Countering CBS News Disinformation on Pollard

RE: CBS Newscast Dec. 8, 1998 - Dan Rather, anchor

4 page transmission - December 13, 1998

Written in response to the many inquiries that the Justice for Jonathan Pollard office has received for information and clarification of the "new information" on the case that was recently leaked by US Government sources to CBS News (Newscast Dec. 8, 1998). Point by point refutation follows below.

WHY THE CBS HATCHET JOB? AND WHY NOW?

All of the "new information" leaked to CBS by "official sources" is a recycling of old lies. There is no evidence to support any of these allegations and therefore, obviously, Jonathan Pollard was never indicted for any of the charges alleged.

Official sources in Washington indicate that there is serious concern that during his upcoming visit to the Middle East Mr. Clinton will honor the pledge he made to Mr. Netayahu at the Wye summit in October by announcing that Jonathan Pollard will be released. The disinformation leaked to CBS News is simply an attempt to tie Mr. Clinton's hands and prevent him from doing so.

A copy of the original news transcript can be obtained (by fax) by contacting the Justice for Jonathan Pollard office Tel 416-781-3571 Fax 416-781-3166.

Here are examples of some of the egregious untruths and disinformation contained in the December 8th newscast.

  1. The CBS newscast alleges that Jonathan Pollard betrayed US Codes and HUMINT Sources.

    2. An honest scrutiny of the record will show that NONE of the information Jonathan Pollard provided to Israel dealt with US codes or agents' identities.

    Jonathan Pollard did not even have the clearances to access this kind of information!

    Independent intelligence analysts such as Professor Angelo Codevilla (who witnessed the evidence against Pollard first-hand as an advisor to the Senate Intelligence Committee which investigated the "damage" done by Pollard, when he was first arrested) have confirmed that Pollard could not have provided this kind of information to Israel since he was not even able to access it!

    If Codevilla knows that Pollard did not have access to the information the Government is now claiming he leaked, so do the Government officials who have concocted these false allegations!

  2. The CBS newscast alleges that Jonathan Pollard "sold" information to Israel.

    3. Israel has publicly acknowledged that Jonathan Pollard was a bona fide Israeli agent, and that puts the lie to any further allegations that Jonathan Pollard acted out of mercenary motives. For more information see the

    FACTS PAGE

    on the Justice for Jonathan Pollard web site.

  3. The CBS newscast alleges that Jonathan Pollard gave Israel a Top Secret Manual, The Radio Signals Information Manual. which would allow Israel to monitor all secret US communications.

    4. It is a matter of record that at Pollard's sentencing the Government admitted that it had officially provided a large portion of this manual (1/3 of it) to Israel.

    Later, when Admiral Bobby Ray Inman and then Caspar Weinberger instituted an undeclared intelligence embargo against Israel (in the wake of the Osirak strike), 2/3 of these manuals that Israel had officially been receiving were suddenly cut off without any explanation.

    At sentencing, the Government refused to explain why the remaining 2/3 had been withheld on the orders of Inman and Weinberger. No Government official was willing to commit in writing anything that might document the post-Osirak intelligence embargo.

    For further information on this matter see the following articles on the Justice For Jonathan Pollard Web Site: Nov. 25, 1994

    CIA Aims at Pollard for Scapegoating

    (in the 1994 List) by Arnold Forster Esq. & David Kirschenbaum Esq.; and Feb. 22, 1997

    Jonathan Pollard Comments on Time Article

    (in the 1997 List)

  4. The CBS newscast alleges that The Radio Signals Information Manual was a code book.

    5. Untrue. It was a frequency manual. As stated above, it was officially being provided to Israel until the Osirak strike. Without the encryption codes pertaining to the frequencies ( which Pollard had no access to and therefore could not and did not provide to Israel), the manual was virtually useless as a code-breaking instrument.

    Jonathan Pollard did NOT have access at any level to codes or code-breaking equipment. Moreover, he had no training and no technical understanding of any of the technology in this field. Consequently, the Government has never officially accused Jonathan Pollard of compromising any codes. This "charge" has only surfaced in the media to serve other ends, and is completely false. See Feb. 22, 1997

    Jonathan Pollard Comments on Time Article

    (in the 1997 List) on the Justice for J.P. web site.

    It should further be noted that NONE of the radio signals information that Jonathan Pollard provided to Israel dealt with American communications frequencies, to which he had absolutely no access.

  5. The CBS newscast alleges that Jonathan Pollard spied for Pakistan.

    6. This allegation is completely false. There is no evidence. Jonathan Pollard was never indicted for spying for Pakistan.

    As the record shows, when he was initially interrogated by the NIS, Jonathan Pollard invented an alleged Pakistani connection as a cover or misdirection in order to stall for time. When the FBI later investigated, the facts did not corroborate this invented story. Therefore Jonathan Pollard was never charged with spying for Pakistan. But the Government has recycled this false charge over and over again in the media to serve its own ends.

  6. The CBS newscast alleges that Jonathan Pollard spied for South Africa.

    7. This allegation is completely false. There is no evidence. Jonathan Pollard was never indicted for spying for South Africa.

