@@ More charges to come in jew-spy-ring @@
Arash
May 5, 2005
More charges to come in Pentagon analyst affair?
Inquiry into leaked classified documents has 'cast a cloud' over pro-Israel lobby group.
By Tom Regan
Letters: oped at csps.com
Supporters of two recently fired
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6059-2005Apr20.html) senior staff members
of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIPAC) say
they are worried that the two men will be soon charged as part of the FBI's investigation
(http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3168339) into Pentagon analyst Larry
Franklin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Franklin).
The New York Times reports that the two men (Steven Rosen, formerly AIPAC's director of
foreign policy issues, and Keith Weissman, formerly AIPAC's senior Middle East analyst)
were not specifically named in the charges brought Wednesday against Mr. Franklin for
illegally disclosing highly classified information
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/politics/05spy.html?oref=login). But they were later
identified by sources as the other two people present at the meeting where Franklin
allegedly disclosed the information.
The New York Times also reports that the charges against Larry Franklin have "cast a
cloud" over AIPAC, and are creating difficulties for some members, past and present, of
the Bush administration.
The investigation has proved awkward as well for a group of conservative Republicans who
held high-level civilian jobs at the Pentagon during President Bush's first term and the
buildup toward the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and who were also close to AIPAC.
They were led by Paul Wolfowitz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz), the former
deputy defense secretary who has been named president of the World Bank. Franklin once
worked in the office of one of Wolfowitz's allies, Douglas Feith
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Feith), the undersecretary for policy at the
Pentagon, who has also said he is leaving the administration later this year.
The New York Post reports that Mr. Franklin "coughed up" information about attacks on U.S.
troops in Iraq (http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/23793.htm) to two employees of
AIPAC. The New York Post also notes, however, that this case bears little resemblance to
more serious espionage cases such as the Jonathon Pollard case. Pollard was "an
intelligence analyst for the Navy who pleaded guilty to spying for Israel in the 1980s"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard).
Israel said Wednesday it has no involvement with Franklin and had received no secrets.
The Washington Post reports that law enforcement officials
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/04/AR2005050400922.html?sub=AR)
have said that one aspect of their investigations concern AIPAC, while the other aspect is
"whether intelligence on Iran made it into the hands of [Iraqi dissident, former Pentagon
favorite and now Iraqi cabinet minister] Ahmed Chalabi".
FBI counterintelligence investigators last year questioned current and former US officials
about whether other Iran specialists at the Pentagon and in Vice President Cheney's office
might have been involved in passing classified information to Chalabi or to AIPAC, sources
have said.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reports that the U.S. Justice Department "provided a rare first
peek (http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/572470.html) at what really happened in the
Franklin-AIPAC affair".
The indictment handed down Wednesday shows that the FBI were watching Franklin very
closely, and the surveillance included wiretaps and searches of his home and office.
(Authorities found 83 classified documents in Franklin's home).
Ha'aretz says, however, that the indictment still leaves three questions unresolved: "What
information was transferred, what, if anything, are the AIPAC people suspected of, and if
and how is Israel involved in the case".
The principal question is the second one – what was the role of 'U.S. Person 1' and 'U.S.
Person 2', as the two dismissed AIPAC officials who received information from Franklin,
Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, are referred to in the indictment.
FBI investigators go to great lengths in the indictment to explain that Franklin clearly
told the two that the information was 'highly classified' and that he asked them not to
use it. If the FBI has proof of this, it will make it very difficult for the AIPAC
officials to defend themselves, as they cannot claim that they did not know what type of
information they were receiving.
The Jewish Times of Baltimore reported recently that AIPAC has already started to change
its lobbying tactics (http://www.jewishtimes.com/News/4683.stm) on Capitol Hill, to
compensate for no longer having the expertise of the two fired staffers, especially Mr.
Rosen and his knowledge of both Washington and the Middle East.
Rosen's imprint remains in substantial ways: Iran's threat to Israel, his top priority in
recent years, is to be the centerpiece of this year's AIPAC's policy conference, which
begins May 22. The conference will feature a walk-through exhibit on how close Iran is to
developing a nuclear weapon.
Yet tactically Rosen's departure already is being felt as AIPAC returns to its roots,
working Capitol Hill and moving away from the executive branch lobbying that was
emblematic of Rosen's approach.
The Washington Post reports that a lawyer for Mr. Rosen said he "never solicited, received
or passed on any classified documents from Larry Franklin and Mr. Franklin will never be
able to say otherwise". The Washington Post also reports that AIPAC declined to comment on
the situation.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/dailyUpdate.html