Pentagon Analyst Was Cooperating When Israel Spy Case Became Public

[rawstory]

From the liberal alternative to Drudge, http://rawstory.com

By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC SCHMITT
THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 - The Pentagon official under suspicion of turning over classified information to Israel began cooperating with federal agents several weeks ago and was preparing to lead the authorities to contacts inside the Israeli government when the case became publicly known last week, government officials said Sunday.

The disclosure of the inquiry late on Friday by CBS News revealed what had been for nearly a year a covert national security investigation conducted by the F.B.I., according to the officials, who said that news reports about the inquiry compromised important investigative steps, like the effort to follow the trail back to the Israelis.

As a result, several areas of the case remain murky, the officials said. One main uncertainty is the legal status of Lawrence A. Franklin, the lower-level Pentagon policy analyst who the authorities believe passed the Israelis a draft presidential policy directive related to Iran.

No arrest in the case is believed to be imminent, in part because prosecutors have not yet clearly established whether Mr. Franklin broke the law. But the officials said there was evidence that he turned the classified material over to officials at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group. Officials of the group are thought to have then passed the information to Israeli intelligence.

NYT story (registration restricted): http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/30/politics/30spy.html?hp
Non-restricted: http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=268

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. >>have not yet clearly established

whether Mr. Franklin broke the law.<<

Maybe if there were a blue dress... perhaps a blue dress involved... there would be severe breaking of the law. The way these above the law self righteous pigs play it... GW could have the entire chorus line living and sleeping with him and nobody would make a peep. What a pitiful example of leadership in times like these.

Yeah he better play the terrah card cuz that's all he's got. That's all he ever had. My fellow citizens 'bout half of them are brain dead.

[Cush]

2. hmm, this is getting confusing

[bo44]

3. Well well now is the time for serious tin foil reflection

Could it be that Rummy or one of his fellow war fuck ups leaked so the case would die before someone could drop dime?

btw Raw story is a daily stop . Good Job

[Cush]

4. I'm starting to think that

According to some reports, Rummy and his aide knew of his investigation. If one of them leaked it, wouldn't be easier to trace back to them?


Like I said in my rpely, this is getting confusing

[bo44]

5. hard to say if it could be traced or even if they would pay for it

without really knowing how much juice the fbi agents running the case have. Since they may have been blown out their masters may reign them in and take what they have w/o spinning their wheels trying to catch Rummy or some other dummy. Maybe Rummy just called on this one. The repurcussions on this one will be nil imho.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

If Rummy, et al. leaked the story...

To derail any further progress in the investigation, how long do you think that this would go unreported? Several commentators have said that DC is awash in leaks on this thing, right now. This has a large odor of a welcome opportunity for revenge and pay-backs all over it. People are finally blowing it out their barracks bag.

This starts a process of disclosure. Reporters start to try to get the next big graf, for verily, the is First and everything else is last, when it comes to breaking new story angles. Do you think that they would sit on something like this?

Not now. I truly don't. That said, look for Knight-Ridder and the JMM/Rozen and Bloggers Axis to be leading the way. I mean it. Blogs are tailor-made for getting this stuff out, and people know it.

It may be hard to notice, but tectonic plates have shifted. The thing is, no great edifices have fallen.

Yet.

[seemslikeadream]

6. This from Madsen

But nothing could be further from the truth. Shaw, who worked for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, represented the Old Guard Republican entity that in August 2003 set up shop in the Pentagon right under the noses of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith to investigate the neo-con cabal and their illegal contract deals. The entity, known as the International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate, was soon shut down as a result of neo-con pressure. Not to be deterred, Shaw continued his investigation of the neo-cons. Although the neo-cons told the Los Angeles Times that the FBI was investigating Shaw, the reverse was the case: the FBI was investigating the neo-cons, particularly Perle and Wolfowitz, for fraudulent activities involving Iraqi contracts. And in worse news for the neo-cons: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was giving the Inspector General's and Shaw's investigations a "wink and a nod" of approval.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/081104_winds_change_summary.shtml

fix link

[Cush]

8. link doesn't work

[seemslikeadream]

9. Here's a working one

but if you don't have a subscription I'll post parts of it.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/081104_winds_change_summary.shtml

