Arab News
December 31, 2004
Did FBI Use Pentagon Analyst to
‘Sting’ AIPAC?
By Barbara
Ferguson
WASHINGTON — Washington was aghast when news broke
accusing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (http://www.aipac.org), a pro-Israeli lobby, of
passing on top-secret US information to the Israeli government. Now Jewish
newspapers are reporting the FBI used the Pentagon’s top Iran analyst in a
“sting operation” to pass “foreign policy strategic information to two AIPAC
officials.”
Earlier this year, the US accused a Defense Department
analyst, Lawrence (Larry) Franklin, of passing classified US
information on Iran to Israel.
Lawrence (Larry) Franklin
The FBI investigation into AIPAC’s activities began after
it monitored a conversation between Franklin and reporters at CBS News. During
the call he allegedly revealed information about “aggressive Iranian policy in
Iraq,” says The Forward (http://www.forward.com), a weekly Jewish
newspaper based in New York.
Janine Zechariah in the Jerusalem Post
(http://www.jpost.com) first reported the FBI
sting, saying Franklin was unaware that FBI’s counterintelligence division was
monitoring his May 2004 conversation with the CBS reporters.
Franklin allegedly revealed sensitive intelligence
information which “compromised methods of intelligence gathering,” says the
paper.
One of those reporters, said Forward, was Adam
Ciralsky, a former lawyer at the CIA who sued the agency after he quit
in 1999. Ciralsky said he was harassed for his Jewish roots and his connection
to Israel.
Adam Ciralsky (CBS TV)
The paper claims that Franklin himself was under
investigation since the FBI discovered that in December 2001 he met with former
Iranian spy and arms merchant Manucher Ghorbanifar. The meeting
was not “authorized.” It was only after Franklin’s telephone conversation last
May, however, that the FBI’s counterintelligence division felt they had enough
evidence to close in on Franklin.
Arab arms dealer "Adnan Khashoggi" and Mossad agent &
arms dealer "Manucher Ghorbanifar" (Dec.12, 1986)
The FBI then put the pressure on Franklin to work as a
counter espionage agent: “Threatened with charges of espionage and decades of
imprisonment, Franklin was deployed to set up a sting against AIPAC,” says
Forward, citing “sources.”
Franklin was terrified by the FBI threats says the paper,
noting he is the sole supporter of his five children and wife who is said to be
ill and confined to a wheelchair.
According the Jerusalem Post, the FBI put together a sting
operation and instructed Franklin to offer AIPAC officials urgent classified
information about Iranian plans to kidnap and murder Israelis in
northern Iraq. It is unclear whether this information is true or merely
bait.
Nor does it specify what the
Israelis were doing in northern Iraq.
In July, Franklin passed on this information to
Steve Rosen, AIPAC’s director of foreign policy issues and
Keith Weissman, an Iran specialist, during a luncheon in
Washington.
Keith Weissman
With this information in hand, the AIPAC officials then
allegedly contacted the Israeli Embassy. Within the month, the FBI
counterintelligence division raided the AIPAC offices and confiscated files.
Shortly afterwards and delivered subpoenas to both Rosen and
Weissman.
On Dec. 1, the FBI issued subpoenas to four additional
AIPAC staffers, all of whom are due to appear before a grand jury within the
next two weeks. AIPAC says it is the “victim of a witch hunt” and Franklin is
not speaking to the press.
What is not known is who leaked the information of the
Aug. 27 FBI counterintelligence’s raid on AIPAC. The raid and the information
about “a Pentagon “mole” working with AIPAC were immediately leaked to CBS, says
Forward.
CBS’ Leslie Stahl broke the story on the
network’s evening news. While on its website, CBS headlined: “The FBI believes
it has ‘solid’ evidence that the suspected mole supplied Israel with classified
materials that include secret White House policy deliberations on
Iran.”
Leslie Stahl (CBS TV)
As a result of the operation against Franklin and AIPAC,
four congressmen have asked the Bush administration to brief Congress on the FBI
investigation.