Someone asked why I support the life sentence for Pollard.

It’s simple – he spied and turned over extremely sensitive information, and he did it for money. I would apply that standard to other spies (unless we could execute the bastards, depending on the harm they did). The fact that Pollard is a hero in Israel doesn’t help Israeli-American relations (fortunately, you have to do a lot to hurt them).

It’s also the case that Israel’s weapons industry sells systems to countries we’d rather they avoided.

Espionage isn’t a different crime because it is done by a friendly nation.

In the US security classification system, there is a modifier called NOFORN. That’s because we might grant a very high clearance to a foreigner from a friendly nation, but there are some things we kept myself.

I have trained foreign nationals in P-3 crew work. We had SECRET/NOFORN stuff we didn’t give them.

We are getting a bit ahead of things. Did these people know they were violating security regs? Why did they do it? What level of information did they give away? Is this even true?

I think pretty much everyone spies on the US. We are too important not to. Israel, in its precarious position, may be more willing to do so. But that doesn’t excuse the actions of those with the information.