The war behind the scenes: Zionist elements of "neo-con" Bush
administration seeks to seal leaks about Zionism's U.S. foreign policy
hegemony.
FBI investigates suspected Pentagon security breaches,
By Guy Dinmore, Financial Times, September 7, 2004
"An FBI investigation into suspected security breaches involving Pentagon
officials and Israel is unlikely to result in prosecution of senior figures
following pressure from the White House,
according to people familiar with the case. The
investigation has
 highlighted
concerns that a small group of neo-conservatives in the Pentagon not only
may have divulged classified information to Israel, but also tried to mount
intelligence and foreign policy operations without informing the State
Department and Central Intelligence Agency. Analysts said that
although the neo-conservative proponents of regime change in Iraq and Iran
had fallen out of favour with the White House, the presidential election in
November still afforded them protection. The White House denied allegations
of a cover-up. A spokesman said there was full support for the
investigation. Sources familiar with the investigation said the White House
and John Ashcroft, the US attorney-general, had
intervened to apply the brakes. “The White
House is leaning on the FBI. Some people in the FBI are very upset, they
think Ashcroft is playing politics with this,” a former
intelligence official said. Paul McNulty, the Virginia district attorney in
charge of the probe, had been told to slow down, the sources said ...
Stephen Green, author and investigative reporter, said the FBI had
interviewed him about several prominent neo-conservatives, including Paul
Wolfowitz, the deputy defence secretary, Douglas Feith,
undersecretary for policy at the Pentagon, as well as former officials
including Richard Perle, Stephen Bryen and Michael Ledeen.
The FBI is said to be looking back at investigations into alleged
breaches of security involving Israel and current and
former officials. None of the cases reached court. However, David
Frum, former speechwriter for the president, said the investigators had
found nothing serious and were about to drop the matter.
He described what he called an anti-Israeli obsession
among some parts of the administration who viewed Israel “not as the ally it
is by law and treaty but as the source of all the trouble in the Middle East
and the world”."KERRY IN
APPLE TO MEND 'FENCES' WITH JEWS,
By DEBORAH ORIN, New York Daily News,
March 1, 2004
"Democratic front-runner John Kerry held a private
huddle with Jewish leaders in New York yesterday to ease concerns about his
views on Israel, fueled by his remarks to an Arab group last fall
that Israel's security fence is a "provocative" barrier to peace. Those
present said Kerry reassured the group by defending
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's approach at a time when
Sharon has no Palestinian partner and also defended the fence as an Israeli
security measure - a reversal from his remarks last fall. "A
large part of the American Jewish community is pleased with President Bush's
policy on Israel, and since Kerry criticizes the president's foreign policy,
people want to know if that's true on Israel," said
Anti-Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman. Foxman
and others present said Kerry gave very pro-Israel
remarks and was well-received. Jews traditionally vote strongly
Democratic - 79 percent for Al Gore in 2000 - and possible defections to
back Bush now, because of his Iraq and pro-Israel policies, is a worry for
Democrats. Last October, at an Arab American Institute conference in
Dearborn, Mich., then-candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman got booed for
defending the Israeli fence, while Kerry called it "provocative" and said,
"We do not need another barrier to peace." But at a CBS debate yesterday
just before he met the Jewish leaders, Kerry said it's "a fence necessary to
the security of Israel until they have a partner to be able to negotiate" -
he took a similar line at the meeting, those present said.
Kerry also joked that he'd be the first president to
have Jewish relatives visiting the White House. His brother
Cameron married a Jewish woman and converted to Judaism. Kerry is Catholic,
although his paternal grandparents were Jewish.
Cameron Kerry has been in New York for the past several days holding private
meetings with Jewish leaders, officials said. Kerry also backed away
from a prior speech in which he suggested he'd name a Mideast envoy like
Jimmy Carter, Reagan-Bush aide James Baker or Bill Clinton - raising alarms
among Jewish leaders, who see Carter and Baker as anti-Israel.
Instead, sources said, Kerry yesterday floated names
like Clinton adviser Sandy Berger and Bush-Clinton
Mideast adviser Dennis Ross as the kind of people
he'd rely on; both are seen as far more sympathetic to Israel.
Kerry has been sharply critical of Bush for what he describes as unilateral
action. But he told the Jewish leaders that he supported Israel's unilateral
action to bomb Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, those present said."
Kerry relatives killed in Holocaust,
BY THOMAS FRANK, Newsday, March 1, 2004
"Since Sen. John Kerry discovered a year ago that his
father's father was Jewish-born, he has struggled over whether and
how to talk about his Jewish background. The roots are surprising for a
Massachusetts politician with an Irish name and Catholic upbringing. Kerry
did not know the extent of his Jewish roots until a year ago when a
genealogist in Vienna, hired by The Boston Globe, discovered that
Kerry's paternal grandfather, Frederick Kerry, a converted Catholic, was
actually born Fritz Kohn to Jewish parents in what was
Austria-Hungary, now part of the Czech Republic. Kerry, 60, has known for
about 16 years that his paternal grandmother was born Jewish as Ida Lowe
and converted to Catholicism. Sunday, the Vienna genealogist, Felix
Gundacker, posted new findings on his Web site that the Nazis killed two
of Ida Lowe's siblings -- a sister in the Treblinka concentration
camp, and a brother in Theresienstadt, a Czechoslovakian ghetto that held
Jews before they were taken to camps. "I'm very
touched by the knowledge that one of my relatives was in the Holocaust,"
Kerry said in an interview last night. "It gives an
even greater personal sense of connection [to the Holocaust] that is very
real and very touching. It makes you wonder how horrible their lives
must have been." Kerry initially embraced his grandfather's Jewish roots
when they were discovered a year ago. Two days after the Globe published a
long front-page story disclosing his grandfather's background,
Kerry talked about it to a Jewish group in Florida to
assert a personal connection to Israel. Kerry brought up his
grandparents' heritage again in November, speaking to Jewish Democrats in
Des Moines. Since then Kerry has shied away from the
subject, even as he campaigned recently in New York and California,
which hold presidential primaries Tuesday and have the largest Jewish
populations in the country, accounting for about 42 percent of the 6.2
million Jews in the United States. Meeting with about 60 Jewish leaders and
politicians Sunday in Manhattan, Kerry made no mention of his grandparents
or any Jewish ties as he talked about Israel, according to two people at the
meeting. "I talked about it a little bit when I first learned about it. Then
people seemed to think, 'Oh, wow, now he's trying to be this or that,'"
Kerry said Friday. A Republican strategist in Boston was quoted a year ago
in the Globe warning that Kerry should be "very careful to make sure people
don't think he's trying to be all things to all people."
And after the speech in November, a Globe reporter
pressed Kerry on whether he was identifying himself as Jewish. "It
just seemed simpler to go on the way I've been," Kerry said. "I had a sense
people were saying, 'Now he's trying to use that for political purposes or
something,' and I don't want to do that. I don't want people to sense that
there's some great transition. If it comes up, I mention it."
Bush Or Kerry? Look Closely And The Danger Is The Same,
by John Pilger, ZNet, (from the New Statesman,
March 4, 2004
"A myth equal to the fable of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is gaining
strength on both sides of the Atlantic. It is that John Kerry offers a
world-view different from that of George W Bush. Watch this big lie grow as
Kerry is crowned the Democratic candidate and the "anyone but Bush" movement
becomes a liberal cause celebre. While the rise to power of the Bush gang,
the neoconservatives, belatedly preoccupied the American media, the message
of their equivalents in the Democratic Party has been of little interest.
Yet the similarities are compelling. Shortly before Bush's "election" in
2000, the Project for the New American Century, the neoconservative pressure
group, published an ideological blueprint for "maintaining global US
pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the
international security order in line with American principles and
interests". Every one of its recommendations for aggression and conquest was
adopted by the administration. One year later, the Progressive Policy
Institute, an arm of the Democratic Leadership Council, published a 19-page
manifesto for the "New Democrats", who include all the principal Democratic
Party candidates, and especially John Kerry. This called for "the bold
exercise of American power" at the heart of "a new Democratic strategy,
grounded in the party's tradition of muscular internationalism". Such a
strategy would "keep Americans safer than the Republicans' go-it-alone
policy, which has alienated our natural allies and overstretched our
resources. We aim to rebuild the moral foundation of US global leadership
..." What is the difference from the vainglorious claptrap of Bush? Apart
from euphemisms, there is none. All the Democratic presidential candidates
supported the invasion of Iraq, bar one: Howard Dean. Kerry not only voted
for the invasion, but expressed his disappointment that it had not gone
according to plan. ... Collusion between the Bush and Gore camps was common.