Winds of Change:Troubled Waters Ahead For the Neo Cons

by
Wayne Madsen

The neo-con attack on Shaw was predictable considering their previous attacks on Ambassador Joe Wilson, his wife Valerie Plame, former U.S. Central Command chief General Anthony Zinni, former counter-terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, CIA counter-terrorism agent Michael Scheuer (the "anonymous" author of Imperial Hubris who has recently been gagged by the Bush administration), fired FBI translator Sibel Edmonds (who likely discovered a penetration by Israeli and other intelligence assets using the false flag of the Turkish American Council and who also has been gagged by the Bush administration), and all those who took on the global domination cabal. But Shaw showed incredible moxie. When he decided to investigate Pentagon Inspector General Reports that firms tied to Perle and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz were benefiting from windfall profit contracts in Iraq, Shaw decided to go to Iraq himself to find out what was going on. When Shaw was denied entry into Iraq by U.S. military officers (yes, a top level official of the Defense Department was denied access to Iraq by U.S. military personnel!), he decided to sneak into the country disguised as a Halliburton contractor. Using the cover of Cheney's old company to get the goods on Cheney's friends' illegal activities was yet another masterful stroke of genius by Shaw. But it also earned him the wrath of the neo-cons. They soon leaked a story to the Los Angeles Times claiming that Shaw actually snuck into Iraq to ensure that Qualcomm (on whose board sat a friend of Shaw's) was awarded a lucrative cell network contract.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Shaw, who worked for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, represented the Old Guard Republican entity that in August 2003 set up shop in the Pentagon right under the noses of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith to investigate the neo-con cabal and their illegal contract deals. The entity, known as the International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate, was soon shut down as a result of neo-con pressure. Not to be deterred, Shaw continued his investigation of the neo-cons. Although the neo-cons told the Los Angeles Times that the FBI was investigating Shaw, the reverse was the case: the FBI was investigating the neo-cons, particularly Perle and Wolfowitz, for fraudulent activities involving Iraqi contracts. And in worse news for the neo-cons: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was giving the Inspector General's and Shaw's investigations a "wink and a nod" of approval.

The financial stakes for the Pentagon are high - the Iraqi CPA's Inspector General recently revealed that over $1 billion of Iraqi money was missing from the audit books on Iraqi contracts. For Shaw and the FBI, it was a matter of what they suspected for many years - that Perle, Wolfowitz, and their comrades were running entities that ensured favorable treatment for Israeli activities - whether they were business opportunities in a U.S.-occupied Arab country or protecting Israeli spies operating within the U.S. defense and intelligence establishments.

Shaw certainly must have recalled how, during the Reagan administration, an Israeli spy named Jonathan Pollard was able to steal massive amounts of sensitive U.S. intelligence over a long period of time and hand it over to his Israeli control officer, a dangerous and deadly agent provocateur named Rafael "Rafi" Eitan. That had disastrous effects on U.S. intelligence operations throughout the world because some of the documents were handed by the Israelis to the Soviets in return for letting more Soviet Jews emigrate to Israel.

[seemslikeadream]

10. This is the beginning of the article

August 11, 2004 0800 PDT (FTW) - The winds that have favored the neo-cons and their political and financial masters since George W. Bush's ascension to power may now be turning against them at gale force strength. There is a reason why Richard Perle and his American Enterprise Institute (AEI) friends, including "Second Lady" Lynne Cheney and former Reagan National Security Council staffer Michael Ledeen, were uncomfortable when Iraq con man and Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi's offices in Baghdad were raided this past May by Iraqi police, FBI and CIA officers. The Baghdad money trail may soon lead to Washington, DC. The sinewy links between the neo-cons, Ariel Sharon's Likud government, and the Chalabis should be a definite cause for concern by some Bush administration officials, and particularly troubling for Mrs. Cheney, who reportedly sits upon a $125,000 AEI fellowship funded by Likud Party interests.

The Chalabi files recovered by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement provided enough information for the FBI to begin a criminal investigation of a Baghdad-Jerusalem-Washington syndicate that is profiteering from America's misguided invasion and occupation of Iraq. The investigation led to shadowy Israeli-owned firms registered in Delaware and Panama that were fraudulently obtaining contracts and sub-contracts to provide everything from cellular phones and VIP security to the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners using seconded members of Israel's feared Unit 1391 "special techniques" interrogation center. Not only were these firms operating in Iraq with the concurrence of the neo-cons in the Pentagon but some U.S. government officials were personally benefiting from the contracts. Peeling apart the Chalabi files demonstrated that the neo-con agenda for Iraq extended far beyond political ideology, into a realm where law enforcement can be most effective: fraud.

