan Jay Pollard.
I don't know what her motivations are, perhaps they are just a
personal need for attention, perhaps they are more sinister, but
with Esther Pollard at the helm, no new evidence has emerged that
could possibly result in Jonathan Pollard's release. Recent excitement
over the revelations that Jonathan Pollard was sitting for the
crimes of master spy Aldrich Ames, as written by John Loftus,
are not revelations at all. I discovered the exact claims in a
prominent Maariv article from 1985, Mrs. Pollard repeated often
in the Hebrew press. To sort out the puzzle, I referred to a wide
variety of sources and was unfortunate in having a personal expert
nearby. He is Joel Bainerman, author of the 1992 classic book
on Iran Contra-related felonies, Crimes Of A President. He thoughtfully
provided me with relevant text, as well as his rough notes and
contacts. |
One of his contacts was William Northrup, who lives
in a kibbutz near Beersheva and was held in a New York lockup for
10 months on suspicion of illegally selling military hardware to
Iran. He insists that the Americans came down hard on Jonathan Pollard
because he exposed the Bechtel Corporation's production of chemical
weapons in Iraq. In the same lockup for the same crime was Ari Ben-Menashe,
who wrote a tell-all book called The Profits Of War. He became a
primary source for Seymour Hersch and Joel Bainerman, though far
from their only one. All have been besmirched by the official Jonathan
Pollard organization but that doesn't mean their facts are all wrong.
I use what I have judged to be likely truths. By the same token,
I have utilized many more conventional sources and their basic facts
are far from consistently reliable. It was a task just sorting out
the dates of the known history. Jonathan Pollard, himself, insists
that he started his spying in July, 1984. Loftus and Aarons have
him identifying an arms shipment in April of 1984. That would make
the Hersch/Ben Menashe claim that Jonathan Pollard began his clandestine
work in 1981, more plausible. But once one excuses the inconsistencies,
a very consistent story emerges. Jonathan Pollard thought he was
helping Israel protect itself and that his material would fall into
honest, trusted hands. Sadly for him, it fell into the grimy paws
of Shimon Peres and he used it to create a crime empire, broadly
called Iran Contra. It is the fear of exposing Shimon Peres and
his cronies, that is the real reason why the Israeli government
has made no sincere effort to free Jonathan Jay Pollard.
It's a fairly complicated story and I will lead you through it by
way of other people's research. When I comment you will see three
stars *** at the beginning and end of the commentary. For instance:
*** In 1987, a government commission of inquiry headed by Abba Eban
issued its report on the Jonathan Pollard Affair. It concluded that
the man most responsible for the fiasco was Shimon Peres, who became
Prime Minister in late May, 1984. He was not only apprised of Jonathan
Pollard's intelligence, he read it daily. Receiving smaller portions
of blame were Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister
Yitzhak Shamir. This long buried report is, naturally, long forgotten
because Peres spent a good week denying every word in it and arranging
the end of Eban's political carrer. But let us not forget, the official
investigation conducted by the Israel government concluded that
Shimon Peres was the chief culprit.*** |
LEADING THE COVERUP
Amir Oren, Haaretz, 1998: "Shimon Peres was almost
as concerned about domestic policies as he was about the American
reaction. He was proud of the fact that he, Yitzhak Rabin and Shamir
refrained from mutual recriminations and how that prevented the
media from turning it into an Israeli Watergate. Shimon Peres worked
hard to prevent public discussion..."
Zeev Segal, Haaretz 24/10/95: "One body that studied the subject
was a committee headed by then MK, Abba Eban. In a report published
in May, 1987, the committee...totally rejected the claim of the
government of Israel, which stated that the Jonathan Pollard affair was a
'rogue' operation."
Washington Report On Middle East, Jan/Feb 2003: "Eban disappeared
from political life after 1987 (for) a report criticizing Labor
Party leaders Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin for using American
Joanthan Jay Pollard to spy on the United States. Both rebuked him
and the next year his name was left off the candidates for parliament."
Seymour Hersh, The Samson Option, Random House, 1991: "The Israeli
Officials most tarnished by the scandal were Rafi Eitan and Aviem
Sella, but Eitan did not suffer financially. He was subsequently
named to a high administrative position with Israel Chemicals, the
largest state-owned enterprise in Israel. His surprising appointment
was authorized by none other than Ariel Sharon, who had been named
Minister of Trade and Industry in 1984."
***And Sharon is not the only high present official involved in
the coverup. Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein was the legal attache
to the Washington Embassy Jonathan Pollard was ejected from, and later tried
out a coverup tactic that Washington attorney Leonard Garment found
odious. Such details must be presented in a wider-ranging future
report. For now let us get to the heart of the matter at hand...Iran
Contra.*** |
IRAN CONTRA
Federal Government Watch Discussion List: "The back
channel came alive under Vice-President Bush from 1984-91. The channel
was used to direct the laundering of American money to the PLO.
