| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 5:17 pm Post subject: AIPAC Comes Under Scrutiny as FBI Intensifies Israeli Espion |
| The following article appears in the latest (December, 2004) issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs magazine (www.wrmea.com ):
http://www.acjna.org/article_view.asp?article_id=336
AIPAC Comes Under Scrutiny as FBI Intensifies Israeli Espionage Probe
Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor
Special Interest Report
September - October 2004
It has been widely reported that the FBI is investigating the possibility that Lawrence Franklin, a Pentagon analyst , passed classified material to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), who then handed the information over to the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
The Economist (Sept, 4, 2004) reports that, “The unfolding saga surrounding Lawrence Franklin is ... that he gave classified, documents on Iran to Israel. But there is growing speculation that the FBI investigation of Mr. Franklin is the tip of an iceberg. The reported anger of federal agents at the leaking of the story indicates a bigger probe that may have been under way for at least a year. ... Mr. Franklin allegedly passed draft documents on American policy towards Iran to AIPAC, a hugely influential lobbying group in Washington, which in turn allegedly passed them to Israeli officials. Both AIPAC and Israel have denied any wrongdoing. The Israelis maintain that they have been ultra-careful since the huge embarrassment in 1985 when Jonathan Pollard, an American intelligence analyst, was caught spying for Israel. ... The scandal is difficult for Israel, which wields considerable influence on American foreign policy ... It is hard to put a positive spin on a spy in the Pentagon, even if he is talking to your friends.”
Writing in The American Conservative (Oct. 11, 2004), Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, notes that, “The Franklin case stems from investigations of Israeli diplomats that developed from the prosecution of spy Jonathan Pollard. Pollard’s conviction in 1987 provided little in the way of a resolution; the Israeli government never cooperated in the inquiry and did not provide an inventory of the documents that Pollard had stolen. The FBI also knew that a second spy, believed to be in the Pentagon, passed Pollard classified file numbers that were desired by the Israelis. Hoping to catch the second spy, the FBI continued its probe. Two years ago, the investigators began to suspect that highly sensitive National Security Agency documents were winding up in Israeli hands, possibly with the connivance of AIPAC. In the judgment of counterintelligence specialists, the Israelis did not wish a repeat of the Pollard case, so they decided against recruiting another U.S. official and turning him into a salaried spy. Instead, they opted to establish relationships with friends in the government who would voluntarily provide information. ... AIPAC would have served as a useful intermediary or ‘cut out’ in such an arrangement, limiting the contact between the American government official and the Israeli embassy.”
The entire affair, writes Ori Nir in The Forward (Sept. 3, 2004) “has cast light on the fine line that AIPAC walks between advocating a strong American-Israeli alliance and acting as the representative of a foreign government . Both activities are legal , but serving a foreign government requires registration with the Department of Justice and entails severe legal restrictions, not applied to pro-Israel groups, including AIPAC. AIPAC’s defenders ... insist that no evidence has emerged suggesting that AIPAC either violated American espionage laws or even crossed the line requiring it to register as a representative of a foreign agent. AIPAC enjoys the support, admiration and even awe of Jewish organizational officials, many of whom raced to AIPAC’s defense. Still, some pro-Israel activists in Washington are privately suggesting that the current scandal provides AIPAC with a chance, in the words of one communal official, for ‘some soul-searching and reappraisal’ regarding its general modes of operation.”
According to Nir, “some critics in the Jewish community say that AIPAC’s leadership is too closely identified with Israel’s ruling Likud Party ... Critics also have accused AIPAC of adopting an agenda that too closely mirrors the hawkish agenda of neo-conservatives in the Bush administration, thereby fueling conspiratorial notions that President Bush was duped into invading Iraq in order to advance Israeli interests. Now, critics say, with its increasing focus on Iran, AIPAC risks fueling the claims of those who would accuse the Jewish community of working with Washington neoconservatives to convince the White House to pursue regime change in Tehran.” Several Jewish communal leaders complain that AIPAC officials have not done enough to maintain a clear wall between the lobbying group and Israel. AIPAC officials have left the organization to serve in the Israeli government. Lenny Ben-David, formerly known as Leonard Davis, for example, worked at AIPAC for 25 years — first in Washington, then in Jerusalem — before he was tapped by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1998 to be the deputy chief of mission in Israel’s Washington embassy.
Many Jewish leaders have risen to AIPAC’s support. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, says: “The leaks are more serious than the charges because once you look at the charges, they don’t amount to anything. When things quiet down, we would be calling for hearings and investigations into the leaks.”