According to Pentagon and Justice Department sources, U.S. investigators discovered that Ahmad Chalabi and his business partners were involved in fraudulently obtaining cellular phone licenses in Iraq. The Pentagon's Undersecretary of Defense for International Technology Security John (Jack) Shaw smelled a neo-con rat when the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), in late 2003, awarded cellular phone contracts to three companies - Orascom, Atheer, and Asia-Cell - with ties to Ahmed Chalabi. As with all those who challenge the impropriety and illegal activities of the neo-cons, Shaw was, in turn, charged with improperly steering Iraq cell phone contracts to Qualcomm and Lucent. However, it is Shaw, reported by his longtime colleagues to be a solid and trustworthy public servant, who has the confidence of law enforcement, Pentagon investigators, and the military brass. Anything with Ahmed Chalabi's fingerprints on it also bears the fingerprints of his nephew Salem Chalabi. Salem, named as the chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein's trial, is a law partner of L. Marc Zell, a Jerusalem-based attorney who was the law partner of Douglas Feith - the head of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans that concocted phony intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda with the assistance of Likud operatives seconded by Ariel Sharon's government.

The law firm of Feith & Zell, in concert with Perle, was instrumental in funneling hundreds of millions of dollars from Arab and Muslim countries to the Bosnian government during that nation's civil war. While that effort was ostensibly designed to assist the Bosnians to purchase weapons, officials familiar with its actual operation reported that some of the arms and money "spilled over" to Al Qaeda and Iranian Pasdaran forces in the Balkans.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/081104_winds_change_summary.shtml

[madrchsod]

7. they fucked the case

it`s obvious that someone or some people do not want the Israeli involvement in our governments policies to be known. another outing of a national security case-this is three now..and the press says nothing ,the democrats should be screaming. but when both parties have much to lose i guess it`s in their self interest to keep their mouths shut..isn`t nice to know we have people in our government that gives all kinds of information Iran and Israel , outs a CIA agent, and blows the cover of a double agent? boy do i feel safer with little George and his merry band of thieves in charge

[girl gone mad]

11. I'm not so sure.

It seems a lot of people in Washington have been aware of this investigation for several months. I think it's news to the public at large, but not to any neocons.

[lottie244]

13. Either he was a spy or he wasn't. It's bullshit to say the case was

compramised. If it's been a year's worth of investigation the FBI should have enough information to have tight case. This is total bullshit and probably another way that the Israelis and the American Jews that support Likud are trying to use to have the spy sent back to Israel where he can live in complete freedom and not worry about having to face charges in the US.

I hope Israel continues to spank the US real good. Our leadership deserves every bit of crap they hand out. When you sleep with dogs, you get up with fleas!

[jmcgowanjm]

20. Former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,

was asked what the terrorist strikes would mean for USA-
Israeli relations. He said: "It's very good." Then he
corrected himself, adding: "Well, it's not good, but it will
generate immediate sympathy (for Israel)...

Back in Israel, several of the men discussed what happened
on an Israeli talk show. One of them made this
remarkable comment: “The fact of the matter is we are
coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our
purpose was to document the event.” But how can you
document an event unless you know it is going to
happen?

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/11/92739_comment.php

[patriotboy]

12. Maybe Israel can clear up the whole AWOL thing

The General thinks that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon can clear up the AWOL charges against Our Leader, so he wrote him a letter.

[Eloriel]

14. Ah, NOW we find out the reason for the leak

Thanks so much. Now THIS is the leaker whose identity *I* want to know. Hmmm, so many possibilities. Feith or someone in his office? Or in Rumsfeld's or Cheney's offices, or Karl Rove? Maybe Frankin himself? Or someone in AIPAC, or the Israelis??? Yeah, sure, some of these weren't supposed to even know about the investigation, but that don't mean shit.

Verrrry interesting indeed. I hope the varius spy novel genre authors are taking careful note of all these shenanigans, for future reference.

Edited to add: This actually brings up another point. Ole Josh Marshall has been working on this story for how long? Weeks, MONTHS it seems (and probably has been), hinting coyly about it now and then. Suddenly, he gets pre-empted (or so it seems) and the highly vaunted and oft-promised Washington Monthly story comes out AFTER the news hits the mainstream press. I have to wonder if Josh Marshall wasn't being used, and perhaps because he (for whatever reason) didn't produce the goods, the leaker(s) went mainstream on him?

