| Alpha | | Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 7:09 am Post subject: Jewish Leaders Slam FBI Probe |
| Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 18:51:13 -0700
From: "Mark Weber" <weber@ihr.org>
Subject: Jewish Leaders Slam FBI Probe
WHITE HOUSE DRAWS FIRE FROM CONGRESS, OFFICIALS OVER LEAK OF FBI PROBE
/
WEXLER: COMMUNITY 'BROADBRUSHED'
By Ori Nir, from Washington -- Forward (New York) -- Sept. 10, 2004
http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=nir20040909324
With America's pro-Israel lobby scrambling to combat
media leaks from unnamed government officials, the White House is
drawing criticism from congressmen and Jewish communal officials over
the FBI investigation into allegations that officials of the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee illegally transferred secret
information to Israel.
Lawmakers and Jewish organizational leaders are questioning the
motivation for the investigation and its two-year course,
stressing that no indictments have emerged -- only leaks from
administration officials familiar with the FBI probe. In addition
to expressing outrage over the media leaks, several Congressmen
are also condemning the investigation itself, which they say has
spawned unfair accusations of disloyalty against Aipac and
represents an abuse of power on the part of Attorney General John
Ashcroft.
"To think that one of the leading American Jewish organizations
has been investigated for two years, and the highest people at
the White House were aware of it, is extremely unsettling," said Rep.
Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat. "If there was an
individual or group who broke the law, they need to be held
accountable. But the broad-brushing of Aipac and the American Jewish
community is extremely inflammatory and needs to be
stopped."
Wexler, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter
to Ashcroft last week demanding that the Justice Department
either submit charges or "exonerate the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee of this public castigation."
Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank said that the investigation
"does appear to be an effort to discredit, to get Aipac." He
said: "I'm troubled by it. It's a very inappropriate effort to
criminalize a policy debate. It's John Ashcroft, and the
president and [Vice President Dick] Cheney."
Also voicing criticism were the two Jewish Republican senators,
Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Norm Coleman of Minnesota. Specter
told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Ashcroft should
launch an investigation into the leaks. "I know Aipac; I know its
integrity," he said. "It's a smear." Coleman said that "the real issue
here is preventing leaks -- of classified materials and about ongoing
investigations." The Minnesota senator argued that "to leak details
about an ongoing FBI investigation and the alleged role of Aipac is
premature at best and a smear campaign
at worst."
At least one lawmaker, Representative John Conyers of Michigan,
was calling for a congressional investigation regarding the
substance of the allegations. Conyers, the top-ranking Democrat
on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the committee's
Republican chairman, James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, to open an
investigation into the claim that a "rogue element of the United
States government" may have worked with a foreign government in
possible contravention of foreign policy.
In Jewish communal circles, the criticisms and calls for
investigations were focused on either the media leaks or the probe
itself.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, suggested that
the administration and media had blundered. "There will be a lot
of hard questions that will have to be answered by a lot of
people when this is all over," Hoenlein said. "People will have
to be held to account. What happened? Why it happened? What was
going on in the last two years?"
Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, echoed several
other Jewish organizational leaders in demanding an
investigation into the leaks. "Who did it and why? What's the
agenda?"
The rising chorus of criticism comes as it becomes clear that, contrary
to the predictions of Aipac leaders, the controversy is
not fading away. In the two weeks since CBS News first reported that
the
FBI is investigating allegations that a Defense
Department analyst transferred secret information to Israel
through Aipac, anonymous sources have been leaking information to
the media on a regular basis, suggesting that the probe extends
beyond one Pentagon official sharing one document with Israeli
diplomats or pro-Israeli lobbyists:
* According to press reports quoting several administration
officials, the investigation into possible wrongdoing by Aipac
was launched more than two years ago, based on suspicions that
Aipac employees passed secret information to Israel. One report
said that the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza
Rice, and her top deputy, Stephen Hadley, were informed of the
probe not long after Bush took office in 2001.
* The alleged transfer of a secret White House policy brief by a
Pentagon Iran analyst, Larry Franklin, to Aipac staffers last summer
was
seen by investigators as the "smoking gun." It
advanced the investigation, particularly after Franklin agreed to
cooperate with investigators.
* FBI agents wiretapped the homes of two senior Aipac staffers, Steve
Rosen and Keith Weissman, who were interviewed by FBI
agents August 27, the day the story broke. Their offices were
searched and the hard drive of Rosen's computer was copied,
according to reports. Abbe Lowell, a criminal lawyer who
specializes in white-collar criminal defense, is representing
Rosen and Weissman. In the past, Lowell has defended politicians
accused of ethics violations.
