@@ Israeli Intelligence gathering under the microscope @@
Arash
November 1, 2005
Israeli Intelligence gathering under the microscope
AIPAC trial could expose ways information is gathered in D.C.
By Ron Kampeas
Email: rkampeas[AT]jta.org
http://www.jta.org/page_bio.asp
http://www.jta.org/storage/articleimages/15990.jpg
Paul McNulty, the U.S. Attorney for eastern Virginia, announces indictments against
two former AIPAC officials at his office in Alexandria, Virginia., on August 4.
Washington -- It’s a classified leak case that could rattle U.S. foreign policy and
fundamentally alter how Washington does business — but while the world watches the
implosion in the vice president’s office, this case is proceeding quietly across the
Potomac.
Motions filed in recent weeks in the case against two former senior staffers of the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have gone virtually unnoticed in the
mainstream media, but their implications could be as explosive as the perjury
indictment last week against Irv Lewis "Scooter" Libby
(http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/libby/libby.php), Vice President Cheney’s chief
of staff and a principal architect of the Iraq war.
Defense motions suggest that the trial, scheduled to start January 2, could expose
the extent of covert U.S. surveillance of an ally, Israel, and how Israeli diplomats
gather information about the United States.
It also could shed light on how journalists use intermediaries like AIPAC to gather
information, on how U.S. officials selectively leak information to manipulate public
perception of U.S. policy and on the inner workings of AIPAC, an organization famed
for its media-shy profile.
A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday on the pre-trial motions in the case charging
Steven Rosen, AIPAC’s former foreign policy chief, and Keith Weissman, its former
Iran analyst, with illegally transmitting classified information.
Lawrence Franklin (http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/DOC_Larry_Franklin_Case.htm), a
Pentagon analyst, pleaded guilty last month to leaking classified information
relating to Iran. Judge T.S. Ellis says he will entertain postponements, partly
because recent Jewish holidays impeded defense preparation.
US vs Franklin: Affidavit 4 May 2005
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/dod/usfrnkln50305cmp.pdf
Indictment: Franklin, Rosen and Weisman
http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/Franklin_Rosen_Weissman_Affidavit.pdf
Two defense motions filed October 21 seek to subpoena as witnesses Israeli and U.S.
diplomats, raising the possibility that the case will expose how the countries share
information and how U.S. diplomats try to manipulate public perception through
strategic leaks.
The diplomats are not named in the documents, but JTA has established that one of the
three Israelis sought in the case is Naor Gilon, who was chief political officer at
the Israeli Embassy in Washington until this summer.
Two of the four U.S. officials sought are David Satterfield, currently the deputy
ambassador in Iraq and formerly an assistant deputy secretary of state, and Kenneth
Pollack, a member of President Clinton’s national security council, JTA has
established.
David Siegel, the Israeli Embassy spokesman, acknowledged receipt of the defense
request for Israeli diplomats’ cooperation. He would not comment further, but Israel
already has offered limited cooperation to the prosecution.
Rosen’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, previously described the Israelis as uncooperative with
the defense.
Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, likened the case to
that of Zacarias Moussaoui, allegedly involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks. A
judge in the same Alexandria, Virginia. courthouse where Steven Rosen and Keith
Weissman will be tried expressed sympathy for Moussaoui’s claim that the government’s
refusal to allow him to see testimony of other Al-Qaida suspects held at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, unfairly prejudiced his case.
“The more the defendants show it’s not their fault that the Israeli witnesses are not
available, the likelier it is they will get relief from the court”, Laurie Levenson
said.
The State Department refused to make Satterfield available for comment. A spokesman
said that the decision about whether or not to testify was Satterfield’s alone, and
the department would not compel him to do so.
Pollack did not return calls.
One motion also seeks to subpoena the FBI agents in the case. Sources close to the
defense have suggested that the strategy is to show how little the FBI came up with
during a broad, six-year investigation.
The strategy also is reflected in a separate exchange of motions on how much of the
transcripts and tapes of tapped phone conversations the prosecution must share with
the defense. The prosecution is offering only nine hours of what could amount to
hundreds of hours of recordings.
The strategy also would have the effect of exposing the breadth of covert attention
that U.S. agencies pay to Israel and to AIPAC, a respected domestic lobbying
organization. The prosecution hopes to stymie that exposure with its own motion that
seeks not only to suppress most of the tapped conversations, but even their quantity.
A close analysis of the indictment shows that FBI tracking of Rosen and Weissman did
not begin in earnest until 2002. Yet there is much in the indictment preceding that
date, suggesting that the FBI might have had other targets, including Israeli
diplomats, journalists and even U.S. officials.
Another government practice with the potential for embarrassment, as the Libby case
has shown, is the tendency for administration officials to selectively leak
information to manipulate public opinion.
Satterfield and Pollack, neither of whom has been charged in the case, allegedly
leaked information related to Iran. If required to testify, they likely would be
asked why it was important to get this information to the pro-Israel lobby.
In previous hearings, Judge Ellis has expressed sympathy for defense demands for full
sharing of files. But it’s not just the U.S. government that stands to be embarrassed
should Ellis grant the motion.
“Any and all statements made by the defendants to the following people are relevant,”
says a defense motion filed October 21. “Their employees, supervisors or co-workers
at AIPAC; their alleged co-conspirators; anyone referred to in the superseding
indictment; any government official of Foreign Nation A”, a reference to Israel; “any
employee or official of the United States; and/or any journalists”.
That list threatens to blow open a number of Washington practices. Diplomats of all
countries in Washington avidly mine government officials and lobbyists for
unclassified tidbits.
Journalists, increasingly denied access to the Bush administration, have taken in
recent years to soliciting information from groups and lobbies close to the White
House. AIPAC is known among journalists as a premier conduit for hard-to-get
information, and two such incidents are cited in the indictment. JTA has learned that
the incidents involve The Washington Post and The Nation.
Additionally, defense sources say they have reason to believe that the defendants’
relationship with a New York Times reporter might have been monitored.
Finally, the defense will argue that the practices alleged were routine for AIPAC.
AIPAC has insisted that Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman overstepped bounds. The group
fired the two in April because of what its spokesman said was information arising out
of the FBI investigation. It is obligated to pay their legal fees under AIPAC’s
bylaws, however.
* In 1917, during the waning days of World War I, a 25-year-old jew named Jacob
Landau had a vision. The mass migration of Jews to the North America meant that more
and more families were now separated by oceans. Jews in one part of the world had a
personal interest in what was happening halfway around the globe. And the Jew as a
whole had an increasing stake in the geopolitical developments transforming much of
the Western world.
Jacob Landau realized that world Jewry needed a mechanism for transmitting vital
information about what was happening to Jew in various parts of the world. The Jew
needed its own source of information, so that it could keep its leaders informed
about important developments of the day and, when necessary, motivate the community
to action. And so, Jacob Landau founded the Jewish Correspondence Bureau, later
renamed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. It was, in fact, the first news agency that
not only gathered but also disseminated news in every part of the world.
http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=15990&intcategoryid=3