Although Jonathan Pollard didn't know it, when he warned the Israelis that
a PLO arms shipment was going through Greece in 1984,Jonathan Pollardinadvertantly
blew the whistle of the White House's first transaction of arms
to Iran...In the summer of 1984, Jonathan Pollard noticed a pattern of vessels
going back and forth from Greece to Yemen, where the PLO had a major
base. Jonathan Pollard passed the tip to the Israelis. In the summer of 1984,
the Israelis tipped off the Greek authorities who seized an entire
shipload of arms believed destined for the PLO. Neither Jonathan Pollard
nor the government of Israel was aware that they had smashed George
Bush's first shipment of arms to Iran. Jonathan Pollard never realized that
he had busted the most secret White House operation of modern times.
The summer of 1984 Greek shipment was a dagger over George Bush's
head."
Loftus, Aarons, The Secret War Against The Jews: "Jonathan Pollard notified
the Israelis, who passed word to the Greeks, who raided the arms
ship. None of the players knew that this shipment was directly connected
to an event two months previous, in which US hostages had been kidnapped
in Lebanon. The ship had not been commissioned by Arafat but by
US Vice-President Bush and was ultimately destined for the patron
the of Lebanese kidnappers, Iran. The shipment marksJonathan Pollardtrue beginning
of the infamous Iran Contra scandal.
Winston Mideast Analysis And Commentary 8/13/99: "Jonathan Pollard inadvertantly
exposed the first shipment of arms-for-hostages in what became the
Iran Contra scandal. As he was in the Naval Intelligence Anti-Terrorism
Unit, he saw this shipment, one year earlier than is generally known,
and believing it to be arms for the PLO or Iraq, revealed it to
the Israelis. This alone would make it imperative for the Iran/Contra
planners to keep him locked up forever."
***Enter Shimon Peres. Jonathan Pollard provided the data that exposed
Bush's arms for hostages operation. Of course, a moral Prime Minister
would have demanded that Bush put an end to this arming of Israel's
worst enemies. But Shimon Peres is not remotely moral, so he saw
the bigger potential of this nascent crime. He wanted in and the
crime expanded into what we know as Irangate. How do we know this?
Because when Jonathan Pollard discovered the arms ship, Israel had
no role in paying America's enemies off with arms for releasing
hostages in Lebanon. But by September, Shimon Peres had sent a team
to Washington consisting of Yaacov Nimrodi, the former Ambassador
to Iran, Al Schwimmer, former head of Israel Aircraft Industries,
and David Kimche, chairman of the Israeli branch of the Council
On Foreign Relations. After that, Israel was right in the middle
of the operation. This is basic indisputable logic. Israel joined
the operation only after Jonathan Pollard's intelligence exposed
the existence of it. That means Shimon Peres wanted a piece of the
pie and must have used Jonathan Pollard's data to get his cut of
the action. The easiest way in would have been threatening to expose
the arms for hostages operation and bring down Bush and his team.
We call such a threat, blackmail. And that's how Jonathan Pollard's
good intentions were used. And not for the last time. Shortly after
Jonathan Pollard's capture on Non.22/85, the Peres team of Kimche,
Schwimmer and Nimrodi all quit the operation. In laymen's terms,
they hauled ass out of there. But Shimon Peres didn't want to give
up all the goodies that came with Iran Contra. So in January 1986,
he replaced the team with his anti-terrorism advisor Amiram Nir.
He was murdered in 1989 in Mexico shortly before he was to testify
to the Senate Committee investigating Irangate. Lest one think Iran
Contra wasn't worth the trouble, look how much just one member of
Peres' team brought in for his effort and then consider what Nir
knew. Finally, note who else quit his post in the wake of Jonathan
Pollard; the American National Security Advisor, Bud McFarlane,
who resigned in Dec. 85.*** |
Joel Bainerman, Crimes Of A President, SPI Books,
NY, 1992, raw notes and final text: "In June l991 an Israel police
investigation was opened to determine if Nimrodi withheld profits
from the sales from the Defence Ministry. A month later Nimrodi
made a public declaration in a Tel Aviv court stating that he had
acted on his own behalf in his arms dealings with the Iranians and
thus all the profits from the deals were his. He claimed he earned
$37 million from the Iranians, but after paying for the missiles
and other expenses, he says he took a loss on the deal of nearly
$750,000. (Inside Israel, August, l993)
Those same bank records in Switzerland could have become a nightmare
for some Israeli government officials, namely Prime Minister Shimon Peres,
even shedding light on why the Israeli government never allowed
Nir (or Schwimmer and Nimrodi) to testify before Congressional investigations.
