Jonathan Jay Pollard
A former intelligence analyst for the United States government.
As a part of a plea deal, in 1987, pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel.
He was sentenced to life in prison for violations of the Espionage Act.
Was released on November 20, 2015, in accordance with federal guidelines in place at the time of his sentencing.
Was born in 1954, in Galveston Texas, to a jewish family.
His family moved to South Bend, Indiana in 1961.
His father, who was an award-winning microbiologist, taught at Notre Dame.
Made his first trip to Israel in 1970, as part of a science program visiting the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, where he was hospitalized after a fight with another student.
He attended Stanford University, where he completed a degree in political science in 1976.
After leaving graduate school, began applying for intelligence service jobs.
He was turned down for the CIA job after taking a polygraph test in which he admitted to prolific illegal drug usage between 1974 and 1978.
On 19 September 1979, he was hired by the Navy Field Operational Intelligence Office, As an intelligence specialist.
He was to work on Soviet issues at the Navy Ocean Surveillance Information Center.
The Navy asked for, but was denied information from the CIA regarding Pollard.
He was assigned to temporary duty at another NIC Department.
Two months after he was hired, the technical director of NOSIC, requested that he be terminated.
Jonathan had offered to start a back-channel operation with the South African intelligence service.
He lied about his father's involvement with the CIA and instead of being terminated, he was reassigned a Navy human intelligence (HUMINT) operation, Task Force 168.
While transferring to his new job at TF-168, he initiated a meeting with someone far up the chain of command, this time with the admiral Shapiro of the Naval Intelligence Command (CNIC), about an idea he had for TF-168 and South Africa.
After the meeting, the admiral immediately ordered that his security clearances be revoked and that he be reassigned to a non-sensitive position.
The admiral reportedly told the Washington Post that Shapiro's dismissed Pollard as a "kook", saying later, "I wish the hell I'd fired him."
Shapiro's order to remove Pollard's security clearances slipped through the cracks, because of the job transfer.
Regardless, Shapiro's office followed up with a request to TF-168 that Pollard be investigated by the CIA.
The CIA found him to be a risk and recommended that he not be used in any intelligence collection operation.
He was administered a polygraph test.
The test was inconclusive according to the special agent administering it.
The agent recommended against Pollard's being granted access to highly classified information.
His clearance was reduced to secret.
He filed a grievances and threatened lawsuits to recover his SCI clearance.
He worked on less sensitive material and began receiving excellent performance reviews while awaiting his grievances to be addressed.
In 1982 a psychiatrist evaluated, cleared and upgraded him to SCI.
In October 1984, applied for and was accepted into a position as an analyst for the Naval Intelligence Command.
He met Aviem Sella, a combat veteran of the Israeli Air Force.
Pollard told Sella that he worked for U.S. naval intelligence, where U.S. intelligence was withholding information from Israel, and offered to work as a spy.
In June 1984, Pollard started passing classified information to Sella.
He was paid $10,000 cash.
He received a salary that eventually reached $2,500 a month, and tens of thousands of dollars in cash disbursements for hotels, meals, and jewelry.
In his pre-sentencing statement he said "I did accept money for my services", he acknowledged, but only "as a reflection of how well I was doing my job".
Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigator Ronald Olive has alleged that Pollard passed classified information to South Africa, and Pakistan on several occasions.
Pollard also stole classified documents related to China on behalf of his wife, to advance her business.
Investigating authorities discovered them when Pollard's espionage activity came to light.
Pollard was stopped and questioned by FBI agents while removing classified material from his work premises.
His story was that he was taking it to another analyst at a different agency for a consultation.
His story was checked and found to be false.
He requested a phone call to his wife to tell her where he was.
Pollard used the code word "cactus", signaling that he was in trouble, and that she should remove all classified material from their home.
He agreed to a search of his home, which turned up the few documents which his wife had missed.
A few days later, he was asked by his superiors to take a polygraph test. Instead, he admitted to illegally passing on documents.
Later, Pollard's neighbor, a naval officer, became concerned about safeguarding the 70-pound suitcase full of highly classified material that Anne had given him, and began calling around the military intelligence community asking for advice.
Pollard was put under surveillance, but not taken into custody.
