Yes, in his autobiography, "In the Arena," he takes pains to make it very clear he is not Jewish. I wonder why?

Why indeed would Caspar Weinberger do such a thing? The answer may be [link|http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2004/022904.htm|Shaking Hands With The Devil - U.S. Complicity in Iraq]

"...For passing information to Israel about Saddam's plans to scorch Israel using arms Iraq had amassed thanks to covert American "support," Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment. His discovery that America was facilitating Iraq's acquisition of chemical and biological agents and supplying Iraq with intelligence information , made mortal enemies out of individuals like Weinberger who had spearheaded the pro-Iraq policy.

That information included details of Iraq's chemical warfare production capabilities, including maps showing the location of factories and storage facilities, some of which were apparently constructed by Bechtel Inc., a company originally belonging to none other than Caspar Weinberger.

Weinberger Exposed

Weinberger was enraged by the exposure. Because Pollard's arrest threatened to call public attention to the massive involvement of the U.S. in arming Iraq at a time when its public posture in the Iran/Iraq war was "neutral", a trial had to be avoided at all costs.

A vindictive Weinberger, as Secretary of Defense in 1985, took the outrageous, unprecedented step of personally intervening in the Pollard sentencing, after a plea bargain was worked out to avoid a trial.

Weinberger falsely accused Pollard of treason-a charge that had not been brought against him by the U.S. government-and used the authority of his office to influence the court to sentence him to life imprisonment, breaching the government's plea agreement not to seek a life term.

When he was asked (in an ABC Nightline interview some time ago) about Defense Department proposals to send arms to Iraq, Weinberger tried to deny any involvement. "The little that I know was that it was all handled by the C.I.A." On being pressed to the wall, he admitted, "There might have been a role by some people in the Pentagon. But I didn't keep a hand in that."

Finally, caught lying when shown two highly classified memos sent directly to him in 1982 and 1983 outlining Defense Department proposals to arm Saddam Hussein, Weinberger then refused to discuss the matter any further, citing "national-security concerns."

Years later, Caspar Weinberger recounted his rise to the top of the defense establishment and his controversial tenure there in his autobiography, "In the Arena," where he takes pains to make it very clear he is not Jewish. Asked in an interview with author Edwin Black why he omitted the Pollard incident in his book, Weinberger casually admitted, "Because it was, in a sense, a very minor matter but made very important."

A minor matter? Yet Pollard was sentenced to a life term with no hope of parole based on Weinberger's charges that he had done "catastrophic" damage to national security!

[link|http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2000/120900.htm|Former Head of KGB Refutes Weinberger Lies About Pollard]

""The KGB never received any information whatsoever from Israel or from the Israeli Mossad, whose source was Jonathan Pollard, or from any other source. It never happened."

So declared Vladmir Karyoshkov to me, as if he were making an official statement, in an interview I recently held with him in his Moscow apartment. Karyoshkov was the former head of the KGB until he was ousted from his job in 1991 because of his participation in a failed coup against Gorbachev.

The former head of the KGB, Karyoshkov asked to add to his declaration, his unequivocal refutation of the testimony of the former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, given behind closed doors at the sentencing of Jonathan Pollard in 1987. In his testimony, Weinberger falsely accused Pollard of severely damaging the national security of the United States because the information he had given Israel had found its way into the hands of the KGB.

This claim which originated in the American Central Intelligence Agency continues to be exploited to this day as the principal reason given by the American authorities to justify their stubborn refusal to release Pollard even though he has served more than 15 years in prison..."

No one on Pollard's defense team has ever been able to access the classified document - not even attorneys who have all of the necessary security clearances. Even though denying Pollard the opportunity to challenge the document in court is a clear violation of his constitutional right to due process, the Weinberger memorandum remains secret and inaccessible to this day. So in fact, we don't really know what it says.