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Israel spy scandal widens--JFY, Kreppy!
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topic by
melissa carr
(1204 posts)
Killeen,TX,
USA
9/4/2004 (22:10) |
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FBI probes Jewish sway on Bush government
By Nathan Guttman
WASHINGTON - The FBI investigation into the Pentagon mole affair has expanded beyond data analyst Larry Franklin's immediate circle to encompass the entire issue of Jewish influence on the neoconservative part of the administration.
The FBI queries have recently been focusing on a number of officials, all from the neoconservative wing, who had access to the debates on Iranian affairs, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
The officials include Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith; Pentagon adviser Richard Perle; adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, David Wormser; and Iran specialist Harold Rhode, all of them Jews.
The Washington Post reported that FBI people recently spoke to administration officials and Middle East experts to sound them out on the suspicion that senior officials funneled secret material to Israel. They asked each official whether he believes that a certain group of people could spy for Israel and transfer secret information.
The investigation now appears to center on the claim made by the opponents of the neoconservatives in the administration - that the latter are responsible for the U.S. Middle East policy and that they are suspected of bias in favor of Israel's interests.
The issues being queried have also increased. It transpires that the FBI is investigating, in addition to funneling classified information to Israel, the possibility that secret information had been given to Ahmed Chalabi, of the Iraqi opposition. Chalabi was close to many of the people mentioned in the affair and was a central source of information to the Americans on the goings-on in Iraq before the war.
The Washington Post said the FBI asked the administration officials about Israeli embassy officials in Washington who allegedly held contacts with administration officials to procure secret information. So far, only the name of Naor Gilon, the political adviser in the embassy, was mentioned as involved in the affair.
The L.A. Times reported on Friday that the American administration does not believe Israel's contention that it does not spy on America and that U.S. government officials say Israel secretly maintains a large and active intelligence-gathering operation in the U.S.
The officials said the FBI and other bodies spy on Israeli diplomats in Washington and New York as a matter of routine. The report said that Israel has long attempted to recruit U.S. officials as spies and to procure classified documents, according to the Times.
Israel said it set a policy of not spying on the United States after Jonathan Pollard's arrest in November 1985 and the damage it did to bilateral relations in general and to intelligence and security ties in particular. For 20 years, Israel said, that policy has translated into unequivocal directives to the intelligence and defense communities: They are not allowed to locate candidates for recruiting as agents, cannot recruit and operate agents, nor pay for information.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/473428.html
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reply by
albert ween
(1101 posts)
Vancouver, BC,
Canada
9/4/2004 (23:59) |
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Shalom: Mole affair is exaggerated 'media nonsense'
By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Officials confirmed Monday that a senior Israeli diplomat in Washington met several times with Larry Franklin, a Pentagon analyst being investigated by the FBI on suspicion he passed classified information on Iran to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
However, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom - denying allegations of espionage - said such meetings are commonplace and the two governments routinely share secrets.
'Israel and the United States have intimate ties ... and the information being exchanged is much more classified than any conversation that may have taken place,' Shalom told a joint news conference with his German counterpart, Joschka Fischer.
The Israeli diplomat was identified as Naor Gilon, head of the political department at Israel's embassy in Washington, and a specialist on nuclear weapons proliferation. Israel says Iran and its nuclear ambitions pose the greatest threat to the Jewish state.
Shalom did not mention Gilon by name, but when asked about contacts between Gilon and Franklin did not deny they had taken place.
A statement issued after the weekly cabinet meeting said that 'in discussing the Larry Franklin affair, he [Shalom] noted that Foreign Ministry checks have shown that the entire Israeli Embassy acted according to procedures.'
Shalom said Monday that Israel already receives all the classified information it needs from the U.S. government through shared intelligence. He called the Franklin affair 'media nonsense' that has been taken out of all proportion, Army Radio reported.
'There is no truth whatsoever in the claims that Israel spied or in any way acted against our great friend and ally, the United States,' Shalom told reporters in Jerusalem.
'I think the ties between Israel and the United States are intimate. The cooperation and levels of information are so close, so intimate, that the information that is exchanged is much more classified that any conversation or another,' he said.
The pro-Israel AIPAC lobby denied serving as a conduit for documents from the analyst connected to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office.
Newsweek magazine reported on Sunday that the FBI began investigating Franklin after tailing Gilon, the minister of political affairs at the Israeli embassy in Washington, who met an AIPAC representative for lunch. Franklin reportedly approached their table and engaged in a warm conversation with them.
However, Shalom said any meetings Franklin might have held with pro-Israeli officials were simply part of diplomatic work, according to Army Radio.
'American embassy officials meet regularly with Israeli government officials,' said Shalom. 'It's an accepted thing.'
The magazine also said Franklin was once posted at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv when he served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. According to the report, Federal Bureau of Investigation counter-intelligence agents were following Franklin when they saw him attempt to pass a classified policy document on Iran to an unnamed surveillance target.
The U.S. administration believes that the FBI will refrain from charging Franklin with espionage, American media said Sunday. The FBI apparently lacks any evidence that the Pentagon data analyst was operated by either Israel or AIPAC.
Franklin, an analyst in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia Bureau, could be charged with mishandling a classified document. However, the FBI has yet to make an official pronouncement on whether Franklin will be arrested and what charges he might face. Nevertheless, investigators are broadening their probe and interviewing figures at the Defense Department, the State Department and outside the administration.
The investigation currently centers on a single document relating to a discussion held by senior administration officials about U.S. policy on Iran. Franklin is suspected of handing the document - which was classified - to AIPAC, which conveyed the document or its contents to Israeli government representatives.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that Franklin may have conveyed the classified information innocently, not realizing he was breaking the law.
'The man is not a spy, he's an idiot,' an official familiar with the investigation told the paper.
Undersecretary of defense Douglas Feith, above, worked with alleged mole Larry Franklin, according to some sources. (AP)
Related Links
* Make your point: Will the Pentagon spy charges harm U.S. Jewry and Israel?
* Order was out - no spying on U.S., says former Mossad chief
* Analysis / A cold wind blowing from the CIA
* Analyst at center of spy flap called naive, ardently pro-Israel
* FBI says Pentagon analyst gave secrets to Israel via AIPAC
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reply by
albert ween
(1102 posts)
Vancouver, BC,
Canada
9/4/2004 (24:04) |
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Response to message 1 written by albert ween
NEWEST:
ADL calls for probe of Pentagon `mole' leak
By Shlomo Shamir
NEW YORK - The Anti-Defamation League, one of the largest Jewish organizations in North America, has called on the Bush administration to immediately appoint a special counsel to investigate the circumstances of leaks to the American media regarding suspicions of an alleged Israeli 'mole' in the Pentagon.
'The one clear fact that can be agreed upon is that there was a malicious and targeted leak that is more damaging than the actual allegations of Israeli spying - allegations that in all likelihood are baseless,' Abraham Foxman, national director of the ADL, told Haaretz.
'We will demand appointing a commission of inquiry to make every effort in identifying which official or officials are behind the leak,' said Foxman, who is known to have close ties with administration and White House officials.
'A leak directed against a friendly country like Israel causes grave damage, and the current suspicions of spying damaged Israel, the local Jewish community, and relations between the two countries,' Foxman said.
Foxman maintains that an official within the administration is responsible for the leak.
'Someone in the hierarchy is trying to ruin relations between Israel and the administration, and between Israel and the Jewish community,' he said.
Responses:
4
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reply by
melissa carr
(1209 posts)
Killeen,TX,
USA
9/5/2004 (11:12) |
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Response to message 1 written by albert ween
Of course they're going to deny it! Did you really expect them to admit to it before they absolutely MUST admit to it? Geesh!
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reply by
melissa carr
(1210 posts)
Killeen,TX,
USA
9/5/2004 (11:25) |
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Response to message 2 written by albert ween
Of course Abe Foxman is going to grab a loudspeaker and yell out 'ANTI-SEMITISM'!!! That is the standard response from Zionists any time their corrupt agenda is threatened!
Furthermore, this is the same Foxman who predicted pogroms when he 'invited' himself into a private screening of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ (a minor spy op, huh?), and the same Foxman who personally lobbied for Clinton to pardon that crook Marc Rich.
And this is the same ADL that settled a (!!!!!) SPY lawsuit of its own!! Don't you remember how they were spying on pro-Palestian and anti-Apartheid activists, Kreppy? Now why, pray tell, was the state of Israel and members of the ADL so quick to align themselves with a (HARK!) white supremacist regime?????? :)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/02/23/MN169812.DTL
San Francisco -- A lawsuit accusing the Anti-Defamation League of spying on local activists -- the last court action stemming from San Francisco police raids on the Jewish organization's office 10 years ago -- has been settled for $178,000,
lawyers said yesterday.