During the 2000 election, Richard Holbrooke, who probably would have
become Gore's secretary of state, conspired with Paul Wolfowitz to
ensure their respective candidates said nothing about US policy towards
Indonesia's blood-soaked role in south-east Asia. "Paul and I have
been in frequent touch," said Holbrooke, "to make sure we keep [East
Timor] out of the presidential campaign, where it would do no good to
American or Indonesian interests." The same can be said of Israel's
ruthless, illegal expansion, of which not a word was and is said: it is a
crime with the full support of both Republicans and Democrats. John Kerry
supported the removal of millions of poor Americans from welfare rolls and
backed extending the death penalty."
Kosher Kerry Cons
Christian America - Crikey! Democrat hopeful says personal Jewish heritage a
'revelation',
by Joe Vialls, February 21, 2004
"[John Kerry]: 'My first trip to Israel made real for me all I'd believed
about Israel. I was allowed to fly an air force jet from the Ovda Airbase.
It was then that Israeli insecurity about narrow borders became very real to
me. In a matter of minutes, I came close to violating the airspace of Egypt,
Jordan, and Syria. From that moment on, I felt as
Israelis do: The promise of peace must be secure before the Promised
Land is secure on a thin margin of land. "Back on the ground on that first
trip, I toured the country from Kibbutz Mizgav Am to Masada to the Golan. I
stood in the very shelter in a kibbutz in the north where children were
attacked and I looked at launching sites and impact zones for Katousha
rockets. "I was enthralled by Tel Aviv, moved
by Jerusalem and inspired by standing above Capernaum, looking out over the
Sea of Galilee, where I read aloud the Sermon on The Mount. I met people of
stunning commitment, who honestly and vigorously debated the issues as I
watched and listened intently. I went as a friend by conviction;
I returned a friend at the deepest personal level. "As the only true
democracy in the Middle East, Israel has both the burden and the glory of a
vigorous public square. We as Americans must be the truest and best kind of
ally--forthright enough to say what we think--and steadfast enough to stay
the course in hard passages as well as easy days. Herzl's famous
words--"If you will it, it is no dream"--signify the promise and the
greatest power of Israel--and the hope that a fair and secure peace can be
achieved. We must be committed to support Israel
in the exacting, essential search for that dream. "I will never forget a
moment on top of Masada, when I stood on that great plateau where the oath
of new soldiers used to be sworn against the desert backdrop and the test of
history. I had spent several hours with Yadin Roman debating whether
or not Josephus Flavius was correct in his account of the
siege--whether these really were the last Jews fighting for
survival--whether they had escaped since no remains were ever found. "After
our journey through history--which we resolved with a vote in favor of
history as recorded--we stood as a group at the end of the cliff and
altogether we shouted across the chasm--across the desert--Am Yisrael
Chai. And across the silence we listened as voices came back--faintly we
heard the echo of the souls of those who perished--Am Yisrael Chai.
"The State of Israel lives. The people of Israel live. In this difficult
time we must again reaffirm we are enlisted for the
duration--and reaffirm our belief that the cause of Israel must be the cause
of America--and the cause of people of conscience everywhere."
Russian Jew named prime minister brings out Jewish pride — and anxiety,
By Lev Krichevsky, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
March 2, 2004
"The Jewish man named Russia’s new prime minister
is little known to the country’s Jewish community. But Jewish leaders
welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s selection this week of
Mikhail Fradkov, currently Russia’s envoy to the
European Union in Brussels. Jewish leaders said Fradkov, who
was expected to be approved by the pro-Putin majority in the Russian
Parliament on Friday, has had no interaction with the organized Jewish
community. If approved, Fradkov would be the first identified Jew to
serve as Russia’s prime minister. His father is known to be Jewish, and
while the background of his mother is unclear, he was
profiled in a biographical volume of the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia
that was published in 1997 ... For some Russian Jewish leaders, Fradkov’s
Jewishness is welcome. “This nomination sends a clear signal to everyone,”
said Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Russian Jewish Congress.
“It means that Russia’s president is an absolute pragmatist, it means that a
person’s nationality does not mean anything to him, and that he is judging
people by their business and personal qualities.” Satanovsky said
that while Russia’s next Cabinet’s policies may remain an open question,
Russian Jews already have received an answer to an important question. “This
question is: Can a Jew become Russian prime minister? The answer is yes. The
next question can only be whether a Jew can be Russia’s president. But this
nomination basically means that in today’s Russia a Jew can be anything. And
this is very positive,” Satanovsky said. But others are expressing
mixed feelings about Fradkov’s nomination, worrying that it could
cause a backlash. “Of course, this is an overall positive thing to Jews,”
said Lyudmila Krasnopolskaya, an English-language instructor at a
Moscow college. “Yet given this, I’m not sure this
choice will necessarily make all Russians that happy.” A recent
conference on xenophobia and racism in Russia held last week in Moscow
reported that more than 60 percent of Russians have xenophobic sentiments,
and many are anti-Semitic. “There are people in the society who can try to
make this an issue,” said Lazar, speaking of Fradkov’s Jewish
background. “I know there are people even inside the Kremlin whom this
nomination will not make extremely happy,” Satanovsky said."
[The New York Times thinks the new Jewish prime minister
of Russia is a swell development.]
A Promising Choice in Russia,
New York Times, Published: March 3, 2004
"Everything Vladimir Putin does these days is perceived as a move to further
consolidate his power. Certainly, he has no shortage of power, with a
rubber-stamp Parliament in place and an inevitable landslide in the
presidential election on March 14. But the real question is how he intends
to use that power, and the nomination of Mikhail Fradkov as the new
prime minister points in a promising direction. Mr. Fradkov, 53, has
spent the last few years working on some of Russia's toughest issues — as a
foreign trade official, as chief tax collector and, most recently, as envoy
to the European Union. He's been doing what Russia needs to do: reform the
administration, get the books in order, combat corruption, halt capital
flight and work on Russia's international standing. True, Mr. Fradkov
is a man with no evident charisma or political ambition, and thus poses far
less of a political threat to Mr. Putin than the fired prime minister,
Mikhail Kasyanov. But most heads of government in Russia since the collapse
of the Soviet Union have been little-known technocrats who served at the
pleasure of the president. Mr. Fradkov is also probably a onetime
K.G.B. official, like his boss. But that is not necessarily why Mr. Putin
picked him. Mr. Fradkov's career suggests that he was on the trade
and economic side of the Soviet intelligence octopus, not the
cloak-and-dagger side, and he was already in the regular government ranks
when Mr. Putin got to the Kremlin. What is more important is that Mr.
Fradkov was not involved in the corrupt privatization schemes under
Boris Yeltsin, and apparently has not been part of the infighting among
various Kremlin factions. His appointment may be a sign that Mr. Putin
finally has the confidence to pick someone capable of beginning serious
economic reforms in the president's second term. Mr. Putin has accumulated
too much power for anyone to feel comfortable, in or out of Russia, and it
is imperative that he be reminded at every step that he is being carefully
watched for any further symptoms of despotism. But it is also important not
to become blinded to the possibility that Mr. Putin may use his power to
point Russia in the right direction. The appointment
of a competent official with a solid track record and valuable foreign
experience is, for now at least, a reassuring sign."
Putin's PM to mark new EU relationship?,
EUpolitix.com, March 2, 2004
"As Europe attempts to rethink its approach to relations with Russia, a
shake-up could be on the cards from the Moscow side too. After
controversial former EU ambassador
Mikhail Fradkov rose to the top of the pile to become Russia’s new prime
minister, Brussels is watching with anticipation to see if his nomination
will mark a change in relations, and if so, if it is necessarily for the
better. President Vladimir Putin has called him a “good, strong
communicator” and EU officials have similarly welcomed his nomination, but
behind the scenes Fradkov’s pedigree has
brought mixed responses. Many see the naming of the largely unknown
bureaucrat as adroit manoeuvering by Putin to wrap his fingers even more
tightly around the reins of power back home. Fradkov has little
political power at home and analysts have variously called him a
'colourless', and a 'compromise candidate who stands for nothing.'
Conversely, Fradkov boasts a wealth of contacts
and experience in the international arena that many other Muscovites can
only dream of. Having worked in external trade both during and after
communism, Fradkov has all the expertise to fight Russia’s corner in
the current dispute with Brussels over what trade terms will govern the EU’s
ten new states ... The 53-year-old bureaucrat of
Jewish origin is, however, anything but a colourless paper-pusher.
