Pentagon Analyst Pleads Guility in Spy Case

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1186788

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

Oct 5, 2005 — ALEXANDRIA, Va. A top Pentagon analyst with expertise in the Middle East pleaded guilty Wednesday to giving classified information to an Israeli embassy official and members of a pro-Israel lobbying group.

Lawrence A. Franklin, 58, said during a plea hearing that he was frustrated with the government and that he had hoped the two members of the lobbying group could use their connections at the National Security Council to influence U.S. policy.

He also admitted giving classified information to a political official at the Israeli embassy, but said the information he received from the official was far more valuable than what he gave.


DeLay, Successor Blunt Swapped Donations
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GOP Senator Concerned About Miers' Abortion Views

Franklin, of Kearneysville, W.Va., pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and a charge of unlawful retention of national defense information. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III set sentencing for Jan. 20.

[seemslikeadream]

1. DU history LBN stories

Analyst Charged With Passing Iran Info: Franklin Turned Self InTo FBI
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1444053
Fieth resigns from Pentagon today
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1186412
Former CIA official looks to leak the truth
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=886884
New Israeli spy probe has a 30-year history, insiders say
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=852863
Israel's Mole Inside the Pentagon
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=783161
FBI probes Jewish sway on Bush government
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=802725
Money from Iran Fuels Iraq Insurgency -Rumsfeld
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=810129
Israeli spy nest in the U.S. - Ashcroft says: ’Don’t arrest them!’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=802249
FBI probes DOD office (spy probe widens)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph
p?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=784155
F.B.I said to reach official suspected of passing secrets ....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=786361
Analyst Who Is Target of Probe Went to Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=784792
Knight Ridder:FBI espionage probe goes beyond Israeli allegations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=784274
Pentagon Analyst Was Cooperating When Israel Spy Case Became Public
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=786505
Iran-Contra II? Fresh scrutiny on rogue Pentagon operation -Josh Marshall
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=784906
AIPAC's Overt and Covert Ops
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=788267
UK Express: (Perle) Faces (FBI) Quiz Over Links to Israeli Spy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=785131
Israel Says It Has No Need to Spy on U.S.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=787437
F.B.I. Is Said to Brief Pentagon Bosses on Spy Case; Charges Are Possible
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=788936
LAT: FBI Questions Israeli Lobbyists (AIPAC) in Spying Probe ((Gilon mentioned)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=789576
FBI briefs Wolfowitz on Israeli spy claim
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=790076
F.B.I. Interviews 2 Suspected of Passing Secrets to Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=792950
FBI seizes computer from AIPAC offices
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=791564
Pentagon Office in Spying Case Was Focus of Iran Debate
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=795432
Leak Probe More Than 2 Years Old (AIPAC)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=795905
AIPAC hires lawyers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=794332
Spy probe scans neo-cons' Israel ties (long article from Asia Times)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=794029
FBI Informed White House of AIPAC Probe Two Years Ago
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=797181
Alleged Pentagon Leak to Iraqi Is Under Investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=798060
Serving Two Flags The Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=799167
Israeli political advisor may have received U.S. secrets
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=795817
Wider FBI Probe Of Pentagon Leaks Includes Chalabi - WaPo
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=798333
LAT: Israel Has Long Spied on US,Say Officials(but CIA, Mossad "intimate")
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=798631
Defense, Cheney Iran Specialists Questioned in (Israeli Spy) Probe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=801031
Leak Inquiry Includes Iran Experts in Administration (WaPo)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=801678
A Web Of Intrigue Inside the Israel espionage investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=803022
Pro-Israel Lobby Has Strong VoiceAIPAC Is Embroiled in Investigation of Pe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=803035
Israel's Mole Inside the Pentagon
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=783161
FBI probes possible Pentagon leak to Iraqi exiles
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=805885
Reporters' Files Subpoenaed
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=815381
Secrets: Classified Info: Springing a Leak
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x803017

[BeHereNow]

2. Wow- made it to ABC news?

I noticed your jpost thread was moved from LBN.
Does the news have to be an American news
source to stay in LBN or something?
This is a huge story!
Glad ABC is not sweeping it under the rug-
Perhaps, just perhaps, the U.S. media is starting
to actually resemble actual journalism?
BHN

[seemslikeadream]

3. Remember they didn't mention Gilon

[BeHereNow]

4. Ah, I see...n/t

bhn

[robertpaulsen]

5. Or Satterfield or Pollack. Why is jpost not LBN?

It's frustrating not being able to get the real story out.

