Last week, one of the naval intelligence attorneys who was actually involved in the prosecution of Pollard's case broke the mold. M.E. "Spike" Bowman published this story in the Intelligencer Journal, a publication of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. In it, he responds directly to six of the most commonly repeated arguments for Pollard's clemency/pardon/release.
It's about time that an informed rebuttal to these arguments re-surfaced, and Bowman does a fairly effective job. But there are problems with his assessment that shouldn't be ignored, not the least of which are aptly noted in this analysis by Marc Tracy at Tablet.
There are certain oddities in Bowman's essay that stand out, most notably references to the "Gaza peace process" and "Gaza antagonists." These seem to betray an ignorance about current Mideast politics, since the "peace process," such as it is, tends to leave Gaza out, and nobody has suggested that releasing Pollard could help the situation in Gaza, which would be unaffected by a freeze; moreover, while "Gaza antagonists" seems to refer to Israel and the Palestinians, the Palestinians who are participating in the peace process don't run Gaza right now.
Toward its conclusion, Bowman's brief devolves into an irrelevant ad hominem attack: He calls Pollard "a self-serving, gluttonous character seeking financial reward and personal gratification. ... arrogantly venal, unscrupulous, and self-obsessed." None of which I doubt, but all of which seems beside the point.
I would add to that Bowman's seeming over-reliance (why? if he has first-hand knowledge) on Seymour Hersh's 1999 New Yorker essay (republished, among other places, at Free Republic) and peculiar citation to Anti-war.com (no link intended) for a point available from more reputable sources, including, e.g., the Jerusalem Post. Finally, Bowman himself is no stranger to controversy, which I'm sure his critics will be quick to point out.
Nevertheless, the article is a valuable contribution to a dialogue that has been virtually non-existent in the press of late, with one side doing all the talking. As for Pollard, my position is no secret to anyone who knows me (or has been reading this blog for a while). Here's a slightly different take that bears repeating, again by Marc Tracy.
I don't presume remotely [former deputy defense secretary Lawrence] Korb or Bowman's knowledge of the Pollard affair or expertise in these matters. But, as one of the citizens Pollard was spying on and who is currently imprisoning him, I think that if Pollard's crimes merit a life sentence, then he should stay in jail even if freeing him would help the cause of peace; and I think that if Pollard's crimes merit his release now, he should be freed even if he is an asshole.
