Spy Case Renews Debate Over Pro-Israel Lobby's Ties to Pentagon Cons

[oldhat]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/06/politics/06spy.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 - It began like most national security investigations, with a squad of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents surreptitiously tailing two men, noting where they went and whom they met. What was different about this case was that the surveillance subjects were lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and one of their contacts turned out to be a policy analyst at the Pentagon.

The ensuing criminal investigation into whether Aipac officials passed classified information from the Pentagon official to Israel has become one of the most byzantine counterintelligence stories in recent memory. So far, the Justice Department has not accused anyone of wrongdoing and no one has been arrested.

Aipac has dismissed the accusations as baseless, and Israel has denied conducting espionage operations in the United States.

Behind the scenes, however, the case has reignited a furious and long-running debate about the close relationship between Aipac, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, and a conservative group of Republican civilian officials at the defense department, who are in charge of the office that employs Lawrence A. Franklin, the Pentagon analyst.

Their hard-line policy views on Iraq, Iran and the rest of the Middle East have been controversial and influential within the Bush administration.

[jefferson_dem]

1. Questions from both sides of the ideological isle too! Check out Pat

Buchanan's comments on MtP today.

MR. BUCHANAN: We also need to investigate whether there is a nest of Pollardites in the Pentagon who have been transmitting American secrets through APAC, the Israeli lobby, over to Reno Road, the Israeli embassy, to be transferred to Mr. Sharon. Now, I did not know until this weekend's stories in The Washington Post that this is exactly what is being talked about; that certain individuals over there in Mr. Feith's shop or beneath him have been transmitting these secrets.

Now, the FBI have been asking questions. There are no conclusions. No one should assume guilt on anyone's part. But if this has been going on, Tim, we are getting dangerously close to the T-word. And I would urge the president of the United States to get out in front of this, to take this investigation away from Mr. McNulty and give it to Patrick Fitzgerald and let them look into it because if the president can-- I'm sure the president has no involvement in this. But questions have been raised, and this is not something on the Internet. This is The Washington Post doing this, moving all this around, and so I think there clearly needs to be an investigation.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5921259/

[foo_bar]

3. "a nest of Pollardites"

it's always charming when Pat Buchanan reverse anthropomorphizes.

[nightperson]

6. Pollard's controller "Mr. X" was never caught, right?

He could be spawning new nests and eggs at this moment!:

Last week the results of a controversial two-year FBI investigation were leaked to the media.

The story is potentially a huge scandal and may indicate a furious power struggle between neocon supporters of Israel's far right Likud Party, who dominated the Pentagon and National Security Council, and the CIA and the state department...

Israel insists it ceased espionage in the U.S. after its agent, Jonathan Pollard, was jailed in 1987. Pollard's controller in the U.S. government, known to the FBI as "Mr. X," has never been caught...

The current controversy raises the question of whether neocon attempts to blame the disaster they created in Iraq on the CIA, to blame 9/11 on the FBI's faulty intelligence, along with three decades of spying investigations squelched for political reasons, could have caused the security agencies to go after what a CIA veteran terms "Washington's fifth column."



Some recent Franklin summarizing:

1.) Larry Franklin was flipped by the FBI months ago, and had been a tool for investigators to gather evidence on his colleagues and associates.

2.) The evidence the FBI has against Franklin passing the draft NSPD to an official with AIPAC is the tool the FBI had to flip Franklin. It is hardly the crown jewels. A piece today from the LA Times adds to the evidence that Franklin may have hardly been aware that what he was doing could be construed as espionage. A colleague of Franklin tells me that around Feith's policy shop, they described Franklin's trademark mix of zeal and cluelessness as "Planet Franklin."

3.) One avenue of investigation with which Franklin was assisting FBI investigators was, who leaked the information on the US breaking Iranian communications codes to Ahmad Chalabi. That line of inquiry is very much part of the FBI counter intelligence investigation into who allegedly leaked US Iran intel to Aipac...

What's the gist of this? All of this reporting on Franklin is a bit beside the point. Who's the real target of the FBI investigation: the people to which Franklin was helping lead the FBI.

[wrang_wrang]

2. Is it any surprise that Israel would seek to influence US foreign policy

to steer the US into a military confrontation with Iraq, Iran, Syria and any other country posing a threat to Israel?
I mean, seriously, is there anyone who believes this to be untrue?

[seventhson]

4. And that Bush and Sharon would be complicit in betraying both Israelis

AND Americans for their own power and greed?

[sam sarrha]

5. sweet..!! get us to fight their wars for them...Hmmm explains the Iraq War

:wow: