5/5/2005
Franklin and AIPAC
This one has more than a few heads scratching: (Newsday)
WASHINGTON -- An analyst in a controversial Pentagon intelligence office was charged yesterday with passing top-secret information to two staff members of a pro-Israeli lobbying group here.Yet:
Charged was Larry Franklin, an Iran specialist who worked in the Office of Special Plans, established by Pentagon Undersecretary Douglas Feith in order to give Pentagon civilians an independent source of intelligence that could bolster the case for war with Iraq.
A source close to the public affairs committee said only that it "has been advised that it is not a target of the investigation."Why in the world would AIPAC not be a target of the investigation? Because no one can come up with an ulterior motive? Because Feith had planned to leak this to the Israelis anyway?
This could, of course, be one of those word games that lawyers and spokespeople love to play. Later on in the same article we have a real jewel in the crown of deceptive wordplay: (emphasis mine)
Rosen's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, issued a statement saying, "Steve Rosen never solicited, received or passed on any classified documents from Larry Franklin and Mr. Franklin will never be able to say otherwise."
But an affidavit filed with the charges in federal District Court in Virginia said Franklin disclosed the information orally. It said he was also found a year later to have 83 classified documents at his home and that he disclosed classified information "to a foreign official" and to members of the media.
|