In 1995, he was embroiled in a scandal after allegedly
skimming 150 million roubles from state funds to construct a villa in
Moscow’s chic western district. The case, however, never came to court after
a room housing key documents was burnt down. Fradkov has never
been a formal member of the KGB, but there is much
conjecture over his links with the secret police service which may have
given him the occasional leg-up on his illustrious career path. He
also served as head of Russia’s tax police – a sign many believe that Putin
intends to continue his hard line against Russia’s oligarchs. Fradkov
is still to be formally accepted by the Duma on March 5, but with Putin
enjoying two thirds support in the house, the job looks already to be his."
$10,000 challenge,
USS Liberty
"The Liberty Veterans Association offers a $10,000 reward to anyone who can
establish the truth of A. Jay Cristol's claim: "After ten official US
investigations (including five congressional investigations), there was
never any evidence that the attack was made with knowledge that the target
was a US ship." The LVA has disputed the truth of this statement for years.
We believe it is untrue. We believe that the best way to prove that it is
untrue is to offer a reward to anyone (including Mr. Cristol) who can
prove that it is true. Address responses to challenge@ussliberty.com
Today is Day Four of the challenge."
Fagin and the
Labor Party,
By Sharon Sadeh, Haaretz (Israel), March
4, 2004
"So, the chairman of the Labor Party in Britain called Oliver Letwin,
the Jewish shadow chancellor of the exchequer, a "Fagin for the 21st
century." Big deal. He certainly wasn't referring to the Jewish crook in
"Oliver Twist." At most he meant ... what did Labor Party chairman Ian
McCartney mean? After all, for the British public, Fagin, like
Shylock, is a code word, a euphemism that means a Jewish crook, greedy and
scheming. McCartney said it out loud and in public in a speech to Labor
activists in Scotland. His message was simple: If you elect Conservatives,
not only will you get a Jewish chancellor but also of the worst kind, like
Fagin. The Jewish community preferred to deal with the spittle as if
it were rain. "McCartney is not an anti-Semite, but he should be more
careful," was the response of the Board of Deputies, the umbrella
organization of the Jewish community. Even if McCartney is innocent of
anti-Semitism, the use of terms with anti-Semitic connotations is not
accidental. His speech exposed a cynical election strategy, which has
crossed the boundary of what is legitimate. A poll published last month by
the Jewish Chronicle found that a fifth of Britons would not vote for
a Jewish prime minister; one out of seven Britons
believe discussion of the Holocaust has become exaggerated and one of out
five believes the Jews have too much power. That is all
highlighted against the background of the fact that
the Conservative Party leadership now includes a
particularly large number of Jews, starting with the party
leader, Michael Howard, through Letwin and to the chairman of
the Tories, Lord Maurice Saatchi, as well as the former foreign
minister, Malcolm Rifkind. Through the use of negative and
threatening imagery, McCartney has labeled the Conservatives as the "Jewish
party," which should be avoided. The struggle
between Labor and the Tories is not only over votes, but over money.
Ever since Howard
was elected head of the Conservatives,
there has been a sharp drop in the extent of contributions to Labor by
Jewish businessmen. The party is very worried about that.
To block the erosion, Chancellor Gordon Brown, the
designated heir to Tony Blair, has stepped up his meetings with the
community and with representatives of Israel. His speeches, which already
had a pro-Israel tone in the past, are more pleasing than ever to Jewish and
Israeli ears. The Labor government speaks in two voices. In the one
hand it condemns anti-Semitism and is very flattering to the Jewish
audience, while on the other hand it winks at voters with prejudices, in a
reality in which Jews are still perceived as a fifth
column when they reach positions of political power. That perception is not
only prevalent in the extreme right, among Muslim fundamentalists or in the
lunatic left. It is present in the heart of the establishment itself,
no matter how many ceremonies and Holocaust Days are held in Britain.
Lord Greville Janner, a Labor Party member and chairman of the
Holocaust Education Trust, will never forget the day when he accompanied the
Archbishop of Canterbury to an official ceremony. When they entered the
House of Lords, he heard someone say, "Who's that
walking with the Archbishop?" and heard the answer, "It's that Jew, Janner."
Author Salman Rushdie says someone once treated him rudely and afterward
apologized, saying, "I was mistakenly informed you are a Jew." Rushdie
recalled: "I have never felt a stronger urge to be a Jew, than at that
moment." Delegitimizing Israel in the British media has long since been
accepted as natural, as if it were fate, while it has been proven that it is
directly translated into an increase in anti-Semitic incidents. With his
unfortunate remarks, McCartney opened a new front of delegitimization that
has penetrated political discourse and inevitably is going to harm, once
again, the security of the Jewish community."
Meet the mayor of Casper, Wyoming: Ex-cop, mother and synagogue savior,
by Tami Kamin-Meyer, Virtual Jerusalem
(from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
"Barb Watters is not only the new mayor of Casper, Wyoming, she’s
also the savior of the city’s Jewish community. Watters is president
of Temple Beth El, the only synagogue in Casper, and she’s now only a class
away from becoming a Reform movement-sanctioned Jewish community emissary.
This, of course, all after entering uncharted territory in January
by becoming the first Jew to hold the top spot in
Wyoming’s largest city. If things ever get out of hand at the city’s
lone synagogue — or at City Hall or at home, which Watters shares
with her husband, Mark, and their two children, ages 20 and 15 —
Casper’s new mayor can draw from her experience as a Casper policewoman to
straighten things out. “Barb is a great example to Jews,” says
Rachel Komerofsky, director of outreach at the Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion, which runs the course Watters
is taking to become a community leader. The program, called Sh’liah K’hilah,
trains lay persons in leading Shabbat and holiday services and meeting
communities’ life cycle needs. Watters’ leadership positions — in
government and in shul — are the culmination of an interesting, if unusual,
career path. Twenty-four years ago, the Ohioan traded her familiar digs in
the Buckeye State for the Rocky Mountains to pursue a career in law
enforcement. Those days, Watters says, landing a job in criminal justice was
difficult unless you were white and male. So in 1980, when she saw an
advertisement from the Casper Police Department, she applied and was hired.
“I went to Casper not knowing anyone,” she says, but she moved because it
was a great opportunity to gain valuable on-the-job experience. She
describes the Casper of the early 1980s as “Godforsaken.” “There was
tumbleweed blowing down the middle of Center Street,” she says. What was
worse, the social scene for single Jewish women in Casper was bleak, to say
the least. “It was tough to meet eligible men,” Watters recalls.
Fortunately, a thoughtful police sergeant on Watters’ squad paired the
rookie with his brother, who also was eligible,
Jewish and looking for love. The couple went out on their first
blind date in October 1981, and they were married in August 1982. Watters
retired from the force a decade later for stress-related reasons, and she
began spending more and more time at the local temple. Not long afterward,
however, Temple Beth El fell into disarray when its main lay leader moved
back East. Some members wanted to close the temple, but Watters and Sam
Wiseman — who had taken over as lay leader after his son, the former lay
leader, moved away — insisted on keeping the temple alive. They eventually
prevailed. “Without Barb there wouldn’t be a temple,” Wiseman says. But
Watters grew anxious about the temple’s heavy reliance on Wiseman,
a relative newcomer to Casper from New York who
was the only one in town who could lead services. If he left or could not
leave services for some reason, the temple would be in trouble. “I started
wondering what would happen to us,” she says. “We can’t afford a rabbi.”
Somebody had to make sure the Jewish community in Casper was there to stay.
... By American standards, Wyoming’s Jewish population is minuscule. It is
one of only five U.S. states without a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary. The
synagogue in Casper is home to what Wiseman calls “35 member units” —
families and individuals. On High Holidays, 70 to 80 people attend
services."
