... that all the neocons will have to go to prison over this.

Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2000 Congressional Candidates

1999-2000 Cycle

TOTAL for 1999-2000 Election Cycle $2,044,606

TOTAL 1978-2000 Funds to Congressional Candidates $34,607,182

TOTAL No. of Recipient Candidates, 1978-2000 1,732

Related figures:

Total US aid to Israel since 1948:

According to the US government: $82 Billion

According to WRMEA's calculations: $94 Billion

Chart at Link

AIPAC Fires Two Senior Officials in FBI Spy Probe

April 27

Arutz Sheva - AIPAC, one of Washington's most influential pro-Israel lobbying groups, has fired two senior employees in an effort to distance itself from an FBI inquiry into suspected spying for Israel.

Reports of the FBI investigation, much of which has been shrouded in secrecy since it was first disclosed last summer, suggest that a low-level Pentagon official, Larry Franklin, passed classified information to AIPAC (American Israel Pubic Affairs Committee) officials who are suspected of spying for Israel.

The two fired AIPAC employees are Steven Rosen, its policy director, and Keith Weissman, its senior analyst on Iran. According to a report in the New York Times, the employees were fired after federal prosecutors unsuccessfully attempted to settle the case with a plea bargain.

The firings represent a significant about-face for the pro-Israel lobby, which so far stood resolutely behind the two men, even as FBI agents raided AIPAC offices in August and December of last year.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the two AIPAC employees were "set-up" by the FBI, apparently by having Franklin, an FBI plant who knew Rosen and Weissman, pass them "classified" information regarding Iranian plans to kidnap and kill Israelis working in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.

Rosen and Weissman are suspected of tipping off the Israeli embassy in Washington of the Iranian plan.

Continued...

was sorely needed, and I especially appreciate that you did it, because I have followed your compilations and analysis of articles on other 'beltway' topics and I for one look forward to your balanced approach.

Israel And Freedom For Jonathan Pollard

Caroline Glick | Jerusalem | April 28

The Jerusalem Post - Jonathan Pollard is one of the most polarizing figures of our times. Pollard, a former intelligence analyst in US naval intelligence, has now served 20 years of a life imprisonment sentence following his conviction for transferring classified US intelligence materials relating to Arab ballistic missile and nonconventional weapons programs to Israel from May 1984 until his arrest in November 1985.

For his contribution to Israel's security and for his long suffering in prison, Israel considers Pollard a national hero. He is commonly considered the source of Israel's preparedness for the Iraqi missile attacks during the Gulf War. Israelis across the right-left and religious-secular divide are basically unified in their hope to greet Pollard in Israel as a free man. For many American Jews, Pollard is reviled as a traitor.

[...]

For Pollard, who expected to be protected by Israel if caught, it is the treatment he has received from the Israeli government that surprises and disturbs him more than the harsh and disproportionate punishment that he has received from US authorities. "I had two particularly memorable terrible days since I was arrested. The first was when the FBI showed me transcripts of statements that Israeli officials made shortly after my arrest. It was clear that the Mossad had three goals. They wanted to put all the blame on the Office for Information Links and Rafi Eitan, they wanted to protect AIPAC at all costs and they wanted to bury me. It was the Mossad that was the source of all the disinformation about me and my character. The lies that I used cocaine and was a mercenary, selling secrets to countries other than Israel, it all came from them.

This is a story that won't go away. Its very neat to have it all in one place. I Bow to you. G_72

Scandal Stymies Israeli Effort to Pressure Tehran

Aipac Shakeup Hurts Advocates of Tough U.S. Stance on Iran Nukes

By Ori Nir

April 29, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Israeli efforts to secure swift American action against Iran's nuclear program are being threatened by a stalled presidential nomination and the sudden dismissal of two officials at the country's most influential pro-Israel lobbying organization.

Last week the Forward and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was pushing out two of its top officials -- Steve Rosen, the organization's policy director, and Keith Weissman, its senior analyst on Iran. The two men, who are reportedly being investigated by the FBI for allegedly passing classified documents to Israel, were Aipac's point men in lobbying the White House on Iran-related issues.

