FBI Probe:arrests in the case could come as early as next week

[cal04]

The FBI is investigating a mid-level Pentagon official who specializes in Iranian affairs for allegedly passing classified information to Israel, and arrests in the case could come as early as next week, officials at the Pentagon and other government agencies said last night.

The name of the person under investigation was not officially released, but two sources identified him as Larry Franklin. He was described as a desk officer in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia Bureau, one of six regional policy sections. Franklin worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency before moving to the Pentagon's policy branch three years ago and is nearing retirement, the officials said. Franklin could not be located for comment last night.

One government official familiar with the investigation said it is not yet clear whether the case will rise to the level of espionage or end up involving lesser charges such as improper disclosure or mishandling of classified information.

The investigation has been underway for some months. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and top Pentagon lawyers were informed of it some time ago, officials said. But many other senior Pentagon officials expressed surprise at the news when it was first reported last night on CBS.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40004-2004Aug27?language=printer

[xray s]

1. will it be a two-fer?

Palme leaker and Israeli spy feeder in one fell swoop?

[fob]

2. I got good news and bad news for you Usama, good news is the October

surprise where we "capture" you is off. The bad news? It's now the September surprise, shit's hitting the fan earlier than we expected.


BWAHAHWEHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA.

The arrest day is gonna be a busssssssy news day.

[ursacorwin]

3. kick!

i want to know more...

[cal04]

4. NY Times Article

The F.B.I. inquiry has been under way for at least a year and has been one of the bureau's most sensitive spy cases in years, officials said. One official said that the suspected involvement of people working at a major pro-Israeli lobbying organization led the Justice Department to move cautiously.


The investigation involves a single individual at D.O.D. at the desk officer level, who was not in a position to have significant influence over U.S. policy," the statement continued. "Nor could a foreign power be in a position to influence U.S. policy through this individual. To the best of D.O.D.'s knowledge, the investigation does not target any other D.O.D. individuals.''

One United States official said that he did not know why the desk officer would have passed on the information and that he could not assess the potential damage. "He had a certain expertise and had access to things, but he wasn't a policymaker," the official said.

Some of the classified information that investigators suspect was passed to Israel dealt with sensitive discussions about the United States' position toward Iran, officials said.

As a result, the investigation is likely to give rise to questions about whether Israel may have used the information to influence American policy in the Middle East.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/28/politics/28spy.html?pagewanted=2&hp

[cal04]

5. AlterNet story on Aug 5th, interesting that AIPAC is mentioned

and has something to do with this.

The Bush administration has a complex relationship with Israel. The president owes his election in large part to Christian conservatives. Christian Zionists, led by Tom DeLay in the House, want to see the State of Israel control all the biblical lands. President Bush is also indebted to AIPAC, the powerful Jewish lobby. AIPAC is staunchly backing the right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who rejects the longstanding policy of "land-for-peace." In addition, the neoconservatives who dominate Bush's foreign policy architecture view negotiations with Arafat and the PLO to be morally equivalent to Chamberlain negotiating with Hitler in Munich.

Not surprisingly, this convergence of powerful interests forged an alternative Israel policy for the United States. Paul Wolfowitz, interviewed in May 2003, outlined this new policy:


"…While it undoubtedly was true that if we could make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian issue we would provide a better set of circumstances to deal with Saddam Hussein, …it was equally true the other way around that if we could deal with Saddam Hussein it would provide a better set of circumstances for dealing with the Arab-Israeli issue."

Those circumstances included the elimination of Saddam Hussein's support for Palestinian bombers' families, reduced oil prices weakening the political influence of Saudi Arabia and OPEC, and the existence of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, reducing our dependence on Saudi Arabia while allowing the United States to monitor Syria and Iran more intimately. Free of a credible threat of Arab invasion, Israel would enjoy a much stronger negotiating position.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/19472/

[grasswire]

6. one word...

PATSY.

[fearnobush]

7. Holy Shit!!! Larry Franklin... O.S.P.!!!!

Larry Franklin actively participated in the following events:

June 2003 Complete Iraq timeline

The Pentagon Office of Special Plans sends two Defense officials, Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin, to Paris where they secretly meet with Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms trader who had been a central figure in the Iran-Contra affair. Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute is said to have arranged the meeting, which is not authorized by the White House. It appears that the purpose of the meeting is to undermine a pending deal that the White House is negotiating with the Iranian government. Iran is considering turning over five al-Qaeda operatives in exchange for Washington dropping its support for Mujahadeen Khalq, an Iraq-based rebel Iranian group listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department. The Office of Special Plans is reportedly interested in using this group to help destabilize Iran?s government. When Secretary of State Colin Powell gets wind of its activities, he complains directly to the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying that Feith's missions are against US policy.
People and organizations involved: Michael Ledeen, Manucher Ghorbanifar, Larry Franklin, Harold Rhode


<http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:Wd6-83od85sJ:www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp%3Fentity%3Dlarry_franklin+Larry+Franklin+pentagon&hl=en>

[allemand]

11. Yet another chapter in the Powell - Rumsfeld/Cheney turf war...? n/t

[Voltaire99]

8. Let's jump to the big questions

First, why now?

