AUGUST 4, 2008 --

Jonathan Pollard will be 54 on August 7.  For the last 23 or so years, he has been serving a life sentence based on a plea bargain for spying for a friendly power: Israel. Apparently, Pollard's agreed to a plea bargain without knowing what he was getting in the bargain. LPR believes a first year law student would not let a client plead without knowing the sentence to be handed down after the defendant pleads guilty.

Apparently, the life sentence was handed down based on information that has not been disclosed to the public.  It would therefore seem likely that most people who vehemently oppose Pollard's release base their position on conclusions, not on facts, facts which remain covered up.

One might equally conclude that the government refuses to disclose the facts about Pollard because it might suffer embarrassment, or at least some former officials might.

There is, of course, another way of viewing the matter.  To those who hold power over Pollard, Israel is not a friendly nation.  In 1948, the establishment of Israel was vigorously opposed by top officials at the State Department, including Secretary of State George C. Marshall who, May 12, 1948 rebuked President Truman, saying  if Truman were to recognize the establishment of Israel and Marshall were to vote in the presidential election that year he would not vote for Truman.

LPR believes there  is, in the Washington establishment, a long tradition of annoyance with the Jewish State, whose existence seems to make some people uncomfortable.

Consider this: would a person who gave secrets to the United Kingdom take a plea bargain without knowing the sentence and then get  life in prison?  But there is no question in the Washington establishment that the U.K. is an ally.

LPR does not know if this proposal has been made--it is difficult to believe it has not been put forward: the government should  give the court, in camera,  all the relevant documents leading to Pollard's life sentence so that he  can get a measure of what has been denied him for more than two decades: due process of law.