Also last week, with mounting opposition toward Bush's choice of John Bolton to serve as America's ambassador to the United Nations, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed its vote on the nomination. A neoconservative ally of Vice President Richard Cheney and the State Department's top official on arms control, Bolton is known as a strong supporter of Israel's position that Tehran is coming alarmingly close to being able to weaponize its nuclear material -- a view rejected by other top Bush administration officials.

Pro-Israel activists in Washington are privately worrying that the shakeup at Aipac, as well as Bolton's troubles, will make it even harder for Jerusalem to convince the White House that quick action must be taken against Iran.

"It would sure help to have Bolton in the U.N. and credible [pro-Israel] lobbyists in Washington," said a senior official with a major national Jewish organization, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "This is a crucial point in time" to impact America's policy on Iran, the organizational official said.

Israeli experts believe that Iran's efforts to enrich uranium to a weapon-grade degree can reach a "point of no return" in a matter of months, as opposed to most analysts in the Bush administration who measure the time frame in years.

Last week, in a special Passover interview with Ma'ariv, Prime Minister Sharon said that "only the United States can head" an international coalition to put pressure on Iran that would compel it to abandon its drive for nuclear weapons. In briefing Israeli reporters earlier this month following his summit in Crawford, Texas, with President Bush, Sharon indicated that this was his message to the president.

Continued...

Analyst Charged With Passing Iran Info

Mark Sherman | Washington DC | May 4

AP - The FBI arrested a Pentagon analyst Wednesday on charges that he passed classified information on Iran to employees of a pro-Israel lobbying 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 in the day, Weierman said.

FBI questions ex-Mossad official in AIPAC probe

May 2

AP - FBI agents questioned former Mossad senior official Uzi Arad, he said Monday, as part of the ongoing investigation into whether classified US material about Iran was improperly passed on to Israel.

Arad said that during a recent trip to the US he was asked about his connections to Defense Department analyst Larry Franklin, who is suspected of passing information on Iran to AIPAC, the main pro-Israel lobbying organization in the United States.

The FBI "wanted to clear up a number of questions. I was traveling through the US and I agreed to come and talk to them," Arad told Israel TV.

Arad said he asked the FBI agents whether charges would be brought against Franklin and was told only that "he has legal troubles."

Mr. Arad is quoted at length in the following article, which also discusses "Project Daniel":

1st strike on Iran 'gaining traction'

Aaron Klein | Jerusalem | May 4

WorldNetDaily - With Tehran announcing it will shortly resume some nuclear activities in spite of ongoing negotiations with European countries, a private report that was issued to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urging an American or Israeli pre-emptive strike against Iran has been gaining some steam here.

Project Daniel recommends that with Tehran now developing the infrastructure that could allow the country to go nuclear, the United States or Israel should strike pre-emptively against Iran's nuclear installations if the diplomatic track fails.

Project Daniel urges Israel to strike Iran's nuclear facilities using covert operations, conventional weaponry and, if it can be reasonably assured of success, by targeting Iran's regime leadership.

Uzi Arad, the former head of Mossad's foreign intelligence, previously told WND if the U.S. or Israel attacks Iran, operations would not be limited to the targeting of Tehran's suspected nuclear sites.

The Washington Times quotes Jonathan Pollard:   

UPI Intelligence Watch

John C.K. Daly | Washington DC | April 29

Washington Times - Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, currently serving a life sentence in the United States for passing classified information to Israel, has commented on AIPAC's influence, noting, "I had two particularly memorable terrible days since I was arrested. The first was when the FBI showed me transcripts of statements that Israeli officials made shortly after my arrest. It was clear that the Mossad had three goals. They wanted to put all the blame on the Office for Information Links and Rafi Eitan, they wanted to protect AIPAC at all costs and they wanted to bury me."

Analysis: A rare peek at what really happened in AIPAC affair

Nathan Guttman | Washington DC | May 5

Haaretz - The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday provided a rare first peek at what really happened in the Franklin-AIPAC affair.

The ten pages of the indictment reveal that Larry Franklin was under close surveillance and that every aspect of the case had been looked into: He was followed to meetings, his home and office were searched, and there were wiretaps.

But the indictment still leaves three significant questions unanswered: What information was transferred, what, if anything, are the AIPAC people suspected of, and if and how is Israel involved in the case.

