Damage is Done: Overblown 'spy' Story

On Friday (Aug. 27), CBS News' Leslie Stahl reported in dramatic fashion that the FBI is investigating whether a Pentagon official provided classified information about U.S. policy toward Iran to the government of Israel, via the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC. CBS sources indicated that the 'suspected mole' was 'working at the highest levels of the Pentagon.' CBS went so far to suggest that the issue raises a broader, more damning question: 'Did Israel also use the analyst to try to influence U.S. policy on the War in Iraq?' (see CBS video)

This CBS bombshell set off a landslide of media reports Saturday (Aug. 28), some giving the false impression that allegations of Israeli espionage in the Pentagon were substantiated. For example, the Melbourne Herald Sun announced in their headline: 'Israel spy found at Pentagon,' then went on to declare unequivocally, 'An Israeli spy has been uncovered at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the FBI confirmed last night...'

Though both AIPAC and the Israeli government have vehemently denied any such covert activity in the U.S., the media damage has in many ways already been done. Former Mossad chief Uzi Arad acknowledged that despite Israel's complete non-involvement in the matter, the affair already 'has taken on a proportion that is damaging to us and to the United States.'

Yet at the time of this communique, the whole matter is beginning to look, as Maariv puts it, like 'a surfeit of hype forced into bed with a paucity of fact.' The suspected Pentagon figure, Larry Franklin, is not a 'high level' operative (as CBS originally reported), but rather a desk officer in the Defense Department's Near East and South Asia Bureau. (Franklin also is not Jewish.) A senior Bush administration figure told the press that

""""from what we know, Larry Franklin looks more like an incompetent fool way out of his depth than a spy. He apparently passed on some papers to Israel without realizing the ramifications of his actions... Another senior source said that Israel did not need Franklin's information. Israel's contacts with high-level officials are such that a phone call to the US would have been sufficient to elicit the information.""""

Given the fact that the FBI investigation into Franklin has been underway for over a year, one wonders why the leak to the press at this time, before even any formal charges have been made? The Jerusalem Council for Public Affairs noted today an altogether plausible reason ¯ internal US conflicts:

""""Both the CIA and the FBI are fighting a "battle for survival" after repeated U.S. commissions have attacked them for failing to prevent 9/11. Israel, according to Amir Oren (Ha'aretz), has been caught in a crossfire between these agencies and their Pentagon rivals.""""

It should be recalled that following a similar accusation in the late 1990s, CIA Director George Tenet found the charges baseless and wrote Israel a letter of apology.

As the 'Franklingate' affair plays out over the course of this week, HonestReporting urges subscribers to scrutinize their local media outlets for factual reporting. Though the initial smear against the State of Israel has taken its toll, media monitors should insist that journalists stick to the facts on this highly sensitive affair from here on in.

I suspect the folks at CREW have something to do with the timing of this story. These are the same folks who were trying to go after Cheney when he mentioned the Weekly Standard's article on the Feith Memo was the most accurate account of what was going on in Iraq, etc. You see, the Feith memo was leaked to the Standard; or else it was released to counter all the BS being out out by people who were trying to undermine the war... some of them congressmen who know darn well the memo was accurate but who wanted to claim it was in error. There wasn't anything in the Feith Memo we didn't already know or have reason to suspect, but when Cheney said the Weekly Standard was accurate, CREW popped up out of nowhere to target Cheney for "confirming the leak."

CREW is also behind the attack on Shelby.

FEBRUARY 2003 : (CREW aka "CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON" GOES ACTIVE) To: Tumbleweed_Connection http://www.citizensforethics.org/news/20030719_natljrnl.php CREW has been active only since February [2003] , so its profile is still relatively low. Yet Republicans detect a strong Democratic orientation. Sloan, most recently an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, is a former aide to Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; then-Rep. (now Sen.) Charles Schumer, D- N.Y.; and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. In addition, CREW's three board members are Mark Penn, President Clinton's former pollster; Daniel Berger, a trial lawyer from Philadelphia and a Clinton fundraiser; and Louis Mayberg, the president of a mutual fund company. 10 posted on 01/28/2004 10:52:10 AM PST by jimbo123

See also :