Was the FBI forced to play its hand this week?

What was AIPAC's role? Is there a journalist or politician who dares to ask?

And, of course: how long will the whitewash take? ;-)

[jayfish]

10. I Think That...

they have an idea of who it is but not exactly who. Might they be trying to smoke this person out? Force them to make a move of some sort? Why else tip off the suspect?

Jay

[Dover]

15. Perhaps, as others have suggested, because an attack on Iran is imminent

It seems to be the PNAC's intention, which might also explain why they did not continue to foster the internal revolution and rift between the old and new guard within Iran which was just beginning to bear fruit:


Looks like Rummy needs to clean house:

Pentagon hardliners pressing for regime change in Iran have held secret and unauthorized meetings in Paris with a controversial arms dealer who was a major figure in the Iran-contra scandal, according to administration officials.

At least two Pentagon officials (Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin) working for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith have held "several" meetings with Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Iranian middleman in U.S. arms-for-hostage shipments to Iran in the mid-1980s.

The senior official and another administration source who confirmed that the meetings had taken place said that the ultimate policy objective of Feith and a group of neo-conservatives civilians inside the Pentagon is regime change in Iran.

He confirmed that Secretary of State Colin Powell complained directly to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld several days ago about Feith's policy shop conducting missions that countered U.S. policy.

Harold Rhode has gotten himself in trouble before:

A delegation of Saudi diplomats attended a meeting at the Pentagon with deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz in the spring of 2001, shortly after the Bush administration had taken office. As the meeting was breaking up, one of the attendees, Harold Rhode -- Wolfowitz's Islamic affairs adviser -- approached Adel Al-Jubeir, a soft-spoken Saudi diplomat who is foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah. Rhode told Al-Jubeir that once the new administration got its affairs in order there'd be no more pussyfooting around, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The United States would take care of Saddam and start calling the shots in the region, and the Saudis would have to fall in line. Al-Jubeir demurred.

Rhode then shoved his finger in the diminutive Saudi's chest and told him, "You're not going to have any choice!"

http://www.jimgilliam.com/2003/08/inside_rummys_office_part_2.php

[Guaranteed]

9. Didn't the person who "fell off" the CIA building

-wasn't it the CIA building?- work in the Near East and South Asia division?

[nolabels]

12. There was another one?

I remember this one

State Dept. Worker Found Dead Outside Agency
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=207591

[Norquist Nemesis]

14. A little more info

http://www.usenet.com/newsgroups/misc.activism.progressive/msg06064.html

[Dover]

13. Chalabi-gate: Hunt is on for Harold Rhode, Michael Rubin and others

Chalabi-gate: Hunt is on for Harold Rhode, Michael Rubin and others


The hunt on the helping traitors continues...

Besides helping hands in U.S. Media (Judith Miller/NY Times, Jim Hoagland/Washington Post, John Podhoretz/Son of PNAC-Norman Podhoretz), "the hunt is on, in the Republican Party, in Congress, in the CIA and State Department..."

There is a huge chance, that this list will bring us also to the real perpetrators of 9/11, who needed a devastating new "Pearl Harbour", as documented in PNAC files from 2000. Two more names for Chalabi's "sources" had been already added for "ChalabiGate":
Harold Rhode and Michael Rubin)

..snip..


"The real target goes beyond Chalabi. The hunt is on, in the Republican Party, in Congress, in the CIA and State Department and in a media which is being deluged with leaks, for Chalabi's friends and sponsors in Washington – the group known as the neo-cons. In particular, the targets seem to be Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the former assistant secretary (in Reagan's day) Richard Perle, Vice President Dick Cheney's national security aide Scooter Libby, and the National Security Council's Middle East aide Elliott Abrams.

The leaking against them – from sources who insist on anonymity, but some CIA and FBI veterans – is intense. Some of the sources are now private citizens, making a good living through business connections in the Arab world."..CONT'D

http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=305

[0007]

17. This indeed jumps out at me!

"Franklin's name surfaced in news reports last year that disclosed he and another Pentagon specialist on the Persian Gulf region had met secretly with Manucher Ghorbanifar, a discredited expatriate Iranian arms merchant who figured prominently in the Iran-contra scandal of the mid-1980s."

[0007]

16. Hmmmmm This begs the question, who threw Chalabi to the wolfs

"Franklin's name surfaced in news reports last year that disclosed he and another Pentagon specialist on the Persian Gulf region had met secretly with Manucher Ghorbanifar, a discredited expatriate Iranian arms merchant who figured prominently in the Iran-contra scandal of the mid-1980s."

[kohodog]

18. Powell cancelled his trip to Greece

Saw the crawl on CNN this morning. Any connection here?

Franklin was OSP, this brings it to the feet of the Neocons, Wolfie et al.