* At the Pentagon, agents focused on Franklin but also
interviewed other officials at the office of Under Secretary of
Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. According to press reports,
Feith was also interviewed, and some of these Pentagon officials,
according to reports, are also being investigated on suspicion
that they may have told Iraqi dissident Ahmed Chalabi that the
United States has broken secret Iranian communications codes --
information that Chalabi is suspected of having transferred to
Iran. According to one report, the Chalabi investigation, or even
a part of the investigation, is linked with connections between
Pentagon officials and pro-Israel lobbyists. Other reports say
the two investigations are separate.
* Franklin, according to an Israeli press report, was in contact
not only with the political counselor at Israel's Washington
embassy, Naor Gilon, but also with the intelligence attache, a
colonel who was identified by his first initial, Y. The colonel,
according to the daily Ma'ariv, received information from
Franklin and reported his contacts with the American analyst to
his superiors at Israel's military intelligence command in Tel
Aviv. Israeli officials told Ma'ariv, however, that there was
nothing illegal or unethical in the contacts with Franklin, which
are described as "working meetings."
* Parallel to its investigation into Aipac's conduct, the FBI had
reportedly been conducting surveillance of Israeli diplomat
Gilon. The Aipac investigation and the surveillance of Gilon
reportedly converged -- and led to the Pentagon -- after Franklin
walked
into a meeting between Gilon and the two Aipac staffers at
a Washington restaurant a year ago.
* Media reports, attributed to government sources, also said that
despite its denials, Israel still runs an aggressive spying
operation in the United States, which American counterterrorism
agents are surveying.
The wave of allegations and leaks has Jewish activists worried.
"The longer this story is out there without concrete facts or
some conclusion, the more we will bleed," one Jewish
organizational official said.
One concern voiced by Jewish activists was that Aipac's enemies would
use this opportunity to discredit the Jewish community. The first such
salvo came from conservative pundit and former
presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan last Sunday on NBC's "Meet the
Press."
Alluding to Jonathan Pollard, the American Jewish Navy analyst
now serving a life sentence for spying for Israel, Buchanan said:
"We also need to investigate whether there is a nest of
Pollardites in the Pentagon who have been transmitting American
secrets through Aipac, the Israeli lobby, over to Reno Road, the
Israeli embassy, to be transferred to Mr. Sharon." If the
allegations proved true, he said, "we are getting dangerously
close to the T-word," an apparent reference to treason.
Such attacks on Aipac will affect the whole Jewish community,
communal insiders said. An official with one major Jewish
organization worried that Aipac's aggressive lobbying tactics
have alienated some lawmakers, making them more likely to move
away from the organization as the scandal unfolds. "They have a
crappy reputation with some members of Congress who say certain
[positive] things publicly, and behind the scenes say: 'I am
tired of them twisting my arm.'"
Several Jewish activists, speaking on condition of anonymity,
also cautioned against what they described as a defiant reaction
on the part of some communal leaders who raised the specter of
antisemitic conspiracy.
"If every single time we get into trouble we cry antisemitism, no
one is going to believe us when we confront the real problem of
antisemitism," a senior official of a Jewish organization said.
Another organizational official said: "It's ridiculous to react
like that before you know what happened there. In the absence of
accurate knowledge, any comment is just silly."
==========================================================
NEOCONS BLAST BUSH'S INACTION ON 'SPY' AFFAIR
By Marc Perelman -- Forward (New York) -- Sept. 10, 2004
http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=perelman20040909327
In an indication of their growing estrangement with the Bush
administration, neoconservatives are slamming the White House for
failing to stop what they describe as an antisemitic campaign to
marginalize them being conducted by the CIA and the State
Department.
This view was outlined in a memo circulating among
neoconservative foreign policy analysts in Washington. Obtained
by the Forward, the memo criticizes the White House for not
refuting press reports on the FBI's investigation of Pentagon
analyst Lawrence Franklin that suggest wrongdoing on the part of
Jewish officials at the Defense Department.
"If there is any truth to any of the accusations, why doesn't the
White House demand that they bring on the evidence? On the
record," the memo stated. "There's an increasing antisemitic
witch hunt."
A source who has seen the memo said it was written by Michael
Rubin, a former member of the Pentagon's policy planning staff
who dealt with Iran policy. Rubin, now a resident scholar at the
American Enterprise Institute, declined to comment for this
story.
"I feel like I'm in Paris, not Washington," the author of the
memo wrote. He added: "I'm disappointed at the lack of leadership
that let things get where they are, and which is allowing these
bureaucratics (sic) to spin out of control."
The memo comes as the FBI is investigating the possibility that
Franklin passed classified information on Iran policy to
officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who in
turn provided the documents to Israel. Israel and Aipac have
denied any wrongdoing. Media reports suggest that several other
Pentagon officials have been questioned in connection to the
probe.
Some Washington insiders claim that the White House silence over
the Franklin affair reflects a growing view within the
administration that the neoconservatives -- widely seen as leading
proponents of the Iraq war -- represent a mounting political
burden, given the continuing chaos in Iraq.
