POLLARD GETS LIFE TERM FOR SPYING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000503840001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 5, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ILl Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000503840001-4
.1r
-
A[.
WASHINGTON POST
5 March 1987
Pollard Gets Life Term for Spying
Wife Sentenced to 5 Years as Accessory to Espionage for Israel
B
y
Nano Lewis
on tall writer
cell at the front of the courtroom,
and as the door closed behind them
Henderson-Pollard's piercing
screams filled the court and loud
pounding noises could be heard
from inside the cell.
"It is likely he will never see the
light of day again; U.S. Attorney
Joseph E. diGenova said of the sen-
tence imposed on Pollard. Although
he would be eligible for parole con-
sideration after 10 years, the harm
done to national security means he
probably never will be freed, di-
Genova said.
"The sentence imposed reflects
the severity of damage," diGenova
said, adding that Pollard had "com-
promised the most documents ever"
through a spying operation, includ-
ing descriptions of covert intelli-
gence programs and identities of
undercover agents.
"It is only for the United States
to decide what information we give
to a friend or foe," diGenova said.
He also suggested that the infor-
mation given to Israel may have
ended up in the hands of other
countries.
Appearing on "The MacNeil-Leh-
rer Newshour" last night, diGenova
said the damage was "beyond cal-
culation" and goes "well beyond"
what previously has been reported.
Pollard sold documents to the
Israelis from the summer of 1984
until Nov. 18, 1985, when he was
arrested after unsuccessfully seek-
ing asylum at the Israeli Embassy
here. He received more than
$45,000 in cash for the documents
and was promised at least $300,000
more in a Swiss bank account.
Four Israelis who were Pollard's
'handlers" have been named as co-
conspirators and one, Gen. Aviem
Sella, was indicted here Tuesday on
espionage charges.
The Israeli government has
maintained the spy ring was a
"rogue operation" that did not have
official sanction, but Pollard has
said high-ranking Israeli officials
knew of his activities.
Pollard's attorney, Richard
libey, had asked Robinson to show
mercy in sentencing his client, ar-
guing that the damage from the spy
ring was minimal because the infor-
mation had gone to Israel, an "ally"
and "partner in democracy," and not
to such countries as the Soviet
Union or China. And the damage to
U.S. security, he said, was nothing
like that caused by the activities of
convicted spies John A. Walker or
Ronald William Pelton.
Pollard, addressing the court
without notes, said he acted to help
Israel, not to hurt the United
States. He added, "It does not mat-
ter that [his spying activities) may
benefit this country in the long run
.... I broke faith and took the law
into my own hands."
He described his actions as "in-
tellectual laziness" because he did
not try to go through channels to
correct what he considered "weak-
nesses" in intelligence information
being provided to Israel by the
United States.
"I should have recognized the
infectious nature of an ideology,
Zionism," Pollard said.
When Robinson asked Pollard if
he really believed he had improp-
erly made decisions reserved for
the president, the cabinet and the
national security agencies, he re-
plied: "If everybody followed my
course of action,. . . it would be
nothing short of a Lebanon."
Much of Pollard's statement,
however, centered on what he said
was his "second violation of trust,"
that of his wife's trust in him, and
this he called an "unmitigated trag-
edy."
"I recognize that I broke the law
... and that I hurt badly a woman
who was relying upon my good
judgment. I will have to live with
that long after this case is but a dis-
tant memory," Pollard said.
A federal judge sentenced admit-
ted spy Jonathan Jay Pollard yes-
terday to life in prison for selling
classified intelligence documents to
Israel and his wife to concurrent
five-year terms as an accessory. In
a highly emotional scene that fol-
lowed, Anne Henderson-Pollard
collapsed weeping before the bench
and was led screaming from the
courtroom.
Pollard, a former Naval counter-
intelligence analyst who pleaded
guilty in June to espionage conspir-
acy charges, sold more than a thou-
sand classified documents to the
Israelis, an act that Defense Sec-
retary Caspar W. Weinberger has
called "treason."
"It is difficult for me, even in the
so-called 'year of the spy,' " Wein-
berger said in a court affidavit, "to
conceive of a greater harm to na-
tional security than that caused by
the defendant in view of the
breadth, the critical importance to
the U.S. and the high sensitivity of
the information he sold to Israel."
Pollard, pale and solemn, stood
with his arm around his wife as
Chief U.S. District Judge Aubrey E.
Robinson Jr. pronounced the sen-
tences. When Robinson ordered
Pollard to jail for life, Henderson-
Pollard collapsed to the floor in the
arms of her husband, crying out
"God" and "No, No."
