SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Jonathan Pollard [wikipedia.org] pleaded guilty to violations of the Espionage Act in 1987 and became the only American to ever receive a life sentence for passing classified information to a U.S. ally, Israel. He was released on Friday [npr.org]:

After spending 30 years in prison for spying on the U.S. for Israel, Jonathan Pollard was released Friday. His attorney confirmed Friday morning that Pollard has been released, shortly after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement welcomed his release.

"As someone who raised Jonathan's case for years with successive American presidents, I had long hoped this day would come," Netanyahu said. "After three long and difficult decades, Jonathan has been reunited with his family."

The New York Times adds [nytimes.com] that Pollard is currently not allowed to leave the country:

Jonathan J. Pollard, the American convicted of spying on behalf of Israel, walked out of prison early on Friday after 30 years, the Israeli prime minister said, but the Obama administration had no plans to let him leave the country and move to Israel as he requested.

[...] The one-paragraph missive did not mention Mr. Pollard's desire to immediately move to Israel, which would require a waiver of federal parole rules. Israel Today, a newspaper based in Jerusalem that often reflects the views of Mr. Netanyahu, reported on Thursday that the prime minister had personally appealed to President Obama during their meeting this month to lift the standard prohibition on parolees leaving the United States but received no response. American officials confirmed that.

[...] Two Democratic lawmakers wrote to the Justice Department last week [house.gov] urging Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch to grant the request, saying that Mr. Pollard would be willing to renounce his American citizenship and never return to the United States. They noted that a spy for Cuba was allowed to renounce his American citizenship and live in Cuba in 2013 after serving his sentence.

But the White House repeated on Friday that it would not intervene in the matter. "The president has no plans to alter the forms of his parole," Benjamin J. Rhodes, Mr. Obama's deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Air Force One en route to Malaysia, where the president was traveling. He referred questions to the Justice Department.

Original Submission