Weiner Presses FBI On Translator Jobs Brooklyn congressman suspects bias in
rejection of 90 Sephardic applicants,
by Adam Dickter, Jewish Week, March 5,
2004
"When Sephardim in Brooklyn heard the FBI was looking for translators of
Arabic after 9-11, some 90 people — most of
Syrian origin — submitted applications. Two years later, not one has been
hired. Rep. Anthony Weiner is pressing the bureau for information on
why none have made the cut. “We became suspicious that it might be because
of their religion or having Israel stamped on their passports,” said
Weiner, whose district includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn. “When we
asked the FBI to investigate, without specific information about who
applied, they couldn’t answer.” With help from Sephardic Bikur Cholim, a
social service group that coordinates employment opportunities, Weiner
provided the bureau with a list of applicants. In a letter this week to FBI
Director William Mueller, Weiner and Reps. Frank Pallone and Robert
Andrews of New Jersey and Peter Deutsch of Florida called on Mueller
to provide an explanation “to ensure that no bias or
discrimination exists.” An FBI spokesman in New York, Jim Margolin,
said that of the initial pool of applicants, some
were disqualified because they were not citizens. Others did not
pass written or oral proficiency tests given by the Department of Defense.
“Only one person scored sufficiently to proceed to the next step,” said
Margolin, who said he did not know what happened to that applicant. He added
that the screening process is a long one that “is not yet complete” and said
some of the Sephardic applicants may still be hired if they retake the
tests."
First
Election Round Goes to Jews,
by David Finnigan, Jewish Journal of Greater
Los Angeles, March 5, 2004
"While most Jewish politicians easily won Tuesday’s primary election,
four out of six Jewish candidates in Los Angeles County Superior Court judge
races survived the primaries, with two Jewish women competing this
fall in a tough judge’s race. California’s Jewish legislators who retained
their seats Tuesday against token or zero opposition included Sen.
Barbara Boxer, who had no Democratic opposition and now faces Republican
challenger Bill Jones. Los Angeles County’s five Jewish members of Congress
— Howard Berman (D-North Hollywood), Jane Harman (D-Venice).
Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles)
and Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) — all won,
although Sherman faces Republican attorney Robert Levy in
November. In the vacant Superior Court Office 69 judge’s race, Los Angeles
Deputy District Attorney Judith Levey Meyer garnered 32.55 percent of
Tuesday’s vote and runner-up and Los Angeles County Superior Court
Commissioner Donna Groman earned 29.09 percent of ballots cast.
The two square off in November as neither took the majority needed
(51 percent) of the vote. In other Superior Court races, Jewish candidates
either lost to or still are up against Latino opponents. Deputy District
Attorneys Daniel Feldstern (Superior Court Office 18) and Jeffrey
Gootman (Superior Court Office 29) both came in third in their separate
court races, with Feldstern getting 26.1 percent and Gootman
22.3 percent; the top vote-getters in both races respectively were Latino
candidates Mildred Escobedo, a Superior Court referee, and attorney Gus
Gomez. Deputy District Attorney Laura Priver came in second with 38.2
percent, and in November faces administrative law judge John Gutierrez for
the Superior Court Office 52 seat. Superior Court referee Daniel Zeke
Zeidler, a dependency referee at Edelman Children’s Court, came in first
in the Superior Court Office 69 race with 28.08 percent against his November
opponent, Deputy District Attorney David Lopez, who earned 21.5 percent. Los
Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, a Catholic, faces no fall
election since he retained his seat with 59.27 percent of the vote. Jewish
challenger Deputy District Attorney Denise Moehlman came in third
with 9 percent. In state races, Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Granada
Hills) won his primary unopposed, as did Assembly incumbents Jackie
Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood) and
Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), with Levine battling Republican
schoolteacher Mark Isler this fall. Similarly, state Sen. Sheila
Kuehl (D-Los Angeles) had no primary opposition and won. In the 47th
District’s open Assembly seat, including Jewish neighborhoods in
Pico-Roberston, Westwood and Cheviot Hills, African American Democrats Karen
Bass and Nate Holden square off in November, with political science
professor Richard Groper coming in fourth with 10 percent of the
vote. Republican political consultant Arnold Steinberg said the
Jewish community took little interest in Orange County’s onetime Republican
congressman Bob Dornan and his late, underfunded attempt to unseat incumbent
Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) in the 46th District;
Rohrabacher has become more sympathetic to Arab
perspectives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Kinky bid for
top job in Texas. Will the Kinkster's pursuit of Dubya's hat stop in Texas?
Eccentric American country singer and writer Kinky Friedman has announced he
will stand for George W Bush's old job as Texas governor in 2006,
BBC (UK), March 7, 2004
"The man behind the Texas Jewboys band and such best-selling crime novels as
Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned is set to run as an independent candidate.
While his policies are as yet unclear, Mr Friedman has pledged to
"not kiss babies [but] their mothers". Asked why he is standing, he replies:
"Why the hell not?" The cigar-smoking country singer says he wants to "fight
the wussification of the state of Texas". "I want to rise and shine and
bring back the glory of Texas," he adds, describing himself as a "writer of
fiction who tells the truth". 'Not so crazy now' Mr Friedman, 59,
says he was inspired to stand for governor by the success of Arnold
Schwarzenegger in California as well as the recent failed bid of Howard Dean
for the Democratic Party presidential nomination ... Correspondents say it
remains to be seen how far the unconventional image of the composer of
They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore and author of
Elvis, Jesus & Coca Cola will appeal to
traditional voting lobbies in Texas such as Christian groups. But Mr
Friedman says he has little fear that his electoral ambitions will ever
be affected by scandal, the bane of many an American politician's career. "There
are no skeletons in my closet," he says. "They are all bleaching on a
beach somewhere."
Kerry’s Foreign
Policy Record Suggests Few Differences with Bush,
by Stephen Zunes, Common Dreams, March 5, 2004
"Those who had hoped that a possible defeat of President George W. Bush in
November would mean real changes in U.S. foreign policy have little to be
hopeful about now that Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has effectively
captured the Democratic presidential nomination. That Senator Kerry
supported the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq and lied about former
dictator Saddam Hussein possessing a sizable arsenal of weapons of mass
destruction in order to justify it would be reason enough to not support
him. (See my March 1, 2004 article “Kerry’s Support for the Invasion of Iraq
and the Bush Doctrine Still Unexplained” ) However, a
look at his record shows that Kerry’s overall foreign policy agenda has also
been a lot closer to the Republicans than to the rank-and-file Democrats he
claims to represent ... He was a co-sponsor of the “Syrian
Accountability Act,” passed in November, which demanded under threat of
sanctions that Syria unilaterally eliminate its chemical weapons and missile
systems, despite the fact that nearby U.S. allies like Israel and Egypt had
far larger and more advanced stockpiles of WMDs and missiles, including in
Israel’s case hundreds of nuclear weapons. (See my October 30 article, “The
Syrian Accountability Act and the Triumph of Hegemony” ) Included in the
bill’s “findings” were charges by top Bush Administration officials of
Syrian support for international terrorism and development of dangerous WMD
programs. Not only have these accusations not been independently confirmed,
but they were made by the same Bush Administration officials who had made
similar claims against Iraq that had been proven false. Yet Senator Kerry
naively trusts their word over independent strategic analysts familiar with
the region who have challenged many of these charges. Kerry’s bill also
calls for strict sanctions against Syria as well as Syria’s expulsion from
its non-permanent seat Security Council for its failure to withdraw its
forces from Lebanon according to UN Security Council resolution 520. This
could hardly be considered a principled position, however, since
Kerry defended Israel’s 22-year long occupation of
southern Lebanon, that finally ended less than four years ago,
and which was in defiance of this and nine other UN
Security Council resolutions. Indeed, perhaps
the most telling examples of Kerry’s neo-conservative world view is his
outspoken support of the government of right-wing Israeli prime minister
Ariel Sharon, annually voting to send billions of
dollars worth of taxpayer money to support Sharon’s occupation and
colonization of Palestinian lands seized in the 1967 war. Even as the
Israeli prime minister continues to reject calls by Palestinian leaders for
a resumption of peace talks, Kerry insists that it is the Palestinian
leadership which is responsible for the conflict while Sharon is “a
leader who can take steps for peace.” Despite the UN Charter forbidding
countries from expanding their territory by force and the passage, with U.S.
support, of a series of UN Security Council resolutions calling on Israel to
rescind its unilateral annexation of occupied Arab East Jerusalem and
surrounding areas, Kerry has long fought for U.S. recognition of the Israeli
conquest. He even attacked the senior Bush Administration from the right
when it raised concerns regarding the construction of illegal Israeli
settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, going on record,
paradoxically, that “such concerns inhibit and complicate the search for a
lasting peace in the region.” He was also critical of the senior Bush
Administration’s refusal to veto UN Security Council resolutions upholding
the Fourth Geneva Conventions and other international legal principles
regarding Israeli colonization efforts in the occupied Palestinian
territories. Kerry’s extreme anti-Palestinian
positions have bordered on pathological. In 1988, when the PLO which
administered the health system in Palestinian refugee camps serving hundreds
of thousands of people and already had observer status at the United Nations
sought to join the UN’s World Health Organization, Kerry backed legislation
that would have ceased all U.S. funding to the WHO or any other UN entity
that allowed for full Palestinian membership. Given that the United States
then provided for a full one-quarter of the WHO’s budget, such a cutoff
would have had a disastrous impact on vaccination efforts, oral re-hydration
programs, AIDS prevention, and other vital WHO work in developing countries.