According to the information published Wednesday, it is still hard to say whether there was a sting operation or whether it was a real passing of information. It is still not at all clear why Franklin bothered to pass on the Iraq information to AIPAC if it had nothing to do with Israel.

The principal question is the second one - what was the role of "U.S. Person 1" and "U.S. Person 2," as the two dismissed AIPAC officials who received information from Franklin, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, are referred to in the indictment.

We will only learn whether Israel is involved in the Franklin-AIPAC affair when the investigation reaches the next stage and the details of the suspicions against Rosen and Weissman are revealed.

they are being picked on by the CIA, FBI, State, whatever:

....Associates of the influential circle at the Pentagon that had been headed by Mr. Wolfowitz attributed the scrutiny of Mr. Franklin to the continuing struggle inside the administration over intelligence. They said they had been unfairly attacked by critics at the country's intelligence agencies with whom they had clashed since before the war in Iraq.

They have said other efforts to embarrass them include one last year when American officials said Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress and a longtime ally of Pentagon conservatives, told Iranian intelligence officials that the United States had broken its communications codes. A federal investigation into who might have provided the information to Mr. Chalabi remained unresolved.

Friends of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman said the two men have been singled out unfairly. The friends say the men operated no differently than many corporate representatives, lobbyists and journalists in Washington who cultivate sources inside the government to barter information about competitors, personal gossip and, sometimes, classified intelligence....

from

Pentagon Analyst Charged With Disclosing Military Secrets

By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LICHTBLAU

Published: May 5, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 4

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/politics/05spy.html

Israeli linked to AIPAC probe to leave post

Nathan Guttman | Washington DC | May 6

Haaretz - Naor Gilon, the head of the political department at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, whose name has been linked to the Pentagon analyst charged with passing classified information to unauthorized personnel, will leave his post during the summer.

According to reports from Israel, Gilon is the Israeli representative who received classified information from two employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The AIPAC officials allegedly received the information during conversations with Larry Franklin, the Pentagon analyst who was charged by the FBI on Wednesday.

The Israeli embassy say Mr. Gilon is leaving for "personal reasons".

FBI probe into AIPAC-related scandal - more Qs than As

By Ori Nir

WASHINGTON - More than a week after a Pentagon official was charged with passing secret information to two employees of Washington's pro-Israel lobby, Jewish communal leaders are still puzzled about the Federal Bureau of Investigation's probe into the scandal.

"There still are more questions than answers out there," says one Jewish communal official, after participating last Monday in a conference call with Howard Kohr, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

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Although the telephone call - with leaders of Jewish community-relations councils across the country - was off the record, Kohr refused to answer any questions in detail, participants said. He just reassured them that the investigation was about "leaking," not about espionage, and that the government had told AIPAC that the organization is no longer the subject of the investigation.

According to media reports, law enforcement officials allege that Pentagon official Larry Franklin passed classified information along to two AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman. The two men were recently dismissed from their posts.

Asked why AIPAC dismissed Rosen and Weissman, after months of publicly defending the two employees, Kohr reportedly replied that they engaged in "certain conduct that [AIPAC] can't condone." Kohr did not elaborate and was not pushed to do so, participants in the call said.

Many Jewish communal leaders believe that dismissing Rosen and Weissman before AIPAC's upcoming policy conference and before Franklin's arrest was a smart move that has helped the organization dissociate itself from the scandal. Jewish activists say that because they agree that this was the right step for AIPAC to take, they are not putting any pressure on its officials to disclose the reason for the dismissals.

Jewish communal leaders seem less concerned with the details of the firing than with the question of why the FBI investigation is continuing.

If (as charges against Franklin apparently indicate) Rosen and Weissman are only suspected of verbally receiving secrets from Franklin, and perhaps passing them on to an Israeli diplomat, and if AIPAC as an organization is no longer a target of this investigation, many wonder why the FBI seems to have deepened and broadened its probe.

Other questions are reverberating among Jewish organizations: Why is the FBI still interviewing people intimately familiar with the organization? Why is the FBI, judging from several indications, combing through documents it confiscated from AIPAC offices in December? Why hasn't the FBI dropped its investigation against the two former AIPAC employees or concluded the investigation with indictments?

Two theories

As Jewish organizational officials struggle to answer these questions, two theories have emerged.

