The name of Jonathan Pollard evokes quite a few passionate emotions among political circles.

Pollard, an analyst for US Naval Intelligence, used his unfettered access to our nation’s secrets to sell useful information to Israel. Although already a significant ally and a receipt to massive foreign aid packages, this incident created an enormous embarrassment and backlash for both countries in general and for Jews in particular since Pollard was Jewish.

And it also brought about a “coming of age” to the American Jewish population in that it was now acceptable to criticize Israel while still being a loyal citizen and remaining true to the Jewish identity.

If the author Wolf Blitzer is in any way discourages anyone from reading this book (because of his CNN affiliation), I would strongly recommend that such a bias be ignored. This is a gripping story that is fast moving and written in an excellent style and prose.

Oftentimes, books like this are too bogged down in boring technicalities or in self-righteous sermons. The book has neither but a direct approach to what actually happened from the media’s point of view as well as from the culprit’s.

Blitzer does not preach about the right or wrong of the incident but gives a compelling account of what Pollards did point as well as the circumstances around his actions. In other words, the author gives us the best of both worlds especially since he allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusion.

I also personally feel that it is important to understand the motivations of Jonathon Pollard. Although money was involved, it was his interest in promoting Zionism that made him turn against his own country. In addition, the book also explains that it was the intent of Israel’s spy organization to corrupt all of its spies with money so that they become addicted to a lifestyle that is beyond their reach.

In addition, the author doesn’t hold any punches on Pollard either.

Jonathon Pollard is the geek whom no one ever thinks would have ever been capable of selling out the United States. He is a daydreamer and spends half his time living in a fantasy world of espionage and action figures. And in some ways, he may not be much different than a lot of people. However, having access to our country’s most sensitive secrets allowed him to fulfill the fantasies he always craved.
 

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On the surface, the author is a bit sympathetic to Pollard but that shouldn’t be a distraction since Blitzer covers all of the bases for this story.

As a backdrop, Israel is already one of the closest allies of the United States. And it is in America’s best interest that Israel is capable to defeat all of its enemies although the United States tends to keep everything at an impasse for as long as possible. But Pollard wasn’t satisfied with an indefinite détente. He wanted results now and even the chance to play cloak and dagger to further his own Jewish identity.

But in all, Blitzer goes on to present as many of the facts and points of view as possible and most importantly, asserting that what Pollard did was illegal and that he was used and even betrayed by the people he was spying for. In essence, Pollard ended up as a man without a country.

And I also enjoyed the vivid glimpse into government bureaucracy.

Even in intelligence circles, security was lax which made the theft of classified secrets ridiculously easy. Pollard took full advantage of the situation and exploited it. And it almost becomes comical how our own bureaucracy bungled its way in deciding to investigate a potential security leak. When Pollards supervisor suspected espionage, he was shocked when the authorities practically blew him off insisting that perhaps he was imagining the whole thing.

Eventually, when the government did investigate Pollard, they nailed him, and rightly so, to the wall.

And at that moment, Israel wanted nothing to do with their own spy. In fact, Israel insisted that this espionage was part of a rogue clandestine operation that should never have happened. But in essence, the Jewish state didn’t want to admit how reckless they were in managing their spies. They had absolutely no contingency plans for Pollard if he were to ever be discovered other than to hang him out to dry.

Yes, for good or for bad, the daydreamers can still shake up the world. And Territory of Lies is a vivid story of how the most unlikely man possible got caught up in a bizarre and unusual spy ring.

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