The AIPAC Case Fallout

WSJ ^ | MAY 2, 2009 | WSJ Editorial Opinion

[bluejay]

The real scandal in this case starts with the attempted criminalization of policy differences and legitimate lobbying, and ends up in the wiretapping of Congress and the wrecked careers of Messrs. Rosen, Weissman and Franklin. This smacks of abuse of power, and somebody at Justice should be held to account.

[SunkenCiv]

The real scandal in this case starts with the attempted criminalization of policy differences and legitimate lobbying, and ends up in the wiretapping of Congress and the wrecked careers of Messrs. Rosen, Weissman and Franklin. This smacks of abuse of power, and somebody at Justice should be held to account.

Gosh, does this WSJ piece mention the financier, George Soros?

[Liz]

THE NEVERENDING STORY

CIRCA 2009 Cong Jane Harman is recorded vowing to take action for AIPAC spies in exchange for AIPAC‘s pulling political strings to make her chair of the House Intelligence Committee. As we have all learned from the Madoff scam, it's real easy to wave off investigations of one's criminal activies. All you do is claim L/E is anti-semitic, and demand the snoopy investigators be fired. Sure enough, L/E will back off and will even lose their jobs.

CIRCA 2006 AIPAC and the case against Cong Jane Harman goes a lot deeper, and is related to the staffer who leaked national security material to persons not entitled to receive it.

AIPAC's sub rosa activities have gone on for some time.

Important new details of the US-Israeli espionage case involving Larry Franklin the alleged Pentagon spy (who was later convicted), two AIPAC insiders, and an intelligence official at the Embassy of Israel emerged (circa 2006).

Two AIPAC officials—--said to have left the organization but may still be drawing salaries---were indicted along with Franklin on charges of "communicat[ing] national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it."

In plain English, that means spying.

But as the full text of the indictment makes clear, the conspiracy involved not just Franklin and AIPAC insiders Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, but at least several other Pentagon officials who played intermediary roles, at least two other Israeli officials, and one official at a Washington, DC think tank.

It's an old-fashioned spy story involving the passing of secret documents, hush-hush meetings and outright espionage, along with good-old-boy networking. But the network tied to the "Franklin case"—--which ought to be called the "AIPAC case," since it was AIPAC that was actually under investigation—--provides an important window into a shadowy world.

It is clear that by probing the details of the case, the FBI had hold of a dangerous loose end of much larger story.

By pulling on that string hard enough, the FBI and the Justice Department might just unravel that larger story, which is beginning to look more and more like it involves the same nexus of Pentagon civilians, White House functionaries, and American Enterprise Institute officials who thumped the drums for war in Iraq in 2001-2003 and who are whipping up anti-Iranian frenzy, as well.

"Whipping up frenzy" is not just a Democrat sport. Neocons who took-over the Bush presidency were really, really good at frenzy-whipping. Trillions of US dollars and rivers of young American blood blanketed the decrepit hellholes of the Mideast, thanks to the neopunks. Obama's closest advisors-----Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Dennis Ross, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton----reflect a neocon orientation, even though none of them are actually card-carrying neocons. The frenzy-whippers are little more than whores---who kneel to whoever has the power.

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There----don't you all feel safer now?

[Just mythoughts]

I believe that Saddam had to fulfill what he agreed to do from the Gulf War. And it was under Clintonism that Saddam was rebuilding his war machine, slaughtering his own peoples and sending money to the families of those homicide bombers.

And it was Russia, Germany, and France who were making themselves Saddam's protector under that scam of ‘oil for rotten food’ program. Saddam wanted the same nuclear deal Iran made with Russia and had we ignored Saddam like the Clintons did he may very well have accomplished his plan.

We never did find out about Saddam and yellow cake connections. Somebody made it their mission to muddy the waters in an election effort that one might say changed the course of ‘history’...

And I do remember Maddie Albright and wild Bill Cohen making the tours on the Jon Stewart media, (when old Bill Clinton had so disgraced himself he was not fit for public consumption) warning US of the ‘problem’ of Saddam and his cooking up anthrax.

