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September 3, 2004/Elul 17 5763, Vol. 55, No. 50
Pentagon man may have helped Israel
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Allegations that a Pentagon official passed documents to Israel through a pro-Israel lobbying group have shaken Washington and drawn intense attention to the close relationship between the Bush administration and the Jewish state.
Reports surfaced Aug. 27 that a Defense Department official was being investigated by the FBI for passing secrets to Israel, and two staffers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee are accused of serving as intermediaries, receiving the documents from the Pentagon aide and passing them to the Israelis.
Media reports have identified the Pentagon employee as Larry Franklin. According to the Jerusalem Post, investigators have spoken with two AIPAC employees, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, about their contacts with Franklin. AIPAC officials will not confirm or deny these accounts.
Rosen is AIPAC's director of research and considered one of the most influential people in the organization. He has been with AIPAC for decades, and mentored both Howard Kohr, AIPAC's current executive director, and Martin Indyk, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel.
Weissman is deputy director of foreign policy issues, and specializes in relations with Iran, Syria and Turkey.
Newsweek reports that Franklin may have been targeted by federal investigators after he was seen dropping in on a lunch between an AIPAC staffer and the minister of political affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Naor Gilon. Gilon was being monitored for suspicion of espionage on behalf of Israel.
Newsweek also says AIPAC staffers may have refused to accept documents from Franklin.
The allegations, first reported by CBS News, come just days before Republicans and AIPAC leaders were expected to tout close ties between the United States and Israel at the Republican National Convention in New York.
But the suspicion that Israeli officials gained access to classified information could hurt the close coordination the two countries officially share, and make governmental officials wary of dealing with Israeli representatives.
If found true, the allegations could harm the reputation of AIPAC, considered the most successful foreign policy lobbying group in Washington, with numerous advocates in Congress and in the American Jewish community.
Jewish officials were downplaying the story Aug. 29, standing behind AIPAC and suggesting that business at the Republican convention would proceed as normal, with more than a dozen Republican legislators and party leaders expected to address closed-door AIPAC forums.
At AIPAC's first event Aug. 28, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) addressed the crowd as scheduled, and (Gov. George Pataki (R-N.Y.) made a surprise appearance, saying he wanted to show his solidarity with the pro-Israel lobby.
Other lawmakers and Jewish leaders were contacting AIPAC staff to find out how they could help or express their support.
"All of us will go on with our business," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "There is no change because of this story, and we should wait to see what happens in the coming days."
The charges evoked memories of Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew and former Navy intelligence officer who was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for spying for Israel.
While some American Jewish leaders now work to free Pollard, his spying for the Jewish state temporarily strained relations between the allies. It also placed Jewish officials in the United States government under the microscope for suspicions of dual loyalty.
Franklin is not Jewish, however, and no motive for his alleged actions has been presented.
Israeli sources said Aug. 28 that Franklin's work relations with Israeli officials did not exceed the boundaries of accepted diplomatic contact, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported. The sources said checks conducted over the weekend negated all possibility of espionage or unacceptable conduct and that no Israeli had received classified information from Franklin.
Because of the impact the Pollard case had on U.S.-Israeli relations, Israel made a deep strategic decision afterward not to spy in the United States, Israeli officials told JTA.
No arrests in the investigation have been made, but according to the CBS News report the FBI has wiretaps, undercover surveillance and photography that show the exchange of a classified document regarding the formulation of Bush administration policy for Iran.
Israel has grown increasingly concerned about Iran, with officials saying the country is a larger threat to the Jewish state than the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. Israel has stressed the threat Iran's nuclear weapons program poses to the stability of the Middle East.
Franklin is a desk officer on Iran within the Near East and South Asia bureau at the Pentagon. The division is overseen by Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy, who was considered a strong advocate for the Iraq war.
Feith also was one of several Jewish "neo-conservatives" inside the government whom war critics have sought to portray as instigating the war in Iraq.
Sources inside and outside the administration said Franklin was a career official who was close to retirement and not considered a main architect of policy within the office.
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