| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 1:42 am Post subject: PROTEST AIPAC FIFTH COLUMNIST ISRAEL FIRSTERS ON MONDAY |
| PROTEST AIPAC FIFTH COLUMNIST ISRAEL FIRSTERS ON MONDAY
The following can be found at the http://gorillaintheroom.blogspot.com/2005/05/vacation-in-dc.html URL:
AIPAC PROTEST COMMITTEE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Carlton Cobb, Council for the National Interest, 800-296-6958
THREE SPEAKERS SET FOR PROTEST AGAINST AIPAC'S PROMOTION
OF OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE AND WAR AGAINST IRAN
WHEN: Monday, May 23rd, starting at 6:00 PM
WHERE: DC Convention Center, demonstrating at Massachusetts Avenue at 7th Street NW.
WHO: The following speakers will address a demonstration at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference:
HUWAIDA ARRAF, co-founder of International Solidarity Movement
ROSS POURZAL, Alliance of Progressive Iranians
DR. E. FAYE WILLIAMS, Board of Directors of the Council for the National Interest
Demonstrators will protest against AIPAC's support for Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, its abuses of the rights of Arabs in the occupied territories and in Israel, and its promotion of wars against Syrian and especially Iran. We also protest Israeli leader Ariel Sharon's appearance at the conference because of his involvement over 50 years in a series of war crimes, including the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla. And we protest any role of AIPAC or its employees, past or present, in passing highly classified information on Iran or any other topic from U.S. government employees to the state of Israel.
The protest has been endorsed by Former Congressman Paul Findley (R-Illinois), Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, dozens of individuals and the following organizations: Action Center For Justice, Charlotte, NC; Alliance of Progressive Iranians; American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Washington DC Area Chapter; Constitution Party of New York; Council for the National Interest; Danbury Committee for World Peace; DC Anti-War Network; Hindus for Peace and Justice; Iranian "Left Alliance of Washington"; Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Jewish Witnesses for Peace & Friends - Ann Arbor, Michigan; Jews Against the Occupation-NYC; Justice for Palestinians Committee; Libertarians for Peace; Palestine Office- Michigan; Proposition One Committee; StopTheWarNow.Net; Stop U.S. Tax-funded Aid to Israel Now! (SUSTAIN); The Middle East Crisis Committee; Washington Peace Center; Washington Report on Middle East Affairs; Women for Peace and Justice in Iran.
The protest Call and demands and updated individual and group endorsements are at http://www.stopthewarnow.net/aipacprotest.html
Email: aipacprotest@earthlink.net
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CNIF Ad Calls for AIPAC to Register as the Agent of a Foreign Government
Washington, DC
May 20, 2005
The Council for the National Interest Foundation is placing a full-page ad in the New York Times on Monday, May 23, calling for all lobbies working on behalf of foreign governments and their policies to register as such and reveal their contributor base. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) would be a principal target of this initiative.
A copy of the ad is available online at http://www.cnionline.org/pubs/ads/AIPACs-Agenda.pdf. Any further questions should be directed to Mr. Terry Walz, or in his absence, Carlton Cobb at (202) 863-2951.
The Council for the National Interest is one of the organizations participating a rally in opposition to the annual AIPAC Conference at Massachusetts and 7th Avenue on Monday evening from 6 to 8 PM. Copies of the advertisement will be available.
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http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/print.php?id=14131
2005-05-20
AIPAC Will Focus on Policy at Gathering
by Ron Kampeas and Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Inside the massive Washington Convention Center, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be talking about the Gaza Strip withdrawal and the Iranian nuclear threat.
However, in the hallways and the social gatherings of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual policy conference next week, talk is likely to focus on the investigation into two former AIPAC staffers and the effect it could have on AIPAC’s ability to lobby for Israel.
AIPAC will be tasked with keeping its members focused on the important issues facing Israel and maintaining support in Congress if the Gaza pullout, planned for this summer, goes awry. The effort to keep attention focused on Iran’s presumed drive for nuclear weapons is also high on its agenda.
