Home > Israeli spy nest in the U.S. - Ashcroft says: ’Don’t arrest them!’

Israeli spy nest in the U.S. - Ashcroft says: ’Don’t arrest them!’

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 4 September 2004
22 comments

by Justin Raimondo

The Washington Post is confirming the analysis, posted here two days ago, that Israel’s spy nest in the Pentagon involves a lot more than neocon ideologue Larry Franklin leaking the text of a draft presidential directive on Iran to AIPAC employees, who then passed it on to Israel:

"For more than two years, the FBI has been investigating whether classified intelligence has been passed to Israel by the American Israel Political Action Committee, an influential U.S. lobbying group, in a probe that extends beyond the case of Pentagon employee Lawrence A. Franklin, according to senior U.S. officials and other sources.

"The counterintelligence probe, which is different from a criminal investigation, focuses on a possible transfer of intelligence more extensive than whether Franklin passed on a draft presidential directive on U.S. policy toward Iran, the sources said. The FBI is examining whether highly classified material from the National Security Agency, which conducts electronic intercepts of communications, were also forwarded to Israel, they said."

The National Security Agency is the eyes and ears of the U.S. government: it’s the source of all that "chatter" we hear talked about as an indication of the terrorists’ plans to attack targets both here and abroad. The NSA monitors communications of all kinds, collects, collates, and translates raw data, then feeds it to intelligence professionals. It is, in short, a vital link in the security chain that keeps us safe - to the extent that we are safe. The news that it has been penetrated and compromised by a foreign power should be ringing alarm bells throughout the U.S. government, but instead the investigation is being blocked - by Attorney General John Ashcroft. As the New York Sun reports:

"According to sources familiar with the investigation, the U.S. district attorney in charge of the probe, Paul McNulty, has ordered the FBI not to move forward with arrests that they were prepared to make last Friday when the story broke on CNN and CBS. ’He put the brakes on it in order to look at it,’ a source familiar with the investigation told the Sun. ’To see what was there. Basically the FBI wanted to start making arrests and McNulty said ’Woa, based on what? Let’s look at this before you do anything.’"

The Los Angeles Times, in a remarkably disingenuous editorial - one that bears all the hallmarks of newly-appointed editorial page editor Michael Kinsley’s brand of know-it-all dogmatism - wants "the evidence, please." Let them ask McNulty, a Republican hack who was in charge of the Justice Department transition team. When the story broke, according to the Sun, Ashcroft immediately put McNulty on the case. The man comes with a bad record when it comes to going after spies, such as Robert P. Hanssen, who was spared the death penalty due to the decision of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. When it comes to rounding up paintball-playing Muslims, McNulty is very gung-ho: but not, apparently, when he’s dealing with Israeli spies in the Pentagon.

When McNulty went after the Paintball Conspirators, FBI official Michael E. Rolince openly admitted that the government had no real evidence that the "jihadists" were involved in a plot against the United States: they were instead convicted of violating the rarely-invoked Neutrality Act. Rolince justified the prosecutions based on the Bushian principle of preemption:

"It is just no longer sound judgment to have people that you believe have engaged in illegal activity and let them conduct an attack before you do something about it. A lot of this is about preemption.

Yes, but not when it comes to Israel, which seems to enjoy some special immunity not granted to others: preemption doesn’t apply in this case. But why not?

The author of the Times editorial, which focuses exclusively on Franklin, hasn’t been paying attention. Warren Strobel’s Knight-Ridder piece the other day made the same point as this more recent report in the Washington Post, which avers:

"The investigation of Franklin is coincidental to the broader FBI counterintelligence probe, which was already long underway when Franklin came to the attention of investigators, U.S. Officials and sources said."

If the authorities were watching AIPAC, and just happened to stumble on Franklin’s clumsy efforts to pass documents to Israeli officials, the rest can be inferred: This is big, much bigger than Franklin, if it required a systematic and ongoing surveillance of AIPAC and Israeli government agents.

AIPAC and its allies, Israel’s amen corner in the U.S., are circling the wagons, denying everything, and - how’s this for chutzpah? - Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League is actually demanding an investigation into who leaked the news of the investigation. No one has a right to know that Israel, the recipient of $3 trillion total U.S. "aid," is stabbing us in the back.

Who, us - spy on the United States, our "closest ally"? It never happens, the Israelis and their American defenders aver. But the two AIPAC employees who were first identified in the Israeli media as being the principal suspects, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, are sure acting guilty as hell. According to news reports:

"They were interviewed by the FBI on Friday - the same day news first broke of the existence of the yearlong investigation - but the interviews were halted after the men said they wanted a lawyer present before answering further questions, [AIPAC attorney Nathan] Lewin said."

