Posted on 12/04/2004 5:53:55 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON -- AIPAC, the powerhouse pro-Israel lobby currently embroiled in allegations of spying for Israel, was set up by the FBI, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
FBI agents used a courier, Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, to draw two senior AIPAC officials who already knew him into accepting what he described to them as "classified" information, reliable government and other sources intimately familiar with the investigation have told the Post.
One of the AIPAC pair then told diplomats at the Israeli Embassy in Washington about the "classified" information, which claimed Iranians were monitoring and planning to kidnap and kill Israelis operating in the Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, the Post has been told.
It is unclear whether the "classified" information was real or bogus.
AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) denies any wrongdoing.
Knowingly transferring classified information to a foreign power can be a breach of US espionage statutes. Legal experts have told the Post that passing on bogus classified information may be used to demonstrate intent to violate the law but does not itself constitute a crime.
Franklin, an Iran expert, was already under investigation by the FBI for allegedly passing classified information to AIPAC when, the Post's sources say, FBI counterintelligence agents approached him to play a central role in the setup operation this past summer.
The FBI had been monitoring AIPAC's activities for some two years when, last year, its agents observed two AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen, director of foreign policy issues, and Keith Weissman, a senior Middle East analyst with the lobby, at a lunch meeting with Franklin in Washington.
At this lunch, it has been widely reported, Franklin allegedly briefed the AIPAC pair on the content of a draft national security presidential directive on Iran.
Details of the draft, which included proposed measures the US could employ to destabilize the Iranian regime, were already circulating at the time. According to some reports, an Israeli diplomat at the embassy in Washington, Naor Gilon, was also present at the lunch.
Earlier this year, the FBI informed Franklin that, as a consequence of the lunch meeting, he was under investigation. The Pentagon analyst, hoping for leniency, agreed to cooperate with FBI agents in what would become the setting up of AIPAC, a process designed to bust the lobby for passing secrets to Israel.
The FBI agents told Franklin to request a meeting with Rosen and Weissman. He initiated contact with the AIPAC pair, and told them that he needed to discuss a ticking-bomb situation.
Franklin was then dispatched to meet the two AIPAC officials and outline the alleged threat to Israelis in northern Iraq, the Post has been told.
Saying his access to the White House was limited, Franklin also expressed concern that the Bush administration was underestimating the extent to which Iranian agents were operating in Iraq and asked the AIPAC officials to stress this point in their meetings with US officials.
The agents' hope, plainly, was that the AIPAC pair would be so troubled by the apparent life-and-death content of the information from Franklin as to risk a breach of US espionage statutes and transfer what they believed to be classified material to a foreign power, Israel.
And that, the Post has been told, is precisely what happened.
Franklin, according to news reports, cooperated with the FBI until about two months ago. In early October, he abruptly stopped working with authorities, dropped his court-appointed attorney and sought the legal counsel of Plato Cacheris, a prominent Washington defense lawyer who has represented numerous accused spies.
"Obviously his was a bad deal," says one source familiar with Franklin's decision to stop cooperating with the bureau.
News of the initial Franklin-AIPAC lunch broke last summer: CBS led its August 27 Nightly News broadcast with a report of a "full-fledged espionage investigation under way," saying the FBI was about to "roll up" a suspected Israeli "mole" in the office of the secretary of defense in the Pentagon.
CBS reported that, using wiretaps, undercover surveillance and photography, the FBI had documented the passing of a classified presidential directive on Iran from the suspected mole to two people who work at AIPAC. Sources familiar with the matter, however, said no documents exchanged hands.
CBS's sensational allegation immediately conjured up memories of the Pollard affair, the 1985 arrest and subsequent conviction in 1987 and life imprisonment for espionage of US naval intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard for passing classified information to Israel.
The investigation into Franklin and the AIPAC officials continued quietly, with little subsequent media coverage, in recent months. No indictments were issued and most reports scaled back the accusations against Franklin from alleged espionage to mishandling of classified evidence.
But the investigation burst back into prominence last Wednesday, when FBI agents made their first visit to AIPAC's Capitol Hill offices since August. Armed with a warrant, the agents seized computer files related to Rosen and Weissman and issued subpoenas to four senior officials at the lobby, requesting that they appear before a grand jury later this month in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Agents had copied Rosen's computer hard drive during their previous visit.