OR maybe the leakers knew the JMM story was about to break and wanted to pre-empt it themselves?

I dunno. Passing strange, that's all I can say.

[shraby]

15. Could it be a bit of misinformation

put out to make it look like "nothing here", everything is okay, nobody actually did anything wrong.

[Junkdrawer]

21. Pat Buchanan said, as soon as the story leaked, that the leak...

was designed to halt the investigation in its tracks.

While everyone might say, "stopped clock, etc", I think Pat is one of the few Republicans that are uncomfortable with the Reaganite/Likud alliance.

[DeepModem Mom]

16. What in the heck is going on???

n/t

[fedupwithbush]

17. News article with info I haven't read yet (or missed)

I haven't seen this posted, but it has some info I hadn't seen yet in a news article. I've been googling for new stories since Friday and didn't see this until today. Please read the whole article. It says a lot more but I'm not good at this cut and paste and especially not good at choosing between 15 to 20 paragraphs of which is most important.

FBI Probes DOD
http://www.majority.com/news/upi-spy.htm

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040824-102938-1916r.htm

In some cases, colleagues, former associates and members of other government agencies have been interviewed as many as four times by teams of FBI agents, FBI officials told United Press International.

In 2001, Ledeen was hired by Feith to work on contract for the Office of Special Plans, which involved the handling of sensitive materials, Green said, a fact confirmed last week to UPI by congressional investigators.

Yet according to Green, in March 1983, Feith, then a Middle East analyst on the National Security Council, was fired by Judge William Clark, who had replaced Richard Allen as national security adviser, because Feith "had been the object of an inquiry into whether he had provided classified material to an official of the Israeli Embassy in Washington" and that the FBI "had opened an inquiry."

Former Counterterrorism Chief Vince Cannistraro confirmed that Feith was fired from the NSC for leaking classified data to Israel.

[jmcgowanjm]

19. Googled Vince Cannistraro -first hit from May 28 2004

Chalabi-gate: None Dare Call It Treason

The Iranians, for their part, feasted on U.S. secrets so deep
and dark that only a few top officials were privy to them – and
had a good chunk of Iraq handed to them, while a de
facto Kurdish state emerged as a buffer between Israel and
the Shi'ite power rising in the East. The whole thing
was supposed to have been presided over by the
ostensibly pro-Western Chalabi, the neocons' Alger Hiss.
That was the plan, at any rate, but something seems to
have gone awry….

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=2683

[jmcgowanjm]

18. What's goin' on? Always go Strategic to find out.

And always look for coincidence.

Like, we just lost big in Najaf. Iran/Iraq won big in Najaf;
Thatcher's son's role in Coup brings in UK, US, Spain
v France for oil (the Observer); CIA Dir. still unfilled, Sen Roberts
pushing Intel program while Sen Rockefeller
adamantly opposed.

The only 2 leaders to benefit from Iraq Invasion:
OBL and Sharon. But Sharon still has to beg the US for
oil.

And we'll never again be pumping as much as we are now.

And what name can be found in all these events?
The Neocons.

There was a great suspicion, voiced by Pat Buchanan the
other night on MSNBC, and by Laura Rozen on her
excellent blog, warandpiece.com, that this was a case of
a "controlled burn," as Laura put it, and she was right.
Friday night is the slowest news night of the week, and add
to this the coverage eaten up by the Republican convention,
and you have a classic tactic of bury-that-story. Add to that
the usual victimological posturing and cries of
"anti-Semitism," and the strategy of the Amen Corner is
clear: deny everything, and go on the offensive. Will it work?
I doubt it, but we shall see. Israel's fifth column in the
U.S. government, and especially within the Justice
Department, but the patriotic resistance is growing, both
within the administration and the court of American
public opinion. The axis of treason is fighting for its life, but
the usual tactics – fear, smear, and obfuscation – may not
be enough.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=3469

[yellowcanine]

22. ANOTHER Bush scandal - who leaked the spy investigation - preventing

a "sting" operation targeted at Israeli Intelligence? Who in the Bush Pentagon would want to protect Israeli Intelligence? Hmmm - where do we begin? O.K. boys. Lie detector tests all around. You too Wolfie!