    There is evidence however that the Government communicated this false allegation about South-Africa, ex-parte - without facts or evidence- to Aubrey Robinson, the black sentencing judge, in order to incense him and create a personal animus against Pollard.

    Alan Dershowitz, a former Pollard attorney testified in a sworn affidavit that he was told about this ex-parte communication with the sentencing judge by Justice Arthur Goldberg, (now deceased) who was personally informed of it by Robinson himself. Dershowitz's affidavit states that "Goldberg told me that Robinson had told him that the alleged Pollard-South African connection had weighed heavily in his (Robinson's) decision to impose a life sentence."

    For further information, see the Washington Post Weekend Magazine

    "A Plea Bargain That Was No Bargain For A Crime Of Conscience".

  7. The CBS newscast alleges that Jonathan Pollard gave Israel information that allowed them to identify CIA sources inside the PLO.

    8. The US Government never accused Jonathan Pollard of compromising human assets - Russian, Palestinian or otherwise.

    What Jonathan Pollard DID show the Israelis was that information from Palestinian sources (unnamed and unidentified) to the CIA, detailed the times and locations of upcoming planned Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli civil, diplomatic and military targets - NONE OF WHICH WAS PASSED ALONG BY THE CIA TO THEIR ISRAELI COUNTERPARTS!

    The only things getting "blown" were Israeli civilians like the ones in Larnaca, Cyprus, whose brutal murder aboard a pleasure yacht precipitated the IAF raid of the PLO headquarters in Tunis in October 1985.

  8. The CBS newscast alleges that Jonathan Pollard gave Israel information that assisted Israel in planning the raid on the PLO headquarters in Tunis in 1985 in retribution for the brutal murder of Israeli citizens vacationing in Larnaca, Cyprus.

    9. This is correct. At sentencing, Jonathan Pollard's attorney read a statement by then President Reagan praising "whoever was responsible for facilitating the October 1985 Israeli raid on the PLO headquarters in Tunis."

    (Under pressure from Weinberger et al the President withdrew his statements at a later date.)

  9. The CBS newscast alleges that Jonathan Pollard damaged US communications abilities.

    10. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

    Proof of this is the fact that last March, just before the Hebron accords were signed (which many then thought would include Pollard's release), the MEGA scandal broke in Washington. The FBI held a press conference about MEGA, and publicly trumpeted not only their having compromised the transmission frequency of the Mossad station in Washington, but also that they had cracked Israel's top secret code "SILON". The FBI then provided clear text of an extremely sensitive Israeli coded transmission to the media, who in turn broadcast it around the world to all, including direct broadcasts to enemies of Israel.

    For further information see

    The Mega Spy Scandal page

    on the Justice for J.P. web site.

  10. The CBS newscast dropped some of the most egregious lies previously repeated ad nauseam by the media, with no attempt to rectify previous widespread disinformation.

    11. "US sources" are now backing away from these lies because they are untenable and do not hold up in the light of honest scrutiny. (Examples follow:)

    • For example, and for the first time in the CBS newscast, "US sources" no longer try to promote the lie that Jonathan Pollard was responsible for the deaths of American agents in Russia - a crime which they knew all along was attributable to Aldrich Ames, NOT Jonathan Pollard. See the many articles on the Ames case on the Justice for J.P. web site including:

      The Ames Disclosures September 28, 1994 - Jerusalem Post Editorial

      (in the 1994 list) and

      The Conspiracy Against Pollard - March 18, 1994 - by Chezi Carmel

      (in the 1994 list).

    • Another example of an untenable lie that was omitted from the CBS newscast was the search for "MR. X" - the fictitious highly-placed Israeli mole in Washington, that allegedly tasked Pollard - that US officials claimed they were still trying to find. See the Justice for J.P. web site for article (1998 list)

      Was there another U.S. spy tasking Pollard? - Mr. 'X' Exposed - February 5, 1998.

    • A final example, probably the most egregious lie about Jonathan Pollard - namely the volume of information that he allegedly transmitted to Israel was not omitted from the CBS newscast, but for the first time it was toned down.

      Previously, "US Govt. sources" have described the volume of data transmitted in building-sized terms, in cubic meters and the like. Originally they alleged that Pollard had transmitted hundreds of thousands of documents, later that number dropped to tens of thousands of documents, then thousands of documents, and now in CBS newscast the number drops to 800 documents. See the Justice for J.P. web site

      FACTS PAGE

      items 18 and 19 for further information.

    The CBS newscast also indicated that the US claims that Israel has not returned 500 of these 800 documents, whereas Israel insists that it has returned all of the information it received from Pollard.

    The claim that there are an additional 500 documents which Israel has not returned is another example of US duplicity towards Israel. This is nothing more than a fishing expedition on the part of the US designed to determine whether there are any additional Israeli spies in Washington who have provided documents to Israel beyond the 300 which Pollard relayed.

For further information, Justice for Jonathan Pollard strongly recommends reading related articles found on the web site's

Must Read Page.

  • See Also: The Admiral Bobby Ray Inman Page