The organization is still perceived as a “behemoth,” congressional officials say, and will be taken seriously when it meets May 22-24 — but a cloud will linger over the proceedings.
“You deal with them as you would normally deal with them,” one congressional staffer said. He compared it to a friend who has a health problem: You don’t talk about the problem, and you hope that it resolves itself quickly.
There are two traditional success markers to an AIPAC policy conference. One is a roll call of members of Congress, diplomats and administration officials attending the Monday night dinner — last year there were nearly 200, including more than 40 senators — and the other is a lobbying day Tuesday, when thousands of AIPAC members descend on Capitol Hill.
How many lawmakers turn up Monday night and how the lobbyists fare Tuesday will be closely watched by the organization, its supporters and its critics. Some insiders, who asked not to be identified, say there may be apprehension about working with AIPAC, because of the FBI probe.
“I think most members of Congress and staffers who are invited to meet with AIPAC constituents and go to the dinner will still go,” a congressional aide said. “But I’m convinced, in the back of everybody’s mind, there is a kernel of concern and doubt that maybe we shouldn’t be playing ball with AIPAC the way we always have.”
AIPAC’s problems stem from an FBI investigation into Lawrence Franklin, a Pentagon analyst arrested earlier this month and accused of verbally passing classified information to Steve Rosen, AIPAC’s research director, and Keith Weissman, a top Iran analyst at AIPAC.
AIPAC fired both men last month, and Rosen associates tell JTA he expects to be indicted. AIPAC officials claim that they have been assured the probe is not targeting the organization or any other staffers.
“Nobody knows what the implications of this legal situation are,” a congressional staffer said. “It could be a blip, and AIPAC has had blips before.”
AIPAC has gone to great lengths to stress its bona fides, publicizing Rice, Sharon and other scheduled speakers, including leaders of both congressional chambers from both parties. Sharon’s presence is considered particularly significant. Israeli prime ministers rarely travel to the United States if they don’t have an audience with the president.
Sharon is expected to meet with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York before heading to Washington, but has planned no political meetings, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington said. Sharon also is expected to be welcomed in New York at a rally Sunday, a measure of American Jewish support for the disengagement plan.
“Prime Minister Sharon is coming to stand with the American pro-Israel community at a crucial moment in the history of the U.S.-Israel relationship,” AIPAC spokesman Andrew Schwartz said.
AIPAC also is boasting about attendance at the conference, which is expected to top 5,000 people, including nearly 1,000 students.
Such self-promotion is unusual for the organization, which generally feels it can be most effective if it keeps its achievements behind the scenes. In the past, major speakers have not been confirmed until the week before the conference, and officials play down the expected attendance, instead of talking it up.
AIPAC officials insist that this year’s conference is business as usual, though they referred questions to Patrick Dorton, a Washington publicist whose experience in scandal management includes shepherding accounting giant Arthur Andersen.
“We’re promoting the policy conference the same way we’ve done it in years past,” Dorton said. “AIPAC continues to be proud of the work it does on behalf of its membership.”
A source close to AIPAC said Howard Kohr, the group’s executive director, will touch on the investigation briefly in a speech to delegates Sunday, but mostly will focus on AIPAC’s policy agenda.
The organization has real work to do. Topping its agenda will be preparing Congress for the Israeli withdrawal. The lobby is preparing a letter for lawmakers to send to President Bush, underscoring how the United States should support the peace process. Bush already has expressed interest in assisting Israel in the development of the Negev Desert and the Galilee, the regions likeliest to absorb some 9,000 settlers from Gaza and the northern West Bank. Israel has suggested that resettlement costs could run as high as $3.5 billion.
AIPAC will be charged with laying the groundwork for pushing through any additional aid packages. In addition to direct aid, that could mean new U.S. loan guarantees for Israel.
It will be important for AIPAC to show that it backs the disengagement plan, especially since it has a hawkish reputation in Washington. A draft of the group’s action agenda, which will be debated in executive committee at the conference, calls for supporting the “U.S. government’s backing” of the plan, rather than the plan itself. Officials said that was in keeping with the group’s philosophy of lobbying the U.S. government, not trying to influence Israeli policy.