The following year, just four days after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir restated that Israel would never give up the West Bank and Gaza
Strip and would continued to encourage the construction of new Israeli
settlements on occupied Palestinian land, Kerry signed a statement that
appeared in the Washington Post praising the right-wing prime minister for
his “willingness to allow all options to be put on the table.” Kerry
described Shamir’s proposal for Israeli-managed elections in certain
Palestinian areas under Israeli military occupation as “sincere and
far-reaching” and called on the Bush Administration to give Shamir’s plan
its “strong endorsement.” This was widely interpreted as a challenge to
Secretary of State James Baker’s call several weeks earlier for the Likud
government to give up on the idea of a “greater Israel.” In his effort to
enhance Shamir’s re-election prospects in 1992, Senator Kerry again
criticized the senior President Bush from the right, this time for its
decision to withhold a proposed $10 billion loan guarantee in protest of the
rightist prime minister’s expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the
occupied territories. The administration’s decision to hold back on the loan
guarantees until after the election made possible the defeat of Shamir
by the more moderate Yitzhak Rabin. However, when the new Israeli
prime minister went to Norway during the summer of 1993 to negotiate with
the Palestine Liberation Organization for a peace plan, Kerry joined the
Israeli right in continuing to oppose any peace talks between Israel and the
PLO. Indeed, for most of his Senate career, Kerry was in opposition of the
Palestinians’ very right to statehood. As recently as 1999, he went on
record opposing Palestinian independence outside of what the Israeli
occupation authorities were willing to allow. Today,
Kerry not only defends Israel’s military
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he has backed Sharon’s policies
of utilizing death squads against suspected Palestinian militants. He
claims that such tactics are a justifiable response to terrorist attacks by
extremists from the Islamic groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, even though
neither of them existed prior to Israel’s 1967 military conquests and both
emerged as a direct outgrowth of the U.S.-backed occupation and repression
that followed."
In America. The
Enemies Within,
by Abid Ullah Jan, The Independent Centre for
Strategic Studies and Analysis
"The world witnesses the third great
totalitarian challenge in less than 70 years. The Reichstag fire was an
occasion for Nazis to start imposing their ideas
through exploiting Germany's power. Later , the communists attempted to
impose their ideas by leveraging the Soviet Union's power. And more recently
"9/11 ", as many have come to popularize the terrible event, became the
second Reichstag Fire for the secular totalitarians,
who are now using the US economic and military power to try to impose a
reign of global domination under the banner of perfect "ideas" for building
"open societies." Secularism remains the corner
stone. Interestingly, the US was founded on the ideals of
Christianity. And its stress on secular ideology is intensified purely as a
weapon for neutralising any perceived threat to American global hegemony.
And so, the "war of ideas" is promoted as a war against potential
challengers to this domination and it is manifested in reality through
invasions and occupations. The problem is that while "open societies" are,
today, an interesting ambition, using them as a premise for launching
aggressive foreign policy is simply misguided. By doing so, promoters of
these policies are falsely presenting the symptoms of the world's political
and cultural issues as the root causes of the various problems we all face
today. Switching symptom for root cause is dangerous, as I will explain. For
this purpose, the “war of ideas” is promoted as a war
on “extremist Islamic ideology”[1] and it is translated into reality through
occupations and usurping civil liberties. A serious look reveals that
the so-called ideas are mere conjecture, presenting symptoms as root causes
of the global problems. It is fascinating how these warriors of "ideas"
claim to be waging a global war, yet their "ideas" are shallow and
illogical. For instance, Thomas Friedman believes the trend of
"suicide bombing is spreading" among youth because "local charities provide
them with money." [2] This would lead us to assume that it is primarily
financial incentives that compel these people to die for their causes, and
little more. Will Friedman trade his life for all the wealth he can
imagine? The belief that is propagated by the Chief of
'The War of Ideas', Thomas Friedman, is
that all of a sudden "a large number of people" started hating Americans.
The claim is that these people are "ready to commit suicide" just because
they hate open societies. And so, inevitably, we falsely extrapolate
the danger: since "these people" can turn anything into weapon, they pose "a
much more serious threat than the Soviet Red Army because these human bombs
attack the most essential element of an open society: trust." [3] Here is
another "idea": Friedman believes that sitting next to a person bent
upon blowing up a passenger plane as a violation of trust. No Sir. This is
not a violation of trust. This is nothing more than
the tragic reaction of an extremely desperate person to what is the real
violation of trust; this is a symptom of the most profound violation of
trust - when a few individuals - with the most lethal weapons of human
history at their disposal - mock and bypass international laws, treaties and
organizations to impose their ideas on those whom they believe are in need
of them. Trust is not built into "every building" bus and train, as
Friedman would claim. It is built and breached at a much higher
level. When we go into a conference in Madrid, we trust the American
leadership is serious in bringing justice to the Israeli Palestinian
conflict. But that trust is violated when the land for peace slogans are
exploited, promises are broken, and the Palestinians remain as landless 13
years after the conference as they were for the 40 or so years before it.
Trust is violated when American leaders incessantly lie to the world that
they have conclusive evidence about Al-Qaeda's involvement in the 9-11
attack, fail to produce meaningful evidence to support this claim, yet also
fail to refute the evidence that mounts on their own involvement in the
tragedy. Trust is shattered when American leaders create the illusion of
WMDs - and the purported enthusiasm to use them against us - to justify the
invasion and occupation of Iraq. And when the illusion is exposed and
these warriors of "ideas" come out to justify their
fabrications, they swiftly declare their real intention was to build "open
societies" - behavior that is, at best, misguided conjecture but more likely
a case of devious deception. The people in authority in the US know
the real culprits behind 9/11. If they are taking away trust by stripping
airline passengers, fingerprinting all visitors and removing cherished civil
liberties, it is not to catch the culprits. It is
only to achieve the secondary objectives of global domination i.e., to have
a complete silence at home front — a nation unanimous in raining down death
and destruction: another Nazi state. So what to do? There are
only three things we can do: (1) learn to differentiate between ideas and
conjecture. (2) Find ways to effectively challenge the status quo. (3) Most
important, identify the warriors of “ideas” whose work paves the way for
more wars abroad and reduced civil liberties at home. [4] The societies
where these advocates of war reside can really restrain their extremists.
This is the time for Americans to apply restraints to
persons whose thinking is limited to perpetual war for imposing their
“ideas” on other people. The same superiority complex led to
colonialism in the past, Nazism in 1930’s and communism after the World War
II. A historical mistake on the part of Americans would be taking the
advocates of tyranny for the champions of freedom simply because they are
using the most humane labels possible for defining themselves. Stigmatizing
these warriors is a hard task in an environment where lying is now an
acceptable norm. These highly paid and fully secure advocates of war are
neither a state subject to conventional deterrence or international rules,
nor individuals deterred by the fear of rejection by their people or
government. The actual situation is in total contrast to what is required.
Truth tellers, such as NBC’s Peter Arnett and BBC’s Gavyn Davies, are
demonized. At the same time, Pipes,
Perle, Friedman and Frum
are elevated as official and unofficial advisors.
The case of bypassing Senate to appoint Pipes to USIP is an excellent
example of providing them with necessary cover. We cannot fully expose the
advocates of war on our own. But we also can't just do nothing in the face
of what is no longer just a threat but a reality that we see in the loss of
dozens of American and non-American lives every week. Blaming it on vague
anti-Islam notions is no solution. We need to partner
with the forces within American and European societies who have the power to
demystify the rancid notions paraded as ideas. Ultimately this is a
struggle within the Western world, between those who promote war in the name
of ideas and those who believe that justice is denied to Muslims living
under direct and indirect US occupations with full sponsorship of the United
States of America for so long."
Kerry tour sets sights on big funds,
Tri-Valley Herald (from Associated Press),
March 6, 2004
"Democrat John Kerry is setting an ambitious $105 million goal for his
effort to unseat President Bush and will soon start a 20-city fund-raising
blitz aimed at scooping up at least $15 million by May. If Kerry reaches his
target, it would be a fund-raising high for the Democrats and roughly match
the record $106 million that Bush raised for his primary campaign in 2000.
