24 January 2009. Thanks to Robert Eringer.
Includes Dubai: The end of "world headquarters"?
Poor Jonathan Pollard
Robert Eringer
January 24, 2009 12:00 AM
Spare a thought for poor Jonathan Jay Pollard, the U.S. Navy intelligence
analyst who passed national security secrets to the Israelis two decades
ago. He and his supporters had hoped, perhaps even expected, a presidential
pardon or commutation of his prison sentence as George W. Bush prepared to
leave office earlier this week. Despite a huge lobbying campaign that jammed
the White House switchboard, this notorious spy remains behind bars. Poor
Jonathan Pollard. Never one to show remorse for his dirty deeds, he still
clings to a delusion that he was merely assisting an ally who had the right
to know U.S. defense secrets. He uses this rationalization to mask a sociopathic
mind and 007 complex -- a lethal combination in intelligence work.
"Pollard is a narcissist," Ronald Olive told The Investigator. Mr. Olive,
a retired Naval Investigative Service counterintelligence officer, should
know. Not only did he write the definitive book on the Pollard case ("Capturing
Jonathan Pollard," Naval Institute Press, 2006), he was intimately involved
in the investigation that brought Mr. Pollard to justice. "He set out to
be a spy," said Mr. Olive. "It did not matter for whom. It was all about
him. It just so happened that Israel took him on."
Early on, Mr. Pollard displayed many signals about his instability. Sadly,
his colleagues and superiors at the Naval Fields Operational Intelligence
Office put his odd behavior down to "eccentricity," even though he carried
a courier card that allowed him access to top-secret documents from a full
spectrum of intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency,
National Security Agency, and Defense Intelligence Agency.
For instance, soon after receiving his clearance to be an analyst, Mr. Pollard
ludicrously proposed creating a backchannel collection operation against
the South African government through the naval attachè at the South
African embassy, while lying that his father, Morris Pollard, had served
in the CIA. On other occasions, he would arrive late to meetings, sweating
and disheveled, and announce that Irish terrorists had kidnapped his wife;
that he'd spent the weekend chasing them around Washington, D.C., to negotiate
her release.
The CIA had earlier rejected Mr. Pollard's application for employment after
he admitted extensive use of illegal drugs. Later, when naval intelligence
conducted a pre-employment security check on Mr. Pollard's background, the
CIA would not reveal why they had shown him the door, on the erroneous assumption
that it would violate his right to privacy.
And then, when Mr. Pollard was finally caught red-handed improperly removing
classified material from his office, the FBI wanted to fob off doing anything
about it because they were too busy on other matters.
Poor Jonathan Pollard passed more secrets to a foreign power (360-plus cubic
feet of paper), in the shortest amount of time, than any spy before or after
him. He did so for a mere $2,500 a month and a couple first-class trips to
Israel and Europe. The Israelis also paid for his wife's engagement ring.
But mostly Mr. Pollard spied to exercise his 007 complex and fuel his mammoth
ego.
In exchange for Mr. Pollard's cooperation to conduct damage assessment, the
prosecution agreed not to press for life imprisonment. Mr. Pollard, and his
wife and co-conspirator, Anne, then breached the agreement by speaking to
the media.
Prosecutors nonetheless remained true to their word and did not demand a
life sentence. Judge Aubrey Robinson, however, was under no such constraint.
Confronted with the breadth of this spy's treachery, the judge, in 1987,
sentenced Mr. Pollard to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.
Sentencing guidelines dictate that Mr. Pollard will be set free in 2015.
President Clinton almost pardoned Mr. Pollard in 1998 under pressure from
Israel, whose leaders took more than 10 years to officially admit he spied
for them. Brazen Bill was not one to shy away from pardons of impropriety;
indeed, he pardoned Marc Rich on the last day of his presidency after the
fugitive's ex-wife, Denise, donated hugely to the Clinton Library.
But on Mr. Pollard, even Bill balked after CIA Director George Tenet got
wind of it and threatened to resign if this traitor were set free. Mr. Tenet
represented the intelligence community's view that those who betray their
country should serve their full sentence.
So spare a thought for poor Jonathan Pollard, languishing away at Butner
Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina. Think of how much he
deserves a prison cell. Think of him sitting there, craving more attention.
Other traitors, Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, will never be set free.
Their life sentences mean life. And since espionage is now a capital offense,
they're fortunate to have copped a plea that evaded execution.
So what does the future hold for Jonathan Pollard?
Well, seven more years of prison.
And after 2015?
"He will undoubtedly move to Israel and try to claim back-pay he believes
the Israelis owe him," Mr. Olive told The Investigator. "He thinks he is
a hero in Israel. He has built up a support base there, and I fully expect
he will run for a seat in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) -- and win."
In other words, for allowing Mr. Pollard to spy for it, resulting in its
huge embarrassment when he confessed, Israel will finally get what it most
deserves.
__________
A hot tip from within the international intelligence community: "Dubai is
a giant ponzi scheme that will make Bernie Madoff look like small change.
Many rich and famous people will lose a major packet."
Now that the tarnishing has begun, the so-called City of Gold may need a
new nickname: Copper Country.
Dubai's ruler "Sheik Mo" lured multinationals to headquarter in his "global
financial center" with huge tax-free advantages -- and snared investment
money, too. Most of the development resulting in the world's tallest buildings
was financed by foreign loans that cannot now be repaid because of rapidly
falling real estate prices.
Construction on the Nakheel Tower, which, if ever built, would be the world's
tallest building, has come to a complete halt; its parent company fired 15
percent of its workers, most of whom are foreigners who cannot legally remain
in Dubai more than 30 days without jobs.
This is not an isolated case, but a growing trend in Dubai.
More ominous, if one gets into a business dispute with Sheikh Mo, who owns
a chunk of everything, it's curtains. An American private equity firm called
Capital Partners just discovered this the hard way, having contracted to
build a $1.3 billion development on a 38-acre parcel. When conflict arose,
Sheik Mo simply "de-registered" the firm without warning, preventing it even
from liquidating its assets.
"Dubai doesn't have anything, not even oil," another intelligence source
told The Investigator. "Real estate is crashing -- home prices, 8 percent
last quarter -- on top of which their buildings are very poor quality. When
it occasionally rains, the roof leaks. Furthermore, you can't walk anywhere
and traffic is horrendous."
The health of Dubai's banks is also in question, along with its tourism
prospects.
Six-year jail terms for sex on the beach in this Moslem Emirate seems to
finally be having a negative effect on holidaymakers looking for fun in the
sun.
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