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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (163435)	6/2/2005 11:46:58 AM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Apparently not. They may refuse to take the fall for the nest of spies and cut a deal. gorillaintheroom.blogspot.com Which is great! The whole enabling organization should go down. Rosen and Weissman Refuse to Take the Fall for AIPAC First, let me apologize for my lack of posting the last few days -- I've been sidetracked on some urgent family issues which I had to attend to. But now I should again have time to post more. The news this week that Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, the two senior AIPAC staffers who are in legal jeopardy as a result of the FBI investigation, aren't willing to take the fall is definitely not the outcome that AIPAC wanted. The immediate issues of illegal receipt of classified information, possibile espionage, and failure to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) are bad enough, but the larger issue is the exposure of AIPAC's operating methods. The FBI has a couple of years' worth of wiretap evidence, and the information initially leaked to Rosen and Weissman by Larry Franklin was linked to the push for war with Iran (a rather timely issue, to say the least). The Israel lobby knows good and well that if the transcripts of their conversations with Capitol Hill staff get publicized by way of a trial, they are going to be a lot less effective. Their power has rested on being able to promote Israel's interests (as they see them) away from public view -- i.e. they didn't have a position on the Iraq War resolution, but everyone in Washington of any degree of political sophistication knew that they were making an "unofficial" effort to secure its passage. If most Americans knew the extent of this sort of "hush hush" political arm twisting, and the damage it does to American interests, there would be a movement to counterbalance AIPAC, particularly now that a clear majority of Amercians believe the Iraq War was a mistake, and have an interest in knowing who was responsible for misleading us into it. So anyway, a trial is a good outcome for those of us who want to see a national debate about this. AIPAC is clearly trying to distance itself from Rosen and Weissman, and will be making the "couple of bad apples" defense of the organization, but it isn't likely to work. Steve Rosen was one of the key players in AIPAC over the last 24 years, not just another employee. Frankly, I don't care so much about the outcome of the trial -- it may be the case that they're about to make an entrapment defense which will stick (though I don't think that's the most likely outcome). What is important is the exposure of AIPAC's influence and operating methods. Once the American people see AIPAC's operations unveiled, there is going to be a lot more public debate about whether the U.S. is being forced to sacrifice our own interests for those of the Israeli Right. Of course, the most important unanswered question is -- will this happen in time to help derail the sales pitch for war with Iran? posted by Brian at 12:33 AM