So the neocons did not have to make up what the Clintons already had put together regarding the threat to US that Saddam was seeking to rebuild. And I will not disagree the neocons decapitation of Rummy has forever tarnished their image in my mind. To me that is when they went to the dark side and I find no distinguishing features between them and the liberals who spent all those years cheer-leading the defeat of US in the mideast.

I do agree with Jan Harman on at least one point release the whole recording so we can all hear exactly what was said and by whom.

I have relatives, and children of friends that went and served in the mideast battle fields. Saddam had to go.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Emanuel, Clinton... neocons? I suppose compared to the Obummer Himself.

[Liz]

We never did find out about Saddam and yellow cake connections.

In 2008, CBS’ 60 Minutes Steve Kroft showed viewers the home computer neocon Douglas Feith used to create fake documents “verifying” Iraq had yellow cake---the phony documents were used to dupe Bush into invading Iraq---and into making statements before Congress and the UN.

At the time Feith was busy on his home computer, he was on the US payroll, working in the Bush WH Special Ops office. One US general called Feith the dumbest man in America due to the mess he and the other neos made in Iraq. Bush himself said later, " I was not prepared for war."

Seems the neos hidden agenda had other purposes (they n-e-v-e-r tell). The WSJ reported neo-guru Richard Perle is going into the oil business in Iraq. US taxpayers should be ecstatic that trillions of US tax dollars were spent to make the area safe for Perle's oil business (/snic).

SUGGESTED READING "The Transparent Cabal".....ranked by Amazon as one of the top history books of the century.

[Condor51]

Doug Feith should be sitting in Federal Prison. What he did as a government employee was criminal and mounts to treason. And Richard Perle ... since the death penalty is out of the question for him, he should be stripped of his US Citizenship and be sent to a dungeon in a Turkish Prison.

[Liz]

Doug Feith should be sitting in Federal Prison. Richard Perle should be stripped of his US Citizenship and sent to a Turkish Prison.

And don't forget Billy Kristol and his daddy Irving..........and all the neo-pundits who urged the US to charge into Iraq with guns blazing: Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Cal Thomas, Victor Davis Hanson, David Frum, Max Boot, David Brooks, Frank Gaffney, and dozens of other op-ed sages tied to the pukeneos.

BTW, did you know there's a reward out...... for anyone who can determine what pukeneos do for a living? With a bonus if you find out who signs their paychecks.

Other than infiltrating the US government, putting out agit-prop, and incessantly pontificating on foreign policy issues, no one has yet figured out if the pukeneo buddies have any visible means of support.

[Just mythoughts]

And don't forget Billy Kristol and his daddy Irving..........and all the neo-pundits who urged the US to charge into Iraq with guns blazing: Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Cal Thomas, Victor Davis Hanson, David Frum, Max Boot, David Brooks, Frank Gaffney, and dozens of other op-ed sages tied to the pukeneos. BTW, did you know there's a reward out...... for anyone who can determine what pukeneos do for a living? With a bonus if you find out who signs their paychecks. Other than infiltrating the US government, putting out agit-prop, and incessantly pontificating on foreign policy issues, no one has yet figured out if the pukeneo buddies have any visible means of support.

We can see by what they say and pen they are not with US. I am over the shock of that, having considered them in a different decade to have 'wisdom'. They as much as the willingly self acknowledged liberals despise the 'hay-seed' hicks on the same par as do the liberals. And liberals know who they can count upon in their times of need. MODERATES.

It does not take long to discern what the Constitution literally means to these moderates who like to dabble in all parties and take the cream. Their highly self esteemed intelligence makes them above the rest of US while they promote government outreaches to enslave US for eternity.

I do not care anymore what Krauthammer says because I won't be forgetting his upturned nose right after Sarah spoke. And so while he writes supposed wisdom of the Bama and Crew, he could not get down here on our level to see more experience in Sarah than in Bama and Crew. But it was not Sarah's lack of experience he was recoiling about but it is who and what Sarah believes that gave him the shakes.

