August 4, 2005 -- TWO FORMER AIPAC OFFICIALS INDICTED, ADDITIONAL CHARGES AGAINST FRANKLIN, INDICTMENT DISCUSSES A "SENIOR FELLOW OF A WASHINGTON, DC THINK TANK" INVOLVED IN THE CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY, REPORTEDLY THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE (AEI).
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The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Paul McNulty announced the indictments of two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at a press briefing this afternoon in Alexandria, Virginia. McNulty termed the indictments a "major national security prosecution." Steve Rosen, former AIPAC policy director and Keith Weismann, an Iran analyst for AIPAC, were indicted and further criminal charges were brought against former Pentagon and Defense Intelligence Agency employee Larry Franklin, a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve. Rosen and Weismann were charged with illegally receiving classified material. Franklin was charged with illegally passing classified information to Rosen.
What is significant is the timing of these indictments. With Congress out of session, AIPAC's legislative allies were not present to attack the U.S. Attorney and argue about Israel being an ally of the United States. It is also the first time AIPAC, whch is a virtual arm of the Israeli government, has been the target of an espionage investigation. The indictments also came at the same time it is reported that Patrick Fitzgerald's own investigation of Rovegate is reaching a crescendo.
With Congress out of session, it was left to Israel's influential pubic relations machinery to bury the indictment story on the Aug. 4 evening newscasts.
The one key sentence in McNulty's press release is the involvement of known and unknown persons to communicate classified information to an agent or representative of a foreign government (Israel). These are referred to in the indictment as Foreign Officials 1, 2, and 3. (FO1, FO-2, FO-3). It is also clear that the FBI had Rosen and Weismann under electronic surveillance since at least 1999. The indictment states that Rosen had passed to an Israeli agent U.S. "code word protected intelligence" concerning terrorist activities in Central Asia in April 1999. In another intercept, Weismann told the same Israeli agent that he had heard that a "Secret FBI, classified FBI report" had been prepared on the Khobar Tower bombing in Saudi Arabia. In December 2000, six days before the Supreme Court awarded the presidency of the United States to George W. Bush, Rosen and Weissman met with a "U.S. Government official" (USGO-1). It is unclear whether the official was a member of the Clinton administration. Following the meeting, Rosen gave classified information to a member of the media concerning "classified strategy options against a Middle East country and internal United States government deliberations on those options." In January 2002, Rosen met with another U.S. government official (USGO-2) and received classified information that was sent to other AIPAC employees in a memo. During the next several months, Rosen continued to discuss classified information with USGO-2 and an unnamed Pentagon official, the latter referring Rosen to Franklin. Rosen then established a liaison with Franklin. Rosen told Franklin at a meeting in February 2003 that he would try and secure a job at the National Security Council for Franklin so that he would be "by the elbow of the President." In March 2003, Rosen discussed a classified internal policy document concerning Iran with a "senior fellow of a Washington, DC think tank." Sources familiar with the investigation have reported the think tank is the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). In June 2003, Franklin told Weissman that he had a friend in the CIA from whom he could obtain a copy of the classified Iran policy document. In October 2003, Franklin had a meeting with FO3 in which they discussed the fact that work had ceased on the classified Iran policy document.
In July 2004, Franklin began cooperatng with the FBI and passed classified CIA information to Weismann as part of the continuing FBI investigation. Some of the information concerned a "foreign government's covert actions in Iraq." In August 2004, Rosen told Israeli agents that he and Weissman were under FBI investigation over the leaks from the Pentagon. It is important to note that the indictment states that the intelligence operation against the United States was a "conspiracy" involving U.S. government officials, AIPAC officials, and foreign agents (Israelis). The indictment also states that Iran's nuclear program was a primary focus of the espionage conspiracy.
This investigation will continue to investigate the identities of unnamed "agents and representatives." As previously reported here, the AIPAC investigation has dovetailed with the White House CIA leak and the forgeries of the Niger documents. McNulty and Fitzgerald have intersected in their investigations. The senior fellow reference at a Washington think tank, reportedly AEI, and Iran are key. A check of AEI's web site shows Michael Ledeen, Karl Rove's chief foreign policy adviser, and Michael Rubin as the only two advertised resident Iran experts at AEI. It is also noteworthy that Lynne Cheney, the Vice President's wife, occupies a $125,000/year senior fellowship at AEI reportedly funded by Israeli Likud Party sources.
The as yet unnamed "agents and representatives" cited by McNulty will undoubtedly come up in Fitzgerald's report to the grand jury sitting at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse just across the Potomac from Alexandria.
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U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
Eastern District of Virginia
Paul J. McNulty United States Attorney
2100 Jamieson Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22314
NEWS RELEASE
August 4, 2005
Paul McNulty, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced that Lawrence Anthony Franklin, age 58, of Kearneysville, WV; Steven J. Rosen, age 63, of Silver Spring, MD; and Keith Weissman, age 53, of Bethesda, MD, were indicted today by a federal grand jury sitting in Alexandria with Conspiracy to Communicate National Defense Information to Persons Not Entitled to Receive It. The indictment alleges that beginning in April of 1999, Rosen, the Director of Foreign Policy Issues for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, D.C., and Weissman, the Senior Middle East Analyst in the Foreign Policy Issues Department at AIPAC, in an effort to influence persons within and outside the United States government, would use their contacts within the United States government, including Franklin, with whom they first met in February 2003, to gather sensitive United States government information, including classified information relating to the national defense, for subsequent unlawful communication, delivery and transmission to persons not entitled to receive it, including members of the media and foreign government officials.
Franklin was also charged with three counts of Communication of National Defense Information to Persons Not Entitled to Receive It. In one of those counts, Rosen was charged with aiding and abetting him in the unlawful disclosure.
Finally, Franklin was charged with conspiring with persons known and unknown to the grand jury to communicate classified information to an agent or representative of a foreign government. It is alleged that Franklin would use his position as a desk officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense to gather information, classified as affecting the security of the United States, for subsequent unlawful communication to a foreign official.
Mr. McNulty stated: “When it comes to classified information, there is a clear line in the law. Today's charges are about crossing that line. Those entrusted with safeguarding our nation's secrets must remain faithful to that trust. Those not authorized to receive classified information must resist the temptation to acquire it, no matter what their motivation may be.”
This case was investigated by the FBI, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kevin DiGregory and Neil Hammerstrom, and Thomas Reilly, Trial Attorney, the Counterespionage Section of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice.
READ THE FULL INDICTMENT HERE...
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