Bush has already surpassed that total this year, collecting more than $155
million for his re-election bid, with millions more to come. "This is the
first time a Democrat has had the chance to raise money after he's been the
nominee or the perceived nominee," Louis Susman,
Kerry's national finance chairman, said
Thursday. ... Democratic fund-raisers from Hollywood insiders to trial
lawyers are also jumping in to help. Actress and singer Barbra Streisand
donated $2,000 to Kerry and is in discussions about what else she can do, a
spokeswoman said. In Los Angeles, supermarket tycoon Ron Burkle is opening
his home for a fund-raiser March 30 that is expected to draw big donors from
the worlds of Hollywood, real estate, banking and labor. DreamWorks SKG film
studio executive Jeffrey Katzenberg is a co-host of the event. His
DreamWorks partners -- Steven Spielberg and David Geffen --
haven't committed to raising money for Kerry but expect to meet soon with
the Massachusetts senator to discuss their involvement, DreamWorks spokesman
Andy Spahn said."
Bush Names Leader to Stop Terror Funds,
Yahoo! News (from Associated Press), Mar 10,
2004
"President Bush named Stuart Levey, a Justice Department attorney,
to run a new government effort to crack down on
sources of terrorism financing. If confirmed by the Senate, Levey
will be undersecretary of the Treasury in charge of
overseeing a new office of terrorism and financial intelligence. He
currently is principal associate deputy attorney general at the Justice
Department."
Dozens of
protesters call for "Russia without Putin",
Yahoo! News, Marchk 11, 2004
"Dozens of protesters gathered in downtown Moscow to call for "a Russia
without Putin", some demanding a boycott to Sunday's presidential election
and others supporting liberal contender Irina Khakamada. The protest against
"dictatorship" they claim President Vladimir Putin has set up was organised
by the non-governmental organization For Human Rights, which supports a
boycott of the election, and Russian Radicals who champion Khakamada. The
central Pushkin square saw a mixed crowd, ranging from rights defense
activists like Memorial to Communist militants to young members of the
reformist Yabloko party, which also called for a boycott. "All to dacha on
March 14," demanded a slogan brandished by two Yabloko supporters, who
planned to set up another protest Thursday at the same spot together with
young Communists. Other slogans -- which passers-by met with indifference --
included "Stop the war in Chechnya", "Reporters, your silence is support to
the war", and "Free (Mikhail) Khodorkovsky" -- former chief of
the Yukos oil giant jailed last year."
No smiles now, Dov Zakheim tired of managing huge budget,
Al-Jazeera, March 11, 2004
"The Pentagon's chief financial officer has
offered his resignation after overseeing a spiralling defence budget look
set to hit $450 billion in 2005. Rabbi Dov Zakheim's refused to tell
journalists the exact reason for his departure on Wednesday. However, he
hinted that the task of controlling hundreds of billions of dollars in the
Bush administration was exhausting. "I'm leaving because I've served three
very arduous years in this job." Background A former adjunct economics
professor at New York's Yeshiva University,
Rabbi Zakheim has spent more than 30 years working
in various jobs at the Pentagon. But he has also worked in private
industry, specifically as a consultant to McDonnell Douglas and Boeing. A
conservative Republican who graduated from Jew's College in London in 1973,
Zakheim first joined the Department of Defence in 1981 under former
president Ronald Reagan. He was responsible for such tasks as preparing
defence planning guidance for nuclear war. The rabbi was a senior foreign
policy adviser to then - Governor George Bush during the 2000 presidential
campaign. As Pentagon Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer, Rabbi
Zakheim's priority has been financial management. He had intended to
focus his energies on bringing business practices to the bureaucratic
business of defence procurement. But due to the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq, he was forced to prepare numerous supplemental budget requests for
Congress to cover the cost of those military conflicts. The Pentagon has
asked Congress for a record $401.7 billion budget for 2005. But that does
not include additional spending needed to support US wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan - a sum expected to range from $30 billion to $50 billion.
Mismanaged? Though the US Defence Department has long been notorious for
waste, recent government reports suggest the
Pentagon's money management woes have reached astronomical proportions. A
study by the Defense Department's inspector general found that the Pentagon
couldn't properly account for more than a trillion dollars in monies spent.
A General Accounting Office report found Defence inventory systems so
lax that the US army lost track of 56 aeroplanes, 32 tanks and 36 Javelin
missile command launch-units."
Analysis: Is Karl Rove the Next Joe Trippi?,
By Martin Sieff, Insight on the News, March 16,
2004
"Is Karl Rove the new Joe Trippi of U.S. politics: a supposed genius who
turns out to be just a disastrously unrealistic dreamer when the real
campaign starts? It's starting to look that way. Even Democratic Party
insiders and Kerry campaign strategists have been bewildered at the passive
silence and blundering slowness of the massive Republican attack machine to
crank up and start countering their own powerful and highly effective
blasts. Through late January and all of February, Sen. John Kerry of
Massachusetts rapidly closed enormous credibility and popularity gaps with
President George W. Bush as he vaulted to the head of the Democratic
presidential pack. Yet as Kerry's star rapidly rose on the fires of his
withering attacks on the president -- and the Trippi-led campaign of former
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean collapsed -- the Bush campaign sat on its colossal
$150 million campaign chest and did nothing. ... Rove focused on wooing
America's Hispanic, black and Jewish communities, all traditional, core
Democrat constituencies. But Bush now is trailing Kerry by a potentially
catastrophic 13 percentage points in California, according to recent polls.
The national army of enthusiastic Hispanic supporters has yet to
materialize. Meanwhile African-Americans are polling stronger than ever for
the Democrats. In the primaries, they flocked in huge numbers to Kerry's
banner. Even the amazingly enthusiastic response to
Mel Gibson's highly controversial new movie, The Passion of the Christ,
by evangelical Protestants across the nation -- Bush's true bedrock base --
has embarrassed the president's largely Jewish neoconservative supporters
and fired up the 80 percent or more of American Jews who usually vote
Democratic. Rove so far has been unable to come up with anything
to counter all this except the images of 9/11, and even those have backfired
on him."
British politician makes anti-Semitic remark,
By DOUGLAS DAVIS, Jerusalem Post, March
11, 2004
"Scottish police are investigating allegedly
anti-Semitic remarks made by the chairman of Britain's ruling Labor Party,
Ian McCartney, following a formal complaint by the London-based human-rights
pressure group Liberty and Law. In a speech to the Scottish Labor
Party conference late last month, McCartney described Oliver Letwin, the
economic spokesman of the opposition Conservative Party, as a "21st-century
Fagin," a reference to the despised Jewish
character in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. Advertisement "This
21st-century Fagin will pick the pockets of Scotland's pensioners by
abolishing the pension credit and then plan for a new generation of poor
pensioners by abolishing the second state pension," McCartney said of
Letwin, the descendant of Jewish refugees from eastern Europe and a
former director of the London-based bank NM Rothschild. Director of
Liberty and Law Gerald Hartup, who lodged the complaint to the police about
the comments, said the allusion to Charles Dickens's "archetypal evil Jew"
had "dragged political debate into the gutter." Pointing to a recent opinion
poll in the London Jewish Chronicle which showed 11 percent of
respondents felt strongly that the election of a Jewish prime minister would
be unacceptable, he said that McCartney's keynote speech "plays – even if he
doesn't understand or intend this – to these very prejudices." Hartup told
The Jerusalem Post he believed "people have the right to live their
lives without damaging threats." He was concerned about the British media's
failure to robustly respond to the affair and said that
if such comments had come from the political Right
there would have been an outraged media reaction. He was also disturbed
that, "if you make anti-Semitic comments from the Left you seem to be immune
from prosecution." There was, he added, "a tendency to regard
the Left as socially progressive and, therefore, to
regard criticism from the Left as legitimate."
In Germany, Reform movement could sue government over aid,
By Toby Axelrod, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
March 12, 2004
"The German branch of Reform Judaism is threatening to
sue the federal government for equal treatment, saying it’s illegal for the
government to offer financial support only to the Central Council of Jews in
Germany. According to an expert opinion released Thursday in advance
of a lawsuit, the federal government is required to
support all branches of Judaism without prejudice. Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder signed a historic contract with the Central Council in
January 2003 that pledges the government to support
the Central Council with $3 million annually.