See there is a reason why Bama brings to my mind the God heart hardened Pharaoh, I think He is trying to send a remembrance to at least some of His children. That and Bama's head looks so much like the head of that Sphinx to me.

[Liz]

I do not care anymore what Krauthammer says because I won't be forgetting his upturned nose right after Sarah spoke…….it was not Sarah's lack of experience he was recoiling about but it is who and what Sarah believes that gave him the shakes.

You nailed him alright--- Krauthammer showed his true colors years ago----when he disdained Mel’s “The Passion of the Christ.”

[Liz]

Bama's head looks so much like the head of that Sphinx to me.

Here's what he reminds me of.

[Just mythoughts]

You nailed him alright--- Krauthammer showed his true colors years ago----when he disdained Mel’s “The Passion of the Christ.”

Ah, I had forgotten the ashen face filled with outrage over a flipping movie. No wonder his supreme disgust for Sarah. Well he ought to be cheering old Mel now given his worldly womanizing ways. Old Mel has gone totally hollywood.

[Just mythoughts]

LOL but not quite the image of his hissy fit he threw about the ‘tea parties’. See he won and how dare the rejects against his society come together and complain. Most especially when he knows coming down the pike are going to be extreme tax increases when he and his congress allow the Bush tax cuts to wither on the vine.

[Liz]

The punkneos' obsessive micromanaging of the US government is a trifle nauseating......AS IF they, and only they, have something to "gain" by it (sarcasm and snicker ad infinitum). Why, oh why, are the punkneos loathe to admit the stranglehold they have over the US government? And the awesome power they exert behind the scenes to make obeisant politicians (of every stripe) do their bidding? Come on punks, come clean......for once in your lives.

=========================================

Grab a gag bag and read a punkneo whore going ballistic over Obama. The neos kneel to whoever has the power. (NOTE It is commonly accepted that Obama's closest advisors-----Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Dennis Ross, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton----reflect a neocon orientation, even though none of them are actually card-carrying neocons.)

Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Pinch Me, Am I Dreaming?
by Mona Charen (revolving door conservative)
http://townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2008/12/02/pinch_me,_am_i_dreaming

Superstition almost forbids me to comment on President-elect Obama's appointments thus far. The news has been so shockingly welcome that I'm almost afraid to remark on it for fear of breaking the spell. Such reticence has not afflicted everyone on the right, though.

Here's Max Boot, conservative editorialist, author, and military historian: "I am gobsmacked by these appointments, most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain..." Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, declared that the Obama administration was "off to a good start." And New York Times columnist David Brooks has acknowledged that he is "tremendously impressed." If I were a left-winger, I'd be tearing out my hair about now.

The economic team of Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, and Christina Romer does not exactly send a "to the ramparts" message. Summers, treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, is known for his belief in free financial markets, free trade, and fiscal discipline. He got into terrific trouble as president of Harvard for implying that, on average, men are more mathematically talented than women (which is true but that is irrelevant in the Ivy League). They made him grovel for that one, and to his shame, he did. The whole scene at Harvard, I gather from Stephan Thernstrom, who was there, was like something out of China's Cultural Revolution where the mob makes the professor confess error and beg for punishment. Still, if you want a centrist, Summers is your man.

Geithner is a Summers protege. As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank he has been knee-deep in bailouts over the past three months. But that datum doesn't distinguish him from the Bush administration or anyone else in the mainstream of America's economic elite.

Romer recently penned an article making the case that tax cuts can increase economic activity. Hmmm. If the economic team is centrist, the foreign policy team (and I pinch myself as I say this) leans a little to the right. Did you notice that in introducing his choices, the President-elect used the term "defeat our enemies"?

Gen. James Jones, Obama's choice for national security adviser, is a four-star Marine general who was commandant of the Marine Corps and Supreme Allied Commander for Europe (SACEUR), among other posts. Response to his nomination among conservatives ranged from cautious optimism to outright enthusiasm. "He is a thoroughly decent man" one conservative foreign policy analyst told me.

