[Mb-civic] The Real AIPAC Spy Ring Story--it Was All About Iran

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=8464&sectionID=107

ZNet | Israel/Palestine
The Real AIPAC Spy Ring Story--it Was All About Iran

by Doug Ireland ; Direland ; August 07, 2005

  Here's what the stories in today's Washington Post and New York Times on
the new indictments of the two AIPAC spies aren't telling you: their
espionage was principally about helping to prepare an attack by Israel on
Iran. And one of the Israeli embassy officials who knows all about AIPAC's
role in helping plan the attack on Iran has been whisked out of the
country and out of the reach of U.S. prosecutors, the Israeli daily
Ha'aretz reports this morning.

  The neo-cons in the Pentagon had long been arguing for an attack on Iran
to take out its nuclear facilities that had the potential to be converted
for development of nuclear weapons. Wolfie's man Doug Feith had been
particularly assiduous in pressing the case for a "forward strategy"
against Iran. Feith's views are madly extremist, and Jim Zogby collected
them in an April profile of Feith that should scare the pants off of
anyone rational. (Feith's been a major activist for years with the
viciously anti-Arab crazies of the ZOA, the Zionist Organization of
America).

  When, for purely electoral reasons with the Iraq occupation going so
disastrously, the White House decided against a direct attack by the U.S.
on Iran, the neo-cons went to Plan B -- an attack on Iran by proxy, from
Israel. The principal classified documents leaked to Israel through AIPAC
-- the leaks that that began the investigation of the AIPAC spy ring,
which has been going on now for over a year -- concerned Iran. They were
leaked by Feith's deputy, Larry Franklin, also now under a five-count
indictment for spying.

  The plan for an Israeli attack on Iran has been long envisioned -- both
  in
Washington and by Sharon's government -- but this attack is now in a highy
advanced state of planning and could come as quickly as Sharon snaps his
fingers to order it. Back on March 13, the London Times -- in a report
that was largely ignored in the U.S. -- reported that: "The inner cabinet
of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave 'initial authorisation'
for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev
desert,"

  The London Times went on to describe how:

  "Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment
plant in the desert to practise destroying it. Their tactics include raids
by Israel's elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by
F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate
underground facilities. The plans have been discussed with American
officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not
stand in Israelâ?Ts way if all international efforts to halt Iranian
nuclear projects failed...." And, the Times added, "US officials warned
last week that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities by Israeli
or American forces had not been ruled out should the issue become
deadlocked at the United Nations."

Just weeks before that revelation of the concretization of Israeli plans
for the Iran attack, Bush let the cat out of the bag in an off-the-cuff
remark captured by London's Daily Telegraph, in a February 18 article
headlined, "AMERICA WOULD BACK ISRAEL ATTACK ON IRAN." The Telegraph
reported that Bush said: "Clearly, if I was the leader of Israel and I'd
listened to some of the statements by the Iranian ayatollahs that regarded
the security of my country, I'd be concerned about Iran having a nuclear
weapon as well. And in that Israel is our ally, and in that we've made a
very strong commitment to support Israel, we will support Israel if her
security is threatened."

  Noting that Bush had gone off the reservations and failed to follow his
handlers' brefing to stick to the agreed-on script, the Telegraph dryly
noted: "His comments appeared to be a departure from the administration's
line that there are no plans to attack at present and that Washington
backs European diplomatic efforts. The remarks may have reflected Mr
Bush's personal thinking on an issue causing deep concern in
Washington...." Bush's slip-of-the-tongue that revealed his real
intentions was front-page news in Le Monde and other European dailies --
but got no attention in the Stateside major media.

  At the time Feith's deputy Franklin (and, today's indictments say, two
other as yet unidentified Pentagon officials) were passing the classified
documents on Iran to AIPAC for transmission to Israel, the White House had
not yet given the green light to Sharon -- indeed, the Iran attack was in
a holding pattern pending the outcome of negotiations over Teheran's nuke
capacity being led by the European powers which, unlike the U.S., have
diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

  Even so, U.S. fingerprints were all over the Israelis' Iran attack,
  which
had long been envisioned by U.S. policy-makers. The respected Israeli
daily Ha'aretz spelled it out last September 13, reporting: "The Clinton
administration laid the foundation for that option [of attacking Iran] by
giving the Rabin government the okay to purchase, with coupons, the F-15I
(dubbed "Thunder" in Israel). The Bush administration will complete the
task by agreeing to give Israel air-to-surface munitions that will breach
the mysteries of the nuclear network in the depths of Isfahan and other
sites, far more concealed than the reactor that is on worldwide display at
Bushehr.


