Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How
One of the Most Notorious Spies in
American History Was Brought to
Justice by Ronald J. Olive
Complaciency Is Fatal To America
Jonathan Jay Pollard, an intelligence analyst working in the U.S. Naval
Investigative Service’s Anti-Terrorist Alert Center, systematically stole
highly sensitive security secrets from almost every major intelligence-
gathering agency in the United States. Over the course of eighteen months
in the mid 1980s, he took and subsequently sold to Israel more than one
million pages of classified material, enough to fill a six-by-ten-foot room
stacked six feet high. No other spy in the history of the United States has
stolen so many secrets, so highly classified, in such a short period of time.
Ronald J. Olive, the author of this book was the assistant special agent in
charge of counterintelligence in the Washington office of the Naval
Investigative Service who led the whirlwind investigation against Pollard.

Olive interrogated Pollard and garnered the confession that led to his
arrest in November 1985 and eventual life sentence. During the twenty
plus years that Pollard has spent in prison, many questions have arisen
about the case because it never went to trial and so much information
surrounding it remains classified. Most of the books and articles that have
been written about Pollard denounce his life sentence as unjust. This
book tells the other side of the story. It is an account from deep inside the
espionage investigation that gives details of Pollard’s confession
immediately following his arrest and describes Pollard’s interaction with the
author before and during the time suspicion about his activities was
mounting. Revealed are countless other details that have never before
been made public. Calling the Pollard story an extreme case of a
counterintelligence failure, Olive writes that mistaken assumptions and
leadership failures enabled Pollard to ransack America’s defense
intelligence long after he should have been fired. The author hopes the
vital insights his book offers will serve as a lesson in history and prevent
similar problems in the future and provide an antidote to the uncertainty
that has fueled speculation, rumor, and lies surrounding the Pollard case.
Personal Review: Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One of the
Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to
Justice by Ronald J. Olive
Capturing Jonathan Pollard is the gripping story of the complex criminal
investigation conducted by the author, Ronald Olive, a former special
agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, in pursuing Jonathan
Jay Pollard, the Israeli spy who had worked within military intelligence.
The book is exceptionally well written and reads as well, if not better, than
any fast paced suspense novel. And for those who love true stories about
bureaucratic bumbling, the book does not disappoint.
Prior to being employed by naval intelligence, Pollard had applied for a
fellowship with the Central Intelligence Agency. As part of the pre-
employment process, he submitted to a polygraph examination which
revealed that he had a substantial history of using marijuana. In the mid to
late 1970s, that was enough for anyone to get turned down for a security
clearance, particularly if there had not been a considerable amount of time
between the date of last usage and the date of the interview. Obviously,
Pollard was rejected.
Upon applying to the Navy for the position of intelligence analyst, the
Defense Investigative Service initiated a background investigation and
contacted the CIA with a request for information. In response, the CIA
declined the request, claiming that to honor it would have violated Pollard's
rights to privacy; and that was, apparently, irrespective of any authorization
to release information that would have been signed by him. In the
absence of any significant derogatory information, Pollard was hired and
tragically, ended up spying for Israel.

What follows is an intense story about an extremely intelligent, yet
bungling and awkward person who executes an espionage operation
under the nose of the Navy's intelligence service. Throughout his tenure,
red flags went up but were either ignored, rationalized, or overlooked. His
spying, at first incremental, eventually became a full time occupation, if not
an obsession. Suffering from a difficult childhood where he had been
bullied and unaccepted, his spying only exacerbated his already tenuous
psychological state. He told stories in order to bolster his self-esteem. He
was seriously in debt. He performed poorly at work, but some of his " . . .
coworkers often wrote off his odd behavior as harmless, the reflection of a
brilliant mind." Sadly, a number of his superiors, impressed by his gifted
mind, placed their confidence in him. They trusted him in-spite of his
irrational behavior. Perhaps that was Pollard's biggest betrayal.
The book is subtitled, "How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American
History was Brought to Justice," and perhaps, that is an appropriate title.
Through no fault of his own, Olive does not specifically delineate the
information that was stolen nor what consequences, if any, followed. As a
result of former CIA case officer Aldrich Ames, for example, the KGB
ordered a number of American sources back to the Soviet Union where
they were executed. And as a result of the John Walker spy ring, naval
codes were compromised to the extent that conceivably, the balance of
power between the United States and the Soviet Union shifted in favor of
the latter. If that is what happened as a result Pollard, Olive did not
elaborate. That is because, as he said in the book, the information is still
classified.
Olive does, however, provide a graphic illustration depicting a man
standing next to a mass of boxes under which there is a caption, " . . .
visual representation of the sheer volume of classified documents -
measured at least 360 cubic feet, one million-plus pages . . . (that Pollard
gave to) Israel over the short period of eighteen months." In the text, Olive
clarified that, "Among the documents compromised were detailed
analytical studies containing technical calculations, graphs, and satellite
photographs." Hence, the subtitle. But is it accurate?
Unfortunately, one of the Amazon reviewers evaluated, "This book is filled
with anti-Semitic lies," and if that is true, as a retired law enforcement
officer, and as a Jew, I just plain did not see even a hint of that in Olive's
book. Indeed, just the opposite. While Olive clearly conducted an intense
and aggressive investigation, there is nothing in the book to suggest that
the case was conducted with anything other than impartiality. In fact, one
can very easily deduce that Olive even had some sympathy for the man.
That said, although I know that Olive would not agree, there is a problem
with Pollard's incarceration, especially his continued incarceration. As
Olive indicated in his book, " . . . Secretary of Defense Weinberger was
beside himself. Before submitting his memo (entitled the "Declaration of
the Secretary of Defense," a document used as the basis for sentencing

Pollard) to Judge Robinson, he sent it back to the damage assessment
team six times asking for harsher words to describe how gravely Pollard
had compromised U.S. National Security."
An interesting statement. Six times? And harsher words? Did not the
assessment team know how to characterize the damage that Pollard had
done? Why did it take them six tries before they eventually got it right, or
at least, completed the memo to the satisfaction of Weinberger? And
therein lays the problem. Casper Weinberger, as he had demonstrated
throughout his political career, had a visceral hatred of Israel. Does that
mean that he was an anti-Semite to boot? How should that question be
answered? How about this way: It is interesting that among all the nations
in the world, Israel was the one country that he repeatedly attempted to
isolate from the United States and never, seemingly, missed an
opportunity to criticize using the harshest of words. And if that is true,
perhaps the old rule of . . . if it walks like a duck . . . should apply.
Weinberger's memo is classified and not available. In the United States,
although we have been culturally inculcated to believe that our judicial
system is the envy of the world, our system has repeatedly convicted
people of crimes they did not commit, or committed other injustices on a
daily basis. The two-hundred plus people that have been exonerated
through DNA evidence does not represent the exception to the rule, but
the tip of the iceberg. The Duke Lacrosse players are just but one
example. Had they not come from influential, well educated, and wealthy
families, those kids would be in prison right now. If Richard Jewel had not
been able to retain a lawyer who had vast experience in dealing with the
press, he would have spent the rest of his life in prison as evidenced by
the fact that even after it was determined that it was impossible for him to
have committed the crime, the government still pursued him. And the list
is endless.
Pollard, some would say, entered into a plea bargain and sure enough, he
did. People enter into plea bargains every day of the week. That just is
not that significant. What is significant is that the evidence that justified his
life sentence without the possibility of parole was based on a secret
document written by a duck . . . and one who had no problem quacking
with a mighty roar. And in America, that just ain't right.
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