 Any
open debate of this issue could be damaging,' said
a Jewish communal leader.
-- But then that's always the
deadliest enemy of these folks: open debate.
 Friday, December 31, 2004 Leaders
fear probe will force Pro-Israel Lobby to file as
'Foreign Agent' Could fuel dual-loyalty
talk By Ori Nir WASHINGTON -- As the Department
of Justice intensifies its investigation of the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Jewish
communal leaders fear that the goal of the probe is
to compel the powerful lobbying organization to
register as a "foreign agent" representing the
government of another country. Widely regarded as one of the most influential
organizations on Capitol Hill, Aipac is registered
with Congress as a lobbying group. Under American
law, registering as a foreign agent would require
Aipac to provide significantly more detailed
information about its aims and activities to the
government -- thereby robbing the group of a key
weapon: the ability to operate behind the
scenes. Such a change would
severely weaken the organization's influence and
fuel
charges of dual loyalties
against Jewish groups, communal observers
said.  "I
think that from the start, this is what [the
investigation] was all about," said Abraham
Foxman, left, national director of the
Anti-Defamation
League. "It doesn't take very much to start an
investigation -- all it needs is a legitimate
complaint by somebody that there is a violation of
the law."
Many in Washington who are hostile to Israel and
the Jewish community would love to discredit Aipac,
Foxman said. "So I see this as a broad fishnet
operation," he added, "which may possibly result in
something relating to foreign agent registry,
rather than spying." The concerns come just weeks after the FBI
raided Aipac's office and four of the group's top
officials were subpoenaed by a grand jury. For
months, the federal probe was believed to center on
allegations that Aipac officials might have
illegally passed classified documents on to Israel,
which they received from a Pentagon employee,
Larry Franklin. In recent weeks, media
reports have surfaced suggesting that the FBI used
Franklin to entrap officials at the pro-Israel
lobby. Aipac officials have vehemently denied any
wrongdoing. Now some supporters are suggesting that
the real goal of investigators is to clip Aipac's
wings by forcing it to operate under the strict
limits applied to agents of foreign
governments. The possibility of having to change its
registration is "an issue of concern to Aipac, in
terms of the outcome" of the investigation, said
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of
the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations. "Frankly, if you're really
determined to get someone, you'll find
something." Among other things, the shift would undermine
Aipac's standing as the chief grass-roots
organization of American Jews who advocate for a
strong American-Israel relationship into an entity
that represents Israel in America. It also would
play into the hands of Aipac's foes, who for years
have charged that the organization's
chief loyalty was to
Israel rather than to the United States. Even if an attempt to
force Aipac to register as a foreign agent is
unsuccessful, Jewish activists said, a public
fight over the issue would damage the pro-Israel
lobby and the wider Jewish community. "This is a real threat. If Aipac eventually has
to become a foreign agent, that would mean the end
of Aipac as we know it. But even if not, it will be
ugly," said the leader of one major Jewish group,
who -- like most other communal leaders interviewed
for this story -- spoke on condition of
anonymity. Several Jewish communal leaders believe that the
FBI's initial investigation into Aipac might have
revolved around alleged violations of the Foreign
Agents Registration Act. Passed in 1938, the law
was originally designed to block Nazi Germany's
propaganda efforts in America. It requires that a
"foreign agent" register with the Department of
Justice, and submit detailed reports of "any
transactions or connections between the foreign
government and the U.S. agent, as well as detailed
lists of expenditures," said Kenneth Gross,
a Washington lawyer who is considered one of the
nation's experts on the law. Aipac is registered as a lobbyist with Congress,
as required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act. This
law requires some disclosure of lobbying activity
on Capitol Hill, but not nearly the same level of
detail as the rules dealing with foreign agents.
More than 20,000 lobbyists are registered with
Congress. Fewer than 500 are registered with the
Department of Justice as foreign agents. "Although the enforcement of [the law on
foreign agents] has always been spotty," Gross
said, "it is used by the government to closely
monitor what foreign governments are doing in
Washington. It does get the camel's nose under the
tent." American law sets two chief tests for defining
an organization or a publicist as an "agent of a
foreign principal." - The financial one clearly does not apply to
Aipac, which does not receive money from
Israel.
- The other test has to do with the nature of
the relationship between the American advocacy
organization and the foreign government in
question. According to the law, any person or
group that acts "at the order, request, or under
the direction or control of a foreign principal"
has to register with the Justice Department as a
foreign agent.