Some activists are arguing that the investigation is politically driven by administration officials who are striving to prove that neoconservatives in the defense department and the American Jewish establishment have conspired to hijack American's foreign policy to serve Israel's interests.

"I have never been a big fan of conspiracy theories, but in this case it really seems like there is a fishing expedition" against pro-Israel lobbyists, says Barry Jacobs, who is a director of strategic studies at the American Jewish Committee's Washington office.

According to Jacobs, a former State Department official with broad contacts in Washington's bureaucracy, the notion that American Jews and Pentagon neoconservatives conspired to push the United States into war against Iraq, and possibly also against Iran, is pervasive in Washington's intelligence community. "I strongly believe that this is what's behind the investigation," Jacobs says.

Several other officials with Jewish groups, who are also thoroughly familiar with Washington's bureaucracy, agreed with Jacobs' assessment.

Another theory being advanced by some Jewish activists is that FBI agents, who confiscated many documents from AIPAC's offices, have found other potentially incriminating material not related to the Franklin scandal and are now investigating other issues. Specifically, Jewish activists say, material may have been found to refuel an old charge that AIPAC should be registered as an agent for a foreign government

more

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/576275.html

U.S. probe of ex-AIPAC staffers focusing on alleged conversations

Ron Kampeas & Matthew E. Berger | Washington DC | May 17

JTA News -- Conversations that two top American Israel Public Affairs Committee staffers allegedly had with a Washington Post reporter and an Israeli diplomat appear to be a focus of a U.S. government investigation that could lead to espionage charges against the two.

In addition, information garnered during the investigation into alleged leaks from a Pentagon analyst to the two former AIPAC staffers suggests the FBI began probing AIPAC officials just before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

There is mounting evidence that the government plans to indict Steve Rosen, AIPAC's former policy director, and Keith Weissman, its former senior Iran analyst.

The crux of the government's case, multiple sources say, is Weissman's meeting with Larry Franklin, a mid-level Pentagon Iran analyst, on July 21, 2004, outside a Nordstrom's outlet in the Pentagon City mall in Arlington, Va.

Franklin allegedly warned Weissman that Iranian agents in predominantly Kurdish northern Iraq planned to kidnap, torture and kill American and Israeli agents in the region.

Weissman didn't realize that Franklin apparently had been cooperating with the FBI for several months and was being used in what is believed to have been a sting against AIPAC staffers, sources said.

Weissman immediately informed his superiors at AIPAC, who relayed the information to the White House, the sources said.

Rosen and Weissman then called Naor Gilon, who heads the political desk at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, and Glenn Kessler, the State Department correspondent for the Washington Post, the sources said.

 The FBI apparently taped the July 21, 2004, conversation that Weissman and Rosen had with Kessler, the Washington Post reporter, according to sources. Rosen and Weissman got in touch with the White House and Kessler because they wanted to get the information out as soon as possible, sources said. Franklin told the AIPAC staffers that he was giving them the information because they had better connections than he did.

In the exchange, Rosen, Weissman and Kessler joked about "not getting in trouble" over the information, according to sources.

AIPAC fired Rosen and Weissman last month. However, AIPAC is paying their legal fees, which one source "says have reached $1 million."

Nathan Guttman | Washington | May 18

Haaretz - Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon visited Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in his North Carolina prison Tuesday evening. In the course of the meeting, Pollard had tough words for the ambassador and expressed his dissatisfaction with the Israeli government.

"I was severely disappointed and even disgusted," said Pollard. "After 20 years I had hoped for a serious meeting but instead all I received was an empty gesture and a meeting without substance."

Ayalon's visit was the first by an Israeli ambassador with Pollard, who was sentenced to life after being convicted of spying for Israel in March 1987.

May 19, 2005  

 Pulling US strings on Israel

By Michael Flynn

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) decision in early May to arrest Lawrence Franklin, the Pentagon analyst accused of disclosing classified information about US forces in Iraq, has put in the spotlight the work of an influential pro-Israel lobbying outfit, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as well as its many supporters in and outside government, including former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz (now World Bank chief), Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.

