of jonathan pollard, a convicted spy for israel. pollard was convicted of espionage in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole 30 years after his arrest. many believe the move would help ease tensions with israel over the iran enthusiasticnuclear deal but the spokeman for the security council says there is absolutely zero linkage between mr. pollard s status and foreign policy considerations. he added, a parole board will decide whether to let pollard go. lieutenant colonel rick francona earlier shared his reaction. it doesn t matter who you spy for. the information he gave to the israelis went way beyond the scope of the authorized exchange between the united states and israel. it s okay to tell other countries what you know but it becomes dangerous when you start telling them how you know it you start compromising your sources and methods, and he did just that. many of the systems he compromised we have never, ever recovered from.
many believe the move would help ease tensions with israel over the iran nuclear deal but the spokesman for the national security council says there is absolutely zero linkage between mr. pollard s status and foreign policy considerations. he added, a parole board will decide whether to let pollard go. cnn military analyst lieutenant colonel rick francona shared his reaction to it. listen. it doesn t matter who he spied for. the information he gave to the israelis went way beyond the scope of the authorized exchange between the united states and israel. it s okay to tell other countries what you know but it becomes dangerous when you start telling them how you know it. you start compromising your sources and methods. and he did just that. many of the systems he compromised we have never, ever recovered from. so i understand the life sentence. so i understand he ll be released in november. i guess i m going to have to live with that. suggestions that pollard
predicament. it seems to me, it s actually pretty compelling, that if you can t get something consequential for pollard, why trade him? trade him for time. if you told me we re getting the fix to jerusalem borders, we re getting a framework agreement, i d be right there breaking open the champagne. if the president wants to let pollard go, let him release pollard on humanitarian grounds. served long enough, he s ill, let him do that. but don t conflate jonathan pollard s apples to peace process s oranges and undermine the morale of the peace process. if this makes it easier for prime minister netanyahu to make the kinds of concessions the palestinians want, the u.s. want, for domestic political reasons, because as you know pollard is a big issue over there in israel, a lot of israelis think he was betrayed by the israeli government itself. if this makes it easier for netanyahu to make those kinds of concessions, whether settlements or jerusalem or whatever, wouldn t that be worth it
get ahead of the work that secretary kerry is doing. pollard is a jewish american who pleaded guilty to spying for israel in 1985. every president since reagan has refused to free him, though last year, president obama acknowledged israeli concerns. i recognize that and i m sympathetic. my first obligation is to observe the law here in the united states. right here, kerry is trying to convince israel to release a fourth group of palestinian prisoners to get palestinian leaders to stay at the talks and not ask the u.n. general assembly to not ask as recognition as a state, but many feel pollard s freedom shouldn t be traded so cheaply. if you said to netanyahu, i ll let pollard go if in fact you and the palestinians can come to terms on one or two of the permanent status issues, that s worth a deal. some u.s. officials say it wasn t his loyalty to israel that led him to sell secrets with the promise of more in