Though his political views are not known, he has received the "Keeper of the Flame" award from the hard-line Center for Security Policy. The Foundation for the Defense of Democracy's (and National Review's) Michael Ledeen, no coddler of wimps, calls him "almost unbearably delightful" in the two or three conversations they've had. Everyone seems to agree that he has high intelligence and deep patriotism. If there is a hesitation, it arises from the fact that he is, like Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft, a political general, and those have not always worked out so well.

As for Hillary Clinton, well, she is no Jeane Kirkpatrick. While it's true that she declined to apologize for her vote in favor of the Iraq war, she did everything but. It was only last year that she told Gen. Petraeus that his report on progress in Iraq "require(ed) a willing suspension of disbelief." She opposed the surge of troops in Iraq but then -- this is chutzpah! -- attempted to take credit for its success.

On Meet the Press in January 2008 she said "...The point of the surge was to quickly move the Iraqi government and Iraqi people. That is only now beginning to happen, and I believe in large measure because the Iraqi government, they watch us, they listen to us. I know very well that they follow everything that I say. And my commitment to begin withdrawing our troops in January of 2009 is a big factor, as it is with Sen. Obama, Sen. Edwards, those of us on the Democratic side. It is a big factor in pushing the Iraqi government to finally do what they should have been doing all along."

She has criticized what she calls the Bush administration's "obsessive" focus on "expensive and unproven missile defense technology." On trade, she has made protectionist noises.

On the other hand, she is not Carl Levin or Dennis Kucinich or Anthony Lake or Samantha Power. And that, along with the other appointments, is enough to keep some of us smiling at a time when we were expecting to be in deep anguish.

[Condor51]

Gen. James Jones, Obama's choice for national security adviser, is a four-star Marine general who was commandant of the Marine Corps and Supreme Allied Commander for Europe (SACEUR), among other posts. Response to his nomination among conservatives ranged from cautious optimism to outright enthusiasm. "He is a thoroughly decent man" one conservative foreign policy analyst told me.

You always come up with something interesting that requires me to do a little research, not that I mind, I find the darnedest stuff. Like about Marine Gen. James Jones :-)

General Jones is a member of the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) and here's some tidbits from his speech at the 45th Munich Conference on Security Policy, Hotel Bayerischer Hof, on February 8, 2009.

• As the most recent National Security Advisor of the United States, I take my daily orders from Dr. Kissinger, filtered down through General Brent Scowcroft and Sandy Berger, who is also here. We have a chain of command in the National Security Council that exists today.

• ... it comes to listening, engaging and building stronger partnerships with all of our friends and allies because the President feels that the transatlantic alliance is a cornerstone to our collective security.

• The President... knows ... the world has changed and we must change with it.

• ...we must understand the terms national security and international security are no longer limited to the ministries of defense and foreign ministries; in fact, it encompasses the economic aspects of our societies. It encompasses energy.

• It encompasses new threats ... involving the illegal shipment of arms and narco-terrorism, and the like. Borders are no longer recognized ...

And it gets *better* (/s)

... the President has detailed,... the wider array of existing threats that threaten us. To name a few:

• The over dependence on fossil fuels that endangers our security, our economies, and the health of the planet.

• And an economic crisis that serves as the foundation of our strength.

• Protracted tribal, ethnic, and religious conflicts.

• Poverty, corruption, and disease stands in the way of progress and causes great suffering in many parts of the world.

and this............

• The President has made clear ... the United States must use, balance, and integrate all elements of national influence: our military and our diplomacy, our economy and our intelligence, and law enforcement capacity...

And this makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! (not)

The NSC’s mission is relatively simple. It should perform the functions that it alone can perform and serve as a strategic center – and the word strategic is operative here – for the President’s priorities.

And closing with this laugher...

To achieve those goals we will be guided by several principles. As one of our great comedians in the United States, Groucho Marx, once said, "These are our principles. And if you don’t like them, we have others."

Now from the General's wiki Bio, he seems like a straight shooter, not some moonbat. And he sure has a boat load of Medals for Combat and VALOR. So I'm not disparaging this Marine's character. But it sure looks like he went over to the dark side.