BREAKING: U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee slammed for meeting with convicted spy

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Fury has erupted Thursday against former Arkansas Governor and now U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, over the bombshell revelation that he met with a convicted spy at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem back in July. 

From the New York Times: Ambassador Mike Huckabee, President Trump’s envoy to Israel, met at the United States Embassy in Jerusalem in July with Jonathan J. Pollard, an American who spent 30 years in prison for spying for Israel, Mr. Pollard said.

The highly unusual meeting caught some U.S. officials by surprise, and appeared to be a sharp break with years of precedent for American diplomats.

The New York Times learned of the meeting from three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. When The Times asked Mr. Pollard about the meeting, he confirmed it.

Mr. Pollard said it was the first time that a U.S. official had hosted him at an American government office since his release a decade ago.

“It was a friendly meeting,” Mr. Pollard said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Pollard, a former naval intelligence analyst, met with Huckabee, but their meeting was reportedly never included on the ambassador’s official schedule, and the CIA’s station chief in Israel has expressed alarm over the meeting.

White House officials also voiced their concern about the meeting, and said they had not been aware of it in advance.

The New York Times explained:

Mr. Pollard, 71, was convicted of spying for Israel and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 in one of the most notorious espionage cases of the Cold War. While many Americans viewed him as a traitor, some Israelis, especially those on the right, considered him a hero and lobbied for him until he was released on parole in 2015.

Five years later, he moved to Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave him a hero’s welcome on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport.

The New York Times also noted that Pollard took on a defiant tone:

Mr. Pollard said he did not regret spying for Israel, claiming the United States had cut Israel out of intelligence sharing. And he castigated Mr. Trump, calling him a “madman who has literally sold us down the drain, for Saudi gold.”

Huckabee confirmed to Axios that he had met with the convicted spy, but said nothing was requested and nothing was granted in the meeting, which took place in July.

Max Blumenthal of the Gray Zone News shared the following:

“Mike Huckabee went to Israel 14 years ago to lobby for the freedom of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who forked over the NSA’s signals intelligence manual to Tel Aviv Trump and the Senate GOP then chose him as their point person to represent the America First brand in Israel.”

Blumenthal wrote: “Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard says he met in secret with Mike Huckabee to thank him for his years of lobbying for his freedom. Pollard blames the CIA for revealing the meeting, calling it a “hit” on Huckabee. He complains the CIA is “anti-Israel” and must be “purged”.”

He shared a video clip of an interview with Pollard, explaining why he asked to meet with Huckabee.

Huckabee, normally highly respected among conservatives, is being hit with massive backlash for meeting with Pollard.

READ MORE from the New York Times.

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