SPY RING BUSTED?

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Fri, 16 Sep 2005 18:39:50 -0500

Fw: SPY RING BUSTED?

 

 

 

 

http://americanfreepress.net/html/spy_ring.html

 

 

Grand jury indictments handed down on Aug. 4 against a senior

Pentagon official and two Washington-based lobbyists linked to

Israel paint a grim picture of a much wider espionage ring involving

unidentified high level U.S. and Israeli government officials,

diplomats and spies.

 

AFP has obtained a copy of that grand jury indictment. The three at

the center of the case are: Lawrence Anthony Franklin, who held a

top secret security clearance and worked under the prominent neocon,

Douglas Feith, within the office of Secretary of Defense Donald

Rumsfeld; Steven J. Rosen, formerly director of foreign policy

issues at American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC); and

Keith Weisman, a senior Middle East analyst in the same Washington-

based lobby group.

 

AIPAC is the most powerful lobby in Washington. This year,

Condoleezza Rice was just one of many figures from the Bush

administration to attend its annual convention. More than half of

Congress was also in attendance. Rosen appears from the indictments

to have been the prime mover in a conspiracy which began in 1999 but

did not directly involve Franklin until three years later.

 

As far back as 1978, Rosen held a U.S. government secret security

clearance because of his work with the Rand Corporation. Based on

that clearance, Rosen was later granted top secret clearance by the

CIA. However that was terminated in 1982 when he ceased work at Rand and

joined AIPAC in Washington as its director of foreign policy

issues.

 

The grand jury indictment states that in his executive capacity at

AIPAC, he primarily lobbied " officials within the Executive Branch

of the U.S. government. "

 

However, it was not until 1993 that Weisman entered the picture when

he was hired by AIPAC to work on Middle East affairs under the

tutelage of Rosen.

 

According to the grand jury, in April 1999 Rosen and Weisman began

their spying operations by " cultivating relationships and using

their contacts within the U.S. government and elsewhere to gather

sensitive U.S. government information, including classified

information relating to the national defense " which they then passed

to people connected to Israel's intelligence and diplomatic services.

 

In the second week of April 1999, Rosen told an unnamed " foreign

official (FO-1) " that he had picked up an " extremely sensitive piece

of codeword protected intelligence " that related to terrorist

activities in Central Asia.

 

Two months later, Weisman met the same foreign official to tell him

he had learned from " three different sources " of a classified FBI

file on the Khobar Towers bombing. Later that year, Rosen and

Weisman met with a high level U.S. government official not named in

the grand jury indictment papers. They learned from that official

about classified U.S. strategy options concerning Iran. The two

spies then took the information and secretly discussed it with

members of the U.S. media.

 

It appears from a careful reading of the grand jury charges that

Rosen and Weisman were not only extracting information from within

the U.S. government but were also plying the U.S. media with some of

it, possibly to influence U.S. public opinion and bring it into line

with Israel's Iran policy which was directed at fomenting a military

strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

 

It has long been Israel's policy to compel the United States to

confront Iran which Israel sees as one of its most dangerous enemies

in the Middle East. Many neo-cons within the Bush administration,

with strong ties to Israel, have long argued that after Iraq, the

United States should force regime change in Iran and Syria.

 

It is clear from the indictments that before Franklin entered the

picture and became part of the Rosen-Weisman espionage conspiracy,

other U.S. government officials discussed classified matters with

the two AIPAC lobbyists.

 

For example, the indictments lay out episodes in which Rosen and

Weisman got information from U.S. officials referred to as " USGO 1 &

2 " and Defense Department officials, identified as " DOD Employee A & B, "

and how, on one occasion, they passed that information to an

unnamed " foreign national. "

 

It was not until August 2002, however, that Franklin, who was then

working on classified Middle East policy matters within the

Department of Defense, came to the attention of the two Israeli

spies.

