@@ Jail Jewish Cabal @@
Arash
December 3, 2004
Jail the War Party For treason
By Justin Raimondo
It was very obviously a well-planned operation, executed with military
precision: the FBI moved in on a nondescript office building near the
Capitol, Wednesday morning, arriving at 10, and staying until past 4. p.m.
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-12-01-fbi-israel-iran_x.htm)
According to one source, "this was a massive raid - the FBI surrounded" the
place and carted away a load of evidence. "This is no joke," the source told
journalist Laura Rozen (http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/001444.html).
Another raid on an Islamic charity with alleged ties to terrorists? A drug
bust? A hit on a child porn ring? No, none of the above: instead, the
G-men's target (http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10315035.htm) was
the Washington headquarters of what 'Fortune' magazine has rated the second
most powerful lobbying outfit in the nation's capital: the American-Israel
Public Affairs Committee "AIPAC"
(http://www.wrmea.com/archives/July_Aug_2004/0407027.html).
This will make the second time
(http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,845221,00.html) this year
that the feds have come knocking on AIPAC's door: the first was in late
summer, when the 'Larry Franklin' case
(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/27/eveningnews/main639143.shtml)
first surfaced and was trumpeted on major news media outlets, including CBS.
Franklin, mid-level Pentagon official, had been caught red-handed supplying
Israeli government officials with classified information via two 'AIPAC'
officials, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman
(http://www.canada.com/news/world/story.html?id=cc216a4c-abcf-41a2-bc24-80cdef16727a).
As the story began to come out, it became apparent that Franklin was just a
small fish in a much larger aquarium
(http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5853706/site/newsweek), and had been scooped up in
this web of intrigue almost by accident. As Laura Rozen and Jason Vest
relate in 'The American Prospect'
(http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5853706/site/newsweek):
"In late July, as this debate raged, a Pentagon analyst named Larry Franklin
telephoned an acquaintance who worked at a pro-Israel lobbying group, the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)."
Franklin, who works in the policy shop run by the neocons' man on the
ground, Douglas Feith
(http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EH08Ak01.html), told his AIPAC
friend that he was worried about U.S. government inaction in the face of
alleged attempts by Iran to penetrate southern Iraq and counter growing
Israeli influence in Kurdistan
(http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040628fa_fact).
A meeting was arranged. A few weeks later, as Rosen and Vest report, FBI
agents showed up at the door of Franklin's friend, asking about the Iran
analyst in what seemed like a routine background check.
In truth, the agents were interested in far more than Franklin: the FBI's
counterintelligence unit had been eavesdropping on AIPAC for over two years,
in what appears to be a wide-ranging and rapidly developing investigation
into Israeli penetration of U.S. government agencies. Franklin had been
swept up in a massive and ongoing counterintelligence operation aimed at a
cabal of high-level Israeli moles.
The Franklin affair was leaked to the media, and the FBI, which had been
hoping to catch bigger fish than a mid-level analyst, was forced into
action: they raided AIPAC's headquarters, copied computer disks belong to
Rosen and Weissman, and conducted interviews with a number of employees.
Rosen and Weissman soon stopped answering questions, however, and demanded
legal counsel.
The story gathered headlines for a few days, and then disappeared off the
radar screen as quickly and mysteriously as it had appeared - until now. In
this latest raid, the feds not only carried away bales of evidence, but they
also came bearing gifts: four subpoenas
(http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_11_28.php) summoning
AIPAC's executive director, "Howard Kohr"
(http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:YQHq-fBP2mQJ:www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/3724/edition_id/67/format/html/displaystory.html+%22Howard+Kohr%22&hl=en),
managing director "Richard Fishman"
(http://www.namebase.org/xfin/Richard-Fishman.html), research director
"Raphael Danziger" (http://www.meforum.org/article/279), and "Renee
Rothstein"
(http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:SRDGLS15YKIJ:www.jewishinsandiego.org/calendar_home.html%3Feventdate%3D5/18/2004%26selCalview%3Ddlist%26cat%3D-1+%22Renee+Rothstein%22+aipac&hl=en),
the group's communications director, to testify before a grand jury.
The investigation, formerly conducted by FBI counterintelligence czar "David
W. Szady" (http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/COBW6035/szady.html), was transferred
to the jurisdiction of U.S. attorney "Paul J. McNulty"
(http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae/biography.html), in Alexandria, Virginia: the
Financial Times reported, just before the presidential election, that agents
were being told to turn down the heat
(http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=3489).
But the heat is on again, and there is every prospect that it will get much
hotter for AIPAC and Israel's amen corner in the U.S. even as the winter
cold sets in.