According to an FBI affidavit, Franklin related information about possible attacks on US forces in Iraq to two AIPAC employees during an FBI-monitored lunch in June 2003. Franklin was allegedly upset that his hardline stance on Iran was being overlooked and he hoped AIPAC would be able to attract attention to his views.

According to the New York Times (May 5, 2005), supporters of the "influential circle in the Pentagon", whose members were leading advocates for war in Iraq and have long-standing ties to AIPAC, blame the FBI's investigation on "the continuing struggle inside the administration over intelligence", arguing that individuals who supported the Iraq war have been unjustly targeted.

Although the two AIPAC employees had not been charged (as of early May) and the lobbying group was informed that it was not under investigation, the Franklin case has brought some unwanted attention to AIPAC, as well as to the larger issue of US-Israeli relations. Many observers have long suspected that key supporters for the Iraq war inside the administration - including Wolfowitz and Feith - were at least in part motivated by their views on Israeli security. These views were also in line with the stance of AIPAC and several other pro-Israel outfits.

Of all the US lobbies, few wield more influence than the pro-Israel interest groups. According to some estimates, about 500 national and local organizations collectively make up the pro-Israel lobby. And of those, AIPAC arguably carries the most weight - "the most effective general interest group over the entire planet", former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich once said of AIPAC. Extremely active in securing weapons deals for Israel, in lobbying for sanctions against the country's Middle East rivals, and in promoting the political agenda of whatever government happens to be in power in Israel, AIPAC has long played a highly public role in American policymaking in the Middle East.

AIPAC has also been active in pushing US intervention in the region. In fact, its efforts to persuade US lawmakers to go after Iraq date back to the first Gulf War. In an interview shortly after the 1991 Gulf War began, Thomas Dine, then the president of AIPAC, told the Wall Street Journal that his organization had been busy behind the scenes building support for the war. "Yes, we were active," said Dine. "These are the great issues of our time. If you sit on the sidelines, you have no voice."

According to press reports, in 1990 alone pro-Israel groups gave nearly US$8 million in campaign contributions. Of those on the Democratic side of the aisle who received public affairs committee (PAC) cash and later supported the decision to go to war were Senator Harry Reid, an influential Democrat who had received $150,000 from pro-Israel PACs during his senate election bid (a dozen years later, in 2002, Reid would again support the use of force against Iraq).

Other Democrats who voted for the 1991 Iraq war resolution and received lobby cash included Senator Richard Bryan and Senator Howard Heflin. According to the Wall Street Journal, the entire Alabama delegation in both the House and Senate voted for the resolution. Although at first glance "this can be ascribed to the conservative, pro-military character of the state", opined the Journal, it is clear that "pro-Israel PACs have also cultivated Democrats [in the state] in recent years".

A key AIPAC supporter at the time who actively worked to get congressmen on board the war resolution was Representative Stephen Solarz. Solarz, who later became a supporter of various Project for the New American Century (PNAC) initiatives (he signed the notorious September 20, 2001 PNAC letter calling for war against Iraq "even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the [September 11] attack"), personally lobbied Senator Al Gore, who voted for the resolution, as well as several other fence-sitters among the Democrats, whom Solarz accused of being "tragically shortsighted" in their view of the Israeli-American relationship. Solarz also pushed AIPAC to play a more public role in supporting the use of force, as well as several other pro-Israel lobbies, including the Reform Jewish Movement.

Once war was underway, AIPAC immediately set about to capitalize on the growing US public support for Israel in the wake of Saddam Hussein's scud missile attacks on the country. According to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA), by the end of January 1991, AIPAC had rushed off a letter to its supporters outlining a post-war campaign. Reported WRMEA: "Counting on the American public's newfound understanding of Israel's vulnerability, AIPAC will press for a new package of security aid for Israel far larger than any previous package. Second, the lobby will encourage the United States to strengthen its friendship with Israel and avoid pandering toward Arab states hostile to the West and Israel. Third, it will request millions of dollars more in housing loan guarantees to settle Soviet Jews. And finally, it will work to ensure that any diplomatic efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict will be based on close cooperation and trust between the United States and Israel."

Within a few short months, however, newspapers were reporting that AIPAC and the rest of the pro-Israel lobby had suffered a "damaging reversal" and that Israel was "no longer an automatic ally". It seems that the administration of George H W Bush was more interested in maintaining relations with other Arab states and pushing for a comprehensive Middle East peace deal than it was in keeping the lobby happy.

