NYT: Israel Lobbyists Facing Charges in Secrets Case-Indictment expected, but out of the ordinary

New York Times ^ | August 5, 2005 | DAVID JOHNSTON

[OESY]

Two former officials of a pro-Israel lobbying group were charged in an indictment filed Thursday with illegally conspiring to gather and disclose classified national security information to journalists and an unnamed foreign power that government officials identified as Israel.

The indictment accused Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, formerly senior staff members at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, with improperly disclosing national security information beginning in April 1999. The group dismissed the two men last April.

As the committee's director of foreign policy issues, Mr. Rosen was a highly visible figure in Washington who helped the organization define its lobbying agenda on the Middle East and forged important relationships with powerful conservatives in the Bush administration. Mr. Weissman was a senior Middle East analyst.

The charges in the long-running inquiry were expected, but nevertheless unusual. Neither Mr. Rosen nor Mr. Weissman, who have denied any wrongdoing, held security clearances.

They were not government employees and they operated in a foreign policy world in which private lobbyists, public officials and journalists often trade delicate information about executive branch decision-making that is related to other countries.

The indictment did not accuse any journalist of wrongdoing, but cited several conversations that Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman had with unidentified journalists as "overt acts" that furthered the conspiracy. Government officials have said investigators want to interview reporters who talked with either of the two men. It is not clear who the journalists are or whether any them have been interviewed.

The indictment said the two men had disclosed classified information about a number of subjects, including American policy in Iran, terrorism in central Asia, Al Qaeda and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment in Saudi Arabia....

Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman were each charged with a single count of conspiracy....

[OESY]

Two More AIPAC Officials Charged


The Israeli-American relationship will go through even more strain after federal prosecutors announced indictments for two more former officials from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on charges of transmitting classified information overseas. The two, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, join Larry Franklin as targets of the investigation, and Israel now acknowledges that investigators have formally contacted their embassy for further probing into the matter:

Two former employees of an influential pro-Israel lobbying group were indicted yesterday on charges that they illegally received and passed on classified information to foreign officials and reporters over a period of five years, part of a case that has complicated relations between the United States and one of its closest allies.
Although no foreign government is named in the indictment, U.S. government sources have identified Israel as the country at the center of the probe. The Israeli Embassy in Washington also confirmed yesterday that it has been "approached" by investigators in the case. ...

Former AIPAC director of foreign policy issues Steven J. Rosen, 63, of Silver Spring was indicted on two counts related to unlawful disclosure of "national defense information" obtained from Franklin and other unidentified government officials since 1999 on topics including Iran, Saudi Arabia and al Qaeda. A former AIPAC analyst, Keith Weissman, 53, of Bethesda, was indicted on one count of conspiracy to illegally communicate classified information. ...

The indictment alleges that, beginning in April 1999, Rosen and, later, Weissman sought to influence people in the United States government, including Franklin, with whom they first met in February 2003, and used those contacts to gather sensitive and classified information.


With three of its former officers now facing prosecution for espionage activities, although the government seems unwilling so far to actually charge these three with outright espionage, it appears that the USAG's office has concluded that AIPAC may be nothing more than a front for the Mossad. The approach to the Israeli Embassy seems significant; they must have an idea who the three used as a contact to help move the information back to Israel and want some cooperation on identifying the handler. Perhaps they already know the identity and simply want Israel to get him or her out of the country. If the handler carries diplomatic credentials, which seems likely, then it makes sense to quietly declare him or her persona non grata and allow Israel to resolve the situation with a minimum of fuss.

Some will protest this effort to chase after Israeli "interests" in the US while our ally fights an existential battle against groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. They will say that the US almost certainly spies on its allies -- they're almost certainly correct about that -- and that all this does is to feed anti-Israel conspiracy theorists. But they're wrong to argue that we should allow our friends to simply raid our classified material at their leisure, no matter what circumstances they're in, and letting Israel and her agents get away with this type of activity when it comes to light would eventually undermine our partnership as it would paint us as nothing more than stooges for Ariel Sharon.

We gather classified information in order to secure the United States and protect its citizens. If such information needs to be shared with any other foreign service, that decision has to be made at the political level through the proper channels. Those decisions cannot be left at the whims of the the people who must be trusted to process and protect the information, or else classification means nothing any more. When people breach that trust, the US needs to prosecute them vigorously to send a message of complete intolerance for breaking that trust.

If that applies to Sandy Berger, and it should, then it certainly applies to AIPAC and the three officials, if these charges can be proven.

-- Captain Ed, captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

[Steely Tom]

A little off-topic, but...

Who remembers those strange incidents a few years back where young Israeli's (I believe posing as art students) were found snooping around in or near secret installations, as well as around the campuses of elite engineering universities. IIRC it was right during the 9-11 time frame.

(steely)

[anticom6]

I trust the FBI to do the same kind of fine job they did when they targeted Richard Jewell for the Atlanta Olympics bombing.