Jonathan Pollard

(JNS.org) The push for jailed spy Jonathan Pollard’s release continues, with the latest development a letter from House Armed Services Committee member Robert Andrews (D-NJ) to President Barack Obama stating that Pollard is “no threat to national security.”
Andrews, whose letter follows Israeli President Shimon Peres’s reported request for Pollard’s clemency in a private meeting with Obama, wrote “any intelligence [Pollard] once possessed is undoubtedly irrelevant 27 years later.”
Pollard is serving his 27th year of a life sentence, following a conviction of spying for Israel without intent to harm the U.S.
“The length of [Pollard’s] sentence is unprecedented, as the median sentence for passing classified intelligence to an ally is between two and four years … Mr. Pollard has served even longer than many who have been convicted of spying for enemies of the United States,” Andrews wrote.