Despite these setbacks, AIPAC was again in the thick of things during the leadup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. According to press reports, AIPAC membership jumped nearly 50%, to some 70,000, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, in part through ties the group had made with the Christian Right, which reflected a key strategy promoted by many neo-conservatives and foreign policy hardliners during the 1990s. In late 2002, as talk about war heated up in Washington, AIPAC held a "national summit" in Atlanta to discuss the possible war and to strategize with supporters. Among the speakers at the conference were Wolfowitz, Tom Ridge and Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition.

more

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GE19Ak01.html

AIPAC: Franklin affair won't harm our work

Nathan Guttman | Washington DC | May 23

Haaretz - For the first time since the AIPAC-Franklin scandal broke last August, the heads of the organization have commented on it publicly and promised to ensure that all employees of the organization observe the law as well as the rules of the organization.

At the opening of AIPAC's annual convention yesterday, executive director Howard Kohr promised the 5,000 activists that the lobby would come out of the affair safely, and that their work for Israel both in Congress and the administration had not been harmed. Kohr also promised that all AIPAC employees would obey U.S. laws.

They really kicked out the jams this year:

The participation level was at an all-time high, and so was the participation of senior officials - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is to speak today, four Congressional leaders, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and hundreds more congressmen who will take part in the ball tonight.

Even so, everyone's talking about the "Franklin Affair":

While everything was business as usual from the podium, praising the lobby's work and the State of Israel, the atmosphere was completely different in the convention corridors and the media, where the investigation took center stage.

There are two main items on the agenda:

While the delegates are abuzz over the Franklin affair and its potential ramifications, the convention's agenda focused on the two main issues for the pro-Israel community in the U.S. - disengagement [from Gaza] and the Iranian threat.

As to Iran, AIPAC set up an exhibit in the basement of the new Washington convention center called "'Iran's route to the bomb.'":

Visitors journey around boxes of "nuclear material" stamped "Made in China" and through recreations of uranium enrichment and bomb manufacturing. The exhibit ends with the clear sound of a ticking clock and images of nuclear bombs.

Lobbyist in Espionage Inquiry Says That He Broke No Laws

Joel Brinkley | Washington May 22

NYTimes - A former senior officer in a pro-Israel lobbying group who was fired because of his involvement in an espionage case says that he did nothing wrong and that he does not understand why he is the subject of a criminal investigation.

"I did not violate any U.S. laws," said the former officer, Steve Rosen, who is at the center of the swirling counterintelligence investigation. Mr. Rosen was a well-connected senior policy analyst and lobbyist for the group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, until he was fired last month.

Leaders of other major Jewish organizations - some who are close to Aipac, as the organization is known, and others who are not - say they believe that Mr. Rosen and a colleague, Keith Weissman, were fired to insulate the group from criticism ahead of its annual convention, which opens on Sunday. Aipac denies that.

No charges have been filed against the two, and the organization has not been implicated in the investigation, law enforcement officials said. Many senior government officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, are scheduled to attend the convention, as is Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel. None of the major officials have canceled their plans to attend.

I am very pro-Israel but have no problem in seeing this stuff come to light. The once note I would make: it is a bit naive to think Israel spies on its friends and the US does not.

Franklin says he may have passed info

Nathan Guttman | Washington | May 31

Haaretz - Pentagon official Larry Franklin has admitted that he may have disclosed classified information to a foreign official who was not authorized to receive it. The admission appeared in an FBI affidavit submitted to a U.S. District Court last week.

A Virginia grand jury is expected to indict Franklin for giving classified information to representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in the coming days.

The charges will replace the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Justice Department at the beginning of the month.

The Justice Department is also expected to indict two former senior AIPAC staffers, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, in the next few weeks on charges covered under the Espionage Act.

According to an FBI affidavit filed on May 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, "Franklin admitted that he may have disclosed information from one of the classified documents found at his residence to a foreign official who was not authorized to receive that information."

The official was believed to be Naor Gilon of the Israeli embassy in Washington, although his name and Israel have not been mentioned in any official legal documents.

