NATO AIR
Senior Member
Enough "Likud"-Bashing, Already!
It's time to focus on policy, not its proponents.
By Lee Smith
Posted Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004, at 11:28 AM PT
A couple of weeks ago, CBS first reported that the FBI was investigating whether midlevel Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin had passed classified information to an employee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who in turn gave it to an Israeli official. According to CBS, law enforcement figures were unsure whether the investigation, under way for a year, would eventually lead to "charges of unlawful disclose [sic] of classified material or espionage." So far, no arrests or indictments have been made, but some observers believe that the affair is far from over.
As many journalists have noted, it is almost certain that, despite official denials, Israel spies on the United Statesjust as U.S. clandestine services in turn spy on Israel and other allies. However, it is improbable that AIPAC would knowingly entangle itself in espionage. AIPAC is one of the most powerful, and most scrutinized, lobbies in Washington, and it is unlikely to risk its reputation and access to U.S. decision-makers for a document that has been described as a "glorified Op-Ed."
What Franklin allegedly passed to AIPAC sometime last year was an unfinished draft of a National Presidential Security Directive on Iran. The information was sensitive enough that a June 15, 2003, Washington Post story on the NPSD said, "Senior administration officials refused to talk about the status of the Bush policy directive on Iran, on the grounds that it is classified." Apparently, however, the information was not so sensitive that officials refrained from sketching for the Post some of the directive's main topics and noting that competing parties in the administration disagree over the direction of Iran policy.
Continue Article @
http://www.slate.com/id/2107047
It's time to focus on policy, not its proponents.
By Lee Smith
Posted Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004, at 11:28 AM PT
A couple of weeks ago, CBS first reported that the FBI was investigating whether midlevel Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin had passed classified information to an employee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who in turn gave it to an Israeli official. According to CBS, law enforcement figures were unsure whether the investigation, under way for a year, would eventually lead to "charges of unlawful disclose [sic] of classified material or espionage." So far, no arrests or indictments have been made, but some observers believe that the affair is far from over.
As many journalists have noted, it is almost certain that, despite official denials, Israel spies on the United Statesjust as U.S. clandestine services in turn spy on Israel and other allies. However, it is improbable that AIPAC would knowingly entangle itself in espionage. AIPAC is one of the most powerful, and most scrutinized, lobbies in Washington, and it is unlikely to risk its reputation and access to U.S. decision-makers for a document that has been described as a "glorified Op-Ed."
What Franklin allegedly passed to AIPAC sometime last year was an unfinished draft of a National Presidential Security Directive on Iran. The information was sensitive enough that a June 15, 2003, Washington Post story on the NPSD said, "Senior administration officials refused to talk about the status of the Bush policy directive on Iran, on the grounds that it is classified." Apparently, however, the information was not so sensitive that officials refrained from sketching for the Post some of the directive's main topics and noting that competing parties in the administration disagree over the direction of Iran policy.
Continue Article @
http://www.slate.com/id/2107047