The money is supposed to be used for all streams of Judaism that define
Jewish identity according to matrilineal descent."
Czech
tracks Kerry's Jewish roots,
By Bruce I. Konviser, THE WASHINGTON TIMES,
March 12, 2004
"What began for genealogist Felix Gundacker as a brief assignment
from an American newspaper has become a yearlong obsession — tracking Sen.
John Kerry's Jewish family roots in this forlorn Moravian village. "I did
nearly nothing else the past year — it was fascinating," Mr. Gundacker
said in an interview Monday. "It was interesting to learn the circumstances"
of why the family changed its name from Kohn to Kerry and
eventually moved to the United States. The story, unraveled by Mr.
Gundacker at the behest of the Boston Globe,
has turned up several surprises, not least that Mr. Kerry's paternal
grandfather was born into a Jewish family as Friedrich "Fritz" Kohn
and converted to Roman Catholicism as a young man in the face of
rampant anti-Semitism. Two cousins whose branch
of the family remained Jews died in Nazi concentration camps while others
survived the Holocaust. And, according to family lore, the name Kerry was
chosen entirely by chance when Fritz Kohn's elder brother dropped a
pencil on a map and it landed on County Kerry, Ireland. "This is amazing.
That is fascinating to me," Mr. Kerry told the Globe last year as the
results of Mr. Gundacker's research were published.
Mr. Kerry did not respond to telephone calls and e-mails seeking comment for
this article. Mr. Gundacker said he has been besieged with
inquiries since Mr. Kerry emerged as the almost-certain Democratic
challenger in the U.S. presidential election this year, but the
genealogist's interest in the family has little to do with American
politics. "My interest to learn more was not the fact that he was a senator,
but to learn more of the history — what the Jewish families did here," he
said."
Charest calls on Quebecers to denounce anti-Semitism, discrimination,
Canadian Press, March 15, 2004
"Quebec has measures in place to battle hate crimes and an ongoing
responsibility to denounce discrimination, Premier Jean Charest said Sunday
at an international conference on anti-Semitism.
"We make a real effort to determine what the sources of (anti-Semitic)
actions are," Charest said after a speech. "We feel it's important that
every one of those actions be denounced, that we not be silent." Charest's
comments followed B'nai Brith's annual report last week which found that
Quebec had the second highest number of incidents involving anti-Semitism
after Ontario. The premier said Quebec is not planning new initiatives to
fight discrimination, saying the government has measures already in place.
"No one is under the illusion that anti-Semitism will go away," Charest
said. "I think it will always be part of our lives." In an invitation only
speech to several dozen members of the Jewish community, Charest praised
Quebec's progress in tackling anti-Semitism and called on society "not let
the least act of intolerance pass no matter how small." The conference on
global anti-Semitism concludes on Tuesday and includes speakers such as
former Soviet dissident and now Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky."
Double
Standard. The FBI wants to question Sugg about lies Sami Al-Arian allegedly
told. But what about the lies, distortions and omissions from Al-Arian's
enemies, including the government and the Tampa Tribune?,
BY JOHN SUGG, Weekly Planet, March 11, 2004
"You're all over the wiretaps," said the FBI agent who called me in
mid-February. "We want to talk to you." This was not the sort of phone call
a journalist wants to receive. The case in question is that of fired
University of South Florida professor (and accused terrorist mastermind)
Sami Al-Arian. The FBI agent spiced his appeal with the comment, "We don't
want to jam you, but … ." I'm not quite sure of his meaning. I guess it
could be interpreted as: They don't let us beat reluctant witnesses with
rubber hoses any longer, but … . I'd say it was an implied (although mild)
bit of coercion. No doubt I'm all over the wiretap, I observed to the agent,
Kerry Myers, a nice guy, a good cop with whom I've dealt in the past. After
all, I have covered the government's relentless pursuit of Al-Arian for
eight years and have talked to him, I'm sure, many hundreds of times. I'm
writing a book, and I've spent endless hours learning about Islam, the
arcane nuances of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, the histories of the
groups in the region, the personalities. A lot of that process involves
Al-Arian. I confess: I even once played horseshoes with Al-Arian in an
effort to engage him in conversation ... Al-Arian has filed a motion to
dismiss charges against him based mainly on the contention that what the
government is really doing is attacking the First Amendment by criminalizing
speech that advocates for the Palestinian cause. "The indictment
characterizes one side of [the Middle East conflict] as good and the other
side as evil," Bill Moffitt, Al-Arian's attorney, wrote in his motion.
"While the indictment tracks the death of Israelis at the hands of
Palestinians, it never references the deaths of Palestinians at the hands of
Israelis. The indictment's historical oversights
provide a framework by which the U.S. attempts to criminalize legitimate
political expression. It is clear that the express purpose of the indictment
is to chill any and all support for the Palestinian cause and any additional
advocacy in favor of the rights of Arabs." That, of course, is what
has been going on ever since faux journalist (and very real disinformation
mouthpiece for Israel's extreme right Likud party) Steve Emerson
slithered into town and found a rock to hide under at the Trib. Moffitt
contends that the Palestinian groups have never targeted America. They may
be a threat to Israel, but they're not our problem, he says. More to the
point, for most of the time Al-Arian is alleged to have been connected to
the Islamic Jihad, it would have been perfectly legal activity in the United
States. After years of screeching from Emerson and the Tribune, the
feds couldn't make a case -- but they did pour lots of corrosive innuendo on
the Bill of Rights. That changed only when the Bush regime managed to find a
way to circumvent the Constitution and use foreign intelligence wiretaps,
and after Israel provided what it claimed to be "intelligence." (It
might be instructive to remember that a motto of Israel's crack Mossad spy
agency is: By way of deception, thou shalt do war. And to remember other
recent episodes of foreign "intelligence" that didn't stand up in the light
of day.) Where no indictment had been possible before, it now was, or
at least that's what the government wants us to believe. The wiretaps,
according to my Justice sources, are going to be very problematic for the
government. (It wouldn't be the first time. Remember the Aisenberg tapes?
That's another one of agent Myers' cases. Hell, the government is in such a
sorry state this time that it's been forced to ask for Al-Arian's help in
translating Arabic faxes. The scholar's attorney responded, tongue in cheek,
by asking if the government was willing to pay for the services.)
And Israel, which has long sought to eradicate any
Arab voice in America, has refused to allow scrutiny of its "intelligence,"
prompting Moffitt to demand of the prosecutors whether things have gotten so
bad that we're allowing a foreign power to dictate criminal proceedings in
our courts. ... Emerson's researcher -- until a rupture
two years ago -- was the truly weird Rita Katz, who claimed in her
book Terrorist Hunter that federal agents were bowled over by her
sexual appeal. She also wrote that an individual left Tampa the "next day"
after a leader of the Islamic Jihad was assassinated. The truth is that he
left almost a half-year before then, but Katz's deception puts a far
more sinister cast on events in Tampa. At the very least, it arguably was
intended to mislead the public -- and the press. So, Mr. Zitek, bust Katz's
butt, and Emerson's, and your own agents', if fibbing to the media is
suddenly a crime.
Many Say U.S. Aims for World Domination ,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), March 16,
2004
"A majority of people living in Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey say
they believe the U.S. is conducting its campaign against terror to control
Mideast oil and to dominate the world,
according to an international poll released Tuesday. The governments in all
four Muslim-majority countries have strong ties with the U.S. government.
A sizable number of people in France, Germany and
Russia also have these suspicions about the campaign against terror,
according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project. The polls were taken in
February, before the train bombings in Spain that claimed the lives of at
least 200 people. In a surprise defeat, Spanish Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservatives on Sunday became the first
government that backed Washington in Iraq to be voted from office.
When people in the nine countries - including Britain and the United States
- were asked if the campaign against terrorism was a sincere effort to
reduce international terrorism, majorities in France,
Germany and the four Muslim-majority countries felt it was not. Almost half
in Russia felt it was not, while majorities in Britain and the United
States said they believe the campaign is a sincere effort to fight
terrorism. The surveys found considerable cynicism and anger among the
Muslim-majority countries a year after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And they
found a growing desire among European countries for a balance of power
between the European Union and the United States ... Almost two-thirds of
the people in Pakistan say they view bin Laden favorably - a significant
finding because U.S. troops are trying to find bin Laden in the mountainous
region on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. More than half of those in
Jordan and almost half of those polled in Morocco had a favorable view of
the Saudi terrorist. Anger toward the United States in these Muslim-majority
countries remains very high, Kohut said, though the intensity has dropped a
bit since last May. While seven in 10 in the United States feel their
country takes into account the interests of other countries when making
international policy decisions, few in the other countries shared that view.