He and his wife tried to gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D. C, on November 21, 1985.
They were turned away and FBI agents arrested Pollard as soon as he left embassy property.
Anne evaded an FBI agent who was following her.
She was arrested the next day, November 22, 1985.
Australian authorities reported the disclosure of classified American documents by Pollard to a Royal Australian Navy officer.
Pollard admitted only to passing a single classified document to the Australian; later, he changed his story, and claimed that his superiors ordered him to share information with the Australians.
The Pollards' sentencing took place on March 4, 1987.
His prosecutor, recommended that Pollard receive "only a substantial number of years in prison".
The judge, noting that Pollard had violated multiple conditions of the plea agreement, he imposed a life sentence on the basis of a classified damage-assessment memorandum.
Pollard was then moved from FCC Petersburg in Virginia, to a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, to undergo a battery of mental health tests.
He was transferred to the federal maximum security prison in Marion, Illinois in June 1988.
In 1993 to FCI Butner Medium at the Butner Federal Correction Complex in North Carolina.
Anne Pollard was sentenced to five years, then paroled after three and a half years due to health problems.
Pollard filed for divorce after Anne's release.
After his divorce he married Esther "Elaine" Zeitz, a Canadian teacher and activist based in Toronto who had organized a campaign for his release.
Anne Pollard emigrated to Israel after her parole.
Pollard's attorneys filed a motion for withdrawal of his guilty plea and trial in 1989, by jury due to the government's failure to abide by terms of the plea agreement and was denied.
Several years later, Pollard filed a petition for habeas corpus.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled to deny Pollard's petition.
Pollard again filed a motion for a new trial, in July 2005 and was denied.
His attorneys filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court regarding access to the classified documents, in February 2006.
In March 2006 the Supreme Court denied the cert petition.
Laws in effect at the time of Pollard's sentencing mandated that inmates serving life sentences be paroled after 30 years of incarceration if no significant prison regulations had been violated.
And if there was a "reasonable probability" that the inmate would not re-offend.
The U.S. Parole Commission announced on July 28, 2015, that he would be released on November 20, 2015.
Under the terms of his release, he must remain on parole for one year, and within the United States for a minimum of five years.
His whereabouts and computer usage will be electronically monitored, and press interviews and Internet communications are forbidden.
On November 20, relocated to an apartment in New York City.
Pollard's attorneys petitioned the US Court of Appeals, in March 20014, to reverse the August 2016 lower-court decision denying his request for more lenient parole restrictions.
Reportedly he had request renewed for a parole waiver during a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence.
Is the only American who has received a life sentence for passing classified information to an ally of the U.S.
Declared that he committed espionage only because "the American intelligence establishment collectively endangered Israel's security by withholding crucial information".
The Israeli government issued and apology and acknowledged a portion of its role in Pollard's espionage in 1987.
They did not admit to paying him until 1998.
Israel made repeated unsuccessful attempts through both official and unofficial channels to secure his release.
He was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995.
Opposing any form of clemency were many active and retired U.S. officials.
They maintained that the damage to U.S. national security due to Pollard's espionage was far more severe, wide-ranging, and enduring than publicly acknowledged.
He argued that he only supplied Israel with information critical to its security.
His opponents pointed out that he had no way of knowing what the Israelis had received through legitimate exchanges, and that much of the data he compromised had nothing to do with Israeli security.
He revealed aspects of the American intelligence gathering process.
He sold numerous closely guarded state secrets.
And disclosed the names of thousands of people who had cooperated with U.S. intelligence agencies.
He admitted shopping his services—successfully, in some cases—to other countries.
He says that "My sentence did not reflect proportional justice, my sentence reflected political vengeance."
Pollard's spying as included, among other things, obtaining and copying the latest version of Radio-Signal Notations (RASIN), a 10-volume manual comprehensively detailing America's global electronic surveillance network.
The full extent of the information Pollard passed to Israel has still not been officially revealed.
Pollard's story inspired the movie Les Patriotes (The Patriots).
His story inspired an off broadway stage play The Law of Return.
An Israeli-owned apartment building in Silwan, is named after Pollard.
Solomon Souza, a street artist, added Pollard's portrait to his collection of spray paint art.