The four subpoenaed officials, who are considered witnesses, not targets, of the investigation, are AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr, Managing Director Richard Fishman, Communications Director Renee Rothstein and Research Director Rafi Danziger.
A Washington criminal justice expert said Friday that the issuing of the subpoenas suggested the FBI was "getting ready to indict."
AIPAC has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
"AIPAC has done nothing wrong. Neither AIPAC nor any member of our staff has broken any law, nor has AIPAC or its employees ever received information they believed was secret or classified. We continue to cooperate fully with the governmental authorities and believe any court of law or grand jury will conclude that AIPAC employees have always acted legally, properly and appropriately," AIPAC said in a statement.
"Despite the false and baseless allegations that have been reported, AIPAC will not be distracted from our central mission of supporting America's interests in the Middle East and advocating for a strong relationship with Israel," the statement said.
Oh yes, I heard of them. They were two American Jews. They were spying on behalf of Russia.
Oh well, Israelis- Jews what's the difference.
It is not who they caught, but who they intentionally let get away, the Middle-Eastern connection to Saddam. It is not even that they did not catch him, they let him go and actively covered his trail.
That is criminal politics. That is aiding and abetting our enemies, that is treason. Now the effort to breach the trust between our allies during a full scale war! Just who's side is the FBI on?
Go study the incident's first and get back to me, I ain't got time for brain share so you can watch a football game.
I have mixed feelings about this. Regarding Jonathan Pollard: As anyone in the intel business will tell you, just about every country in the world spies on most every other country. If you get caught, you go to jail. Pollard should accept that.
At the same time, if I heard about a plot to kill innocent Israelis or Americans or Brits or whatever, I might want to contact the authorities. And given that Israel's a bigger friend of the US than any other country in the world (they vote together on, like, everything), I don't see why the government is wasting its time uncovering Israeli "moles" at a time like this. The Israeli intelligence service helps us with all sorts of Middle East operations. I don't see why we wouldn't share stuff with them, anyway.
Spying is certainly a legitimate worry, though, in principle. American citizens should be loyal first and foremost to the US. If people are giving classified info to other governments, they must be punished.
Oh-- forgot to mention that there are plenty of people fulminating about the "neocon" Jews in government. For example: the State Department, much of which hates both George W. Bush and Israel.
Dr. Rice has her work cut out for her.
Another proud product of our public schools?
Bingo. This is borderline tinfoil-hat territory, but considering the Washington bureaucracy's overall tendency to be libs (though obviously there are many exceptions) I'd be more inclined to believe there was real intel leaked to a Muslim group or Iranian spy and AIPAC was set up so when our guys in the danger zones started disappearing, the Israelis could be blamed - they got the info and then did something naughty to the Iranians (in Lebanon perhaps) who retaliated against our people.
If you're going to steal something over there, it's helpful to draw people's attention over here to get away with it.
If honey bees are such a friend of Pooh Bear why did they sting him when stuck his paw in their nest?
Mixed feelings? Well I don't. He was an idiot who got caught and deserved some punishment. But I underline the word some. What he did not deserve was a life sentence and harsh treatment. His wife almost died in prison due to mis-treatment.
There is a great deal of speculation that he is being harshly treaed as an example to American Jews that they will be singled out and punished worse than others if they do the same. In that perspective, it is not at all surprising that the FBI created some sort of "sting" operation to "get the Jews". They would like nothing better than to paint AIPAC in the same colors as the Rosenbergs. It is speculated that to the FBI Jews equal dual loyalty. It is completely obvious.
Expect FBI sting operations coming to all sorts of religious organizations. Coming to a neighborhood near you- soon.
Expect FBI sting operations coming to all sorts of religious organizations. Coming to a neighborhood near you- soon.
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Hamas front CAIR is teaching the FBI 'tolerance' again.
One can only wonder what other things they are teaching...or instructing.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41721
Wow, three lies in one sentence.
L
The spotters saw his uplink antennas and took them out.
And CNN has video tape of the field commanders watching the broadcast on CNN.
The agents' hope, plainly, was that the AIPAC pair would be so troubled by the apparent life-and-death content of the information from Franklin as to risk a breach of US espionage statutes and transfer what they believed to be classified material to a foreign power, Israel.
Uh...it's not like these realities about Iranian intervention hasn't been said publicly by US military and Iraqi officials.
Pal.
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