With the unbridled arrogance that is the hallmark of Israel’s American lobby, Lewin had the gall to add: "The FBI could resume the interview. We have not heard from the FBI."

http://antiwar.com/justin/

Forum posts

  • Thank God for Ashcroft. The whole issue is one of "media madness.’

    Highest regards, George Haas, Past Commander, Jewish War Veteran, Post 580, New Orleans, LA

    • The only way to end the blood bath in the Arab world is to cut off all economic aid to Israel. The billions of dollars being spent there for their 7 million citizens to have a better way of life at the expense of their neighbors and the American tax payers will ultimately lead to Israel starting a nuclear war in the name of their God. It is time for Americans to stop funding this shameful country in their quest to commit mass murder and steal their neighbors land all sins according to Christian values......

  • How many more American troops must die as a result of the Wolfowitz/Feith Zion Defense Team?

    We are getting a few whiffs of the next war we are being manuevered to fight for Israel.

    The Israeli managed move to bring "freedom" to Iran or get rid of their WMDs, by American forces, of course, will surely start early next year if these bozos remain in power.

    Casandra2004

  • You have a right to detest Israel. But try to make intelligent points or reading you will be a waste of time. First, you are speculating and should wait until the facts are out. Second, in a relationship that is as complex and multifaceted as the US-Israeli relationship there is a lot of information sharing and consulting on an informal basis that does not neatly fit into boxes. Third and most importantly, the Israelis do to tend to be paranoid and frequently for good reasons. They are also frequently arrogant and there is never a good reason for it, but they are rarely stupid. They security and intelligence relationship between the two countries is so close and the opportunity cost of pissing off the US so great that I simply do not believe that any spying is going on here. And before you dish all over the Israelis remember that thanks to their air force we did not have to deal with a nuclear Iraq, not to mention the invaluable help they give us in intelligence and counter-terror.

    • Yes indeed you have the right to detest Israel....your hard earned dollars are going to support mass murder and the exploitation of Palestinians and the taking of their lands. What is happening there is worse than the Nazi round up of the Jews and it makes you wonder how these people can have the nerve to bring up the "holocaust" while they are commiting holocaust. The U.S. gives your tax money to these evil people thereby making all Americans a party to mass murder. Every citizen in this country should demand that the government cut off all aid to Israel until they stop killing their neighbors and stealing their land.....

    • The Palestinian leaders’ incompetence is responsible for the fate of their people. They could have had their country over five years ago. Now that Muslim terror is spreading from New York to Russia to Israel to India and Bali and everywhere else and even France’s shameful appeasement policies are not working, the chickens will come home to roost. Muslim terror is the greatest threat to the world in this century and it will be dealt with in the only language the Muslims understand it, notwithstanding the impotent views and policies and cowardice of continental Europe.

    • Bullshit.....people like you are just parrots parroting the crap their government propaganda machines pump out to keep everyone stupid.....why don’t you jast shove it.

    • Anyone who says that the Palestinians "could have had their country over five years ago" is demonstrably a liar, or at minimum a product of Zionist propaganda. As maps produced by the Dutch geographer Jan de Jong show, the Israelis never offered anything but Palistinian control over nearly a hundred walled in, isolated, discontinous bits and pieces of land, and village ghettos, surronded by Israeli-only roads, Israeli military zones, Israeli-only settlements, etc.., . . . and this includes the Taba Agreement (1995), the Wye Agreement (1998), and the "Sharm el Sheikh Agreement (1999). In the case of the entire Jordan Valley and virtually all the West Bank acquafirs, Israel took it all, except the fenced-in Palistinian ghetto of Jericho.

      Any Palestinian agreeing to this Bantustan-enslaved "country" would be correctly marked as a traitor.

      Anyone who can look at Jan de Jong’s maps, and still say that "the Palestinians could have had their country" is not an honest person. I suggest that American "friends of Israel" check out their beliefs about the fairness of the whole business, by reading some of the internet versions of the Israeli papers. Look at the maps available to Israelis and you may start to understand why a large and growing number if Israelis favor a more honest and fair approach to ending the occupation and yielding a land base to the Palestinians for a viable country.

      David

    • Here is how it is with the Presidental election coming up in the USA:

      Worst case sceneraios:

      Bush wins - End of the world.
      Unfortunatly, his followers would be fine with this, as it would allow them to quicker move onto their next occupation of being a "Sunbeam for Jesus!!!"

      Kerry wins - End of America.
      His followers would be fine with this, as they realize it isnt even a small percentage of what people claim it is, and side with Chomsky on the "hegemony or survival" bit...

      Hopefully we can survive!

