So is Bush going to allow a swap for Pollard?

[cantstandbush]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BC257F44-54A5-4468-8202-E07CA78AAAEE.htm

This would really take the cake. Our intel community should be up in arms about this. If this happens it will prove once more that Bush puts Israel ahead of the US in almost every action he takes in foreign policy.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. I don't believe it

I'm always wrong about how utterly blind and arrogant Fuckface and his goons are, but if they swap for Pollard, well, that's nothing but waving a red flag at Iran and every other Middle Eastern country that already despises us.

Ah, well, I'm not putting that tax check into the mail until tomorrow, so .......................

[Tom Joad]

3. Clinton let fraudster Mark Rich go...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,738345,00.html

This is a detail that sits uneasily with Clinton's pardon of fugitive tycoon and convicted fraudster Mark Rich on his last day in office.

It later emerged that Rich's wife, a New York socialite, helped orchestrate the pardon, which was entwined with pressure from Israel and Mossad.

Clinton's spokeswoman Julia Payne dismissed the notion that he simply strolls in to give a speech and collects the cheque.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

4. What on earth?

So what? Presidential pardons are absolute.

Bush I did far worse.

Your response makes no sense. Rich's pardon had nothing to do with Israel or Mossad, and, if it did, believe me, no one would know about it. Mossad? Ha. Yeah, right.

[Tom Joad]

6. Clinton said it had to do with Israel, Read the article!

take the issue up with Bill.

Did you read the article cited? Don't get on my case.

No one is disputing that the bushes were worse. It just goes to show you pleasing Israel is on the agenda of Presidents and congress.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

8. I read the article,

and the tenuous suggestion it makes regarding Clinton, Rich, Israel, and the Mossad(?) is specious, at the very best. To isolate those organizations out of all the places Clinton speaks is nothing but muckracking without any foundation whatsoever.

Read up on Marc Rich and see what you find. This kind of allegation - and a wisp of an allegation it is - does nothing whatsoever to shore up the already-established practice of the US backing up Israel, although even you have to admit that the neocon's blatant manipulation of that country so as to grab all the northern oil they can get is shameful. The Guardian should know better.

[Tom Joad]

10. It's probably a done deal. Don't expect many dems to object.

I would be surprised in one congressperson or senator says a discouraging word.

[cal04]

2. the story is also here

Officials in Jerusalem claimed on Saturday that the US would free imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for Israel releasing jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.

According to Army Radio, Israel is set to offer the proposed prisoner swap deal in the next few months, following the unfolding anarchy in the Palestinian Authority. Seemingly, Israel intends to use Barghouti's release to strengthen the Fatah movement against the background of the much criticized rule of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1143498859335

[rfkrfk]

5. traitors don't get pardons

would be a political mistake

[madrchsod]

7. why would this make any sense?

pollard should be dead but we were nice cause he worked for our best friend in the whole wide world.the other guy? who knows and who cares.

[question everything]

9. Aldrich Ames spied for the Soviet Union

He gave the name of American spies in the Soviet Union and several of them were executed. Yet he is serving a life sentence, just like Pollard who, yes, spied for a friendly nation and whose actions did not cause the death of anyone.

Then there was an Russian spy, do not remember his name who was returned to the Soviet Union, probably through some form of swapping.

It seems to me that Pollard was harshly sentenced, compared to at least these two cases. I think that there was a case of an Egyptian spy who was allowed to go back to his country.

At the time it was believed to have been a personal vendetta by Caspar Weinberg.

[madrchsod]

11. thanks for the info

perhaps i was a bit harsh

[H2O Man]

12. If anyone really talked

about the Pollard case in terms of Cap W., it was simply to blur the focus on what Pollard did. It is the same tactic as bringing up Ames.

Pollard was hired by the US Naval Intelligence as a research specialist. He became a spy for Israel's highly secret Office of Scientific Liason of the Ministry of Defense. Pollard passed over 800,000 pages of highly classified documents to another country.

If a person robs a bank, it doesn't make a shit bit of difference if they give the money to one of their friends, or to one of their enemies. They robbed a bank. Attempts to justify bank-robbing should always be viewed as wrong. And bank robberies are not a greater crime than spying.

Saying that Pollard's crimes didn't contribute to the death of anyone is the type of narrow thinking that expose his supporters as out of touch with the nature of his crimes. I think that it may be better to admit that Pollard was a traitor to the United States, and part of a larger spy ring that continues to damage American foreign policy. Still, he has served a significant prison sentence, and it is fair to discuss if in the name of compassion that he be released.

[question everything]

13. We do punish bank robbers differently if someone died during the

robbery vs. "only money" was taken.

Yes, Pollard was a spy but he and Ames punished similarly - life without parole - and everyone will agree that Ames' was a lot worse.

[sendero]

14. Ames..

... if I recall, made a deal.

Pollard got what he deserved. If Bush** is stupid enough to do this, it will knock his polling numbers down a couple more percent.

[question everything]

15. Made a deal after several agents were executed

and so much damage was done?

But, hey, with some cheering here the suicide bombing in Israel earlier today, finding more excuses to hate it on these pages really should not be surprising.

[sendero]

16. Nice try..

... too bad, there are always a zillion apologists for Pollard, but there is no excusing his dirty deed. He got what he deserved.

[H2O Man]

17. No shit.

My comment on the bank robbery was in regard to the statement that Pollard gave the classified information he stole to a friend. Please do not make cheap attempts to twist that.

And as far as the bit about killing people, perhaps you should read the page 14 of section 4 of the 4-16-06 New York Times.