Helped to her feet, Henderson-
Pollard sank to the floor again as
Robinson sentenced her to two con-
current five-year prison terms amid
gasps from the crowded courtroom.
The chamber was disrupted again
by cries from Henderson-Pollard's
father in the rear of the room when
Robinson denied the woman's re-
quest to remain free on bond until a
prison could be found with facilities
to treat a digestive disorder from
which she suffers. Robinson then
hurriedly recessed the 21/2-hour
proceeding and ordered the room
cleared.
Pollard, 32, and his wife, 26,
were led by marshals to a holding
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000503840001-4
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000503840001-4
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles
S. Leeper said it was Pollard's "ar-
rogance and deception that drove
him to commit criminal acts" and
that Pollard believed everyone else
was wrong and he was right when it
came to Israel, disputing even
Weinberger's declaration on the
degree of harm to national security.
Pollard "believes that if he keeps
repeating 'this case does not in.
volve the Soviet Union' ... [that]
there was no harm to national se-
curity," Leeper said.
"This defendant has admitted
that he sold to Israel [a quantity] of
classified documents 10 feet by 6
feet by 6 feet," that included disclo-
sures about the location of U.S.
ships and the timing and location of
U.S. training exercises, Leeper
said.
" ... He made a judgment up
front of 'Israel right or wrong,'
Leeper said.
Urging a long sentence for Pol-
lard. Leeper argued that Pollard's
"perspective is so skewed and his
view so warped [that] at the first
opportunity he is going to go about
the business of telling everything
he knows to Israel-
"In combination with the breadth
of this man's knowledge, the depth
of his memory and his complete
lack of honor, he is a very danger-
ous man," Leeper said.
The prosecutor noted further
that despite pledges in a plea agree-
ment and protective order that he
would seek court approval before
discussing any intelligence matters
with reporters, Pollard had talked
repeatedly with Jerusalem Post re-
porter Wolf Blitzer and had dis-
closed additional classified informa-
tion.
Weinberger's affidavit said that
Pollard, confronted with a lie detec-
tor test, had admitted he "provided
or confirmed" to Blitzer information
that was said to be a part of a sealed
affidavit Weinberger had submitted
earlier.
"When it comes to protecting
against further disclosure of se-
crets," Leeper said, "he [Pollard] is
not a man to be trusted."
Henderson-Pollard was impris-
oned for 95 days after the couple
was arrested in November 1985,
and her attorney, James Hibey,
asked yesterday that she not be re-
turned to prison, arguing that she
acted out of "love and concern" for
her husband and had not harmed
national security.
"Mrs. Pollard is not a spy for Is-
rael, for the People's Republic of
China or for anyone," Hibey said.
Henderson-Pollard pleaded guilty
to receiving embezzled government
property and being an accessory af-
ter the fact to the possession of
classified documents.
The charges stem from her use
of classified documents on China to
prepare for a business presentation
to the embassy here and from her
efforts to hide from government of-
ficials classified documents that
were in the apartment she shared
with her husband.
"She did not obtain, copy or de-
liver classified documents to any-
one," Hibey said. " . . . Mrs. Pollard
is a loyal American ... no useful
purpose is served by further incar-
ceration."
Henderson-Pollard is expected to
serve 40 to 52 months in prison, ac-
cording to a court presentence re-
port.
She sat across a table from her
husband during most of the pro-
ceedings, weeping quietly and al-
ternately grasping at her sides in
apparent pain or slumping into her
chair with head bowed.
Twice Robinson granted brief re-
cesses for her to regain her com-
posure, and nurses were called to
the courtroom early in the hearing
when she seemed on the verge of
collapse.
Her rambling, emotional state-
ment to the court focused mostly on
Pollard.
"I pray to God every single day of
my life that I will be reunited with
my husband," Henderson-Pollard
said, swaying unsteadily on her
feet.
She spoke of the 'deep love and
respect and admiration that I have
for my husband" and said "I never
thought God would bless me with
anyone as good and wonderful as
my husband."
". . . I want to raise a family with
him, grow old with him, spend the
rest of my life with him .... I need
him so much right now. He is my
soul, my best friend, my intellectual
conversationalist ... my greatest
love."
"I'm very sorry," she told Rob-
inson. " ... I'm so sorry for this
incident to have gotten so blown out
of proportion ... I pray for leniency
and mercy."
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Da-
vid F. Geneson requested a "sen-
tence of incarceration" for her, say-
ing that based on a Henderson-Pol-
lard interview televised Sunday on
the CBS "60 Minutes" program,
.she would do the same thing today
as what she did then."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000503840001-4