In a twist, the disengagement plan could soon pit AIPAC against a traditional ally — Christian evangelicals, including several prominent lawmakers, who believe the disengagement violates biblical precepts and offers Palestinian terrorists a triumph. Dovish groups welcomed the tilt.
“It’s very significant that AIPAC intends to adopt formal policy language that embraces disengagement, and specifically the Bush administration’s endorsement of disengagement,” said Lewis Roth, assistant executive director of Americans for Peace Now.
Disengagement opponents said they won’t try to scuttle AIPAC’s support for the plan, which they believe is inevitable. Instead, they’ll try to ensure that any resolutions reflect the trauma it will impose on settlers.
Morton Klein, Zionist Organization of America president, said language should refer to the evacuation of thousands of “women and children from Gaza” and the northern West Bank “by force if necessary, and abandoning Jewish homes, schools and synagogues where Jews have been living for 35 years.”
Klein plans to continue protesting the plan but has pledged not to lobby against U.S. funding related to it.
As usual, the conference will see some protests. A coalition of right-wing Jewish groups are coordinating buses from New York to Washington, and plan to sleep outside the Convention Center in tents, simulating Gaza settlers who will be expelled from their homes under the withdrawal plan. The Council for National Interest, a pro-Arab group, also will protest, claiming undue Israeli influence in American foreign policy.
AIPAC is not shutting out disengagement dissenters. Natan Sharansky, who resigned recently from Israel’s Cabinet because he believes the time is not ripe for the withdrawal, will speak Sunday night. The former Soviet dissident was expected to speak of democratic ideals, not disengagement.
Another crucial plank at the conference is backing for the Iran Freedom Support bill, a measure to strengthen sanctions against Iran by penalizing foreign countries that invest in Iran’s energy sector and to provide funding to democratic groups in the Islamic republic.
The legislation, introduced by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), codifies much of what already is in the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, but includes a provision that would notify investors if a fund they own has shares in a company that is subject to sanctions. The goal is to create an investor backlash against companies that deal with Iran.
AIPAC also will focus on the Iranian nuclear threat. Delegates will learn about the nuclear fuel cycle and how Iran appears to be seeking a nuclear bomb.
The lobby will continue to stress the annual passage of foreign aid. This year’s aid package includes $2.28 billion in military aid for Israel and $240 million in economic assistance, as well as $150 million for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/578325.html
Last update - 03:39 20/05/2005
Impacting on AIPAC By Nathan Guttman
Howard Kohr, the executive director of AIPAC, will be the only speaker to mention the investigation from the podium at the lobby's annual policy conference, which is being held next week. "It will be a marginal reference, almost coincidental," say close sources. Aside from the brief allusion to the subject in the executive director's remarks, the Franklin-AIPAC affair will not be mentioned at all at the conference.
However, like the huge elephant in the room that everyone ignores, the FBI investigation will set the tone, even if not obliquely mentioned, at the new conference center in Washington where the conference is being held. Sources in the pro-Israeli lobby are well aware that perhaps more than anything else, attendees are interested in the investigation and its effect on the organization's future. Members of the lobby's management board and the heavy donors are constantly receiving updates and briefings, mostly by way of conference calls, about what is happening on the investigation front. The message they are bringing with them to Washington is that everything is just fine. There may be some sort of investigation by the FBI of a certain Larry Franklin from the Pentagon and another couple of people, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who used to work at AIPAC, but AIPAC as an organization? It has no connection whatsoever to all this.
The abandonment
Why, really, was AIPAC in such a rush to cut its ties with Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who are suspected of receiving and transferring information from Franklin? A major Jewish activist said this week that he resents this very much, mainly as it concerns Steve Rosen, who, the activist says, gave his life for AIPAC. "Why didn't they fight back?" he asks, adding that he is not the only one frustrated by the way AIPAC abandoned its senior officials.