AIPAC and some of its supporters have suggested that the FBI and the CIA are pursuing a vendetta against Israel, the Pentagon, neoconservatives, and possibly Jews in general. The neoconservatives have lashed out in a memo drafted by Michael Rubin, of the American Enterprise Institute, alleging that the probe is motivated by anti-Semitism.
The Forward (Sept. 10, 2004) reports that, “Several Jewish activists, speaking on conditions of anonymity, cautioned against what they described as a defiant reaction on the part of some communal leaders who raised the specter of anti-Semitic conspiracy. ‘If every single time we get into trouble we cry anti-Semitism, no one is going to believe us when we confront the real problem of anti-Semitism,’ 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.’”
The fallout for AIPAC, writes Doug Bloomfield in Washington Jewish Week (Sept. 9, 2004) could be serious: “There have been persistent charges ... that AIPAC directs the network of pro-Israel political action committees (PAC), campaign finance bundlers and individual contributors. AIPAC has successfully fought such accusations all the way to the Supreme Court to avoid being designated a PAC because of the impact that would have on the way it operates and raises money. The current probe could renew calls from the organization’s critics for new investigations by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) and demands to know what has been uncovered by the FBI. ... There will be questions about AIPAC’s operations and internal accountability. A penchant for hubris and institutional mindset of secrecy — reflected in its hostile and contentious relationship with the media — add to the suspicion that there is something to hide. ...”
-Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor
Additional articles appear at the following URL:
http://www.acjna.org/article_result.asp | |  | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 7:21 pm Post subject: Fwd: Here's ANOTHER Jew caught giving secrets to Israel !!! |
| Fwd: Here's ANOTHER Jew caught giving secrets to Israel !!!
From: "Mik"
Subject: Here's ANOTHER Jew caught giving secrets to Israel !!!
http://www.amenusa.org/spy6.htm
Source: The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1998, pages 46, 97
Special Report:
American Engineer Who Admitted Giving Classified Information
to Israel is Back at Work
By Shawn L. Twing
An American Jewish engineer who admitted giving classified U.S. technical data “inadvertently” to Israeli officials for 10 years is back at work at a U.S. Army tank and armor maintenance and research facility, the Detroit Jewish News reported in its June 5 issue. David Tenenbaum, a 40-year-old mechanical engineer with the Tank Automotive Research and Development Engineering Center, a division of the U.S. Army’s Tank Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) in Warren, MI, no longer is under investigation for espionage by U.S. authorities, but the circumstances surrounding his case remain confusing and suspicious.
Tenenbaum was suspended from TACOM without pay and had his employee and parking badges confiscated by U.S. authorities in February 1997 after he told Defense Investigative Service and FBI agents that he divulged “non-releasable classified information to every Israeli Liaison Officer (ILO) assigned to TACOM over the last 10 years.”
According to a Feb. 14, 1997 affidavit by Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Sean Nicol, “Tenenbaum stated that he inadvertently provided his Israeli contacts, specifically the ILOs and Dr. Reuven Granot, scientific deputy director, Israeli Ministry of Defense (MOD), classified information from the three Special Access Program (SAP) projects to which he had access.
The non-releasable classified information provided to the Israelis by Tenenbaum includes hydra codes from the Light Armor Systems and Survivability (LASS) ceramic armor data, Advanced Survivable Test Battery (ASTB) data, Heavy Survival Test Battery (HSTB) data, and Patriot missiles countermeasures data. Additionally, Tenenbaum admitted providing the Israelis with unreleasable classified information regarding the Bradley tank and HUMV.”
Immediately following the public disclosure of the FBI affidavit, there was widespread speculation in the American Jewish and Israeli press that Tenenbaum’s arrest could be the beginning of another “Pollard Affair,” a reference to convicted spy-for-Israel Jonathan J. Pollard, a civilian U.S. naval intelligence analyst who was arrested in 1985 outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC after he was refused asylum there. [According to a U.S. General Accounting Office report, Pollard gave his Israeli handlers an estimated 800,000 highly classified U.S. intelligence documents. He was sentenced in 1986 to life in prison for his crimes, which severely strained U.S.-Israeli relations. Initially the Israeli government claimed that Pollard was part of a “rogue operation.” On the 10th anniversary of his arrest, however, the Israeli government granted Pollard Israeli citizenship, and in May, 1998 formally recognized him as an agent of the state of Israel.]
Very little information about the case was made public by the FBI.
