Pentagon Analyst Indicted in Info Leak (Gave classified info to AIPAC)

[dissent1977]

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon analyst has been indicted on charges he leaked classified military information to employees of a pro-Israel group, according to court papers made public Monday.

The six-count indictment charges that Lawrence A. Franklin conspired to disclose national defense and classified information to people not entitled to receive it, including information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. One count accuses him of conspiring to communicate the information to an agent and representative of a foreign government.

<Snip>

The indictment identifies two unindicted coconspirators who were employees of a Washington lobbying organization. The men previously have been identified as executives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying organization influential on U.S.-Israeli relations.

FBI agents twice last year searched AIPAC offices. It was once thought AIPAC might be a target of the long-running federal investigation, but that's not the case, people familiar with the probe have said.

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050613/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pentagon_spy_probe_1

[anarchy1999]

1. Hello anyone? This is big! And heaven knows I know not to get

involved in this issue, but.......

The facts speak alone. AIPAC, not good.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Yes, it is big.

Interesting that it is announced just as the circus is about to explode.

[sadiesworld]

7. Yep.

I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of this shit in the next couple of days.

[dissent1977]

14. I hope you are right

This should be an enormous story. The only problem is AIPAC has some very powerful connections, and they are going to try and bury this story. I fear this could be another Downing Street Minutes story that is explosive but ignored.

[noamnety]

13. Yep, the timing is funny

"The indictment was handed up May 26, but not unsealed until Monday."

[dissent1977]

15. The same day as the Michael Jackson verdict

Hmmm...coincidence?

[davidinalameda]

2. gee, makes you wonder who our real allies are

this makes me think back to the 40s and 50s when you had all these organizations fronting for the Soviets

is AIPAC a front for Israel?

[shraby]

4. Now for Franklin to start telling

how he got the top secret documents he had in his possession. His security clearance wasn't high enough to warrant have them.

[Just Me]

8. Yes. THAT is the million dollar question I want answered.

:grr:

[MGKrebs]

11. ...and how long this has been going on.

I just have the feeling that this has been a conduit for a few years now. Since, oh, Oct. 2001?

[SlavesandBulldozers]

5. our real allies are, of course, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan

you know, staunch allies in the war on terra.

[atreides1]

19. Do we really know who are Allies are?

Neither Saudi Arabia or Pakistan are true allies, then I have never
believed that the Israelis are true allies either.

They are all in it for what they can get, if the US falls none of them will stand with us, with the possible exception of some of our European allies.

Just one opinion.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

20. yes i agree. no allies, only interests

nt

[Gman]

12. Yes, very much so

[Frederik]

17. Yes indeed it is

Read former Mossad case officer Victor Ostrovsky's "By Way of Deception". Israel uses Aipac to influence politicians and the opinion in the US. They get their marching orders from the Mossad.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

3. kickety kick

:kick:

[jimshoes]

9. Is this the same case or agency that Doug Feith

was involved in? Haven't heard his name in a while. Also haven't heard the term unindicted co-conspirator in 30 years either.

[Frederik]

18. Yes

Franklin worked in Feith's office. He's an expert on Iran.

[evermind]

21. Yep. This Knight Ridder article from when Franklin was

charged (dated May 4th this year) has some a good summary as well as some interesting details:

Pentagon analyst charged with passing secrets to pro-Israel lobby
By Warren P. Strobel
Knight Ridder Newspapers

According to officials with direct knowledge, the investigation has been under way since at least 2002 and it has involved FBI interviews with officials in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's office and elsewhere in the executive branch.

--snip--

Franklin, an Air Force reserve colonel who'd served in the Defense Intelligence Agency, worked in the Near East and South Asia branch of the Pentagon's policy office, headed by departing Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith.

Feith's group has been criticized for failing to plan adequately for the aftermath of the Iraq invasion and has been charged by some State Department and intelligence officials with trying to run its own foreign policy.

Franklin's name first surfaced in news reports when it became known that he and another Pentagon official, Harold Rhode, held covert meetings beginning in 2001 with Iranian arms merchant Manucher Ghorbanifar, a figure from the Iran-Contra arms scandal who was twice labeled untruthful by the CIA.

More in the article, at:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11564322.htm

[burythehatchet]

22. yes it is. and that treasonous bastard has been

shuffled off to god knows where. He will escape justice because the Likudniks will protect him and another terrorist will have been freed to continue harming humanity.

[Warpy]

10. Leaking policy is bad enough, but this joker

was in Feith's office. Since Feith has been described as one of the dumbest human beings on the planet, Franklin had to be the one MAKING policy.

[Just Me]

16. He was one of Feith's top guys!!!

Of course, Feith is also one of the conspirators to deceive congress and the American people into an illegal war.

Ya' think Feith is sweating bullets?

[AlCzervik]

23. Background piece for those unfamiliar with this story or the leaker

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Franklin

[Gloria]

24. Wow!!! Finally, someone getting indicted for something!!

I'm amazed!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

25. oooh- I hope he talks and talks and survives any assisted suicide attempts

You just KNOW Feith and a lot of others must be involved in this. Will they succeed in getting him to take the solo fall? Yet another bad apple?

[shraby]

26. Justin Raimondo at

<http://www.antiwar.com> has had several articles about this investigation. Well worth a read.

[Nothing Without Hope]

27. Thank you. He's good! - I'll def look into these.

All of this is another key piece in the whole global criminal conspiracy that's been pushed for so long by Cheney et al.

[hootinholler]

31. Hmmm, DimSon's Ollie? n/t

[Just Me]

28. So, this was a "long-running" FBI investigation going back to 2001.

I'll bet they have all kinds of juicy info!!! I wonder if the reason they held the indictment so long was to encourage Franklin a last minute means of blowing the whistle.

[housewolf]

29. Larry Franklin (leak classified info to AIPAC) indictment unsealed today

Pentagon Analyst Indicted in Info Leak

By MARK SHERMAN
The Associated Press
Monday, June 13, 2005; 5:56 PM


A Pentagon analyst has been indicted on charges that he leaked classified military information to employees of a pro-Israel lobbying organization and an Israeli official, federal authorities said Monday.

The six-count indictment charges that Lawrence A. Franklin conspired to disclose national defense and classified information to people not entitled to receive it, including information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq.

None of the charges involves espionage. An FBI agent's affidavit that accompanied the criminal complaint against Franklin last month did not suggest that the disclosure endangered U.S. troops, but it said intelligence sources could have been compromised.

Franklin, a 58-year-old Air Force Reserve colonel who once worked for the Pentagon's No. 3 official, pleaded innocent to all counts Monday at a hearing in federal court in Alexandria, Va.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/13/AR2005061300738.html

[Whoa_Nelly]

30. ...and the Plame investigation indictments are coming when?

eom

[Nothing Without Hope]

32. Kick - this is important! n/t