@@ Jews mad at American patriots @@
Arash
September 10, 2004
Neocons Blast Bush's Inaction On 'Spy' Affair
By Marc Perelman
In an indication of their growing estrangement with the Bush administration,
neoconservatives are slamming the White House for failing to stop what they
describe as an antisemitic campaign to marginalize them being conducted by
the CIA and the State Department.
This view was outlined in a memo circulating among neoconservative foreign
policy analysts in Washington. Obtained by the Forward, the memo criticizes
the White House for not refuting press reports on the FBI's investigation of
Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin that suggest wrongdoing on the part of
Jewish officials at the Defense Department.
"If there is any truth to any of the accusations, why doesn't the White
House demand that they bring on the evidence? On the record," the memo
stated. "There's an increasing antisemitic witch hunt."
A source who has seen the memo said it was written by 'Michael Rubin', a
former member of the Pentagon's policy planning staff who dealt with Iran
policy. Rubin, now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
(AEI), declined to comment for this story.
"I feel like I'm in Paris, not Washington," the author of the memo wrote. He
added: "I'm disappointed at the lack of leadership that let things get where
they are, and which is allowing these bureaucratics (sic) to spin out of
control."
The memo comes as the FBI is investigating the possibility that Franklin
passed classified information on Iran policy to officials of the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), who in turn provided the documents
to Israel.
Israel and AIPAC have denied any wrongdoing. Media reports suggest that
several other Pentagon officials have been questioned in connection to the
probe.
Some Washington insiders claim that the White House silence over the
Franklin affair reflects a growing view within the administration that the
neoconservatives widely seen as leading proponents of the Iraq war represent
a mounting political burden, given the continuing chaos in Iraq.
While President Bush and his closest advisers openly shared the
neoconservatives' belief that American military action was needed to remove
Saddam Hussein, the two sides seem to have parted ways over Iran.
Neoconservative analysts in and out of government are calling on the United
States to attempt to secure regime change in Tehran. The administration has
increasingly suggested that it has no plans to take such forceful steps
against Iran.
The recent controversy surrounding the FBI investigations also can be traced
to renewed concerns in some quarters of the intelligence and security
communities that Washington's close relationship with Jerusalem-centered, in
the critics' view, in the neoconservative group at the Pentagon is hurting
American national interests.
While they generally refuse to speak on the record, some former intelligence
and law-enforcement officials have alleged that Israel operates an
aggressive spying operation in America. Israeli officials, including Prime
Minister Sharon, have vehemently denied such claims, insisting that their
country does not conduct espionage operations against the United States.
Some observers point to the harsh treatment of accused spy 'Jonathan
Pollard' as evidence of the intelligence community's strong feelings on the
issue. Pollard, a former Navy civilian analyst, is serving a life sentence
for providing Israel with classified documents about Soviet armament.
Members of the security establishment have worked aggressively to block
attempts by Jewish organizations to have Pollard's sentence commuted on
humanitarian grounds.
This old resentment toward Israel and its supporters in the United States
has found new echo with the growing criticism of the neoconservatives for
their advocacy of war in Iraq.
In recent months, several critics of the neoconservatives' influence on
Middle Eastern policy have openly accused Israel of pushing a hawkish
agenda.
Retired general 'Anthony Zinni', a former chief of the U.S. Central Command
and presidential Middle East envoy, told CBS in May that "the worst-kept
secret in Washington" was that the neoconservatives pushed the war in Iraq
for Israel's benefit.
Similar criticism of Israel and Jewish groups appeared in the recent book
"Imperial Hubris," by Anonymous, who was later identified as 'Michael
Scheuer', a serving senior CIA official.
"Objectively, al-Qaeda does not seem off the mark when it describes the
U.S.-Israel relationship as a detriment to America," wrote Scheuer, a former
head of the CIA analytical team focusing on Al Qaeda. "One can only react to
this stunning reality by giving all praise to Israel's diplomats,
politicians, intelligence services, U.S.-citizen spies, and the retired
senior U.S. officials and wealthy Jewish-American organizations who lobby an
always amenable Congress on Israel's behalf."
In recent months, signs of alienation from the neoconservatives have come as
well from the Bush administration. American officials, for example, have
accused longtime Pentagon favorite 'Ahmed Chalabi', leader of the Iraqi
National Congress, of warning Iranian intelligence officials that the United
States had broken Iran's secret communications codes.
The FBI's investigation to determine who in government had told Chalabi
about the secret code-breaking operation has focused on Defense Department
officials, sources said.
American officials, speaking anonimously, have given conflicting comments on
whether the Franklin and Chalabi probes are linked.
The barrage of news reports on the allegations of improper conduct on the
part of AIPAC and Pentagon officials has fueled a suspicion among
neo-conservatives that they are the victims of a smear campaign quietly
endorsed by the White House. The recent memo being circulated in
neoconservative circles points a finger at several State Department
officials, including Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and at
members of the National Security Council, including Robert Blackwill, who
took over Iraq policy recently and is said to be behind the Chalabi
crackdown.
The memo, in an apparent reference to a June 2003 article in The Washington
Post describing administration infighting over U.S. policy toward Tehran,
asserted that media leaks from the State Department sank an effort by
Pentagon officials to call for more aggressive action against Iran in a key
policy document called the national security presidential directive, or
NSPD.
"It was bad enough that the White House rewarded the June 15, 2003 leak by
canceling consideration of the NSPD," the memo stated. "It showed the State
Department that leaks could supplant real debate. But while Armitage or
Blackwell (sic) might be seeking to score points inside the beltway, they
are feeding conspiracies in the Middle East that will sink the president's
policies in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, etc."
To back up claims of anti-semitism, the memo points to reports that the FBI
has hired 'Stephen Green', a longtime critic of American-Israeli ties, as a
consultant. A former United Nations official, Green has a long record of
claiming that Israel uses Jewish Americans, some of them prominent, to spy
on the United States.
Green has said in interviews that FBI officials interviewed him at length in
the past few weeks.
"Green has... been on a one-man mission to expose deep-cover Israeli agents
for decades," the memo said.
Green stresssed that the bureau had sought him out "and not the other way
around" and that its officials did not ask about Franklin but about leading
neoconservatives like Wolfowitz and Feith.
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http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=perelman20040909327