@@ Jews: Everyone telling truth is an Anti-Semite @@
Arash
September 10, 2004
White House Draws Fire From Congress, Officials Over Leak of FBI Probe
Wexler: Community 'Broadbrushed'
By OrI Nir
With America's pro-Israel lobby scrambling to combat media leaks from
unnamed government officials, the White House is drawing criticism from
congressmen and Jewish communal officials over the FBI investigation into
allegations that officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
illegally transferred secret information to Israel.
Lawmakers and Jewish organizational leaders are questioning the motivation
for the investigation and its two-year course, stressing that no indictments
have emerged - only leaks from administration officials familiar with the
FBI probe. In addition to expressing outrage over the media leaks, several
Congressmen are also condemning the investigation itself, which they say has
spawned unfair accusations of disloyalty against Aipac and represents an
abuse of power on the part of Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"To think that one of the leading American Jewish organizations has been
investigated for two years, and the highest people at the White House were
aware of it, is extremely unsettling," said Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida
Democrat. "If there was an individual or group who broke the law, they need
to be held accountable. But the broad-brushing of Aipac and the American
Jewish community is extremely inflammatory and needs to be stopped."
Wexler, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Ashcroft
last week demanding that the Justice Department either submit charges or
"exonerate the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of this public
castigation."
Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank said that the investigation "does appear
to be an effort to discredit, to get AIPAC." He said: "I'm troubled by it.
It's a very inappropriate effort to criminalize a policy debate. It's John
Ashcroft, and the president and [Vice President Dick] Cheney."
Also voicing criticism were the two Jewish Republican senators, 'Arlen
Specter' of Pennsylvania and 'Norm Coleman' of Minnesota. Specter told the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that Ashcroft should launch an investigation
into the leaks. "I know AIPAC; I know its integrity," he said. "It's a
smear." Coleman said that "the real issue here is preventing leaks - of
classified materials and about ongoing investigations." The Minnesota
senator argued that "to leak details about an ongoing FBI investigation and
the alleged role of AIPAC is premature at best and a smear campaign at
worst."
At least one lawmaker, Representative John Conyers of Michigan, was calling
for a congressional investigation regarding the substance of the
allegations. Conyers, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary
Committee, asked the committee's Republican chairman, James Sensenbrenner of
Wisconsin, to open an investigation into the claim that a "rogue element of
the United States government" may have worked with a foreign government in
possible contravention of foreign policy.
In Jewish communal circles, the criticisms and calls for investigations were
focused on either the media leaks or the probe itself.
'Malcolm Hoenlein', executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents
of Major American Jewish Organizations, suggested that the administration
and media had blundered. "There will be a lot of hard questions that will
have to be answered by a lot of people when this is all over," Hoenlein
said. "People will have to be held to account. What happened? Why it
happened? What was going on in the last two years?"
'Jack Rosen', president of the American Jewish Congress, echoed several
other Jewish organizational leaders in demanding an investigation into the
leaks. "Who did it and why? What's the agenda?"
The rising chorus of criticism comes as it becomes clear that, contrary to
the predictions of AIPAC leaders, the controversy is not fading away. In the
two weeks since CBS News first reported that the FBI is investigating
allegations that a Defense Department analyst transferred secret information
to Israel through AIPAC, anonymous sources have been leaking information to
the media on a regular basis, suggesting that the probe extends beyond one
Pentagon official sharing one document with Israeli diplomats or pro-Israeli
lobbyists:
. According to press reports quoting several administration officials, the
investigation into possible wrongdoing by AIPAC was launched more than two
years ago, based on suspicions that AIPAC employees passed secret
information to Israel. One report said that the president's national
security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and her top deputy, Stephen Hadley, were
informed of the probe not long after Bush took office in 2001.
. The alleged transfer of a secret White House policy brief by a Pentagon
Iran analyst, Larry Franklin, to Aipac staffers last summer was seen by
investigators as the "smoking gun." It advanced the investigation,
particularly after Franklin agreed to cooperate with investigators.
. FBI agents wiretapped the homes of two senior AIPAC staffers, 'Steve
Rosen' and 'Keith Weissman', who were interviewed by FBI agents August 27,
the day the story broke. Their offices were searched and the hard drive of
Rosen's computer was copied, according to reports. Abbe Lowell, a criminal
lawyer who specializes in white-collar criminal defense, is representing
Rosen and Weissman. In the past, Lowell has defended politicians accused of
ethics violations.
. At the Pentagon, agents focused on Franklin but also interviewed other
officials at the office of Under Secretary of Defense for Policy 'Douglas
Feith'. According to press reports, Feith was also interviewed, and some of
these Pentagon officials, according to reports, are also being investigated
on suspicion that they may have told Iraqi dissident Ahmed Chalabi that the
United States has broken secret Iranian communications codes - information
that Chalabi is suspected of having transferred to Iran. According to one
report, the Chalabi investigation, or even a part of the investigation, is
linked with connections between Pentagon officials and pro-Israel lobbyists.
Other reports say the two investigations are separate.
. Franklin, according to an Israeli press report, was in contact not only
with the political counselor at Israel's Washington embassy, 'Naor Gilon',
but also with the intelligence attaché, a colonel who was identified by his
first initial, Y. The colonel, according to the daily Ma'ariv, received
information from Franklin and reported his contacts with the American
analyst to his superiors at Israel's military intelligence command in Tel
Aviv. Israeli officials told Ma'ariv, however, that there was nothing
illegal or unethical in the contacts with Franklin, which are described as
"working meetings."
. Parallel to its investigation into Aipac's conduct, the FBI had reportedly
been conducting surveillance of Israeli diplomat Gilon. The Aipac
investigation and the surveillance of Gilon reportedly converged - and led
to the Pentagon - after Franklin walked into a meeting between Gilon and the
two Aipac staffers at a Washington restaurant a year ago.
. Media reports, attributed to government sources, also said that despite
its denials, Israel still runs an aggressive spying operation in the United
States, which American counterterrorism agents are surveying.
The wave of allegations and leaks has Jewish activists worried. "The longer
this story is out there without concrete facts or some conclusion, the more
we will bleed," one Jewish organizational official said.
One concern voiced by Jewish activists was that Aipac's enemies would use
this opportunity to discredit the Jewish community. The first such salvo
came from conservative pundit and former presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan
last Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Alluding to Jonathan Pollard, the American Jewish Navy analyst now serving a
life sentence for spying for Israel, Buchanan said: "We also need to
investigate whether there is a nest of Pollardites in the Pentagon who have
been transmitting American secrets through AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, over to
Reno Road, the Israeli embassy, to be transferred to Mr. Sharon." If the
allegations proved true, he said, "we are getting dangerously close to the
T-word," an apparent reference to treason.
Such attacks on AIPAC will affect the whole Jewish community, communal
insiders said. An official with one major Jewish organization worried that
Aipac's aggressive lobbying tactics have alienated some lawmakers, making
them more likely to move away from the organization as the scandal unfolds.
"They have a crappy reputation with some members of Congress who say certain
[positive] things publicly, and behind the scenes say: 'I am tired of them
twisting my arm.'"
Several Jewish activists, speaking on condition of anonymity, also cautioned
against what they described as a defiant reaction on the part of some
communal leaders who raised the specter of antisemitic conspiracy.
"If every single time we get into trouble we cry antisemitism, no one is
going to believe us when we confront the real problem of antisemitism," a
senior official of a Jewish organization said. Another organizational
official said: "It's ridiculous to react like that before you know what
happened there. In the absence of accurate knowledge, any comment is just
silly."
-- With reporting by E.J. Kessler
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