State of the State Secrets (Franklin, AIPAC)

[Frederik]

It's from the American Conservative, but it's an interesting summary of this case. The trial against Frnaklin and the two AIPACers may start as early as January 2006, and, as Raimondo writes, "When this case comes to trial, it won’t be only three spies for Israel who stand accused: the whole nexus of organizations and interests that came together in the War Party will be put in the dock." We're allowed to hope, aren't we?

"As Iran desk officer with the Defense Undersecretary for Policy, Near East South Asia, Franklin later moved to Douglas Feith’s Office of Special Plans (OSP), where he and his fellow neocons cooked the intelligence on Iraq according to Ahmad Chalabi’s special recipe and then served it up piping hot to Dick Cheney’s boys, who delivered it straight to the White House. As Seymour Hersh relates, they called themselves “the Cabal”—a bit of self-mockery that, in retrospect, seems all too descriptive. OSP functioned, in effect, as a parallel intelligence agency. Its mission was to bypass the CIA, the DIA, and the mainline intelligence community and give the War Party the answers they wanted. The cabalists did not limit their activities to writing up talking points, however, but also engaged in field operations that caught the attention of the State Department and the CIA."

"In December 2001, Franklin, along with Harold Rhode, a Middle East expert and Franklin’s colleague in Feith’s policy shop, and neoconservative writer Michael Ledeen—at the time working for Feith as a consultant—met with the infamous Manucher Ghorbanifar, of Iran-Contra fame, and a group of Iranians, including a former high official of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Also in attendance: Nicolo Pollari, head of the Italian intelligence service, and Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino."

" When the FBI confronted Franklin and searched his home and office—turning up 83 classified documents, spanning three decades—he agreed, at first, to help the investigation, presumably in return for a promise of leniency. By some accounts, notably those by pro-AIPAC writer Edwin Black, Franklin agreed to make a series of monitored phone calls to suspects in the investigation, including neoconservative supporters of Chalabi. They also supposedly planted information via Franklin that Israeli agents operating in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq were in danger of assassination by Iranian agents. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that Franklin met with Weissman on July 21, 2004 outside Nordstrom’s at the Pentagon City mall in Arlington and warned him about Israel’s Kurdish problem. Alarmed, Weissman and Rosen passed this on to AIPAC, which raised the matter in meetings with NSC official Eliot Abrams. They also called Naor Gilon, top political officer at the Israeli embassy. This was followed shortly afterward by the FBI’s first raid on AIPAC’s Washington headquarters. (They would return four months later.)"

"Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder reported in 2004 that the probe “has been going on for more than two years,” and UPI’s Richard Sale cites a “former senior U.S. government official” as saying, “In 2001, the FBI discovered new, ‘massive’ Israeli spying operations in the East Coast, including New York and New Jersey,” and they began watching Gilon, who eventually led them to Franklin. The JTA dates the genesis of the inquiry more precisely: “information garnered during the investigation into alleged leaks from a Pentagon analyst to the two former AIPAC staffers suggests the FBI began probing AIPAC officials just before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.” "

[seemslikeadream]

1. Thanks for posting this Frederik

:hi:

[Frederik]

2. Hi Seems

So do you think the prophet Yahweh will keep his promise tonight and conjure up those UFOs over Vegas?

:popcorn:

[seemslikeadream]

4. I'm looking foward to the festivities

You should stop by the lounge over there some time. Or do you just lurk and not come in to listen to the music?

I hope things are back up to speed by tonight, would like to be with friends for the event!

[Frederik]

6. Let's hope so

What's with the hacker attack? :tinfoilhat:

[leveymg]

3. Does This Mean the FBI Busted the Iran War Before It Could Start?

Did Iran Win the Second US-Iraq War?
Mark G. Levey

At this point, 1 June 2005, it is clear that both the US and Iraq have come out the losers. Who does that leave to reap the rewards?

Initially, it looked like Israel -- at least Likud, and the other right-wing parties -- was going to be the big winner, having manipulated its slow-witted Big Uncle to get rid of Saddam at no cost to itself. Until recent weeks, it even appeared likely that BushCo was going to be prodded into making another giant blunder, and would be pushed into bombing Iranian nuclear and missile sites or, at least, enabling the Israel Air Force to do so. Somehow, the prospects of that, and the risk of a general Middle East war, seem to be receding.

Prospects of war receding? Allow me to say that the rush toward war appears to have slowed. For one, those most directly involved in the OSP-AIPAC scandal and prosecutions are all Iran specialists. With the recent indictment of Larry Franklin (Feith's Iran desk officer) and moves toward prosecution of AIPAC's Iran expert, Keith Weissman, and the sudden flight back home of their handler at the Israeli Embassy (Naor Gilon, also an Iran specialist), the FBI seems to have rolled up the principal operational officers in the neocon Iran war party.

Another is the stiff resistance which the Bolton nomination has met in the Senate, and the fact that it is also opposed by some very powerful figures in the Administration, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community. Bolton has been one of the loudest voices in the lead up to hostilities with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program. It was thought that he would lead the charge at the UN later this month. Instead, Bolton has had the door closed on his face by nervous Senators, and there seems to be an eerie lull in the campaign to sanction Tehran.

Then, last week, the Europeans on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed to continue talks with Iran over its nascent fuel enrichment program, rather than referring the matter to the UN Security Council for sanctions, as had been threatened.

Finally, unlike last year, George W. Bush did not show up in person to applaud Ariel Sharon's performance at the annual AIPAC pep rally at the Washington Convention Center last weekend. In fact, after the two met at the Crawford ranch a couple weeks ago, both Ariel and W emerged looking like they had drained each other's blood. This was in marked contrast to the sprightly prance through the Texas bluebells that Bush took just a few days later with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

There is no doubt that Iran is emerging stronger and more secure in itself and its neighborhood after the BushCo neocons and Likud so overplayed their hands in Iraq. There will be hell to pay for their strategic blunder, and it appears that the next round of blood-letting may be within the corridors of power in Washington and Jerusalem, rather than along the East Coast of the Persian Gulf.

[Frederik]

5. Let's hope so!

I'm looking forward to the trial next year, hopefully more will come out in the open. I don't see Boosh and company having their much vaunted political "capital" any more in sufficient quantity to attack Iran. The "stalling" of the Bolton appointment is very uplifting. Hopefully some moderate Republicans will resort to common sense and "filibuster" him (thereby also exasperating the Free Repuglic Revolutionary Guard, which will be fun to witness in itself, and precipitate the looming break-up of the Conservative-Neocon-Theocon coalition).

Iran seems to have been the big prize they have been planning for since 2001. Let's keep fingers crossed.