[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 120 (Tuesday, August 2, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1489]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            MEMBERS CALL FOR COMMUTATION OF POLLARD SENTENCE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 2, 2011

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, August 1, I spoke 
on the floor to renew a request that I made along with 38 of my 
colleagues that the President commute the long prison sentence of 
Jonathan Pollard. None of us condone Mr. Pollard's espionage, and we do 
not ask that he be pardoned for his crime. We do believe that he has 
already served a much longer sentence than is close to that served for 
any comparable offense, and we believe that both compassion for an 
individual and the interests of strengthening American-Israeli ties in 
a way that can contribute to important decisions being made that can 
advance the peace process call for his commutation.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that the text of the letter and the list of 
signatories be included in today's Record.

                                Congress of the United States,

                                Washington, DC, November 18, 2010.
     President Barack Obama,
     The White House,
     1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President, We write to urge you to use your 
     constitutional power to extend clemency to Jonathan Pollard, 
     thereby releasing him from prison after the time he has 
     already served. Mr. Pollard committed serious crimes and he 
     has expressed remorse. Such an exercise of the clemency power 
     would not in any way imply doubt about his guilt, nor cast 
     any aspersions on the process by which he was convicted. 
     Those who have such views are of course entitled to continue 
     to have them, but the clemency grant has nothing to do with 
     that.
       We believe that there has been a great disparity from the 
     standpoint of justice between the amount of time Mr. Pollard 
     has served and the time that has been served--or not served 
     at all--by many others who were found guilty of similar 
     activity on behalf of nations that, like Israel, are not 
     adversarial to us. It is indisputable in our view that the 
     nearly twenty-five years that Mr. Pollard has served stands 
     as a sufficient time from the standpoint of either punishment 
     or deterrence.
       In summary, we see clemency for Mr. Pollard as an act of 
     compassion justified by the way others have been treated by 
     our justice system. We urge you to use the clemency power in 
     this case.
           Sincerely,
         Rep. Barney Frank; Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr.; Rep. Edolphus 
           Towns; Rep. Anthony Weiner; Rep. Henry A. Waxman; Rep. 
           Gary L. Ackerman; Rep. Gregory W. Meeks; Rep. Maurice 
           D. Hinchey; Rep. Michael E. McMahon; Rep. Janice D. 
           Schakowsky; Rep. John W. Olver; Rep. Eliot L. Engel; 
           Rep. Theodore E. Deutch; Rep. Robert A. Brady; Rep, 
           Donald M. Payne; Rep. Shelley Berkley; Rep. Jerrold 
           Nadler; Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney; Rep. Steven R. 
           Rothman; Rep. Ron Klein; Rep. Raul M. Grijalva; Rep. 
           Steve Kagen; Rep. Carolyn McCarthy; Rep. Chaka Fattah; 
           Rep. John Lewis; Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.; Rep. Charles 
           B. Rangel; Rep. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott; Rep. Laura 
           Richardson; Rep. James A. Himes; Rep. Brad Sherman; 
           Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy; Rep. Bennie G. Thompson; Rep. 
           John J. Hall; Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee; Rep. Eleanor 
           Holmes Norton; Rep. Robert E. Andrews; Rep. Danny K. 
           Davis; Rep. Niki Tsongas.

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