The simple reason for a sudden change in the weather is that, as one
official put it, "This is no joke." What is involved here is nothing less
than treason - a spy ring far more sophisticated and dangerous to U.S.
national security than the infamous "Jonathan Pollard"
(http://www.aci.net/kalliste/pollard_em.htm) espionage operation conducted
by Israel in the 1980s. The "AIPAC" spy scandal goes way beyond Franklin, as
the Washington Post reported back in the beginning of September
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57595-2004Sep2?language=%20printer):
"The FBI probe is actually much broader, according to senior U.S. officials,
and has been underway for at least two years. Several sources familiar with
the case say the probe now extends to other Pentagon personnel who have a
particular interest in assisting both Israel and Chalabi, the former Iraqi
dissident who was long a Pentagon favorite but who has fallen out of favor
with the U.S. government."
Post reporters Robin Wright and Thomas E. Ricks identified "at least two
common threads" in this complex and multi-pronged investigation:
"First, the FBI is investigating whether the same people passed highly
classified information to two disparate allies - [Ahmed] Chalabi and a
pro-Israel lobbying group. Second, at least some of the intelligence in both
instances included sensitive information about Iran. The broader
investigation is also looking into the movement of classified materials on
U.S. intentions in Iraq and on the Arab-Israeli peace process, sources
added."
The Chalabi aspect of the probe surfaced after a visit by Iraqi government
officials to the Baghdad headquarters of the Iraqi National Congress
(http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/20/1085028463473.html?from=storylhs).
Robin Wright and Thomas Ricks report that classified U.S. intelligence
material was discovered in the May raid, a widely-publicized incident that
marked the meteoric decline of Chalabi, once the darling of the U.S.
occupiers, and his descent into disgrace
(http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001951484_floyd09.html).
Long in thrall to the Iranian government, Chalabi had somehow obtained
access to the most closely-held secrets (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4881157)
regarding U.S. intelligence sources and methods
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1224075,00.html), revealing to
Tehran that the U.S was monitoring the Iranians' internal communications.
On November 20, Washington hit out again
(http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/001413.html) at the neocons' Iraqi
poster boy (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20040607&s=scheer0525),
raiding four INC offices, utilizing the good offices of the Iraqi Ministry
of the Interior (http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/001421.html) and some
"American contractors." Now they're bitch-slapping the AIPAC crowd with
subpoenas, grilling them in front of a grand jury convened to hear evidence
of Israel's American fifth column in Washington. The timing of these two
raids is, as they say, no coincidence.
Robin Wright and Thomas Ricks point out two threads of this investigation,
and draw out the implications with what limited information they have been
able to discern from a very close-mouthed U.S. attorney and a few anonymous
insiders. These two trails - the Iranian spy angle, and the AIPAC aspect -
lead to the same group of individuals, but there are plenty of sub-trails
and footpaths to follow, all of which point to the very same crowd - a
powerful faction (http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/neocon) in this
administration, one credited - if that is the word - with steering us into
war with Iraq and trying mightily to navigate us into a conflict with Iran:
the neoconservatives (http://www.antiwar.com/orig/lind1.html).
Centered mainly in the upper reaches of the Pentagon's civilian leadership,
and in the Office of the Vice President
(http://www.antiwar.com/justin/jspecial100203.html), the recent history of
this group is defined by its fervor for a new war in the Middle East. The
conquest and occupation of Iraq, and the "liberation" of the region
(excepting Israel, of course) has long been the announced aim of such
worthies as "Paul Wolfowitz"
(http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Paul_Wolfowitz), "Richard
Perle" (http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Richard_N._Perle), and
"Douglas Feith"
(http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Douglas_Feith).
They filled the middle reaches of the national security bureaucracy with
their underlings and ideologues - like Franklin - who were strategically
placed to doctor the intelligence and stovepipe
(http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact) lies in two
directions: to the general public, and to the White House (as well as funnel
U.S. secrets to Israel).
The "Office of Special Plans"
(http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/01/12_405.html) - created by
Wolfowitz's command and presided over by Feith - was the locus of lies when
it came to rationalizing the invasion of Iraq.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:N4-l3c6LzCcJ:www.newyorker.com/fact/content/%3F030512fa_fact+%22office+of+special+plans%22+wolfowitz&hl=en
Not trusting the CIA or any of the other intelligence-gathering agencies to
come up with the required "proof" of nonexistent Iraqi WMD and "links" to
Osama bin Laden, the War Party did an end run around the U.S. intelligence
community and built up their own parallel agency, one capable of churning
out the "right" answers. The INC, on the take for millions, fed them a
steady diet of
fables(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F02%2F19%2Fwirq19.xml),
forgeries
(http://www.iraq4u.com/applications/news/anmviewer.asp?a=1445&z=13), and the
tall tales
(http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/7951033.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp)
of phony "defectors".