Aipac's foes have repeatedly called for the
lobbying powerhouse to be registered as a foreign
agent. In the mid-1970s, a prominent Democratic
senator from Arkansas, William Fulbright,
led such a campaign. In 1988, former senior CIA
official Victor Marchetti filed a complaint
with the Department of Justice, alleging that a
thorough study he conducted of Aipac's conduct
demonstrated that under the law, the pro-Israel
lobby should have been registered as a foreign
agent. The complaint was rejected. Violation of the relevant law is punishable by
up to 10 years in prison. But in almost all cases
of suspected violations, subjects received an oral
or written warning, and in some instances have been
hit with relatively small fines. Although Aipac staffers are known to be
exceedingly careful in their dealings with official
representatives of Israel, so as not to violate the
law, there have been incidents in the past in which
Israeli officials gave
directions to Aipac to act in one way or
another, said former Aipac employees
speaking on condition of anonymity. One Jewish activist closely connected to Aipac
said: "We know that the FBI took documents
and computer files from Aipac's offices. We
assume that there were phone taps, as well.
Maybe years of phone taps. Who knows what
evidence they have?" Legally, it would be difficult for the
government to prove that Aipac must register as a
foreign agent, experts say. "Lots of ethnic
organizations throughout America are representing
Americans who support foreign countries or
political parties in foreign countries. None of
those have in the past been considered foreign
agents or required to register as such," said
Tom Susman, a Washington lawyer who chairs
the Ethics Committee of the American League of
Lobbyists. Aipac, he said, "doesn't advocate on behalf of
the government of Israel, but the nation of
Israel." Also, he pointed out, the law does allow
for a certain degree of coordination with a foreign
government. Therefore, "a substantial independence
[of the lobbying group] is all that's
needed. Not total independence," Susman said. Aipac's lawyer, Nathan Lewin, noted that
the organization "has prevailed in prior cases,
when attempts were made to make them register as a
foreign agent." According to Lewin, Aipac officials
"prevailed on the proposition that they are an
agent entirely of American citizens who have a
particular interest in improving American-Israeli
relations." Jewish activists say that even if the likelihood
is low that a legal attempt to compel Aipac to
register as a foreign agent will be successful,
public focus on the issue could be damaging. "Any
open debate of this issue could be damaging," said
a Jewish communal leader. "Questions of loyalty
will resurface, and this time such questions will
have to do with the chief pro-Israel lobby in
America. 
. . . on this
website-
Our
dossier on the Mossad -
Nasty surprise for some: FBI
slaps Grand Jury subpoenas on officials of
AIPAC, pro-Israel lobby group, over war secrets
smuggled to Israel | FBI
steps up AIPAC probe-
-
Detroit Free Press, Oct
13, 2000 Spy
charges false, man claims
 -
At
home with the family of NZ Mossad agent Ze'ev
Barkan
-
Nov 2004: Fawning
profile of Meir Dagan (born Huberman), current
head of the Mossad
-
The
2004 New Zealand Mossad agents affair:
Secrecy
surrounds two Mossad agents when they reappear
in Auckland court on NZ passport forgery
charges | Police
fear al Qaeda terrorists using NZ passports
following arrest of 2 men in Thailand and
seizure of fake NZ passports | The
two Mossad agents charged with NZ passport
offences photographed in Auckland reporting to
police as part of bail conditions |
Two
men believed by senior Government figures to be
Israeli secret service agents have been arrested
in Auckland trying to obtain a false New Zealand
passport | One
Mossad agent entered NZ on a fake Canadian
passport | Mossad
sending hostile New Zealand Message Via
Asian-Based organisations after arrest of two
agents | NZ
government keeps up expensive surveillance of
two Israeli agents | New
Zealand jails two Mossad spies, prime minister
Helen Clark (right) punishes Israel |
Jewish
pain in NZ, Australia | outrage
at immediate mystery attack on Jewish
gravestones in NZ |
Govt
fury at claims of bias from NZ Jewish
Council | Israel's
Knesset urged to probe bungled Mossad
operation | Suspicions
voiced that New Zealand Jews smashed up their
own cemetery | Kiwi
caper is worst of many Mossad blunders |
Jailed
gang leaders defer to Israelis jailed by NZ
| Israeli
autopsy on bungled Mossad operations in NZ:
graves desecration was unplanned | NZ
Foreign Minister Phil Goff likely to face Israel
at UN debate | Uh-oh Jewish
spies leave NZ after serving half their prison
term; but their $100,000 donation to Cerebral
Palsy Society (ordered by court) has not yet
been paid
| At
home with the family of NZ Mossad agent Ze'ev
Barkan
| Mossad
spy Eli Cara becomes top Israeli credit-card
(Visa) executive.-
Israel
admits it assassinated Hamas official in
Syria
(we wonder what unlucky country's passport the
Mossad hit men used)
| 
write to David
Irving