While President Bush and his closest advisers openly shared the
neoconservatives' belief that American military action was needed
to remove Saddam Hussein, the two sides seem to have parted ways
over Iran. Neoconservative analysts in and out of government are
calling on the United States to attempt to secure regime change
in Tehran. The administration has increasingly suggested that it
has no plans to take such forceful steps against Iran.
The recent controversy surrounding the FBI investigations also
can be traced to renewed concerns in some quarters of the
intelligence and security communities that Washington's close
relationship with Jerusalem -- centered, in the critics' view, in
the neoconservative group at the Pentagon -- is hurting American
national interests.
While they generally refuse to speak on the record, some former
intelligence and law-enforcement officials have alleged that
Israel operates an aggressive spying operation in America.
Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Sharon, have
vehemently denied such claims, insisting that their country does
not conduct espionage operations against the United States.
Some observers point to the harsh treatment of accused spy
Jonathan Pollard as evidence of the intelligence community's
strong feelings on the issue. Pollard, a former Navy civilian
analyst, is serving a life sentence for providing Israel with
classified documents about Soviet armament. Members of the
security establishment have worked aggressively to block attempts
by Jewish organizations to have Pollard's sentence commuted on
humanitarian grounds.
This old resentment toward Israel and its supporters in the
United States has found new echo with the growing criticism of
the neoconservatives for their advocacy of war in Iraq. In recent
months, several critics of the neoconservatives' influence on
Middle Eastern policy have openly accused Israel of pushing a
hawkish agenda.
Retired general Anthony Zinni, a former chief of the U.S. Central
Command and presidential Middle East envoy, told CBS in May that
"the worst-kept secret in Washington" was that the
neoconservatives pushed the war in Iraq for Israel's benefit.
Similar criticism of Israel and Jewish groups appeared in the
recent book "Imperial Hubris," by Anonymous, who was later
identified as Michael Scheuer, a serving senior CIA official.
"Objectively, al Qaeda does not seem off the mark when it
describes the U.S.-Israel relationship as a detriment to
America," wrote Scheuer, a former head of the CIA analytical team
focusing on Al Qaeda. "One can only react to this stunning
reality by giving all praise to Israel's diplomats, politicians,
intelligence services, U.S.-citizen spies, and the retired senior
U.S. officials and wealthy Jewish-American organizations who
lobby an always amenable Congress on Israel's behalf."
In recent months, signs of alienation from the neoconservatives
have come as well from the Bush administration. American
officials, for example, have accused longtime Pentagon favorite
Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, of warning
Iranian intelligence officials that the United States had broken
Iran's secret communications codes. The FBI's investigation to
determine who in government had told Chalabi about the secret
code-breaking operation has focused on Defense Department
officials, sources said.
American officials, speaking anonimously, have given conflicting
comments on whether the Franklin and Chalabi probes are linked.
The barrage of news reports on the allegations of improper
conduct on the part of Aipac and Pentagon officials has fueled a
suspicion among neo-conservatives that they are the victims of a
smear campaign quietly endorsed by the White House. The recent
memo being circulated in neoconservative circles points a finger
at several State Department officials, including Deputy Secretary
of State Richard Armitage, and at members of the National
Security Council, including Robert Blackwill, who took over Iraq
policy recently and is said to be behind the Chalabi crackdown.
The memo, in an apparent reference to a June 2003 article in The
Washington Post describing administration infighting over U.S.
policy toward Tehran, asserted that media leaks from the State
Department sank an effort by Pentagon officials to call for more
aggressive action against Iran in a key policy document called
the national security presidential directive, or NSPD.
"It was bad enough that the White House rewarded the June 15,
2003 leak by canceling consideration of the NSPD," the memo
stated. "It showed the State Department that leaks could supplant
real debate. But while Armitage or Blackwell (sic) might be
seeking to score points inside the beltway, they are feeding
conspiracies in the Middle East that will sink the president's
policies in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, etc."
To back up claims of antisemitism, the memo points to reports
that the FBI has hired Stephen Green, a longtime critic of
American-Israeli ties, as a consultant. A former United Nations
official, Green has a long record of claiming that Israel uses
Jewish Americans, some of them prominent, to spy on the United
States. Green has said in interviews that FBI officials
interviewed him at length in the past few weeks.
"Green has... been on a one-man mission to expose deep-cover
Israeli agents for decades," the memo said.
Green stresssed that the bureau had sought him out "and not the
other way around" and that its officials did not ask about
Franklin but about leading neoconservative like Wolfowitz and
Feith.
==========================================================
See also: "The Israel Espionage Probe: Does it Matter?," by Mark Weber.
http://www.ihr.org/news/040901_weber.shtml | |
