Ex-lobbyists plead innocent in spy probe (AIPAC)

AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 8/16/05 | Matthew Barakat - AP

[NormsRevenge]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Two former officials of a pro-Israel lobbying group pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges they conspired to obtain and disclose classified U.S. defense information related to the Middle East.

Steven J. Rosen, 63, and Keith Weissman, 53, were foreign policy experts at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent lobbying organization on Capitol Hill.

Federal prosecutors allege that the two men obtained classified government reports for five years, beginning in 1999, on various issues relevant to American policy, including al-Qaida, terrorist activities in Central Asia, the bombing of the Khobar Towers dormitory in Saudi Arabia and U.S. policy in Iran.

The two leaked some of the information to reporters and to foreign diplomats in what U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty has said was an effort to "put their own interests and their own views of foreign policy ahead of American national security."

A former Pentagon official - Lawrence A. Franklin, 58, of Kearneysville, W.Va. - is charged with leaking some of the information to Rosen and Weissman, both of whom live in the Washington area. He also has pleaded innocent.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III set a trial date for Jan. 3. All three men are free on their own recognizance pending trial.

Abbe Lowell, lawyer for Rosen, told Ellis he may file motions to have the defendants' cases severed from one another, and also said he may seek to suppress evidence obtained after a search warrant was issued for the lobbying group's offices.

John Nassikas, lawyer for Weissman, said he plans to file a motion asking the government to explain why it took so long to obtain an indictment. Court records indicate that the defendants have been under investigation for at least several years.