Posted on 05/04/2005 8:49:52 AM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI arrested a Pentagon analyst Wednesday on charges that he illegally passed classified information about potential attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq to employees of a pro-Israel group.
Larry Franklin, 58, of Kearneysville, W. Va., turned himself in Wednesday morning, FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman said. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Virginia later Wednesday, Weierman said.
Franklin, who specialized on Iran and Middle Eastern affairs, allegedly gave the information to two people not entitled to receive it at a luncheon meeting at a restaurant in Arlington, Va., in June 2003, the Justice Department said in a statement. The people at the lunch were employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a law enforcement official said on condition of anonymity because they are not identified in court papers.
FBI agents twice searched AIPAC offices as part of the investigation about whether Israel improperly obtained classified U.S. information on Iran. They also have interviewed two AIPAC employees about whether Franklin gave them classified information that wound up in Israel's hands.
AIPAC said it gave the FBI files related to those same two employees, who previously were identified - Steve Rosen, the director of research, and Keith Weissman, deputy director of foreign policy issues.
Neither still works for the group.
AIPAC declined to comment Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear how the information related to Iran.
Isn't Israel our ally?
He better not get off lighter than Pollard.
This is another Jonathan Pollard type deal. The US should be giving up info on Iran, as Israel has much greater concerns than the US (distance etc)
So? Intelligence gathering is intelligence gathering. People get caught and rules are rules.
Seems I vaguely remember reading something about this maybe 6 mos ago. (?)
Don't know about that. Maybe another employee did the same thing. This just came out on the news today.
It is not his position to make determination on what information is "passed-on"...
He should fry....
I remember a story of someone passing info on to AIPAC some months ago. This guy's "indescretion" was in 2003. I think it's the same case.
Look, spying is spying be it for enemies (Iran, NK, France) or Allies (UK, Israel, Australia).
Unless the intelligence is sold to other countries aggresive to the US, like china.
I don't know the rules. That is why I'm asking.
I was just wondering if the analyst shared to help Israel in an area or if it was done to hurt us.
Since it is an ally, I naively think it wouldn't hurt us.
related story......
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1296653/posts
When I first clicked the thread, I thought it was an older article too.
::away from keyboard::
He's probably looking at 25 to Life, possibly the death penalty, depending on nature of info involved.
And Sandy Burglar gets a pat on the wrist..
The US reserves the right to deal with Iran in the way we see fit. Whether Israel is an ally or not, they have no right to eavesdrop on our policy formulations - we have the right to act independently in our own interest.
Yup.
Depends on what the info is. Perhaps we trade info for info from Israel, and if we just gave it away we would get less in return. Anyway, the larger point is this: Who decides what to give away? That answer can't be every analyst on their own discretion, which is what this guy did.
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