@@ Axis Of Spies @@
Arash
September 1, 2004
Axis Of Spies
Here's the axis we should be worried about: The Axis of Spies made up by the
American Enterprise Institute, AIPAC and the Embassy of Israel.If the FBI
weren't so busy trying to catch nonexistent Al Qaeda suspects, they might
consider devoting a few more resources to tracking down this expanding
Israeli nest of spies. (Oh, and The New Republic is very quiet on the Larry
Franklin spy scandal so far. Very quiet. Too quiet.)
The Jerusalem Post reports, at least, the FBI has seized computer files from
AIPAC's Steve Rosen, a good start:
FBI agents on Friday copied the computer hard drive of a senior staffer at
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee who has been questioned in
relation to the case of a Pentagon official suspected of turning over a
classified document either directly to Israel, or via the pro-Israel lobby
group.
That same article, which you can read here , notes that members of Congress
are rallying (predictably) around AIPAC. Welcome to the nest of spies,
Congressman Hoyer.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1093921795845
Ha'aretz reports that 'Abraham Foxman' of the ADL is huffing and puffing,
demanding that a special commission be appointed to investigate the person
who leaked the probe. That's dangerous, Mr. Foxman, because the person who
leaked it did so, it is now obvious, in order to stop the investigation,
since Franklin was cooperating with the FBI to help them get deeper into the
nest of spies. So if we find out who leaked it in the first place, it won't
make Foxman happy. Anyway, here's what he says
(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/471765.html) :
"The one clear fact that can be agreed upon is that there was a malicious
and targeted leak that is more damaging than the actual allegations of
Israeli spying - allegations that in all likelihood are baseless," said
'Abraham Foxman', the national director of the ADL, in an exclusive
interview to Ha'aretz.
"The ADL will demand appointing a commission of inquiry to make every
effort in identifying which official or officials are behind the leak," said
Foxman, who is known to have close relationships with administration
officials and the White House.
"A leak directed against a friendly country like Israel causes grave
damage, and the current suspicions of spying damaged Israel, the local
Jewish community, and relations between the two countries," Foxman said.
Foxman maintains that an official within the administration is responsible
for the leak.
"Someone in the hierarchy is trying to ruin relations between Israel and
the administration and between Israel and the Jewish community," he said
Both Steve Rosen, and another AIPAC spy (okay, alleged spy) Keith Weissman,
are named as part of the FBI's investigation, according to the Jewish
Telegraph Agency and the Los Angeles Times
(http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/latimes274.htm). Neither Rosen nor
Weissman have emerged to defend themselves. "You mean us? Spies?" According
to the New York Times, both have been interviewed by the FBI, and are being
defended by (who else?) Abbe Lowell. The Times also quotes the Israeli
ambassador, Danny Ayalon, saying that the investigation is "fizzling out
because there's nothing there." Besides, we shredded all that.
Meanwhile Jim Lobe, bane of neocons, writing for Inter Press Service, has a
wonderful piece reminding us that Larry Franklin, the hapless Pentagon
apparatchik and official Stooge of Feith, who wandered into an AIPAC-Israeli
embassy meeting that was being monitored by the FBI, is just the tip of the
iceberg. As Lobe points out, many of the principals in the U.S. Israeli
lobby have been caught up in spy probes going back 25 years, including Steve
Bryen and Doug Feith himself. Also under investigation have been Richard
Perle, Michael Ledeen and Paul Wolfowitz, as Lobe reports
(http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=3478), citing a book by Stephen
Green, Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel:
Perle, Ledeen, and Wolfowitz have also been the subject of FBI inquiries,
according to Green's account. In 1970, one year after he was hired by
Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, an FBI wiretap authorized for the Israeli
Embassy picked up Perle discussing classified information with an embassy
official, while Wolfowitz was investigated in 1978 for providing a
classified document on the proposed sale of a U.S. weapons system to an Arab
government to an Israeli official via an AIPAC staffer.
See also Counterpunch's reprint of Sam Husseini's compilation of Israeli spy
stories in the United States, with a dozen or more examples, mostly sources
from major Western press outlets, and a lot of it having to with Israeli
attempts to acquire U.S. military technology. Read it here
http://www.counterpunch.org/husseini08302004.html
There's also a great summary of the story
(http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0831/dailyUpdate.html) so far, citing
worldwide media accounts, by the Christian Science Monitor. Among many
items, the CSM cites the Boston Globe account from a few days ago reporting
on investigations of the Office of Special Plans, where Franklin worked, for
covert operations targeting Iran and Syria.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/31/2d_probe_at_the_pentagon_examines_actions_on_iraq?pg=2