Bernie Madoff and Jonathan Pollard Are Prison Pals, Filing Says
By Gabrielle Birkner
Bernard Madoff may have lost all of his old friends, but he’s made some unlikely new ones — and among them is convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, according to a recent court filing.
Madoff is now serving a 150-year-sentence in the North Carolina federal prison that also houses Pollard and mob boss Carmine Perisco, who is reported to be another one of the convicted Ponzi schemer’s prison pals.
The court papers, which support a lawsuit filed on behalf of several Madoff victims, contain details about the scammer’s bleak life in the slammer: Madoff apparently shares a prison cell and a bunk bed — Madoff sleeps on the bottom bunk — with a 21-year-old convicted drug offender, and “eats pizza cooked by an inmate convicted of child molestation.” (That’s quite a change for a man who, until recently, lived in an Upper East Side penthouse and dined frequently at Primola nearby.)
But then again, Madoff may have something in common with his new roommate: The same court papers allege that, beginning in 1975, Madoff tasked a staffer at his investment firm with procuring drugs for himself and other company employees; the filing also says that Madoff would hire topless, G-string-clad entertainers to perform in his Midtown office.
Watch this report for more on the court filings: Bernie Madoff and Jonathan Pollard Are Prison Pals, Filing Says
May 2, 2008, 2:25pm
Espionage and its Apologists
By Daniel Treiman
Writing in San Francisco’s J. newspaper, Douglas Bloomfield, former chief legislative lobbyist for AIPAC, analyzes the circumstances surrounding the arrest of retired Army engineer Ben-Ami Kadish, who is accused of spying on the United States for Israel. Bloomfield zooms out and looks at the larger context, including the debate over long-imprisoned spy Jonathan Pollard — and he doesn’t have much patience for those he regards as apologists for Israeli espionage in America.
Bloomfield writes:
The greatest damage of the Kadish case may come from a tiny minority in the Jewish community that seems to justify spying by claiming Washington has not supported Israel with intelligence about its enemies and with political backing.
And they make things worse when they belittle the latest case by ridiculing it as government harassment of a zayde. Such conduct can be as destructive as the crime itself; it says that spying for Israel is not only acceptable but honorable and even necessary — and it reinforces accusations that Jews put loyalty to Israel ahead of loyalty to America.
Read the full article.
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