Smell that MSM censorship? Yeah, I thought it smelled like Rove.

[seemslikeadream]

7. It was here It was moved

but why I have no idea, all those other links above were LBN stories

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x101883

[Pithy Cherub]

6. Fast approaching tipping point (or Iceberg) for bushco at mach1...

:crazy:

The narrative is getting lost because it doesn't have an overall unifier for the public. Political watchers/junkies get it, but it unfortunately needs a bumpersticker moniker to attract attention of Joe and Jane sixpack.

Amazing collection of links...

[Lasher]

27. Right, but it's a very important development

because it exposes a specific and deliberate act to compromise our nation's security in favor of the neocons' PNAC agenda. The goal here was (and still is) to subvertly lead us into war with Iran. This is not just an ordinary spying episode, but part of a larger, and very dangerous, agenda.

http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/neocon/neocon101.html

[DemReadingDU]

8. Thanks, great collection of links!

[seemslikeadream]

9. Thanks for noticing DemReadingDU

:hi:

[CHIMO]

10. US official admits spying for Israel

A top US Defence Department analyst with expertise in the Middle East has pleaded guilty to giving classified information to an Israeli embassy official and members of a pro-Israel lobbying group.

Lawrence Franklin, 58, said in court on Wednesday that he was frustrated with government policy and that he had hoped the two members of American Israel Public Affairs Committee could influence policy with their connections at the National Security Council.

He also admitted giving classified information to a political official at the Israeli embassy, but said the information he received from the official was far more valuable than what he gave.

"I knew in my heart that his government had this information," Franklin said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/914885A1-BA77-4FBB-95D5-139F4EB5F746.htm

[jody]

11. Is Bush going to add Israel to his axis of evil? n/t

[ShockediSay]

20. Too many campaign contributions

probably, laundered money from the billions we give Israel each year in "foreign aid"

[Nostradammit]

23. They hate us for our USS Liberty

( http://www.ussliberty.org/ )

[Kagemusha]

12. Technically he didn't admit to "espionage".

But hey, it's Al Jazeera. We shouldn't expect them to spin this favorably.

[Democrats_win]

13. Rosenbergs were executed, why not this guy? Our leaders are traitors

[Poll_Blind]

17. Are you under the misimpression that the Rosenbergs were innocent?

That has been a convenient and equally false meme. Educate yourself on the matter by checking out Project Venona.

On Edit: I think I misunderstood your point! I took it in the opposite way I believe it was intended. I blame it on lack of sleep.

PB

[Zhade]

18. S/he should get educated through an official USG website?

:rofl:

Come on, at least offer an independent, nonbiased source!

[Poll_Blind]

19. You've something more concrete than decrypted Russian communiques?

Or does it just feel incorrect to you? I understand if you need to go with your feelings on this one- even if your interpretation requires believing that all that intelligence was fabricated. Go ahead, say it. It's your bottom line, is it not?

PB

[Poll_Blind]

21. Crickets...

chirp chirp

PB

[Zhade]

32. It's called "having a life outside DU".

You shouldn't assume you've "won" just because I actually had things to do that didn't involve this website.

Sheesh!

[JNelson6563]

14. I'm shocked to hear this!

:sarcasm:

[Roland99]

15. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1829862

[Poll_Blind]

16. He should get the chair. Twice.

Passing classified information to another country, whether "friendly" or not makes no difference. I saw this same shit with that crapass traitor Pollard- "Oh, let him go! Israel is your buuuuuuudy!"- what tripe. Same with Nicholson- even more so for Nicholson.

If we're talking something like the Pentagon Papers, where the nation needs to know about criminal behavior (like fabricating Tonkin) perpertrated by the government and not the passing of classified information to another country, I (and the Supreme Court, incidentally) feel differently.

I truly find our current government distasteful but under no circumstance could I even remotely condone giving classified information to another country. If we do not make painful examples of the spies we do catch, what's to deter more from succumbing to the lucrative business?

PB

[seemslikeadream]

22. Pentagon Analyst Pleads Guilty in Spy Case - Washington Post

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 5, 2005; 8:03 PM

...


He also admitted giving classified information to Naor Gilon, a political officer at the Israeli embassy, but said information that he received from Gilon was more valuable.

Franklin, of Kearneysville, W.Va., at one time worked for the Pentagon's No. 3 official, policy undersecretary Douglas Feith, on issues involving Iran and the Middle East.