Gilon maintained professional ties with Franklin as part of his responsibilities as chief of political affairs at the embassy; he is not suspected of any wrong doing in the affair.

Commentary: Leaving well enough alone

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

UPI Editor at Large

Washington, DC, May. 31 (UPI) -- If Social Security is the third rail of U.S. politics, Israel is the third rail of U.S. geopolitics. For most of Israel's short life as an independent state, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has played the role of a political action committee defending and advocating Israeli interests in both houses of the U.S. Congress. It is the single most important organization affecting the relationship with Israel.

Over the past 50 years, AIPAC has nursed through Congress scores of pro-Israel legislative initiatives, blocking at the same time pro-Arab measures Israel deemed dangerous to its security.

AIPAC's list of almost 100,000 members reads like a Who's Who of generous supporters of Israeli causes. The fact that AIPAC never had to register as a foreign agent demonstrates Israel is an integral part of the body politic, a de facto 51st state of the union. Its most successful lobbying effort was to convince each new Congress and the occupant of the White House that Israeli interests are identical to the United States' fundamental interests, ergo no need to register if you are lobbying for a safer America.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently concluded his 11th tête-à-tête with President Bush. He had flown to the United States for AIPAC's annual conference, attended by 5,000 activists at the Washington Hilton, where congressional and administration luminaries consider it a "must" to be seen on the podium extolling eternal friendship between the two countries. The event draws more politicians than any other convention, except for the president's State of the Union message.

AIPAC hall of famer Richard N. Perle's Israel-right-or-wrong speech drew thunderous applause when he said he favored a military raid on Iran. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice drew stony silence when she said Yasser Arafat's successor Mahmoud Abbas "is committed to both freedom and security."

Unfortunately, the FBI threw caution to the wind when it ignored the friendly advice this column dispensed last September, and decided to try its hand at touching the third rail. And what a mess this created.

A Pentagon official, Larry Franklin, who had worked at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and fell in love with Israel, was seen sharing national security documents with his pals at AIPAC over lunch at the Tivoli restaurant in Arlington, Va. FBI surveillance tapes show Franklin relaying top-secret information to Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman. But this was the kind of routine exchange that had gone on for half a century. It was hardly another Jonathan Pollard case, the Israeli spy who carted off secret documents by the wheelbarrow-full, and is now serving a life sentence.

Franklin, 58, surrendered in early May at the FBI's Washington field office after the government filed a criminal complaint accusing him of handing over classified national defense information to those not entitled to receive it. This was the first time AIPAC officials had been tagged as unworthy to hear high-level confidences. They had listened to, or been shown, classified information of interest to Israel for decades -- and no gumshoe had ever filed a complaint. The FBI, for reasons the bureau has kept close to its bulletproof vest, elevated routine practice to treason.

Given Washington's perennial loss of institutional memory, there is no reason the FBI -- or anyone else -- should remember a famous case that dramatized Israel's clout in Washington during the Carter administration. An Israeli procurement general and his U.S. opposite number were going over a list of U.S. military items the Israeli Defense Force needed in its next tranche of military assistance. The Pentagon-based general pointed out several sensitive items were proscribed by Congress and doubtless would be turned down.

The Israeli then decided to humor him. In a famous retort that was leaked to the newspapers, the IDF general said, "Our job is to deliver Congress and yours is to ship the goods to Israel."

MORE

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050531-071302-2413r.htm

FBI Tapped Talks About Possible Secrets

Case Against Ex-AIPAC Officials Could Focus on Several Contacts With Defense Analyst

By Jerry Markon

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, June 3, 2005; Page A07

In July 2004, a Defense Department analyst and a senior official from an influential pro-Israel lobbying group met at the Pentagon City mall in Arlington. Amid the stores and shoppers, the analyst warned that Iranian agents were planning attacks against American soldiers and Israeli agents in Iraq, sources familiar with the meeting said.

Alarmed, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee official, Keith Weissman, left the mall and went to the office of colleague Steve Rosen. The two men then relayed the information to the Israeli Embassy in Washington and a reporter for The Washington Post.

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What the AIPAC officials did not know, the sources said, was that the FBI was listening in -- to both the meeting and their subsequent phone calls -- and that the Pentagon analyst, Lawrence Franklin, was cooperating in an investigation of whether classified U.S. information was being passed on to the government of Israel.

