Examples+of+Research

===The following is an abstract of my writing abilities and the research, analysis, and interpretation skills I developed during my undergraduate education at the College of Wooster. This abstract shows the methods, topic, and results of the thesis, which was entitled, “The Controversies surrounding the Jonathan J. Pollard Espionage Case.” This is an example of my knowledge in my content area (Standard 7, substandard 1b), analytical skills, and my passion for the content area which I wish to pass on to my students. === The Controversies Surrounding the Jonathan J. Pollard Espionage Case Author: Eric Rossi (Undergraduate Thesis, 2008) During the height of the Communist threat to America in the mid 1980’s, the American intelligence community was utterly focused on the passing of sensitive information to the Soviet Union. One threat that they did not foresee came from one of our closest allies, the Israelis. Israel feared the assistance the Middle East was receiving from both the U.S. and the USSR, and sought a way to increase the intelligence they had on the attack and defense capabilities of those countries they deemed to be a threat to their livelihood. Enter Jonathan J. Pollard, a thirty-year old civilian intelligence analyst assigned to the counter-terrorism intelligence center in Washington, D.C. who was also an ardent Zionist that planned on expatriating to Israel. Pollard approached Israeli officials with classified information and continued to spy for Israel until his arrest nine months later. The plea agreement Pollard pled guilty to and sentence he received are the source of many of the controversies that are still argued today. In addition to the guilty plea (1) and the sentence (2), seven other controversies are covered within the thesis including: when Pollard began spying for Israel (3), Pollard’s mental state (4), other illegal activities committed by Pollard (5), other Israeli spies operating in the U.S. (6), how much information was passed to the Israelis (7), the amount of damage caused by Pollard to the U.S. intelligence community (8), and was the treatment of Pollard ethical (9). Using over ten book sources, eyewitness testimony from the lead investigator, and declassified government documents, these controversies were analyzed based on the source of the information, the probability the information was accurate, the legal implications of each argument, and the effects of the argument on the complete case. After careful analysis, the assertion of the thesis was that Jonathan Pollard: (1) was not coerced into pleading guilty to one count of passing classified intelligence to a friendly nation and the plea agreement was not broken by the government during the sentencing phase of the trial; (2) had never spied for Israel before 1984; (3) received a disproportionate sentence to the crime Pollard pled guilty to, however, based upon the evidence and the perceived damage to the American intelligence and defense communities the sentence was correct; (4) Pollard, while an odd individual, had no real mental disorder that could explain some of his unusual behavior seen throughout his life and employment with the navy; (5) Pollard was not involved in any other illegal activities at the time of his arrest; (6) there was no evidence at the time to support the claim that Israel had other intelligence assets in the U.S. intelligence and defense communities (however, in the past five years two individuals have been arrested in connection with spying for Israel in the same area as Pollard under the same handlers); (7) Pollard passed over one million pages of classified material to the Israelis in a nine month span; (8) that the damage done by Pollard was nearly impossible to gauge without access to still classified government documents; (9) and that overall the treatment of Pollard and the case was ethical, however there were some glaring moments and actions on the part of the U.S. government that could not be explained under any ethical guideline, especially the trial phase of the case which in the author’s opinion should be revisited. In conclusion, this thesis was meant to bring closure to some of the arguments surrounding the Pollard case, however, in the end more questions were raised and must be revisited in order for there to be an end to the accusations being leveled by Pollard and his supporters against the United States government.