    • You simply don’t know what you are talking about. Lots of people including people like you who would like to see every Israeli and Jew vanish from the planet explained publically that with a little further negotiation, Arafat would have gotten a viable territorially contiguous state based on Taba. In fact, the Israelis were collecting funds from Europe, Israel and the US for a Palestinian Development Fund. Arafat, who now is worth about 1.5.Billion dollars, walked away because he cannot and never wanted to make peace. And there never will be peace until a new pragmatic leaderhisp arises, which will only happen until the battle againt militant Islam is won. Russsia’s foreign Minister just flew to Israel and Sharon and Putin had a long phone call today. What do you think they were talking about? I am not interested in a warm peace between Israel and Arabs. There is no chance for that because the hatred is too deep. I just want a time out. If the the PLO were a corporation, all their leader would be fired long ago for incompetence and put in jail for corruption!

    • Go get some education and a brain.

    • What about Sharon....he is still a crook and only survived the latest in many corruption scandels through the corrupt government there protecting him. The trouble is Jews believe so much crap that the truth never gets past their lips. All of this wo is me garbage about how everyone hates them is so old and tired and then they use this to do their crimes. The jewish community should join the rest of the world and get over their worn out martyr complexes, it has become transparently phony. But this does not change the facts of the struggle there. Israel stole the land they occupy in a war against peasants wiho were not supplied with the latest warfare our government could supply them with. The people who call themselves Americans belong to a country that has evolved past taking land through war. And Americans are proud of that. Nothing will change there as long as stealing is okay when it is wrapped in "God gave us this land" and other such ridiculous statements. God did no such thing.

    • The Jews have accomplished a lot more in much shorter time than 600 million Arabs in 22 countries with all their trillions of oil dollars. The last time Muslims contributed anything to civilization was 800 years ago. They are a dismal failure in every aspect and respect, and without oil nobody would give a damn about them. Now that Muslims have become premeditated children killers not just in Israel but also in Russia, Sharon and Putin will take care of business. We will just sit and watch. Abu Ghraib will look like Club Med. The Muslims have only themselves to blame, and even the phony Europeans won’t be able to bail’em out.

    • This racist debate is pointless and achieves nothing. The subject is the influence which some pro foreign power individuals or organisations have over succesive US administrations.
      At question are the tactics employed by these organisations.
      Clearly for the FBI to be so heavily involved in investigating these allegations there has to be some credibility in them.
      As for influence has anyone noticed that the major John Kerry flip flops have directly or indirectly always had something to do with Israel. My guess is that initially Kerry gives his own opinion on these matters but then is forced to back track by his almost exclusively pro Israel campaign team.

    • Actually , according to the latest reports, including the NY Times this looks an investigation that was instigated by policy opponents of the neoconservatives. It also looks like the investigation is going nowhere because it was based on sour grapes rather than facts. Let’s wait and see.

    • Typical Jewish thinking KILL KILL KILL!!!!!

    • That’s what Muslims have been doing for the last 800 years first to themselves and now to others and themselves and the world is waking up. Finally right minded Christians are leading the way. If the jews can help why not.

    • Killing for God....what a sick idea. When are the Jews going to be ashamed of this???? The ten commandments are a simple list of right and wrong.....no one should be proud of violating these rules...

    • The Muslims kill in the name of Allah, primitive apes as they are.

    • And the Jews have killed in the name of their God so what is the difference except that the Palestinians are defending their homeland and the Jews are just theif/squaters that are well armed with our tax money and support from the warmongers in this country. My God says that thou shalt not kill and I am a Christian and proud that I follow Jesus’s teachings. The Jesus I believe in would be ashamed of any killing in the name of his father or him, let’s hear your debate on this you murders, for that is what anyone is guilty of that advocates killing in the Lord’s name.

    • Let’s leave God ouf of this, OK. Nobody has The Word or is the authority on The Truth. The problem with all you people is that you are all so self righteous about God that you use him — to the extent he exists at all- to justify your political objectives. Let’s get practical and real. The only solution that is realistic is a variant of the Geneva accords. Israel has to forget about the settlements. The Palestinians have to forget about their right of return to Israel. They cannot have two states: Palestine and become a majority in Israel. Jerusalem has to be worked out based on joint sovereignty in the temple mount and divided sovereignty elsewhere. The Palestinians get their state in Gaza and the West Bank, and we all collect money, inclduing fron the Arab states, to make it work so the Palestinians state succeeds and becomes economically viable, and we ensure that Israel’s security concerns are met. The great tragedy is that polls have shown repeatedly that a great majority exists in both Israel and among Palestinins that supports this completely, but the leaders have a different agenda. We need to get there fast because in the meantime things are going from bad to worse and from worst to hell. And neither Christians, nor Jews nor Muslims nor an agnostics like me want to end up there!

  • What has happened to this story? A month later and I haven’t heard another word about it, why not?