Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, 62, who was released on parole last November on Thursday lost his appeal to ease his stiff probation conditions. Pollard served out a 30-year sentence, the longest prison term imposed on a spy from a friendly country in US history. Manhattan federal judge Katherine Forrest rejected Pollard’s request to ease his release requirement to wear an electronic tracking device and to have his computer be monitored by the authorities.
Pollard’s attorneys told the court their client was not a flight risk and that whatever secrets he knew of thirty years ago couldn’t possibly have any value to anyone. In addition, they said the arbitrary required for monitoring his computer meant Pollard couldn’t get a job with an investment firm.
The judge cited the facts that Pollard received an Israeli citizenship while behind bars meant that he was a flight risk, and a letter from James Clapper, the director of US National Intelligence, stating that the secrets Pollard learned in the 1980s were still secrets today.