That meeting and those phone calls are a focus of a criminal case prosecutors are building against Rosen and Weissman, who recently left their jobs at AIPAC, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. Franklin has already been charged, and a looming court battle will probably turn on whether he and others were illegally passing government secrets or were merely conduits of the type of policy-related information that is frequently bandied about in official Washington.

The meeting at the mall is not mentioned in the publicly filed charges, and new details are emerging about a series of FBI-monitored meetings between Franklin and the former AIPAC officials dating back to early 2003. But many questions remain unanswered, such as whether the information Franklin allegedly passed along at those sessions was classified, and if it was, whether Rosen and Weissman knew it was classified, and whether any damage was done to U.S. national security.

Rosen and Weissman have been notified that prosecutors are preparing to charge them with disclosing classified information, sources familiar with the investigation said.

Federal prosecutors and the FBI would not comment, nor would John Nassikas, an attorney for Weissman. An attorney for Rosen, Abbe D. Lowell, said that "when all the facts come out, the government will have more to explain about its conduct than Steve Rosen will about his." Earlier, he said that Rosen "never solicited, received or passed on any classified documents" from Franklin. A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy did not return phone calls. A Post spokesman confirmed that the reporter, Glenn Kessler, recently declined a Justice Department request to be interviewed. Kessler would not comment yesterday.

Franklin's attorney, Plato Cacheris, confirmed that Franklin briefly cooperated with investigators in the summer of 2004, during the time of the meeting at the mall. Cacheris said that Franklin, whom he described as a "loyal and patriotic American citizen," is no longer cooperating and plans to go to trial.

Last month, Franklin was charged in a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Alexandria with disclosing classified information related to potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. Court documents did not reveal who received the information, but federal law enforcement sources have said that Franklin disclosed it to Rosen and Weissman at an Arlington restaurant in June 2003.

The sources also said the attacks would have been carried out by Iran. At the time, the U.S. government was concerned about Iranian activities in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion that year. Federal prosecutors in Alexandria have notified Franklin that he would be indicted by a grand jury, and Franklin has been told to appear in federal court June 13. Sources familiar with the case said the court appearance relates to a sealed indictment.

more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/02/AR2005060201972.html

June 20, 2005 Issue

Copyright © 2005 The American Conservative

State of the State Secrets

Larry Franklin wanted to sway policy, not just spill intel.

by Justin Raimondo

The circumstances surrounding the arrest of Pentagon analyst Lawrence A. Franklin for passing classified information to two employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) would make a good thriller. Acted out against a backdrop of war and terrorism, it's a cloak-and-dagger tale swathed in mystery, pregnant with political implications, and hinting at a subtext of hostility beneath the "special relationship" binding the U.S. to Israel. It has all the elements of good fiction--a strong plot, a fascinating set of characters, and a theme that will have the audience buzzing long after they leave the theater. Better yet, it looks like the dramatic climax will come in the form of a courtroom drama in a legal battle pitting the watchdogs of America's vital secrets against a shadowy fifth column.

For years the FBI's counterintelligence unit has been tracking a major espionage cell operating on behalf of Israel. Franklin stumbled into it one summer day in 2003, when he showed up at Tivoli restaurant outside Washington and met with two AIPAC officials--Steve Rosen, AIPAC's longtime foreign-policy director, and Keith Weissman, AIPAC's top Iran specialist. Franklin, described by his colleagues as a naïve ideologue who, as Ha'aretz put it, "believes wholeheartedly in the neo-conservative approach," revealed classified information about possible Iranian-sponsored attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. Franklin was apparently worried that U.S. policymakers were insufficiently alarmed over the alleged Iranian threat to our interests in Iraq and was looking to enlist AIPAC--and the Israeli government--in pressuring policymakers to take a harder line on Tehran.

much much more

http://www.amconmag.com/2005_06_06/feature.html

money laundering operation ever.  Israel, the largest recipient of US aid then funnels some of the green back to US candidates.  What a kick back scheme!

arta: thank you much!

You are too kind!

Of course this dredges up the Pollard matter and the whole question of why the Israelis feel the need to spy on their closest ally.  

Great find and great work :), I updated and timestamped your original post.