To: Tumbleweed_Connection : Melanie Sloan, Executive Director Melanie Sloan serves as CREW's Executive Director. Prior to accepting this position, Ms. Sloan served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, where, from 1998- early 2003, she successfully tried cases before dozens of judges and juries. Before becoming a prosecutor, Ms. Sloan was Minority Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 1998. She worked directly with the Honorable John Conyers, the ranking member of the Committee, specializing in criminal enforcement issues, including the Independent Counsel law. Her responsibilities included drafting legislation and committee reports (minority views), writing speeches, and working with interest groups. She also assisted a working group of Members of Congress in developing and drafting a Democratic alternative to the Republican juvenile justice bill. In 1994, Ms. Sloan was Counsel for the Crime Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, working for then Representative Charles Schumer. There, she drafted portions of the 1994 Crime Bill, including the Violence Against Women Act, and worked on issues including the death penalty, mandatory minimum sentencing, and habeas corpus. In 1993, Ms. Sloan served as Nominations Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, under then Chairman, Senator Joe Biden, where she researched the backgrounds of nominees to high level Department of Justice positions and to the federal courts. Prior to serving Congress, she was an associate at Howrey and Simon in Washington, D.C. and at Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal in Los Angeles, California. She received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago and has published in the Yale Law and Policy Review, the Legal Times, and the Washington Post. 11 posted on 01/28/2004 10:54:52 AM PST by jimbo123 )

JANUARY 27, 2004 : (FEITH MEMO TO SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE : CHENEY REFERS TO A STEPHEN F. HAYES ARTICLE "THE US GOVERNMENT'S SECRET MEMO DETAILING COOPERATION BETWEEN SADDAM HUSSEIN AND OSAAMA BIN LADEN " IN THE NOVEMBER 24, 2003 ISSUE OF THE WEEKLY STANDARD, WHICH CONTAINED LEAKED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION, AS THE 'BEST SOURCE OF INFORMATION' ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IRAQI LEADER HUSSEIN & AL QAEDA) In today's Washington Post, Dana Milbank reported that "Vice President Cheney . . . in an interview this month with the Rocky Mountain News, recommended as the 'best source of information' an article in The Weekly Standard magazine detailing a relationship between Hussein and al Qaeda based on leaked classified information."
(* The leaked info would be memo by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy douglas J. Feith to senators Pat Roberts and Jay Rockefeller of the Senate intelligence Committee) - Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, January 27, 2004

Here's where they go after Cheney; note that they bring up the former ambassador Joe Wilson of Niger-Yellowcake fame- I might add he may also be a "former advisor" to the Kerry campaign since they pulled his links off their site. they also whine about Treasury Secretary O'Niell and the Plame "leak" investigation and try to deny links between al Qaeda and Iraq.

JANUARY 28, 2004 : (REPORT SAYS [LIBERAL] GROUP 'CREW' WANTS INVESTIGATION OF CHENEY FOR CONFIRMING FEITH MEMO LEAK IN THE WEEKLY STANDARD'S NOV 24, 2003 ISSUE) Earlier today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-profit legal watchdog group, sent a letter to President Bush asking that he call upon the White House Counsel to investigate Vice President Cheney's confirmation of leaked classified information in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News on January 9, 2004. Federal law prohibits leaking classified information. Confirming information that has already been leaked is also prohibited. In his Jan. 9th interview, Mr. Cheney referred his interviewer to a story that appeared in The Weekly Standard's November 24, 2003 issue. The story, written by Stephen F. Hayes, discussed a 16 page memo written by Defense Department Under Secretary for Policy regarding raw data and reports describing possible links between Al Queda and Iraq.
Mr. Cheney, responding to a question regarding the relationship between Iraq and Al Queda, called the Standard's story "the best information out there." Mr. Cheney provided this information despite the Pentagon's November 15, 2003 press release stating that news reports that characterized the contents of the memo were "inaccurate" and excoriated the leak as "deplorable and may be illegal." The Pentagon also stated that leaking such information does "serious harm to national security." "Mr. Cheney's reference to classified information and the ensuing silence from the White House shows a distinct pattern: leaking classified information that the administration deems beneficial is Standard Operating Procedure," Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of CREW said today.
"The deliberate delay in investigating the outing of Valerie Plame and the immediate investigation into an alleged leak by former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill the morning after Mr. O'Neill's interview with 60 Minutes shows the contrast between investigations into leaks that help with President Bush's agenda and those that damage the administration's efforts."
"Perhaps even more disturbing, Mr. Cheney is continuing to rely on a discredited memo to buttress the administration's claim of a connection between Iraq and Al Queda as justification for the war in Iraq, completely contradicting both President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell who have admitted that there is no evidence linking Iraq to the September 11th attack."
"The administration cannot play politics with classified information. First, it endangers national security and second, it encourages others to leak such information," Sloan said today. "How can the American people trust this administration if they cannot handle classified information in a responsible and lawful manner? The American people deserve better."
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-partisan [* my note: nonpartisan my arse] legal watchdog group. CREW brings legal cases exposing government officials who betray the public interest by serving special interests. CREW's cases target not only such officials, but also the special interests supporting them. ---- "Legal Watch Dog Group CREW Alleges Cheney Leaked Classified Information, Breaking Federal Law," BUSINESS WIRE, 1/28/04

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