Reply #132: The Other Scandals

[Me.]

Washington Report, November 2004, pages 26-27

New Spy Investigation Suppressed at Crucial Juncture

<<<snip>>>
"About three years ago Franklin transferred to the staff of Douglas Feith, under secretary of defense for policy, who has spent most of his career looking out for the interests of Israel.
Interestingly, Feith’s father, Dalck, was an Israeli extremist and a long-time protégé of Zev Jabotinsky. Dalck Feith, who now lives in the United States, is just as extreme today as he was all those years ago in Israel. His son Douglas, as the person in charge of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans (OSP), for some time has worked on compiling any material, no matter how vague or extreme, to make the case for military action in Iraq."cont.

"Lawrence Franklin “was very close to the anti-Iranian dissidents.”

"Franklin also participated in secret meetings with Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Iranian arms dealer who acted as a middleman in the Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan administration. The secret meetings, first held in Rome in December 2001, were brokered by Michael Ledeen, a leading neocon and long-time supporter of Israel. Ledeen said he arranged the meetings to put the Bush administration in closer contact with Iranian dissidents who could provide information on the war on terrorism. But he said that Franklin was always skeptical about the usefulness of the back-channel meetings" cont....


"Investigators believe that the AIPAC officials turned over Franklin’s information to the Israelis, although the exact nature of their contacts with Israel remains unclear, and it is uncertain if Franklin knew of their discussions with Israel. “It is not illegal for employees of AIPAC to meet with Pentagon officials or representatives of the Israeli government, which has wide-ranging information-sharing with the United States,” wrote New York Times correspondent David Johnson. “But knowingly passing classified materials to a foreign power could be a crime under American espionage statutes.”cont...


"Others expected to be interviewed will probably include Iraq and Iran specialist Harold Rhode, former Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle, and Iran specialist David Wurmser, Cheney’s principal deputy assistant for national security affairs, according to sources familiar with or involved in the case." cont...

http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2004/0411026.html