From Tom Paine....
Axis Of Spies
September 01, 2004
Here's the axis we should be worried about: The Axis of Spies made up by the American Enterprise Institute, AIPAC and the Embassy of Israel.If the FBI weren’t so busy trying to catch nonexistent Al Qaeda suspects, they might consider devoting a few more resources to tracking down this expanding Israeli nest of spies. (Oh, and The New Republic is very quiet on the Larry Franklin spy scandal so far. Very quiet. Too quiet.)
The Jerusalem Post reports, at least, the FBI has seized computer files from AIPAC’s Steve Rosen, a good start:
FBI agents on Friday copied the computer hard drive of a senior staffer at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee who has been questioned in relation to the case of a Pentagon official suspected of turning over a classified document either directly to Israel, or via the pro-Israel lobby group.
That same article, which you can read here , notes that members of Congress are rallying (predictably) around AIPAC. Welcome to the nest of spies, Congressman Hoyer.
Haaretz reports that Abraham Foxman of the ADL is huffing and puffing, demanding that a special commission be appointed to investigate the person who leaked the probe. That’s dangerous, Mr. Foxman, because the person who leaked it did so, it is now obvious, in order to stop the investigation, since Franklin was cooperating with the FBI to help them get deeper into the nest of spies. So if we find out who leaked it in the first place, it won’t make Foxman happy. Anyway, here’s what he says :
"The one clear fact that can be agreed upon is that there was a malicious and targeted leak that is more damaging than the actual allegations of Israeli spying - allegations that in all likelihood are baseless," said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the ADL, in an exclusive interview to Haaretz."The ADL will demand appointing a commission of inquiry to make every effort in identifying which official or officials are behind the leak," said Foxman, who is known to have close relationships with administration officials and the White House."A leak directed against a friendly country like Israel causes grave damage, and the current suspicions of spying damaged Israel, the local Jewish community, and relations between the two countries," Foxman said.Foxman maintains that an official within the administration is responsible for the leak."Someone in the hierarchy is trying to ruin relations between Israel and the administration and between Israel and the Jewish community," he said
Both Steve Rosen, and another AIPAC spy (okay, alleged spy) Keith Weissman, are named as part of the FBI’s investigation, according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency and the Los Angeles Times. Neither Rosen nor Weissman have emerged to defend themselves. “You mean us? Spies?” According to the New York Times, both have been interviewed by the FBI, and are being defended by (who else?) Abbe Lowell. The Times also quotes the Israeli ambassador, Danny Ayalon, saying that the investigation is “fizzling out because there's nothing there.” Besides, we shredded all that.
Meanwhile Jim Lobe, bane of neocons, writing for Inter Press Service, has a wonderful piece reminding us that Larry Franklin, the hapless Pentagon apparatchik and official Stooge of Feith, who wandered into an AIPAC-Israeli embassy meeting that was being monitored by the FBI, is just the tip of the iceberg. As Lobe points out, many of the principals in the U.S. Israeli lobby have been caught up in spy probes going back 25 years, including Steve Bryen and Doug Feith himself. Also under investigation have been Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen and Paul Wolfowitz, as Lobe reports, citing a book by Stephen Green, Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel:
Perle, Ledeen, and Wolfowitz have also been the subject of FBI inquiries, according to Green's account. In 1970, one year after he was hired by Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, an FBI wiretap authorized for the Israeli Embassy picked up Perle discussing classified information with an embassy official, while Wolfowitz was investigated in 1978 for providing a classified document on the proposed sale of a U.S. weapons system to an Arab government to an Israeli official via an AIPAC staffer.
See also Counterpunch’s reprint of Sam Husseini’s compilation of Israeli spy stories in the United States, with a dozen or more examples, mostly sources from major Western press outlets, and a lot of it having to with Israeli attempts to acquire U.S. military technology. Read it here .
There’s also a great summary of the story so far, citing worldwide media accounts, by the Christian Science Monitor. Among many items, the CSM cites the Boston Globe account from a few days ago reporting on investigations of the Office of Special Plans, where Franklin worked, for covert operations targeting Iran and Syria.