The money will be divided among the remaining three plaintiffs in a suit that was filed in 1993 by 19 people, all involved in pro-Palestinian or anti- apartheid activity. At the time, Israel was an ally of South Africa's white- supremacist government, and the ADL's chief intelligence-gatherer in the Bay Area, Roy Bullock, later admitted he was also being paid by South Africa.
The suit claimed the ADL, founded almost 90 years ago to combat anti- Semitism, was working to suppress domestic criticism of Israel by compiling dossiers that it shared with police, the Israeli government and its own supporters. The ADL denied providing information to Israel and said it was legally monitoring hate groups and political extremists.
After Bullock and a San Francisco police inspector were seen talking to South African agents in 1992, police seized more than 10,000 files from the two men and ADL offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The files contained information on organizations and individuals at both ends of the political spectrum.
The inspector, Tom Gerard, later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of illegally accessing government information that he allegedly supplied to Bullock.
The ADL settled a suit by the city of San Francisco and another filed by political activists in Los Angeles, but the suit by Bay Area activists -- Arab Americans, Jewish dissidents and anti-apartheid organizers -- was delayed by years of wrangling over access to ADL files, which had been quickly sealed.
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reply by
kobi katz
(22 posts)
Long Island, NY,
USA
9/5/2004 (15:01) |
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Response to message 4 written by melissa carr
Melissa sez....
'Of course Abe Foxman is going to grab a loudspeaker and yell out 'ANTI-SEMITISM'!!!
I respond.....YES----and he's NOT alone. Jews as well as *persons of good will* the world over are reminded of the *Dryfus affair* and other racist rushes to judgement that political history offers.
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reply by
albert ween
(1105 posts)
Vancouver, BC,
Canada
9/5/2004 (18:45) |
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Response to message 4 written by melissa carr
'was the state of Israel and members of the ADL so quick to align themselves with a (HARK!) white supremacist regime?'
What was quick about it?
Responses:
7
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reply by
melissa carr
(1222 posts)
Killeen,TX,
USA
9/5/2004 (21:33) |
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Response to message 6 written by albert ween
Well, that Israel aligned itself at all was quick enough, no? Don't stutter, Kreppy, TALK!
Responses:
8
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reply by
albert ween
(1125 posts)
Vancouver, BC,
Canada
9/5/2004 (24:38) |
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Response to message 7 written by melissa carr
Actually we write here.
How was this alignment quick? How was Israel involved. Don't assume the vast audience knows all.
Responses:
9
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reply by
melissa carr
(1238 posts)
Killeen,TX,
USA
9/6/2004 (12:53) |
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Response to message 8 written by albert ween
I see you're QUICK to engage in disinformation by getting hung up on the word QUICK and avoiding the FACT that ADL members were busted spying on pro-Palestinian and anti-Apartheid activists in the United States, as well as avoiding the FACT that Israel aligned itself with the Apartheid South African government. Cat got your tongue, Kreppy??
Responses:
10
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reply by
albert ween
(1172 posts)
Vancouver, BC,
Canada
9/6/2004 (18:00) |
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Response to message 9 written by melissa carr
I see you getting hung up on the word.
You have yet to explain its use here.
Maybe the ADL was busted. I see noone going to jail. Just a settlement.
Could be the ADL wanted to save $$$$$
Israel aligned itself with South Africa in the 1970s during an Arab oil boycott; and the economy needed trade.
Keep in mind that many ANC leaders were Jewish too!
Responses:
11
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reply by
melissa carr
(1249 posts)
Killeen,TX,
USA
9/6/2004 (20:42) |
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Response to message 10 written by albert ween
There is no MAYBE, Kreppy! The ADL guy ADMITTED to spying! And that should have been clear to you if you bothered reading the sfgate article I provided earlier!!!!
Israel aligned itself with a white supremacist regime, despite sanctions by virtually every other nation. Don't try to whitewash it by saying it was about an Arab oil boycott because that's just not true.
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reply by
alexi alexis
(10 posts)
Nicosia,
Cyprus
9/7/2004 (19:09) |
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Response to message 11 written by melissa carr
From what I read here, there was no severe sentence. Just a settlement. This happens when both sides decide not to pursue it.
From what I remember there was an oil boycott and Israelis had no few friends so there turned to South Africa.
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