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Pentagon official charged with passing secrets to israeli lobby { May 4 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Posted on Wed, May. 04, 2005
Pentagon official charged with passing secrets to pro-Israel lobby
BY CAM SIMPSON
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - A Pentagon intelligence analyst allegedly divulged classified information to an Israeli government official and to two senior officials with a pro-Israel lobbying group, according to federal officials and a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday.
Lawrence Franklin, 58, who worked in the office of Douglas Feith, the outgoing undersecretary of defense for policy and a key strategist behind the Iraq war, was also accused of keeping 38 "top secret" documents at his West Virginia house. In addition, the government charged that he "knowingly" revealed other classified information, including some to "members of the media."
The long-awaited criminal case against Franklin could cast an uncomfortable spotlight on America's relationship with one of its closest allies, Israel. It seems certain to do the same for the lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is a sometimes controversial organization widely held to be one of Washington's most powerful interest groups.
The existence of the federal probe first was leaked last summer after Franklin was stripped of his high-level security clearances following FBI searches June 30 of his Pentagon office and his Kearneysville, W.Va., home. The allegation that AIPAC officials were on the receiving end emerged at the same time, but public attention on AIPAC intensified after the FBI interviewed its employees and reportedly copied computer files.
Franklin has cooperated with authorities and turned himself in to the FBI on Wednesday. He was released on $100,000 bond after a brief court appearance in Alexandria, Va., where the case was filed.
The word "Israel" does not appear anywhere in the 10-page FBI affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint charging Franklin with willfully communicating national defense information that he had "reason to believe" could hurt U.S. interests, a charge that carries a potential 10-year prison sentence.
But a federal law enforcement source familiar with the case said the unidentified foreign official mentioned in the document worked for the Israeli government.
An Israeli government official, agreeing to comment only on the condition of anonymity, said his government had not received any official notification from the United States about the probe, which federal law enforcement authorities said Wednesday is still under way. He also said the case was not likely to have any impact on U.S.-Israeli relations.
"The story has been ongoing for quite awhile now and the relationship between the two countries has never been better," the official said.
The affidavit did not say what Franklin allegedly communicated to the foreign official, nor did it say how sensitive the information was to the U.S. government, which classifies documents at three levels: confidential, secret and top secret.
The incident involving the official was cited in a section of the affidavit alleging Franklin had disclosed classified information on multiple occasions. It also seemed to portray Franklin as reckless, saying he brought home 83 classified U.S. government documents, including 38 that were labeled top secret.
The federal law enforcement official confirmed that the two unidentified Americans cited in the FBI affidavit as having received "top secret" information from Franklin at a 2003 lunch meeting were senior AIPAC officials.
AIPAC quietly dismissed the men - Steven Rosen, who was AIPAC's longtime foreign policy director, and Keith Weissman, an Iran specialist - earlier this year after strenuously defending them last summer.
News of their firings leaked out about two weeks ago. The men have not been charged with any crimes.
At the June 26, 2003, lunch at a restaurant in Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb, Franklin allegedly divulged information to the pair contained in a top-secret memo that was dated only one day before the lunch, the FBI said. He allegedly asked the pair not to use the information because it was "highly classified."
The top-secret information concerned potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, according to the FBI affidavit. The official who discussed the matter Wednesday said it more specifically dealt with alleged Iranian involvement inside Iraq.
FBI agents located the top-secret document in Franklin's "Pentagon office workspace" when agents conducted a search nearly a year later, according to the affidavit.
AIPAC said last summer that "any allegation of criminal conduct by AIPAC or our employees is false and baseless."
But on Wednesday, AIPAC attempted to distance itself from Rosen and Weissman and from the episode.
AIPAC declined to make any official comment, instead pointing reporters to someone who agreed to speak about the allegations only on the condition that he be identified as a "source close to AIPAC."
That man said, "AIPAC has been advised by the government that it is not a target of the investigation."
But he would not say whether that notification came before or after Rosen and Weissman were dismissed.
Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Rosen, said in a statement that his client "never solicited, received, or passed on any classified documents from Larry Franklin, and Mr. Franklin will never be able to say otherwise."
The charge against Franklin only accuses him of relating the information from the document.
A lawyer who has represented Weissman did not return a call for comment.
With more than 85,000 members nationwide, the five-decade-old AIPAC is a key player influencing U.S. policy toward the Middle East and Israel, which is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid.
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© 2005, Chicago Tribune.
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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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