FBI Probes AIPAC Leak of Classified Iran Docs to NYT

[leveymg]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/2/14024/94613
Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 12:00:24 PM PDT

The FBI is probing an effort by two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to disclose classified information to the New York Times. This appears to have been part of an effort to cultivate Times reporters in order to selectively leak classified Iran WMD documents.

Larry Franklin, a former Iran desk officer at the Pentagon, recently pleaded guilty to trading classified papers with Israeli intelligence officers and employees at AIPAC. Two AIPAC employees accused of working with Franklin are now being tried in federal court in Alexandria, VA.

This prosecution follows the much publicized scandal involving ex-NYT reporter, Judy Miller, as the conduit of false information about Iraq WMD.

The Times is burying this story breaking today at the bottom of its on-line National page.

MORE BELOW . . .

leveymg's diary :: ::

In a short article in its on-line edition, the NYT is reporting that Times staff have been questioned by federal investigators in recent days about efforts by AIPAC employees to leak classified documents.

Two NYT reporters were approached by AIPAC employees with classified documents. Larry Franklin, a former Iran desk officer at the Pentagon Office of Special Plans(OSP), was recently convicted of trading secret documents with Israeli intelligence officers and representatives of AIPAC in Washington, DC.

This raises a question about the nature of the documents. Was this the classified material that Franklin himself had salted into Pentagon files at the behest of his handler, the Mossad Chief of Station at the Israeli Embassy in DC?

The Franklin indictment states that the former DoD officer incorporated changes suggested by a foreign intelligence officer into douments on Iran he was preparing for DoD. See, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/15/12176/9231 also see Franklin Indictment, pp 23-24, para 6. ("FO3" is Naor Gilon, the former Mossad chief who fled the country after word of the FBI's investigation into Franklin and AIPAC was first leaked during the summer of 2004.)http://physics911.net/franklinpdf2.pdf

Today's NYT report is extracted below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/national/02franklin.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

2 Times Reporters Queried in Federal Investigation

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: February 2, 2006

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 -- Federal agents contacted two reporters from The New York Times on Wednesday seeking information about a former Pentagon official and two representatives of a pro-Israel lobbying group who have been at the center of a criminal investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.

The requests were made to David S. Cloud and Steven R. Weisman, reporters in The Times's Washington bureau. Mr. Cloud was asked about possible contacts he had in the spring of 2003 with representatives of the lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. At the time, Mr. Cloud was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

SNIP

A government official who has been briefed on the matter said that agents had contacted reporters from several news organizations.

The agents, the official said, are trying to determine whether reporters received national security information intended to influence their reporting on the Middle East.

SNIP

The requests follow the Jan. 23 sentencing of Lawrence A. Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst and expert on Iran. Mr. Franklin's sentencing, to a term of more than 12 years after a guilty plea, refocused the case on two former Aipac officials, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, who are scheduled to go on trial in April. Each has pleaded not guilty.

If this is what it appears to be, here is additional proof of Track Two of the effort by a neocon cabal and Israeli intelligence to plant false WMD data with the intent of driving the United States into an expanding war in the Middle-East.

- Mark

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Seems like some of these investigations

may be converging. Let the fun begin.

[Jara sang]

11. That is what I was thinking.

Seemingly unrelated events are starting to cross pollinate. It's all related, it all comes full circle.

[stop the bleeding]

13. Yep Fitz and McNulty -AIPAC and PLAMEGATE n/t

[seafan]

2. Something's happening here..... what it is ain't exactly clear....

This is a critical development.

[seemslikeadream]

3. WHAT A FIELD DAY FOR THE HEAT

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

[Straight Shooter]

4. One of the absolutely greatest songs ever written.

That, and Four Dead In Ohio. :thumbsup:

[seafan]

5. Listen up, people. It's the 60's ALL OVER AGAIN. Thanks, seemslikeadream

[EVDebs]

8. Read this, then rent Three Days of the Condor....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2432151&mesg_id=2432151

[seafan]

12. Great link, thanks. Truth is the searing morning light to these vampires.

[Wordie]

16. There are a lot of parallels...

too many parallels. :(

Having lived through the 60s, I have a hard time knowing what people who are the age I was then are thinking now. From an outsiders view, things now don't appear to have the intensity of those days, but the intensity seems to be building...

To the college student-age DUers: That about right?

[EVDebs]

18. These events w/Nixon happened over 30 yrs ago. These kids are only 20 max

Why we need 'teach ins' at every campus in the country. Or make sure kids get this info online...

[Wilms]

6. Stills! Thanks n/t

[seemslikeadream]

15. STILLS!!

There's no hiding place down here
There's no hiding place down here
I ran to the rocks to hid my face
The rocks said there's no hiding place
There's no hiding place down here

Did you hear the sport
On the TV holding forth
About war, nukes and victory
He was dreaming of course but he runs the Air Force
And he's talking about World War Three

There's no hiding place down here
There's no hiding place down here
I ran to the rocks to hid my face
The rocks said there's no hiding place
There's no hiding place down here

Then of course we got the clowns
With the plan that they got down
Keep the world paralyzed in fear
Keep the peace keep the strength
And the Rooskies on the brink
More and better, bigger faster missiles here

There's no hiding place down here
There's no hiding place down here
I ran to the rocks to hid my face
The rocks said there's no hiding place
There's no hiding place down here

With no hand upon your fate
All the prophets do await
Either ending or ten thousand years
You can do just as you will
You can live or you can kill
There's no hiding place down here

There's no hiding place down here
There's no hiding place down here
I ran to the rocks to hid my face
The rocks said there's no hiding place
There's no hiding place down here

So before it's too late
Let there be no mistake
There ain't no hiding place down here
Only faith is not absurd
In the Master's chosen words
There's no hiding place down here

There's no hiding place down here
There's no hiding place down here
I ran to the rocks to hid my face
The rocks said there's no hiding place
There's no hiding place down here<[/i>

by Louise Cirtain, Gladys Stacey, A. P. Carter, additional lyrics Stephen Stills
from the Stephen Stills album "Right By You"

:hi:

[Me.]

7. K & R

[stop the bleeding]

9. article 4 from 01/28/06 of my post here is all about this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=296760&mesg_id=304243

[stop the bleeding]

14. kicking for awareness n/t

[BuyingThyme]

10. A word of caution: During Iran-Contra, they used Iran to explain the

Contras, and the Contras to explain Iran.

They had nothing to do with one another.

[High Plains]

17. Hmm, that darn AIPAC keeps popping up in these stories...

[Stephanie]

19. They want their endless war, they want their domino game

But how on god's earth do they expect to win it? They don't have the men or the mnoney. These neocons are freaking idiot boys.