During Wednesday's hearing, Franklin said he would occasionally be questioned directly by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former top Pentagon official Paul Wolfowitz on policy issues. For that reason, Franklin said, he sometimes took classified information home with him to keep up with developments. One of the charges to which he pleaded guilty was unlawful retention of classified national defense information

...

An unusual exchange occurred late in the hearing, when Franklin objected to one of the government's allegations against him. Prosecutors told the judge that a one-page document faxed by Franklin to an AIPAC lobbyist was among the classified information he disclosed.
Franklin disputed that, and started to explain that the document was an unclassified "list of murders the Iranian government ..." before he was cut off by prosecutors who said he was about to disclose classified information in open court.

The judge agreed to place that small portion of the court transcript under seal.

...

Rosen, a top lobbyist for Washington-based AIPAC for more than 20 years, and Weissman, the organization's top Iran expert, allegedly disclosed sensitive information as far back as 1999 on a variety of topics, including al-Qaida, terrorist activities in Central Asia, the bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and U.S. policy in Iran, according to the indictment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100501920.html

[Moderator]

24. kick

[Lasher]

25. Pentagon Analyst Admits Sharing Secret Data

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 6, 2005

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 5 - A senior Defense Department analyst admitted Wednesday that he shared secret military information with two pro-Israeli lobbyists and an Israeli official in an effort to create a "backchannel" to the Bush administration on Middle East policy.

The analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, pleaded guilty in federal court here to three criminal counts for improperly retaining and disclosing classified information, and he gave the first account of his motives and thinking in establishing secret liaisons with people outside the government.

<snip>

Mr. Franklin, 58, said in entering his guilty pleas that he had shared with the lobbyists "my frustrations with a particular policy" during repeated meetings from 2002 to 2004. He did not divulge the particular policy, but officials in the case said he was referring to the Bush administration's dealings with Iran.

Some of the more hawkish officials in the administration have pushed for a harder line in confronting Iran about its nuclear ambitions, but the administration has been deeply divided about how to engage with the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/politics/06spy.html

[papau]

26. Former White House staffer investigated (Filipino spy in Cheney's office)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/06/wh.stolen.info/index.html
Former White House staffer investigated
Sources say probe involves possible stolen information

Thursday, October 6, 2005; Posted: 8:10 a.m. EDT (12:10 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former Marine (arrested in Sept. on one count of conspiracy and one count of acting as an unregistered agent subject to the direction of a foreign official) who worked at the White House is under (a new) investigation for allegedly misusing his top-secret clearance to steal classified information from computers, multiple U.S. government sources told CNN late Wednesday.

Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, who worked as an FBI intelligence analyst after working at the White House, worked in the vice president's office from 1999 to 2001, during both the Clinton-Gore and Bush-Cheney administrations (and was arrested in September, along with Michael Aquino, deputy director of the Philippines National Police and enemy of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, on charges that he used an FBI database to download and pass along classified information). <snip>

Among the documents that Aragoncillo allegedly downloaded was a dossier on Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, which he passed on to her political opposition in the Philippines, according to CNN's multiple government sources.
<snip>

According to a criminal complaint, Aragoncillo allegedly used an FBI database at the Fort Monmouth Information Technology Center in New Jersey to search, download and print classified documents concerning the Philippines. He then allegedly sent e-mails, with the classified documents attached, to at least three people in the Philippines, including current and former government officials, according to the complaint.<snip>

[itaintoveryet]

28. Franklin pleads guilty to spying for Israel

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100501608_pf.html

[Democrats_win]

29. Didn't America tell Israel to f**k off after the Pollard case?

Then they beg us to let this traitor go free?

Now, really, isn't Israel acting like our enemy?

[Gyre]

30. More evidence of Israel directing US foreign policy in the ME.

With this administration complicit. Allies? I don't think so.

Gyre

[donkeyotay]

31. If our country had any sense of self preservation left

you'd think we would at least redefine AIPAC as the agent of a foreign nation. It's clear to news junkies that Israel has had more than a passing interest in shaping our ME policy. I recall a quote from the Israeli ambassador saying how since Pollard Israel was very sensitive to this issue and would absolutely not do anything remotely like this. Franklin's conviction makes such a blanket denial a moot point.

I think it is impossible to understand how we got to Iraq without including the confluence of rightwing/military/intelligence powers in the two countries. Read Gary Sick's "October Surprise" to get the gist of how deep this runs and to appreciate that if we can't talk about it, we can't fix it.

[1932]

33. AIPAC? Is that the lobby group involved?