Was Shimon Peres perhaps worried that Nir would disclose that it was his
role in the diversion of money from the Iranian arms sales to the
Contras or that he personally authorized the establishment of the
fund to initiate covert anti-terrorist operations? Indeed Nir knew
a great deal about U.S. and Israeli arms sales to Iran because he
was the roundabout via everyone's activities passed through. He
must have known who set up the Swiss accounts, who controlled them,
and how much went to the Contras and how much to middlemen like
Ghorbanifar and Secord's pockets? He sat in on crucial meetings
in Teheran, Frankfurt, Washington, Tel Aviv and London. He knew
of all covert operations and where the money originated from to
fund them. In an interview with YEDIOT ACHRONOT after leaving office
in March l987 Nir said that Shamir went out of his way to protect
his name and reputation, in Israel and in the U.S., while Shimon Peres
simply "left him to the dogs" adding that "the moment you need support
from him (Shimon Peres), he vanishes."' |
DID JONATHAN POLLARD HAVE HELP?
Codevilla, MENL 24/7/00: "Jonathan Pollard gave tJonathan
Pollardm that part of Jonathan Pollard flow of US intelligence which
they used to receive regularly, but which the US cut off in 1981...This
consisted of intelligence 'products.' It was satellite pictures,
reports of all kinds, electronic directories and so forth."
John Loftus, Moment, 6/03: "Jonathan Pollard didn't have the 'blue
stripe' clearance according to intelligence sources I spoke with.
That was the bombshell that would clear him of any possible connection
to tJonathan Pollard deaths of our Russian agents."
Codevilla, ibid: "Jonathan Pollard could not have provided codes,
because Jonathan Pollard did not have any access to codes."
Ari Ben-Menas, Profits Of War, Jonathan Pollardridan Square Press,
1992: "McFarlane, in fact, had been providing computer access codes
of intelligence reports to Rafi Eitan, according to Eitan. Sitting
in Tel Aviv, Eitan would request computer access codes for certain
items he was interested in. A representative in Washington, a woman
named Iris, would pass the request to McFarlane. He would then give
her back the specified access codes. She would give the codes to
Jonathan Pollard."
Consortiumnews.com 8/6/03: :The issue was brought to the high court
by former national security advisor Robert McFarlane who claims
he was libeled by a 1991 Esquire magazine story linking him to the
Jonathan Pollard spy case...Both courts ruled that McFarlane failed
to show that Esquire displayed a reckless disregard for the truth."
***Now we move into stage two of the exploitation of Jonathan Pollard.
Jonathan Pollard was assigned to receive and analyse satellite photos
of ship positions and look for aberrant routes. That would have
made the discovery of Bush's arms ship natural. But for the next
piece of Shimon Peres blackmail, he would most likely have needed
help. Jonathan Pollard uncovered a crime the equal of Iran Contra:
the American corporation Bechtel was making chemical weaponry for
Saddam Hussein. And Shimon Peres instinctively knew he could milk
this discovery for all it was worth because Defence Secretary Caspar
Weinberger was a VP of Bechtel before choosing public service and
Secretary of State George Shultz was a former Bechtel CEO. I have
no doubt that Jonathan Pollard passed the Bechtel gas data to Israel
but how he got it is still in dispute. Perhaps he received satellite
photos which exposed the factories, but it seems more likely that
he was given intelligence much higher than he was entitled to receive.
For that he would have needed help from one of the few entitled
to receive top secret access codes and Robert McFarlane as National
Security Advisor was one those few.*** |
BECHTEL AND CASPAR WEINBERGER
Codevilla, MENL 24/7/00: "This memo contained the
lie that Jonathan Pollard caused the deaths of countless US agents. It also
reportedly said the Israelis sold part of that information to the
Soviet Union. All of these things are not only untrue, they were
known by Weinberger not to be true...The policy was building up
Iraq, a policy to which Weinberger and much of the rest of the US
government sacrificed true American interests in the 1980s. We supplied
Saddam Hussein with not only arms but with intelligence and forbearance...The
main thing is we permitted, licensed and financed large American
corporations to build plants there. The infrastructure that is being
bombed in Iraq right now is mostly American-built. Now we get to
the deeply embarassing part. One of the companies involved was Bechtel,
with whom Caspar Weinberger and George Schultz, Secretaries of Defense
and State, had close personal relations."
Federal Government Watch Discussion List, Yahoo, message 631: ""As
Jonathan Pollard discovered to his horror, the German nerve gas
factories constructed in Libya and Iraq are using the identical
formulas used on Jews at Auschwitz... President Bush Sr. was good
friends with Saddam's Deputy Foreign Minister and made personal
phone calls to one of his former Yale classmates to obtain American
funding for Bechtel's oil pipeline in Iraq...The Bechtel corporation
was even building Saddam Hussein a chemical factory he could use
for poison gas production."