"Julian Borger" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999737,00.html)
of the Guardian, "Robert Dreyfuss"
(http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041004&s=dreyfuss), and "Karen
Kwiatkowski", a former Pentagon analyst who worked alongside many of these
people, including Franklin, have all pointed to direct Israeli involvement
with the OSP. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0807-02.htm
Franklin was caught trying to hand over a copy of a draft presidential
directive on Iran to Israeli agents, but the other threads of this
investigation involve the decision to go to war in Iraq.
November was the worst month yet
(http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/10306663.htm) in terms of the
U.S. casualty rate, and as the ugliness of this war takes on new and more
grotesque dimensions
(http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/29/news/toll.html), the question of who
lied us into war is increasingly on the minds of Americans.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j070903.html
The wives and mothers of the dead and horribly wounded lift up their eyes to
heaven and raise their voices in a plaintive cry:
Who did this to us?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/25/national/main638549.shtml
Who gained from this war - aside from Osama bin Laden, that is? It's a valid
enough question to ask in trying to determine how policy was formed, and how
we came to fall into the Iraqi quagmire. But it's less than half the story:
and that's the significance of the AIPAC spy scandal.
For the first time, we have solid evidence that the Israeli government has
actively sought, with some success, to penetrate the policymaking apparatus
that steers the U.S. ship of state. The neocons have often been accused -
including in this space - of hijacking American policy in the Middle East
and utilizing U.S. military power to Israel's advantage. Now we are
beginning to get the full picture of exactly how - with the full knowledge
and active collaboration of the Israeli government - this was done.
The implications of the AIPAC affair are enormous. For instance: we are told
that Condoleezza Rice, our putative Secretary of State, was briefed on this
investigation when the Bush II crowd first came to Washington, along with
her aide, Stephen Hadley
(http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/hadley/hadley.php) - now slated to take
her place as the President's national security chief
(http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/whitehouse/la-na-hadley17nov17,1,591276.story?coll=la-news-politics-white_house).
While Hadley's position doesn't requires confirmation, Condi will face the
Senate, and we wonder if there isn't just one Senator who will ask her how
this knowledge colored her handling of intelligence matters when it came to
"evidence" of Iraqi WMD. How did so much get by her - and what did she know
about the sources of alleged "intelligence" that was being fed to the White
House by various interested parties?
We know what she knew, although the exact contours of that knowledge have
yet to be fully revealed, and we know when she knew it. What inquiring minds
want to know is why she didn't act on her knowledge, and take measures to
counteract the covert cabal whose tentacles had slithered into the White
House.
There are all sorts of other angles
(http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?030331fa_fact1) to this tale of spy vs.
spy, and I don't have space
(http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2004050101.html) to cover them all
in one column. In any event, the AIPAC affair - in the course of its slow
but steady development from a dark suspicion to a grand jury investigation
and finally to a full-blown court case and cause célèbre - is going to
reveal some hard truths about the recent course of our disastrous foreign
policy, and may even motivate some radical changes, in the long term. In the
short term, however, it's going to be an awful lot of fun watching the
cockroaches scramble for cover, skittering across the floor in a frantic
effort to avoid being squished.
The jailing of the War Party - they said it couldn't be done. I can't tell
you how many wacked-out letters I've gotten telling me that "they" will
never let this happen, that the investigation into the AIPAC spy nest - and
the "Plame affair" (http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=1031), the
Niger uranium forgeries (http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=3057),
etc., etc. - would sink like so many stones, never to be seen or heard of
again. To them I say: you're wrong. There is no all-powerful conspiracy that
controls the U.S. government and has the power to bury this treason forever.
There are patriots, yet, in our midst - yes, even in the government! - who
will not stand idly by as traitors run rampant in the corridors of power.
And they have just yet begun to fight..
NOTES IN THE MARGIN
The sinister history of Israel's secret war against America didn't start
with the Franklin Affair, or AIPAC passing off classified materials to
Israeli government agents: it reaches all the way back to the origins of our
seemingly endless "war on terrorism." My short book, "The Terror Enigma:
9/11 and the Israeli Connection", chronicles the story behind the "official"
narrative of the worst terrorist attack in American history - and exposes
the dark secret at the core of the U.S.-Israeli "alliance." The Terror
Enigma will help you understand how and why Israel launched a major covert
operation on American soil - and change the way you think about 9/11.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595296823/antiwarbookstore
* Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com. He is the author
of An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1573928097/antiwarbookstore/).
He is also the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of
the Conservative Movement (with an Introduction by Patrick J. Buchanan),
(http://antiwar.com/raimondo/book1.html), and Into the Bosnian Quagmire: The
Case Against U.S. Intervention in the Balkans (1996).
He is a contributing editor for The American Conservative
(http://www.amconmag.com), a Senior Fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute,
and an Adjunct Scholar with the Ludwig von Mises Institute
(http://www.mises.org), and writes frequently for Chronicles: A Magazine of
American Culture http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org