In the same briefings held for the major players, a senior AIPAC official recently explained that the decision to fire the two men was not taken by heads of the lobby, but by attorney Nathan Levine, who is representing AIPAC in the affair. The senior official told listeners that Levine said that he was aware of the incriminating information in the possession of the FBI against both men and there was therefore no choice but to dismiss them. He did not detail what that information might be.
Aside from that, the lobby is continuing to pay for the legal representation of the two, even after their dismissals. This is no trifling matter - according to one report, legal fees have already come to $1 million, and an indictment has not even been served yet. Even if the sum seems exaggerated, the mere fact that this number is widely known and the fact that everyone engaged in Jewish causes in Washington knows that "AIPAC is paying Rosen's lawyer," proves that it was important to someone in AIPAC to let it be known that the lobby did not abandon its higher-ups when they got into trouble.
The branch
Steve Rosen founded AIPAC's government branch. Before him, AIPAC was another lobby that concentrated its activity on Congress and even achieved some nice successes. Rosen invented the idea of lobbying within the administration - in the White House, in the State Department and in the Pentagon, and succeeded through his own efforts to open the doors to AIPAC. In order to succeed in such a role, Washington insiders say, you need a Rolodex with a lot of names. The business cards in Steve Rosen's Rolodex - or in modern terms, his Palm Pilot - were of extraordinary quantity and quality.
Rosen and his Rolodex are no longer at the lobby. He had outstanding contacts with everyone important in the foreign policy sphere in Washington, and everyone who was going to be important. Not only did he found AIPAC's government branch, he was the government branch.
Sources in the lobby are trying to soothe anxieties, and say that nothing has changed in the way AIPAC works, neither in Congress nor in the administration. "There are a lot of talented people in AIPAC," they add. Which is true, of course, but not everyone has a big Rolodex and not everyone will get an answer when they pick up the phone to call the National Security Council or try to make an appointment at the State Department.
The success
A survey recently commissioned by the National Journal magazine among members of Congress ranked AIPAC second on a list of the most effective lobbies in Congress. What does that mean? That even under investigation, AIPAC still has immense power and that members of Congress are not unnerved by the rumors and reports.
In addition, the fact that the annual conference that opens Sunday will be graced by the presence of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the four majority and minority leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives and the prime minister of Israel is ample evidence of the organization's strength. The conference will also set new records for the organization - the number of participants (5,000), the number of lobbyists who will go on Tuesday to Capitol Hill on behalf of Israel (4,500) and the number of registered members of the organization (currently more than 100,000).
And what does that say? One, that the Jewish community continues to believe in AIPAC and support it. Two, that AIPAC went to great efforts to arrange a conference that would surpass all preceding conferences, in order to demonstrate a facade of business as usual.
The marketing
The most salient change that the lobby has undergone since the affair came out is its demonstrative effort to market itself. In the past, AIPAC was thought of as a bunker. Lobbying on Capitol Hill and in the administration was not talked about; achievements were not lauded about; and no effort was made to persuade the public of the lobby's success. The assumption was that anyone who was really important knew. There was no need to show off. It could only lead to trouble.
Now, after those troubles have come upon it, AIPAC is placing an emphasis on achievements and happily reporting legislation initiatives and actions in Congress.
AIPAC now employs a professional responsible for handling the media, an expert in crisis management. The last job held by this individual, Patrick Dorton, was rescuing the Arthur Andersen accounting firm from crisis following its involvement in the Enron affair. Unlike Enron, Arthur Andersen is still around and is even making a recovery, so AIPAC has cause for optimism.
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Treason at a high level: 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
Last edited by Alpha on Sun May 22, 2005 11:43 am; edited 3 times in total | |  | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 1:37 am Post subject: AIPAC: Franklin affair won't harm our work |
| http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=579014
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
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Last update - 01:32 23/05/2005
AIPAC: Franklin affair won't harm our work
By Nathan Guttman
WASHINGTON - For the first time since the AIPAC-Franklin scandal broke last August, the heads of the organization have commented on it publicly and promised to ensure that all employees of the organization observe the law as well as the rules of the organization.