September 01, 2004
Here's the axis we should be worried about: The Axis of Spies made up by the American Enterprise Institute, AIPAC and the Embassy of Israel.If the FBI weren’t so busy trying to catch nonexistent Al Qaeda suspects, they might consider devoting a few more resources to tracking down this expanding Israeli nest of spies. (Oh, and The New Republic is very quiet on the Larry Franklin spy scandal so far. Very quiet. Too quiet.)
The Jerusalem Post reports, at least, the FBI has seized computer files from AIPAC’s Steve Rosen, a good start:
FBI agents on Friday copied the computer hard drive of a senior staffer at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee who has been questioned in relation to the case of a Pentagon official suspected of turning over a classified document either directly to Israel, or via the pro-Israel lobby group.
That same article, which you can read here , notes that members of Congress are rallying (predictably) around AIPAC. Welcome to the nest of spies, Congressman Hoyer.
Haaretz reports that Abraham Foxman of the ADL is huffing and puffing, demanding that a special commission be appointed to investigate the person who leaked the probe. That’s dangerous, Mr. Foxman, because the person who leaked it did so, it is now obvious, in order to stop the investigation, since Franklin was cooperating with the FBI to help them get deeper into the nest of spies. So if we find out who leaked it in the first place, it won’t make Foxman happy. Anyway, here’s what he says :
"The one clear fact that can be agreed upon is that there was a malicious and targeted leak that is more damaging than the actual allegations of Israeli spying - allegations that in all likelihood are baseless," said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the ADL, in an exclusive interview to Haaretz."The ADL will demand appointing a commission of inquiry to make every effort in identifying which official or officials are behind the leak," said Foxman, who is known to have close relationships with administration officials and the White House."A leak directed against a friendly country like Israel causes grave damage, and the current suspicions of spying damaged Israel, the local Jewish community, and relations between the two countries," Foxman said.Foxman maintains that an official within the administration is responsible for the leak."Someone in the hierarchy is trying to ruin relations between Israel and the administration and between Israel and the Jewish community," he said
Both Steve Rosen, and another AIPAC spy (okay, alleged spy) Keith Weissman, are named as part of the FBI’s investigation, according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency and the Los Angeles Times. Neither Rosen nor Weissman have emerged to defend themselves. “You mean us? Spies?” According to the New York Times, both have been interviewed by the FBI, and are being defended by (who else?) Abbe Lowell. The Times also quotes the Israeli ambassador, Danny Ayalon, saying that the investigation is “fizzling out because there's nothing there.” Besides, we shredded all that.
Meanwhile Jim Lobe, bane of neocons, writing for Inter Press Service, has a wonderful piece reminding us that Larry Franklin, the hapless Pentagon apparatchik and official Stooge of Feith, who wandered into an AIPAC-Israeli embassy meeting that was being monitored by the FBI, is just the tip of the iceberg. As Lobe points out, many of the principals in the U.S. Israeli lobby have been caught up in spy probes going back 25 years, including Steve Bryen and Doug Feith himself. Also under investigation have been Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen and Paul Wolfowitz, as Lobe reports, citing a book by Stephen Green, Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel:
Perle, Ledeen, and Wolfowitz have also been the subject of FBI inquiries, according to Green's account. In 1970, one year after he was hired by Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, an FBI wiretap authorized for the Israeli Embassy picked up Perle discussing classified information with an embassy official, while Wolfowitz was investigated in 1978 for providing a classified document on the proposed sale of a U.S. weapons system to an Arab government to an Israeli official via an AIPAC staffer.
See also Counterpunch’s reprint of Sam Husseini’s compilation of Israeli spy stories in the United States, with a dozen or more examples, mostly sources from major Western press outlets, and a lot of it having to with Israeli attempts to acquire U.S. military technology. Read it here .
There’s also a great summary of the story so far, citing worldwide media accounts, by the Christian Science Monitor. Among many items, the CSM cites the Boston Globe account from a few days ago reporting on investigations of the Office of Special Plans, where Franklin worked, for covert operations targeting Iran and Syria.
posted by BLONDIE at 2:25 PM
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