Kerry Seeks to Save Mideast Talks as Pollard Release Raised

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returned to the Middle East on a surprise trip to rescue stalled peace talks, as a release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard emerged as a possible bargaining chip.

Early freedom for Pollard, the imprisoned American naval intelligence analyst convicted in 1987 of passing secrets to Israel, was among incentives Kerry offered in two hours of meetings yesterday in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Haaretz said, citing an unidentified Israeli official. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki didn’t dispute the report.

Kerry is trying to craft a formula for extending nine months of peace talks that are due to expire at the end of April. With the negotiations stumbling most recently over an overdue Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners, that deadline is looming.

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The previous goal of reaching agreement on a “framework” as a first step toward a peace deal is fading as the focus shifts to extending the talks and moving toward resolving “final status” issues in an agreement by late this year, according to one U.S. official who wasn’t authorized to comment by name.

Kerry changed his travel plans yesterday to squeeze in a last-minute visit to Israel and the West Bank, deciding “it would be productive to return to the region,” Psaki said. Kerry met early today with Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority.

Pollard’s Imprisonment

Pollard’s imprisonment has long been a source of tension in U.S.-Israeli relations. Netanyahu has been trying to get the U.S. to release Pollard since his first term as prime minister.

Pollard, 59, who was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole, is scheduled to be released from a medium-security prison in Butner, North Carolina, on Nov. 21, 2015, pending a final review by the U.S. Parole Commission, said Chris Burke, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

While freeing Pollard about a year and a half early could spur Israel to make concessions that would keep the peace talks alive, it also may cause an uproar among current and former U.S. intelligence officials who consider him a traitor.

‘Real Outrage’

“We would express our real outrage that an unrepentant spy is being released for an abstract political point that really won’t make a difference,” said Oliver “Buck” Revell, who served as associate deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation when Pollard was convicted.

“He hasn’t cooperated,” Revell said in a telephone interview. “He hasn’t apologized, so let his sentence run out.”

In 1998, more than a decade after Pollard’s conviction, Israel acknowledged Pollard’s espionage activities in an attempt to facilitate his release. He was granted Israeli citizenship during his imprisonment.

Kerry sandwiched the Mideast trip between talks with the Russian foreign minister in Paris and a meeting with foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization scheduled for today in Brussels. His broader mission is to get Israelis and Palestinians to agree on guidelines for conducting substantive talks on the peace treaty they’ve been negotiating intermittently for more than 20 years.

Threat to Quit

Palestinian leaders have threatened to quit the talks if the prisoner release that was scheduled for March 29 is postponed further. Some of Netanyahu’s coalition partners say they’ll leave the cabinet if he proceeds with the release, threatening his government with collapse. Before the peace talks resumed in July, Israel agreed to release 104 prisoners in four rounds, and three groups have been freed.

Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S., told reporters on a conference call yesterday that the talks probably will continue past April. “I’ve only had indications that everybody’s interested in pushing beyond the deadline,” he said.

Pollard was arrested in 1985, after delivering to Israel about 800 documents, some of which were classified top secret, according to the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research group at George Washington University in Washington. He also stole an estimated 1,500 U.S. intelligence summary messages.

The Central Intelligence Agency’s 1987 damage assessment of Pollard’s activities showed he provided Israel with information on topics including Iraqi and Syrian chemical warfare production capabilities, Soviet arms shipments to Syria and other Arab states, Pakistan’s nuclear program and the capabilities of Tunisian and Libyan air defense systems. He also provided a U.S. assessment of Israeli military capabilities, according to a summary from the National Security Archive.

To contact the reporters on this story: Terry Atlas in Jerusalem at tatlas@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net; John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net Larry Liebert

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Mississippi high court halts woman's execution, orders a new trial

Until Monday, Michelle Byrom was set to become the first woman executed by Mississippi in 70 years -- for a murder her son reportedly confessed to committing.

The Mississippi Supreme Court halted Byrom's execution, threw out her murder conviction and ordered a new trial in one of the nation's most closely watched capital-punishment cases.

In the decision handed down Monday, the court called its own move "extraordinary and extremely rare," at least compared to similar death-penalty appeals, few of which result in new trials.
But the particulars of Byrom's case have also been peculiar, according to observers who have followed it.
Byrom, 56, had been convicted of masterminding the 1999 murder of her husband, Edward Byrom Sr., and got the death penalty despite confessions by her son, Edward Jr., that pointed to a possible crime of passion.
"As I sat on my bed, tears of rage flowing, remembering my childhood my anger kept building and building, and I went to my car, got the 9mm, and walked to his room, peeked in, and he was asleep," read one letter by Edward Byrom Jr., quoted in the Jackson Free Press. "I walked about 2 steps in the door, and screamed, and shut my eyes, when I heard him move, I started firing."
But jurors never heard of those confessions, according to local media. Instead, officials argued that one of Edward Byrom Jr.'s friends, Joey Gillis, was the triggerman as part of a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Michelle Byrom.