  What the Americans are unable to do, because of European, United Nations
and Congressional pressure, Israel will do. "The indictment of the two
senior AIPAC staffers follows the indictment in may of Feith's footpad
Larry Franklin. Franklin worked in the Office of Special Plans, run by
then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, who reported to
then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The OSP functioned as a
"shadow" intelligence service on Iraq, and provided much of the
information to the White House that was used to justify the American
invasion of Iraq. Some wags have called it "Feith-based intelligence",
since much of that intelligence and information has now been proven to be
utterly false. At the beginning of May, Franklin was arrested by the FBI
for the passing of classified documents to two AIPAC staffers, who were
then to pass them to Israel. The documents in question concerned Iran.

  One of the two newly-indicted AIPACers isn't just anybody. Steve Rosen,
63, is the man who built AIPAC into the $40 million dollar Capitol Hill
powerhouse it is today. Buried in a Washington Post profile of AIPAC from
May 19 is the skinny on Rosen as the power behind the scenes at AIPAC.

Said the Post:

  "For more than two decades, Rosen has been a mainstay of AIPAC and the
architect of the group's ever-increasing clout. Though Rosen was listed
below Executive Director Howard Kohr on AIPAC's organizational chart,
people familiar with AIPAC's history say that Kohr is a protege of Rosen's
and got that job with his help. Kohr declined to be interviewed about
Rosen. 'He [Rosen] is a quiet guy,' said M.J. Rosenberg, director of
policy analysis for the Israel Policy Forum, another pro-Israel group, and
a former AIPAC employee. 'But everyone knows he's the brains behind the
outfit.'"

  Now, just what is AIPAC, you may well ask? AIPAC is the enforcer of the
knee-jerk support for the Israeli government which characterizes the
political and governing classes in this country, -- Israel is the real
third rail of American politics: touch it with criticism, no matter how
carefully couched, and you die. Both the Democratic and Republican parties
fall all over themselves to kiss AIPAC's boots -- because AIPAC and its
well-filled war-chest helps make sure they toe the line on Israel, and has
been responsible for the defeat of a significant number of politicians
over the years who dared to criticize Israeli policies. Earlier this year,
AIPAC played a major role in destroying the candidacy of Tim Roemer for
chairman of the DNC. There's an in-depth, critical profile of AIPAC by
RightWeb's Michael Flynn that gives an in-depth look at AIPAC's
arm-and-leg-breaking political style. And the newly indicted Rosen is The
Man Behind the Curtain. Even though he formally resigned from AIPAC, the
organization is paying his legal bills, and Rosen is still pulling the
strings.

  The reason for putting some daylight between Rosen and AIPAC is that the
puissant political arm-twister is deathly afraid it will be forced to
register as a foreign lobby, as the Jewish weeily The Forward reported
earlier this year. Americans don't like the sight of their elected
officials pocketing campaign cash from foreign governments, and AIPAC
fears being forced to register formally as a lobbyist for Israel would
thus diminish their clout on Capitol Hill. Bush won't make AIPAC register,
and the spinless Democratic Congressional leadership won't lead the charge
to make them do so either. But today's indictments of string-puller Rosen
and his AIPAC colleague for spying on the U.S. gives progressives who want
to see a peaceful, two-state, land-for-peace solution between Israel and
Palestine a strategic opening to press loudly for AIPAC's formal shil
registration as a shil for the government that built the Israeli Wall of
Shame. It's a measure long past due.

  One of the Israeli diplomats the feds want to question about the
activities of the AIPAC spy ring has been quietly spirited out of the
country, Ha'aretz reports this morning. "The Israeli diplomat in
Washington who met several times with Franklin has been identified as Naor
Gilon head of the political department at the Israeli Embassy in
Washington and a specialist on proliferation issues. Gilon returned to
Israel a few days ago as part of a long-scheduled rotation according to an
Israeli official in Washington. U.S. investigators want to question Gilon
and other Israeli diplomats about their contacts with Franklin officials
said.," according to the Israeli daily.

***


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