As quickly as the Tenenbaum story appeared last year, however, it then vanished. Only a handful of articles, most of them in Jewish community newspapers and the Detroit Free Press, have been published, and very little information about the case was made public by the FBI. From the beginning, friends of Tenenbaum and his attorney, Martin Crandall, insisted that the entire case was a misunderstanding that would be cleared up quickly. A year-and-a-half later, however, serious questions remain unanswered, and the few answers available only add to the confusion.
In the most recent article on the Tenenbaum case, the Detroit Jewish News reported June 5 that he was cleared of wrongdoing by U.S. authorities. When asked to confirm the report, FBI special agent Dawn Moritz told the Washington Report that Tenenbaum had not been cleared of the charges. “All I can tell you is a two-sentence statement,” she said. “The case is closed. No criminal charges have been filed.”
The implication of that FBI statement is not clear. If Tenenbaum were found innocent of the charges, it would be reasonable to assume that he had been cleared, which is different than simply not having charges filed. The former implies innocence, but the latter suggests that some kind of a deal was made or that influence was brought to bear to quash an indictment.
Exactly what kind of deal, if any, was made is impossible to determine unless somebody from the FBI, David Tenenbaum, or his attorney start talking. Given the history of this investigation to date, that is an unlikely scenario.
Adding to the confusion, TACOM spokesman Eric Emerton told the Detroit Jewish News that Tenenbaum has returned to work, but he may not return to his previous job. Emerton declined to say when Tenenbaum returned to work, but a source close to the investigation confirmed that he returned to TACOM in early May 1998. This is supported by the TACOM civilian personnel directory on the Internet, which was last updated on March 30, 1998, and does not list David Tenenbaum as an employee.
If the FBI investigation found that Tenenbaum is innocent, why isn’t he back at his previous job? And if this all was a misunderstanding, why did it take more than a year for that to become clear? Apparently there is considerably more to this case than is being made public.
Tenenbaum, for his part, has done little or nothing to clear his name. He repeatedly has refused reporters’ requests for comment. His attorney is not talking either. Crandall refused to comment about the case to either the Detroit Jewish News or the Washington Report.
Routine Sharing
Despite all of the evidence pointing to a cover-up, it is possible that David Tenenbaum “inadvertently” passed classified information to Israeli officials for 10 years, but did not break U.S. law. Israeli and American officials routinely share classified intelligence information, including technical weapons data.
The U.S. government allows Israel to spend $150 million of its annual $1.8 billion in grant military aid on research and development in the United States, which places Israeli engineers and defense officials in close contact with their American counterparts. This could have led to a blurring of the lines of information that could be shared with Israel and information that could not. It also is possible that the FBI and Defense Investigative Service officials were not familiar with the extent of the U.S.-Israel relationship and inadvertently framed the question in a routine lie detector test in such a way that Tenenbaum’s answers sounded more ominous than they really were.
It is equally possible, however, that Tenenbaum violated U.S. law and passed information illegally to Israeli officials. In a 1996 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office entitled “Defense Industrial Security: Weaknesses in U.S. Security Arrangements with Foreign-Owned Defense Contractors,” the GAO claimed that “Country A [publicly identified as Israel in the Feb. 22, 1996 Washington Times] conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any U.S. ally.” One common denominator found in almost every example of Israeli espionage activity cited by the GAO was the illegal theft of advanced U.S. military technology.
The FBI’s use of the term “non-releasable” also suggests that Tenenbaum broke the law. Passing classified information to Israeli officials may be within the legal limits of the U.S.-Israel intelligence-sharing relationship, but “non-releasable” information is just that. It is a classification which does not allow for misinterpretation.
It also doesn’t help Israel or David Tenenbaum that Israeli companies, particularly Rafael, Israel’s state-owned armaments company, are very interested in weapons data related to sophisticated armors. Rafael, in fact, is a world leader in this technology.
In the last year alone, Rafael has won three contracts in the United States for ceramic armor, all in competition with America’s best firms in this highly specialized field. (See “U.S. Defense Firm Protests Marine Corps Contract Awarded to Israel’s Rafael Armaments Company,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1998, p. 48.) If Israeli engineers had access via David Tenenbaum to U.S. test data, as the FBI affidavit claims, it certainly could provide Rafael an advantage in building better, less expensive armor.
Unfortunately, the public may never know exactly what was discovered during the FBI’s 12-month investigation of David Tenenbaum. If he is innocent of the charges, hopefully he or his lawyer will say that publicly. The FBI does make mistakes, which was demonstrated clearly in the case of David Jewell, the man investigated and eventually cleared by the Bureau for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing.
