Editor's
Note:
Try as the spin-masters do, it is hard to put a nice
ribbon around the latest allegations of Israel spying on
her only supporter in the world. While many on the
Religious Right feel that Israel is a fulfillment of
Biblical prophesy, (they even get this wrong as Israel
is supposed to arise AFTER the Messiah returns), the
world is becoming more united against its
nationalism-gone-mad existence.
Whenever one defines a nation and CITIZENSHIP in terms
of ethnic or religious categories, racism is built into
the very fabric of that nation's existence. The story
below points to a growing unease in the US regarding its
ward.
New spy scandal a major blow to Israel- By
Hussein Ibish
WASHINGTON: Washington was rocked late last week by
allegations that a Pentagon policy analyst on Iran,
Laurence A. Franklin, had passed classified information
to Israel through the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby group in the US.
He is also said to have had extensive meetings with Naor
Gilon, head of the political department at the Israeli
Embassy in Washington, and a specialist on Iran's
nuclear weapons program.
While both AIPAC and the Israeli government have issued
categorical denials of any espionage activities, most
observers say that law enforcement officials would not
leak the accusations if they did not have the evidence
to prove their charges. Franklin is said to have
provided the Israelis with a secret presidential
directive on Iran related to its ongoing nuclear
program.
The New York Times reported on Aug. 30 that, "news
reports about the inquiry compromised important
investigative steps, like the effort to follow the trail
back to the Israelis."
The leak seems less designed to pressure Franklin, who
is said to have been cooperating with federal agents for
several weeks, than to stymie the investigation, which
is said to be far broader than the allegations made
public at this stage. If the allegations are true, they
could have serious implications for both US-Israel
relations and for the reputation of AIPAC, which is
regarded as one of the most powerful and effective lobby
groups in the US.
Journalist Steven Green, a long-time observer of Israeli
espionage efforts in the United States, told the Daily
Star that he had spoken extensively with individuals
involved in the investigation, and that "I know from
personal experience that its scope is much wider in
terms of the targets than we have been told so far."
He said that more senior officials than Franklin "should
be extremely nervous about this." Green speculated that
the scandal might involve exchanges of information
between "sophisticates in the intelligence communities
of Israel and Iran at the expense of the United States.
... There is a possible quid-pro-quo involved in Iran
receiving US intelligence codes through the neocon
favorite Ahmed Chalabi and the Israelis getting our
latest thinking on Iran's nuclear program. ...You can
see how that would benefit both parties, but not the
US."
USA Today reported Monday that law enforcement officials
said "there may be some crossover" between the Franklin
and Chalabi investigations.
The scandal has already drawn comparisons to the
Jonathan Pollard affair, in which a Jewish American was
caught spying for Israel in 1985. Israeli officials have
said that after the Pollard incident, the country made a
firm decision not to spy on the United States in order
to preserve its relationship with Washington. Several
newspapers have quoted unnamed Jewish American leaders
as expressing grave concern about the impact this
brewing scandal could have on the reputation of AIPAC
and Israel, but the Israeli daily Haaretz described one
as being "positively relieved" that Franklin is not
Jewish.
"The insinuation that AIPAC, an American Jewish lobby,
is engaged in espionage is in some ways worse than
Pollard, who as a single individual could be described
as off-balance," Yossi Alpher, a former Mossad official
told the Washington Post.
These are not the first allegations of Israeli spying in
the United States involving AIPAC, but none have led to
indictments, which are expected in this case. In an
article in the online journal Counterpunch in February,
Green detailed a 1979 investigation of Stephen Bryen,
then a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.
"Bryen had been overheard in the Madison Hotel Coffee
Shop, offering classified documents to an official of
the Israeli Embassy in the presence of the director of
AIPAC," Green wrote. In spite of strong evidence, the
investigation was dropped but Bryen was asked to resign
from his Senate committee post. Bryen has close ties to
Richard Perle and other key neocons in and around the
Bush administration.
Jason Vest, a journalist who has written extensively on
US military and intelligence issues, told the Daily
Star: "I would describe the reaction to this scandal in
the intelligence community as one of anger and of
contempt, but not of surprise. No one believes, at all,
that Israel does not spy on the United States, and no
has believed that since Pollard. ... Of course."
