Jonathan Jay Pollard (Hebrew: יהונתן ג'. פולארד) (born August 7, 1954 in South Bend, Indiana) is a convicted Israeli spy and a former United States Naval civilian intelligence analyst. Pollard waived the right to trial in return for restrictions on sentencing, pleaded guilty and was convicted on one count of spying for Israel,^[1] receiving a life sentence in 1986 with a recommendation against parole. Israel publicly denied that Pollard was an Israeli spy until 1998, when he was granted Israeli citizenship.^[2] He was incarcerated at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois in solitary confinement for seven years, then transferred to Butner Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina

Exactly what information he gave to Israel has still not been officially revealed. According to Pollard, he gave only information regarding Iraq's missile threats to Israel.^[4] Press reports cited a secret 46-page memorandum, which Pollard and his attorneys were allowed to view.^[5] They were provided to the judge by Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, who described Pollard's spying as including, among other things, obtaining and copying the latest version of Radio-Signal Notations, a 10-volume manual detailing America's global electronic surveillance network.^[6][7]

With regards to friendly nations spying on each other, Pollard supporters cite the 1983 statement by Senator David Durenberger, former head of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee. Durenberger claimed, while speaking to a Jewish group, that the CIA had turned an officer in the Israel Defence Forces, and that he had been an active source during the 1982 Lebanon War.^[8][9]. His name was Yosef Amit and he was an intelligence officer for the Israeli Army. He was sentenced to 12 years for spying for the US.^[10]