 Wednesday, December 1, 2004
FBI
issues subpoenas for officials of pro-Israel lobby
group By Warren P. Strobel and
Shannon McCaffrey
Knight Ridder
Newspapers WASHINGTON - FBI agents executed
search warrants Wednesday at the headquarters of a
leading pro-Israel lobby and delivered grand jury
subpoenas in an ongoing probe of alleged espionage
for Israel, federal officials and the lobby group
said. The search and the subpoenas for four top
officials of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee indicate that the politically charged
investigation remains
active. No criminal charges have been filed
in the case. AIPAC, one of Washington's most influential
lobbies, said in a statement that neither the group
nor its employees have broken any law. "We are fully cooperating with the
governmental authorities. We believe any court
of law or grand jury will conclude that AIPAC
employees have always acted legally, properly
and appropriately," it said. The lobby group said that the FBI, which in
August [2004]
obtained computer files related to two AIPAC
employees, returned Wednesday "and requested and obtained additional
files relating to the same two AIPAC staff
members and delivered subpoenas requiring the
appearance of four senior AIPAC staff before a
grand jury." U.S. officials previously have identified the
two staff members as Steven Rosen, AIPAC's
director of foreign policy issues, and Keith
Weissman, his deputy and an
Iran expert. The two men have hired prominent Washington
lawyer Abbe Lowell to represent them.
Lowell's firm, Chadbourne & Park, had no
comment. The FBI investigation, which has been under way
for more than two years, became public in August
with news reports that authorities were looking
into the handling of classified information by
Pentagon employee Lawrence A. Franklin. Current and former U.S. officials have said that
authorities are investigating whether Franklin
shared a highly classified draft presidential
policy document on Iran with AIPAC staffers, who in
turn passed it to Israel. Investigators have interviewed people at the
White House, State Department and Pentagon, the
current and former officials said. They also have
asked questions about whether Ahmad Chalabi,
a prominent Iraqi exile backed by the Pentagon who
provided bogus intelligence on Iraq, improperly
received highly classified U.S. intelligence about
Iran. Franklin, an analyst in the office of
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas
Feith, hasn't been charged with wrongdoing. His
lawyer, prominent Washington defense attorney
Plato Cacheris, didn't immediately return a
phone call Wednesday. The Israeli government has vehemently denied
that it spied on the United States. Israel says all
such activities were halted following the 1985
arrest of Navy analyst Jonathan
Pollard, who later was convicted of selling
U.S. secrets to Israel. Federal law enforcement officials declined
Wednesday to provide details of what the FBI agents
were searching for at AIPAC's offices, a few blocks
from the U.S. Capitol. The search warrant is
sealed. "The investigation is continuing," said one
official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This
is normal procedure in a case like this." A spokesman for Paul McNulty, the U.S.
attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, whose
office is handling the case, declined to
comment. Knight Ridder Newspapers
correspondent Jonathan S. Landay contributed to
this report. 
Sept 5, 2004: Ha'aretz headline: FBI
probes Jewish sway on Bush government: "The
FBI investigation into the Pentagon mole affair
has expanded ... to encompass the entire issue
of Jewish influence on the neoconservative part
of the administration"-
Listen to Colin Powell give a speech to AIPAC -
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(Real Player needed)
![[]](../../std/dings/audio2.gif)
-
Neal
Sher, Ex-AIPAC Head and Justice Department
Nazi-Hunter: Where is he now?
-
The Piper thanks the
Paymasters Text,
sound, and video of standing-ovation speech by
President George Bush to AIPAC, Israel's
Washington lobby | The
ADL is outraged - Jewish
Congresswoman says Bush's Policies are a Danger
to Jews | The
Forward Editorial on The Bush Cabal and the Iraq
War: The Ground Shifts
| The more the excuses,
the less the excuse: "Uncovering the Rationales
for the War on Iraq," by Devon M. Largio lists
27 of them.
[3
pdf files]-
Whom to vote for
A
checklist of bribes to US political candidates
from Israeli lobby
Sample: "Feinstein, Dianne
... (D) ... $112,842"
-
Israeli
and Jewish outrage at opinion piece, 'Palestine:
The Assault on Health and Other War Crimes,' by
British professor Derek Summerfield in
British Medical Journal
-
Ha'aretz
(Israel): Killing children is no longer a big
deal
| ![[]](../../std/dings/list.gif){kind=small}
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