He added that "this could be an 'off-the-books'
operation - like the Iran-Contra affair for example - a
project without official status but that was run at a
senior level. Every country's intelligence operations
involve such unofficial activities, which this very well
may be." The allegations are also likely to fuel
questions about possible Israeli influence on US policy
toward Iran and, more significantly perhaps, the
build-up to the invasion of Iraq last year. Franklin,
who was once stationed in Israel, works under Deputy
Under Secretary William J. Luti and, ultimately,
Undersecretary for Policy Douglas J. Feith.
Neoconservative hawks, Feith and Luti oversaw the work
of the Office of Special Plans and the Counterterrorism
Evaluation Group, two offices set up in the Pentagon
which sought
to provide alternative analysis of intelligence on the
former Iraqi regime's allegedly weapons of mass
destruction programs and links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist
network.
The OSP is said to have had extensive links to a similar
ad hoc intelligence analysis unit set up in the office
of Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon, both dedicated to
countering assessments by official US and Israel
intelligence agencies that cast doubt on Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction capabilities and ties to Al-Qaeda.
The investigation of Franklin appears to have been
sparked by unauthorized meetings he helped set up
between US officials and Manucher Ghorbanifar, an
Iranian arms-dealer who played a central role in the
Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s in which the US supplied
Iran with missiles through Israel. Franklin and his
superiors are understood to have helped arrange for the
unauthorized meetings with Ghorbanifar, according to
some analysts in order to sabotage an agreement between
the White House and Iran to exchange Mujahideen-e Khalq
prisoners captured by the US in Iraq for Al-Qaeda
suspects in Iranian custody. Ghorbanifar allegedly
provided highly suspect allegations that Iraq had
transferred nuclear materiel to Iran.
Vest, whose work has covered some of Franklin's
activities in the past, said "Franklin is not an
unfamiliar figure to those of us who have been covering
these issues, yet he is still somewhat enigmatic. He is
known to be a career intelligence analyst who apparently
specializes in Iran, but it is very difficult to find
anyone in intelligence and policy circles who can
describe the highlights of his career. The only thing
for which he is well-known is that he was instrumental
in setting up these bizarre meetings with Ghorbanifar."
James Bamford, a leading observer of the US intelligence
community and author of the recent book "Pretext for
War," said, "These allegations don't surprise me at all,
since Franklin works for Feith, who is essentially a
pro-Israel extremist. It certainly should encourage
another look at the influence of Israel in the
motivations for the Iraq war. Sharon was pushing the US
very hard to go to war in August, 2002." Bamford added:
"The neoconservatives surround themselves with people
who are fanatically pro-Israel, and maybe they were too
over confident, or felt that no one would notice or no
one would care, or that they were running things so it
wouldn't matter, but luckily the FBI is independent of
the Pentagon." Bamford said it is significant that while
the FBI had informed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, it had not told Feith
about the investigation.
Some observers warned that, while it is important for
all the facts to be uncovered in this case, there is the
danger that if the scandal develops further it could
lead to unfair accusations of "dual loyalty" against
Jewish Americans. Vest said that, in the past, his work
on pro-Israel neoconservatives had never raised issues
of dual loyalty, although his neocon critics falsely
alleged this.
Ziad Asali, President of the American Task Force on
Palestine, also warned that, "Arab and Muslim Americans
are often unfairly accused of disloyalty because of
their ethnic and religious affiliations, and it has got
to stop. The last thing we need is for Jewish Americans
to now face a similar stigma. ... On the other hand,"
Asali said, adding that "these allegations against AIPAC
serve as an object lesson for all ethnic American
organizations about the need to be absolutely scrupulous
in our conduct."
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More selected Readings On The Middle East
"Traitorous "Conservatives"- By Justin Raimondo
-Excerpt-
"A lobby is like a night flower," wrote Steven Rosen, a
top official of the American-Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC).
"It thrives in the dark and dies in the sun."
With the light of day shining brightly on AIPAC's spy
mission for Israel in the Pentagon, will one of the most
powerful lobbying groups in Washington just curl up and
blow away?
Full article
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=3479
Israeli Spy Probe Grows
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0831/dailyUpdate.html
Israel's Long History Of Spying On US
http://www.counterpunch.org/husseini08302004.html
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