Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 1999, pages 34, 90

Special Report

Former Prosecutor Joseph E. diGenova Speaks Out on Jonathan Jay Pollard’s Espionage Conviction

By Andrew I. Killgore

Joseph diGenova, prosecutor of American spy-for-Israel Jonathan Jay Pollard, spoke Nov. 17 at Washington, DC’s Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine on “Pollard and Peace.”

DiGenova said he saw no legitimate connection between an Arab-Israeli peace and the Pollard case. If Middle East peace depended on Pollard being released from prison as demanded by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the recent Wye River Middle East peace talks, that peace would be unstable, diGenova said.

“Nothing can compare” with Pollard’s thefts of U.S. secrets, diGenova continued, because both in quantity and quality of secrets stolen, Pollard established an all-time record. The volume would measure 10 feet by 10 feet by 6 feet, for a total of 600 cubic feet of documents.

The former prosecutor refuted claims advanced by apologists for Israel that Pollard’s spying was less damaging to the United States because he stole documents for an ally, Israel. Relevant U.S. law says nothing about an ally or an enemy, diGenova explained. If spies for allies were let off easily, others also would be encouraged to steal and sell U.S. secrets.

Although Pollard presumably was sure that he was spying for Israel, for which he had an affinity, diGenova said, the so-called “false flag” danger is always present.

In such instances a spy for country X represents himself as working for country Y, for which he knows his target has an affinity. In this way a na’ve person, and some not so na’ve, can be tricked into spying unwittingly for country X.

DiGenova noted that while Pollard at first stole secrets for Israel out of an ideological attachment to that country, his Israeli handlers soon started paying him. That is the classical espionage technique by which spies are kept under the control of their handlers.

Discussing specifics of Pollard’s espionage, diGenova said it was “designed” by Pollard’s Israeli handlers to last for 10 years or more.

Although Pollard was extremely successful in terms of the volume and quality of secrets he turned over to the Israeli government, he was caught because he was sloppy and because he and his handlers were too greedy, diGenova said. Pollard’s colleagues at the naval facility where he worked noticed that he was removing large volumes of material from his office. They grew suspicious and alerted security officers.

DiGenova explained that Pollard’s sentence to life in prison contained the right to apply for parole after 10 years. The 10 years were over in 1995, but the Israeli spy has made no application. The reason is that he wants to keep his release or retention in prison on a political level, diGenova said, adding that from the time of his arrest, Pollard had always believed that Israel would be able to have him released quickly.

The former prosecutor described a newspaper article and video interview that apparently were designed to gain Pollard and his then-wife, Anne Henderson Pollard, reduced sentences. The article by then-Jerusalem Post reporter Wolf Blitzer, now a CNN television reporter and host, was published in The Washington Post before Pollard was sentenced. The video interview of Mrs. Henderson Pollard was aired on CBS TV’s “60 Minutes,” also before Pollard was sentenced.

The Blitzer article contained two statements by Pollard that damaged the United States, according to diGenova, while in her interview Anne Henderson Pollard depicted herself and her husband as without contrition.

Both the article and the video were viewed by the sentencing judge and, in diGenova’s opinion, probably weighed against the Pollards in the judge’s mind.

The former prosecuting attorney rejected any comparison of Jonathan Pollard’s situation with the famous case of a Jewish French Army captain, Alfred Dreyfus, falsely convicted of selling French war plans to the Germans 100 years ago. The Dreyfus case roiled French public life for 10 years before his name was cleared. DiGenova explained that Pollard has pleaded guilty, where Dreyfus always maintained his innocence. And, in fact, Pollard stole vast quantities of the most sensitive U.S. technical, human and military intelligence.

Only a tiny fraction of that intelligence has ever been returned to the United States, diGenova said, in spite of Israel’s promises to give it all back. If Pollard were released to Israel, diGenova speculated, he would be able to examine and explain the stolen material and do further damage to the United States in the critical areas of intelligence sources and methods.

DiGenova confirmed that Pollard had stolen material according to highly specific instructions from his handlers. As a result, there has always been “a very, very strong belief among people in the FBI, CIA and NSA that there was at least one other person in the U.S. government involved in the ‘tasking’ of Pollard,” di Genova said.

He declined to speculate on what intelligence stolen by Pollard might have reached the Soviet Union. However, diGenova said, Pollard’s intelligence “take” was distributed in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, as a matter of public record.

Even assuming that “a friendly country” was not going to barter or trade any foreign intelligence that comes into its hands, diGenova said, the real point is that once intelligence is gone, it’s gone. He explained that “it’s a matter of public record” that the Israelis were penetrated by at least two Soviet spies “at the highest levels of their government.”

DiGenova’s presentation left the impression with his audience that at least some of the materials stolen by Pollard did reach Soviet hands, as a few earlier U.S. media stories had charged, but that at present the U.S. government has chosen not to press such a claim.

DiGenova expressed the fear that President Bill Clinton has already made up his mind to grant clemency to Pollard. One indication of this is that the White House has taken over from the Justice Department the handling of the Pollard review promised by Clinton to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. White House lawyer Charles Ruff will be in charge.

DiGenova foresees White House “leaks” about Pollard designed to demonstrate, quite falsely in the former prosecutor’s view, that Pollard no longer constitutes a threat to U.S. security.

Assuming no public fuss ensues, Pollard will be released, diGenova speculated, adding that the only question remaining is whether such a release will be publicly “saleable.” DiGenova said he can even envisage a cynical Bill Clinton supporting his case for releasing Pollard by pointing out that the American-born convicted spy now has become a citizen of Israel.