A Bipartisan Crowd, Helped by Bibi, Pleas for Pollard, the Convicted Spy

[oberliner]

Excerpt:

Getting conservative figures on board was always a challenge for the campaign to free Pollard. The recent congressional letter, headlined by liberal Democrat Barney Frank, had no Republican co-signers. Republican lawmakers have spoken in private conversations of their concern about defying the defense establishment and of their belief in tough punitive measures for serious crimes.

Conservative pundit Erick Erickson, who runs the website Redstate, argued in a recent post that Shultz and Mukasey’s statements should not be viewed as a sign of change on the right.

“There are few conservatives within the actual conservative movement who are paying attention,” Erickson wrote, “but the bulk of those who are do not want Pollard released. They want him hanged or shot as a traitor to his country.”

Support for Pollard’s release has been consolidating in the Jewish world, as well. The major organizations were long reluctant to take on the issue, fearing allegations of dual loyalty. But they have gradually become more supportive of the call for clemency.

The Presidents Conference and the National Council of Young Israel were early backers. But the slate of Jewish organizations represented in a January 3 letter to Obama included leaders of all Jewish denominations, alongside hundreds of rabbis from across the nation.

http://www.forward.com/articles/134822/#ixzz1BaC08eFx

[shaayecanaan]

1. I can\'t see Obama being receptive to this...

from all indications, he appears to believe that criminal sentencing is the preserve of the judiciary and that politicians should be loath to intervene. He has only issued 6 pardons thus far for mostly minor, long-spent convictions.

If Pollard believed that his sentence was manifestly excessive it was open to him to appeal it. That he did not was probably a reflection of the fact that he knows it was not.

His supporters have claimed that he received a sentence vastly longer than other people convicted of passing secrets to an American ally, but mostly this is a case of comparing apples and oranges. Robert Kim, the Korean American spy passed a total of 50 documents to South Korea - enough to fill a manila folder. Pollard passed hundreds of thousands of documents to Israel.

[azurnoir]

2. Obama should place this before a Congressional vote

as the GOP has attempted to make 'support of Israel" a wedge issue, if they vote for Pollard's release they lose their 'national security base' if they vote against they lose 'support of Israel' as an issue, either way a win/win for the Democratic party

[oberliner]

3. Obama mentor asks him to release Pollard

US President Barack Obama received yet another letter asking him to release Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard on Wednesday, but unlike other pleas for clemency, this one came from a man he knows and respects, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree.

Ogletree, who directs the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard, was a professor of both Obama and his wife Michelle, and the president still considers him his mentor and friend.

“I have written President Obama seeking a pardon for Jonathan Pollard,” Ogletree wrote. “I hope the president grants the wishes of many who have supported a pardon for Mr. Pollard.”

White House and State Department officials said Wednesday that they had received Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s letter requesting clemency for Pollard and were considering the matter.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=202381

[azurnoir]

4. it is amazing what a strong and well organized lobby

can accomplish, and in this case with the passage time and memory it becomes almost easy to turn a traitor into a hero for justus

[azurnoir]

5. oops I just realized I made a spelling error

justus should be 'justice' I would guess

[oberliner]

6. There is no strong or well-organized lobby involved in this issue in any way

What lobby does Charles Ogletree belong to?

None of the many liberals and Democrats who have appealed for Pollard's release have called him a hero - quite the opposite.

[shaayecanaan]

7. Nothing of the kind!

Congressmen go into bat all the time for poor, defenceless and wrongfully convicted prisoners. Thats just the kind of brave-hearted, selfless altruists that they are.

[oberliner]

8. At least we agree on this point

Nice when we can sometimes find common ground.

[azurnoir]

9. no a hero in the sense that his case was a miscarriage of justice

or so we're told, however I stick to my first comment IMO Obama should put this before Congress