Counterpunch.org, 9/4/03: "Schultz worked at Bechtel, so did Caspar
Weinberger.Bechtel was listed by Iraq in its report to the UN weapons
inspectors as one of the companies that helped supply Saddam with
equipment and knowledge for making chemical weapons. Bechtel in
the 1980s was prime contractor on PC1 and 2, two petrochemical plants
constructed in Iraq which had dual use capacity. So I guess the
bottom line is that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfield squad are now holding
Saddam Hussein accountable for chemical weapons of mass destruction
- the same weapons which these same officials ignored in pursuit
of the Aqaba pipeline project. |
IRAQ PIPELINE
Barry Chamish, The Fall Of Israel, Canongate, Edinburgh,
1992:"By 1985 Syria had closed down Iraq's pipeline to the Mediterranean
and Iran was blockading the Persian Gulf.Iraq wanted to build an
alternative pipeline to Aqaba, Jordan's Red Sea port, and the American
corporation Bechtel agreed to construct this multi-billion dollar
project, but only if it received assurances that Israel would never
blow it up, not even in wartime. American Attorney-General Edwin
Meeese approached Peres who agreed in return for $70 million a year
to be transferred to the Israeli Labor Party. When word of the bribe
leaked, Meese was forced out of office, but, as usual, scandal escaped
Peres."
Joel Bainerman, Crimes Of A President, Notes And Final Text:
"Pipeline deal. To be built by the Bechtel company. It would feed
300,000 barrels of oil each day from Iraqi oilfields to a terminal
at the Jordanian port of Aquaba. As part of the arrangement, then
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres's Labor party would receive
up to $1 billion over a ten year period in return for a pledge not
to bomb the pipeline in the event of a war." McFarlane was also
the major White House backer of the Iraqi pipeline deal. To bebuilt
by the Bechtel company it would feed 300,000 barrels of oil each
day from Iraqi oilfields to a terminal at the Jordanian port of
Aquaba. As part of the arrangement, then Israeli Prime Minister
Shimon Peres's Labor party would receive up to $1 billion over a
ten year period in return for a pledge not to bomb the pipeline
in the event of a war. Originally, it may have been intended to
have this money come from the Pentagon's budget. When John Poindexter
took over from McFarlane as National Security Adviser in December
l985 he killed a plan his predecessor had come up with to have secret
payments made to Israel out of a heavily disguised National Security
Counsel-controlled appropriation in the Pentagon's budget. (Washington
Post, March 5th, l988) "The idea was for it to come out of the defence
budget on an installment basis," one source was quoted as saying.
"It was, to be a payment to the Israelis to be good." (Washington
Post,February 25th, l988).
It may be nothing but a mere coincidence, but Israel's spy in Washington,
Jonathan Pollard, was operating throughout McFarlane's period as
National Security Advisor. A month after Jonathan Pollard was arrested, McFarlane
resigned.
Yet six months later he is leading a delegation on a secret mission
to Teheran. Why didn't National Security Adviser Poindexter go?
McFarlane's ties to Rafi Eitan, then the Prime Minister's Anti-Terrorism
Advisor and who would later be named as the Israeli intelligence
agent behind the masterminding of the Jonathan Pollard affair, also need
to be investigated. Counterpunch.org, 9/4/03: "Bechtel and the State
Department were having trouble getting the right degree from the
Israeli Labor Party that the pipeline would be off limits to attack.
Bechtel and Reagan administration officials were trying to get complete
assurance from the Labor Party that the pipeline would absolutely
not be attacked." |
***So here's what the Shimon Peres government did
with Jonathan Pollard's intelligence: they put the squeeze on
Bechtel and that meant on Caspar Weinberger. The threat was simple
enough: if you guys at Bechtel don''t find a way to funnel me
a lot of money, $700 million will do, we'll expose the Iraqi gas
plants and sabotage your pipeline deal. Hence, the insurance policy
excuse was formulated under great duress. When a very peeved Weinberger
discovered that it was Jonathan Pollard who was passing Peres
his blackmail weapons, he showed no mercy. He intervened with
Jonathan Pollard's judge and made sure he got life for a five
year crime knowing the Israeli government could put no stop to
him or risk its own massive exposure. Weinberger is home free.
In 1992, President Bush pardoned him for all Iran Contra-related
crimes. Shimon Peres was just chosen as head of the Israeli Labor
Party. And unless this little piece of the whole truth is thoroughly
investigated, Jonathan Pollard will sit for good in his cold,
cold cell.***
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