 

Before Franklin and Rosen met, Franklin told Rosen in a phone call

that he had seven or eight issues he wanted to discuss with him

and " they were not limited to Iran. " The obvious implication from

that is that Franklin either knew who Rosen was or was directed by

someone else in the Pentagon to link up with him.

 

The first meeting between Rosen and Franklin happened over breakfast

in an Arlington restaurant on Feb. 7, 2003, and the unnamed Defense

employee, " Employee B, " was also present, as well as Weisman.

 

During breakfast, Franklin told the two AIPAC lobbyists about a

classified strategy paper on U.S.-Iran policy. Franklin very quickly

became attached to Rosen and Weisman to the extent that two days

later he discussed with Rosen his prospects for a job on the

National Security Council (NSC) and how that would place him " by the

elbow " of Bush.

 

He asked Rosen to " put in a good word " for him to which Rosen

replied: " I'll do what I can. "

 

On March 13, 2003, after Franklin faxed a classified document to

Rosen, Rosen met with two officials from the Israeli embassy in

Washington and discussed the information Franklin had provided.

Rosen also leaked material from the document to two members of the

media.

 

Three months later, at Weisman's request, Franklin acquired for him

a copy of a CIA document. One of the most intriguing aspects of the

indictment is that Franklin not only met Rosen and Weisman but some

of their contacts from the Israeli embassy, especially an

unidentified individual referred to as " Foreign Official 3-FO-3. "

 

In one section of the indictment papers, while in no way minimizing

Franklin's role, the grand jury pointed out that it was the strategy

of the " conspirators " -presumably Rosen, Weisman, Israeli diplomats

and others-to " develop a trustworthy relationship " and also

to " foster an environment " in which Franklin " felt free to disclose

classified information. " In other words, a web was cleverly woven to

entrap Franklin.

 

Sometimes, Franklin and FO-3 met at the Pentagon Officers Athletic

Club beside the Pentagon and, as a rule, their discussions centered

on Iran, its nuclear policy and the strategies being adopted by

various U.S. government agencies to deal with Iran.

 

According to the grand jury, after one such meeting on May 23, 2003,

Franklin returned to his desk in the DOD and drafted a memo to his

superiors " incorporating suggestions being made by FO-3. " Therefore,

Franklin acted as a conduit for the Israeli government to secretly

shape U.S. foreign policy particularly toward Iran, and other

countries in the Middle East.

 

Franklin and FO-3 became such close buddies that Franklin asked him

for, and received, a letter to help his daughter in her travels to

Israel and other parts of the Middle East.

 

It was FO-3, according to the grand jury, who suggested to Franklin

that he meet with a former member of Mossad who was running a think

tank in Israel. Franklin agreed and met the person in the Pentagon

cafeteria where they discussed Iran's nuclear program.

 

On May 18, 2004, Franklin again met FO-3 and handed him classified

information regarding Iranian activities in Iraq. Three week later,

again in the Pentagon, Franklin met FO-3 who was accompanied by

another person from the Israeli embassy and they discussed Iraq.

 

For the remainder of that month, the FBI monitored his meetings with

Rosen and Weisman and their meetings with FO-3 from the Israeli

embassy.

 

Having snagged Franklin, FBI agents did not leave the two AIPAC

lobbyists on too long a leash. On Aug. 3, 2004, the FBI interviewed

the two lobbyists about Franklin.

 

A major question left unanswered by the indictment of the trio is

whether the espionage inquiry will stop there. While members of the

Israeli embassy can claim diplomatic immunity, no such immunity will

be available to other unnamed U.S. government officials alleged to

have passed classified materials to Rosen and Weisman before Franklin

came on board.

 

It will also be hard for AIPAC to claim it knew nothing about the

activities of Rosen and Weisman, especially when the indictments

include a reference to Weisman passing materials to AIPAC colleagues.

 

It will also be difficult for Israel to claim that it does not spy

on the United States or covertly try to influence U.S. foreign

policy.

 

As for the Bush administration and the neo-cons within it who have

argued that Israel is America's best ally, the grand jury

indictments tell a different story.