Jonathan Jay Pollard is a former U.S. defense analyst who was convicted for spying and parting with classified information to Israel. In 1987 he was given a life sentence for violating the ‘Espionage Act’, thus becoming the first such American to get life imprisonment for disbursing top-secret information to an US ally. According to Pollard, he acted in such manner as American intelligence establishment collectively endangered Israel’s security by withholding crucial information. He insisted that he provided Israel only that information which was crucial for its security. Many confidential state secrets were sold by him. He also revealed the identity of several thousand individuals who helped the U.S. intelligence agencies. He also accepted that he had provided paid service to few other nations in some cases. Though Israeli officials, few American politicians and American-Israeli activist groups lobbied to reduce his life imprisonment, many former and incumbent US high officials voiced against any kind of leniency. After thirty years of imprisonment he was released on November 20, 2015.