At the opening of AIPAC's annual convention yesterday, executive director Howard Kohr promised the 5,000 activists that the lobby would come out of the affair safely, and that their work for Israel both in Congress and the administration had not been harmed. Kohr also promised that all AIPAC employees would obey U.S. laws.
"I pledge to you that I will take any steps necessary to ensure that every employee of AIPAC, now and in the future, conducts himself in a manner that you will be proud of, using policies and procedures that provide transparency, accountability and effectiveness," he said.
Kohr also said that it was of the utmost importance that the official document submitted by the FBI to the courts in the matter of former Pentagon employee Larry Franklin proves "we now know directly from the government that neither AIPAC nor any of its current employees isn't and never was a target of this investigation."
By employing the term "current employees," Kohr made a clear distinction between the lobby and its two fired staffers, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who have been named in the affair.
Kohr said that the strong attendance at the convention proved how great the support for it was in the American Jewish community and sent a message to Israel's and AIPAC's opponents as well as the Jewish community that "we are here to stay."
Kohr's comments were meant to communicate that the affair does not touch the organization directly or influence its work; they were the only official comments made about the investigation at the annual convention.
While everything was business as usual from the podium, praising the lobby's work and the State of Israel, the atmosphere was completely different in the convention corridors and the media, where the investigation took center stage.
AIPAC did everything possible to make sure this year's convention was the largest and most impressive in years. The participation level was at an all-time high, and so was the participation of senior officials - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is to speak today, four Congressional leaders, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and hundreds more congressmen who will take part in the ball tonight.
While the delegates are abuzz over the Franklin affair and its potential ramifications, the convention's agenda focused on the two main issues for the pro-Israel community in the U.S. - disengagement and the Iranian threat.
Last year, the lobby hadn't made up its mind about disengagement, but this year, it is fully behind it, in Congress and with the administration.
Convention organizers tried to put a human face on the disengagement, communicate the need to support it and provide assistance to delegates who will be going to Capitol Hill tomorrow to speak with congressmen about the need to help with the disengagement.
A tearful Kochi Ravivo, from Elei Sinai in the northern Gaza Strip, appears in a movie produced especially for the convention, as she talks about the difficulty of giving up her home. So does her husband Micha, as does Yochi Sadeh, who was evacuated from her Yamit home almost 30 years ago. All the people in the film, who also appeared at the convention, to the cheers and applause of the delegates, had the same message: It is difficult, but justified. The only criticism of the disengagement from the podium was expected from Natan Sharansky, due to speak last night.
The other issue AIPAC is focusing on is the Iranian nuclear threat. The basement in the new Washington convention center has been converted into an exhibit entitled "Iran's route to the bomb." Visitors journey around boxes of "nuclear material" stamped "Made in China" and through recreations of uranium enrichment and bomb manufacturing. The exhibit ends with the clear sound of a ticking clock and images of nuclear bombs.
AIPAC delegates will ask their congressmen to support stiffening sanctions against Iran in an attempt to stop its nuclear program, and ask the administration to move the issue to the UN Security Council as soon as possible. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 7:01 pm Post subject: CNIF Ad Calling on AIPAC to Register as an Agent for a Forei |
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, DC
May 23, 2005
CNIF Ad Calling on AIPAC to Register as an Agent for a Foreign Government to Appear in New York Times and Washington Times Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 24, 2005
A full-page ad calling for AIPAC to register as an agent of a foreign government will appear in the Tuesday editions of the New York Times and the Washington Times. The ad, placed by the Council for the National Interest Foundation, is designed to draw attention to the need to hold the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to standards of accountability and transparency during its annual convention May 22-24, 2005.
A copy of the ad is available online at http://www.cnionline.org/pubs/ads/AIPACs-Agenda.pdf. Any further questions should be directed to Mr. Terry Walz or, in his absence, to Carlton Cobb at (202) 863-2951.
The Council for the National Interest is one of the organizations participating in a rally in opposition to the annual AIPAC Conference at Massachusetts Ave and 7th, Washington, DC, on Monday evening from 6 PM to 8 PM. Copies of the advertisement will be available.
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