If they do not address the issue publicly, however, the available evidence and numerous unanswered questions will continue to point decidedly toward Tenenbaum’s guilt and a serious cover-up to hide a new “Pollard Affair” from the American public.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shawn L. Twing is the news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. He can be reached via e-mail at stwing@washington-report.org | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004 11:31 pm Post subject: FBI Raids Traitorous AIPAC Office |
| Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2004 15:02:26 -0800
Subject: FBI Raids AIPAC Office
FBI RAIDS AIPAC OFFICE
http://www.jta.org/index.asp
The FBI subpoenaed four senior staffers at the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee to appear before a grand jury.
The FBI searched the Washington office of the pro-Israel lobby on
Wednesday, seeking additional files related to two
staffers who were interviewed by the agency in August — Research
Director Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, deputy director for foreign
policy issues.
The FBI also delivered the grand jury subpoenas, AIPAC said in a
statement that did not name the four “senior staff members.” An FBI
spokeswoman confirmed the search, but had no further comment.
Federal investigators reportedly have been investigating AIPAC for two
years, and the case is said to focus around a former Pentagon official
suspected of passing a classified draft policy statement on Iran to
AIPAC, which allegedly then passed it on to Israel.
In a statement Wednesday, AIPAC continued to deny any wrongdoing.
“Neither AIPAC nor any member of our staff has broken any law,” the
statement said. “We are fully cooperating with the governmental
authorities. We believe any court of law or grand jury will conclude
that AIPAC employees have always acted legally, properly and
appropriately.”
----------------------------------------------------------
Treasonous Pentagon Zionists, AIPAC and Israel:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2004/09/08/treason-in-high-places-pentagon-zionists-aipac-and-israel.php
FBI Still Going after AIPAC:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2004/11/24/aipac-comes-under-scrutiny-as-fbi-intensifies-israeli-espion.php
Former CIA Agent 'Anonymous' Ignites Bombshell:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2004/11/30/former-cia-agent-anonymous-scheuer-ignites-bombshell.php | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:09 am Post subject: AIPAC Investigation Resumes After Hiatus |
| Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 16:39:53 -0800 (PST)
From: "Council for the National Interest" <count@igc.org> Add to Address Book
Subject: AIPAC Investigation Resumes After Hiatus
AIPAC Investigation Resumes After Hiatus
December 2, 2004
The FBI resumed its investigation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby in Washington, yesterday when agents searched its offices for the second time in three months and served subpoenas on four senior AIPAC staff. Those subpeonaed are required to appear at a grand jury regarding the alleged acts of espionage involving a Pentagon employee and AIPAC. The man at the center of the investigation is Larry Franklin, an Iran analyst who works in the office of William Luti, who in turn is in charge of the Iran desk in Douglas Feith's office.
Feith is undersecretary of defense for policy, the third highest position at Defense. As a leading neocon and "hawk" on Middle East questions, he was one of the leading voices urging the war on Iraq. Throughout the years he has shown his strong support for Israel, and even appears regularly at Zionist Organization of America events. He holds tight to the belief that Iran is Israel's archenemy.
Larry Franklin is suspected of passing a draft national-security presidential directive (NSPD) on Iran to AIPAC, which in turn is suspected of forwarding the classified document to Israel. The directive, which urged the administration to endorse regime change in Tehran, is believed to have been written by Michael Rubin, an up-and-coming neocon attached to the American Enterprise Institute. AIPAC has taken a leading role in discrediting Iran at every possible turn.
In October, according to the Los Angeles Times, Franklin stopped cooperating with the FBI and hired a high-profile attorney, Plato Cacheris, whose resume includes the Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen spy cases.
In Wednesday's search, FBI agents sought more files belonging to Steven Rosen, AIPAC's director of foreign policy issues, and Keith Weissman, an AIPAC expert on Iran. They served subpoenas on executive director Howard Kohr, managing director Richard Fishman, communications director Renee Rothstein and research director Rafi Danziger.
AIPAC meanwhile prominently posted a profession of innocence on the portal of its website. The December 1 statement read, "Today, the FBI returned and requested and obtained additional files relating to the same two AIPAC staff members and delivered subpoenas requiring the appearance of four senior AIPAC staff before a grand jury.... AIPAC has done nothing wrong...."
Also under investigation, according to the Israeli media, is Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon - political adviser to the Israeli embassy in Washington - who is suspected of giving US secrets to Israel.
The new administration's policy toward Iran, which the neocons have vowed to destabilize, is clearly reaching crisis proportions as international efforts seek to end Iran's program of uranium enrichment, even for peaceful purposes. Will the neocons, including Franklin, maintain their suspicions against Iran even if it has no nuclear capability? Will they continue their anti-Iran policies?
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