Gillis and Edward Byrom Jr. were convicted of lesser crimes and are now free, while Michelle Byrom got the death penalty. At one point, her execution had been scheduled for last week.
The prosecution has received national criticism, with legal analyst Andrew Cohen writing in the Atlantic that the case contained an "unholy trinity" of constitutional problems: "Her lawyers acted incompetently at trial, making one mistake after another. Exculpatory evidence that likely would have changed the outcome of her trial was hidden from her by the trial judge, and perhaps by prosecutors as well. Dealing with codefendants, prosecutors played a form of musical chairs with the facts and with the charges."
One Mississippi Supreme Court justice had previously written of Byrom's defense against the death penalty: "I have attempted to conjure up in my imagination a more egregious case of ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase of a capital case. I cannot."

In the en banc order handed down Monday, the state's highest court did not detail the specifics about why it threw out the conviction, saying simply that the court had reviewed the materials surrounding the case and that Byrom's appeal was "well taken and should be granted."
After the ruling, Byrom's lawyers said in a statement that they were "grateful" for the decision and for the opportunity to give Byrom another shot in court.
"Michelle suffered extreme sexual and physical abuse from an early age and throughout her marriage," the statement said. "We are pleased that Ms. Byrom will now have the opportunity to present the overwhelming evidence that she is innocent of murder-for-hire.”
The case was ordered back to Tishomingo County to be assigned to a different trial judge.

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'Walking Dead' finale: The biggest reveals

Editor's note: Warning: Do not read any further if you have yet to watch the finale of "The Walking Dead's" fourth season.

(CNN) -- It wouldn't be a finale to "The Walking Dead" without at least a few moments that make you gasp, and Sunday night's season ender certainly delivered.

Last week, several survivors, including Glenn and Maggie, arrived at Terminus in what was promised to be a safe haven, but was it really?

We caught up this week with Rick, Carl and Michonne -- interspersed with flashbacks to the comparatively idyllic life back at the prison -- and they too had a rough road to Terminus.

Here are some of the big moments from this week's episode:

1. Joe meets Rick again

Just when it almost seemed like Rick's trio had it all figured out (he even created a new way to trap game), they were set upon by Joe and his up-to-no-good crew of "rule followers" with Daryl in tow.

Despite Daryl begging for mercy, Joe's men started to beat him to death, while others set upon Carl and Michonne.

2. Rick fights back, big time

When Rick saw his son in trouble, he moved his head back and injured Joe, whose gun went off. Rick -- well, there's no other way to put this -- then bit Joe on the neck and went after the rest of his crew, including the man who attacked Carl, repeatedly stabbing him to death.

The other survivors couldn't believe what they were seeing. Needless to say, don't mess with Carl.

On the bright side, Daryl is back. He and Rick are like brothers now, too.

3. Welcome to Terminus

Rick, Daryl, Michonne and Carl finally arrived at Terminus -- sneaking in through the back, of course.

The moment Rick noticed one of the denizens of Terminus wearing Hershel's watch (now owned by Glenn), he pulled a gun on someone -- and wait, isn't that woman wearing Maggie's poncho, too?

It just wouldn't be a finale without a shootout, and we certainly got one as Rick and crew fired against Gareth and the rest from Terminus.

4. What is this place?

Entrails seen in a courtyard? A room where the words "Never again" are painted on the walls? Something's just not right with Terminus. Unfortunately, we didn't find out too much more about this. ...

5. Reunited

Gareth finally gets the upper hand and orders Rick, Daryl and Michonne (the "ringleader, archer and samurai") to enter a train car. An enraged Rick asks about his son, and Gareth tells Carl to walk over to the car.

When they make their way in, they soon realize that Glenn, Maggie, Abraham and others in their group are alive.

Carol, Tyrese and Judith are still making their way to Terminus, as far as we know, but Beth's whereabouts remain unknown.

Rick delivers one of the best lines in the series' history when he tells Glenn, "They're going to feel really stupid when they find out ... they're screwing with the wrong people."

Rick certainly proved that with his actions this week. He's gone from a lawman to the "Ricktator" to something of a go-for-broke violent avenger over the years.

Were you happy to see so many of the survivors reunited and find out that no one died in this finale? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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