Article

2009-01-07 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by tipper 2009-01-07 06:38|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 But still, after Hamas is decapitated, who will lead the Pals? No current leader in the PA has credibility, and the thing will fail without a leader.

Here is my wild ass prediction:
The Israelis release Marwan Barghouti in exchange for Jonathan Pollard. Bush will do this before he leaves office.

(Too bad Pollard is alive to make this happen.)

Posted by Penguin 2009-01-07 10:48|| 2009-01-07 10:48|| Front Page Top

#2 someone educate me here...

why is Pollard so hated?

Posted by Abu do you love">Abu do you love 2009-01-07 13:40|| 2009-01-07 13:40|| Front Page Top

#3 Oh, I dunno, maybe cause he's a traitor?

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-01-07 13:47|| 2009-01-07 13:47|| Front Page Top

#4 He spied on the US for the Israelis. A lot of Israelis think he oughta get a pass on that. A lot of Americans think he's right where he belongs. I'm one of them.

Posted by tu3031 2009-01-07 13:51|| 2009-01-07 13:51|| Front Page Top

#5 He's a traitorous scumbag. When you accept a position of exceptional responsibility you should be held accountable.

From Admiral Sumner Shapiro's Obituary:

Adm. Shapiro often expressed regret about his early handling of Pollard, a Navy civilian who pleaded guilty in 1985 to espionage charges and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

When Pollard, as a new analyst, went to him with a scheme to gain "back-channel" intelligence information from South Africa, Adm. Shapiro dismissed Pollard as a "kook" and reduced his clearance. Later Pollard's clearance was reinstated.

Adm. Shapiro, who was Jewish, said he was bothered that many Jewish organizations supported Pollard during the diplomatic controversy that followed his imprisonment.

"We work so hard to establish ourselves and to get where we are, and to have somebody screw it up . . . and then to have Jewish organizations line up behind this guy and try to make him out a hero of the Jewish people, it bothers the hell out of me," Adm. Shapiro told The Washington Post in 1998.

"I wish the hell I'd fired him," he added.

Posted by Penguin 2009-01-07 13:54|| 2009-01-07 13:54|| Front Page Top

#6 thanks for replies.

My question was more on the lines of the hatred as to the details of what he did. the guy seems to be much more than a lightning rod than say Aldrich Aimes who is just accepted as part and parcel of the way things work (did the crime, got caught, life goes on) without the vitriolic personal attacks that seem to be aimed at pollard.

Posted by Abu do you love">Abu do you love 2009-01-07 14:00|| 2009-01-07 14:00|| Front Page Top

#7 Abu, that's because no one is clamoring for Ames or any other traitorous spy to be released.

If anything, it could be said that he was mentally unstable, or lacked the maturity for a position of responsibility. He shouldn't have gotten the clearance in the first place.

Posted by Penguin 2009-01-07 14:09|| 2009-01-07 14:09|| Front Page Top

#8 If somebody beside his wife and children were effectively lobbying to get Aldrich Ames out of jail, you'd hear the same reaction. That's the only difference I see.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-01-07 14:10|| 2009-01-07 14:10|| Front Page Top

#9 again thanks, i was moderately curious if i was missing something.

Rantburg U: not ony great classes, but the professors keep office hours.

Posted by Abu do you love">Abu do you love 2009-01-07 14:20|| 2009-01-07 14:20|| Front Page Top

23:49 Verlaine
23:44 Verlaine
23:43 Verlaine
23:42 Gritch Brown4916
23:37 Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division
23:32 phil_b
23:28 bigjim-ky
23:20 bigjim-ky
23:15 bigjim-ky
23:14 European Conservative
22:50 Abu do you love
22:44 Clinert Smith4068
22:42 Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division
22:39 Cornsilk Blondie
22:32 Cornsilk Blondie
22:32 GK
22:30 Cornsilk Blondie
22:26 Ebbusonter Oppressor of the Brontosaurs1894
22:14 Procopius2k
22:11 SteveS
22:08 mhw
21:56 rabid whitetail
21:55 rabid whitetail
21:54 rabid whitetail