in 1985, jonathan palard, was arrested for selling thousands of classified documents to israeli intelligence>> one thing that he has said that his attorneys and supports say is that he never intended to harm the united states, what he was doing was giving israel important information at a time it was under pressure, siege from its enemy neighbors. >> reporter: but american officials say he put u.s. national security at risk. >> it was indeed a serious effort by the israeli government to penetrate our intelligence community, and it was successful. >> reporter: he took a plea deal in hopes of a lessen sentence, but the judge sentenced him to life in prison. >> the justice department double crossed him at that time. and so i thought, while what he did was wrong, and he deserved to be punished, he did not deserve a life sentence. so and i some others took up his cause. >> reporter: for three decades supports from called for pallard's release. in july a parole board decided they would release him from this north carolina prison in november. >> translator: i'm counting the days, the hours, the min