Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Ex-National Security Chief Calls for Pollard Clemency

Robert McFarlane, who served as National Security Advisor under President Ronald Reagan, has called on President Obama to grant clemency to Jonathan Pollard.

McFarlane wrote in a Feb. 9 letter to President Obama that an affidavit filled by then Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, which is often cited as the reason for Pollard’s continued incarceration, was “surely inspired in large part by his deeply held animus toward the State of Israel.”

“His extreme bias against Israel was manifested in recurrent episodes of strong criticism and unbalanced reasoning when decisions involving Israel were being made,” McFarlane wrote of Weinberger.

Pollard, who has been imprisoned since his 1985 arrest, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 after being convicted of spying on behalf of Israel. He is said to be ill.

McFarlane wrote that the “imprisonment of Mr. Pollard for more than 26 years is more than excessive and well beyond what any court would award for the same action today. Mr. Weinberger’s unduly harsh and unwarranted severity was disgraceful and mean-spirited. It has resulted in a great injustice that I encourage you to mitigate by awarding clemency and commuting Jonathan Pollard’s sentence to time served.”

A recent push for clemency has garnered substantive support among congressional Democrats and a range of former officials of Republican and Democratic administrations.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.