Majorities in all the countries except Pakistan, and almost half there, felt
the United States doesn't make much of an effort to consider the interests
of other countries in its policy decisions ... About half in Pakistan said
suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians against Israelis and against
U.S. troops in Iraq can be justified. Two-thirds or more in Jordan and
Morocco say it can be justified in both situations. -A majority of the
people in Pakistan and Jordan say Iraq will be worse off now that Saddam
Hussein has been removed from power. -A solid majority of those in France,
Germany, Russia, Pakistan and Jordan believe United States President Bush
and British Prime Minister Tony Blair lied about the weapons of mass
destruction they claimed were in Iraq."
Why
won't anyone say they are Jewish?,
by Kalle Lasn, AdBusters, March/April 2004
"One wonders what Israeli-American relations, and indeed what American
relations with the rest of the world would look like if the neocon hawks who
control Rumsfeld’s Defense Department were also in charge at State. A lot of
ink has been spilled chronicling the pro-Israel leanings of American neocons
and fact that a the disproportionate percentage of
them are Jewish. Some commentators are worried that these individuals
– labeled ‘Likudniks’ for their links to Israel’s right wing Likud party –
do not distinguish enough between American and Israeli interests. For
example, whose interests were they protecting in pushing for war in Iraq?
Drawing attention to the Jewishness of the neocons is
a tricky game. Anyone who does so can count on automatically being smeared
as an anti-Semite. But the point is not that Jews (who make up less
than 2 percent of the American population) have a monolithic perspective.
Indeed, American Jews overwhelmingly vote Democrat and many of them disagree
strongly with Ariel Sharon’s policies and Bush’s aggression in Iraq.
The point is simply that the neocons seem to have a special affinity for
Israel that influences their political thinking and consequently American
foreign policy in the Middle East. Here at Adbusters, we decided to tackle
the issue head on and came up with a carefully researched list of who appear
to be the 50 most influential neocons in the US (see above). Deciding
exactly who is a neocon is difficult since some neocons reject the term
while others embrace it. Some shape policy from within the White House,
while others are more peripheral, exacting influence indirectly as
journalists, academics and think tank policy wonks. What they all share is
the view that the US is a benevolent hyper power that must protect itself by
reshaping the rest of the world into its morally superior image.
And half of the them are Jewish."
The 'Why won't anyone say they're Jewish' Debate – Adbusters responds,
by Kelle Lasn, Adbusters
(Canada)
"In a previous issue of Adbusters and on our website, Adbusters editor Kalle
Lasn wrote an article that asked a contentious question: "Does the
Jewishness of the neocons influence American foreign policy in the Middle
East?" Hundreds of responses flooded in --
postings on our site, letters, emails, faxes, threatening phone calls,
cancelled subscriptions, and even talk of picketing stores that carry
Adbusters magazine. Here, then, are some of those letters, and
Kalle's response: “Why won’t anyone say they are Jewish?”
I’m Jewish goddammit! It matters not what your good intentions are if you
generalize an entire ethnicity like this. It’s some seriously hypocritical,
self-righteous, fucked up shit you spew forth.
Refund my subscription and fuck off until you get your priorities straight.
Michael Weinerman via mail
F-U for the way your article points out that a “disproportionate” number of
influential conservatives are Jews. That is the flipside of the same
anti-Semitic screed promoted by Fascists,
who selectively pointed out how a disproportionate number of influential
communists were Jewish. Jews are frequently “over represented” in the
vanguard of many political, cultural and artistic movements.
David Goldstein Ventura, California You
might remember me. My wife and I gave annual donations to Adbusters in the
mid-90s. We also gave friends and relatives gift subscriptions for the
holidays. Now I know you’re a piece of anti-Semitic
shit. Fuck off, dangerous imbecile. name withheld via email Your
Jew bashing is deplorable. I will never pay for your disgusting, hateful
truct again. And I intend to destroy as many
Adbusters as possible when visiting bookstores ... Kalle
Responds: The list of Jewish neocons we came up with is a provocation, I’ll
admit. And if it were a list of dentists or firefighters or stockbrokers,
then that would indeed be very offensive. However, the neocons are no
ordinary group – they are the most influencial political/intellectual force
in the world right now. They have the power to start wars and to stop them.
They are the prime architects of America’s foreign policy since 9/11 – a
policy that is heavily weighed in favor of Israel and a key source of
anti-Americanism around the world. So I think it is
not only appropriate, but necessary to put them under a microscope.
And if we see maleness, whiteness, Jewishness, Zionism or intellectual
thuggery there, then let us not look the other way. On the ethnic question:
Is it not just as valid to comment on the Jewishness of the neocons as it is
to point out that the majority of them are male or white or wealthy or from
the Western world or have studied at a particular university? If half the
neocons were Palestinians, would the US have invaded Iraq? Kalle Lasn,
Editor-in-Chief, Adbusters"
"Terminator" Schwarzenegger asked to speak out against anti-Semitism,
Yahoo! News, Mar 20, 2004
"Israel's foreign minister Silvan Shalom
asked California's Austrian-born Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger to speak out against anti-Semitism at a planned conference in
Israel. Shalom invited the "Terminator" movie star to attend a
conference aimed at tackling what he described as growing global
anti-Semitism at a private meeting between the men in Los Angeles.
"Anti-semitism is flourishing, is rising once again," Shalom told
reporters at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance. "I believe
that if we are united (against it), we will prevail." Shalom said he
invited Schwarzenegger, who has expressed dismay that his father was a
member of Nazi party, because he believes the governor is committed to
fighting intolerance and can help spred the message. It was unclear when the
planned conference on anti-Semitism would take place, but
Schwarzengger's office said the governor was due to
make a trip to Israel on May 2. The purpose and length of the visit
however remained unclear."
What
About Those End Times, Mr. President?,
by Edward Ericson, Jr., Valley Advocate,
January 23, 2003
"The image is jarring: U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, presidential
candidate, appears on an infomercial asking evangelical Christians to donate
money to "rescue a Jew."" 'On Wings of Eagles'
is a modern-day fulfillment of Biblical prophecy," the voiceover in the
infomercial says, over images of huddled Russian Jews at the airport,
smiling as they presumably wait to leave Russia for Israel. The half-hour
appeal aired on Jan. 2 on Paxson Broadcasting (PAX) stations across the
nation, according to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ),
the Chicago-based nonprofit that paid for the spot. Alongside Lieberman,
testimonials come from stars of the Christian Right, including convicted
Watergate felon Charles Colson, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson
and Moral Majority head Jerry Falwell. Critics of the Christian Right say
the IFCJ's appeal to "prophecy" in their infomercial is a thinly veiled
reference to Armageddon, the Second Coming of Christ and the moment when
nonbelievers -- Jews included -- will be cast into the lake of fire. Jewish
critics of the IFCJ say the group demeans the dignity of Jews. Yet from 1994
to 1999, Lieberman, who last week announced his bid for the
presidency, served as co-chair of one of IFCJ's projects, the
Washington-based Center for Jewish and Christian Values. Lieberman's
long association with the IFCJ is a little-known detail of his biography. No
examination of it was made during Lieberman's bid for the vice
presidency in 2000. The secular, mainstream press has taken little notice.
His appearance in the infomercial -- replete with scenes from the Nazi
Holocaust and repeated invocations of prophecy -- raises questions: · When
did Lieberman tape this message, which consists of a testimonial for
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the leader of the IFCJ? · Did the senator
know it would be used in an infomercial? · Does Lieberman believe that we're
in the End Times? The Advocate described the IFCJ's tape in detail to
Lieberman's press secretary, Adam Kovacevich. "We have no recent
record of the senator making this video," said Kovacevich. "So
without seeing it I'm unable to comment." Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
founded IFCJ in 1983, soon after his ordination at New York's Yeshiva
University. IFCJ's mission, according to its Web site, is "to foster better
relations and understanding between Christians and Jews ... and
help build support for Israel and Jews in
crises or need." The group toiled in obscurity for its first decade. In
1994, Eckstein shifted focus, appearing on Pat Robertson's 700 Club to pitch
Christians. Robertson's flock responded generously; IFCJ's budget thereafter
ballooned from about $500,000 to, last year, $27.5 million. Eckstein boasts
that IFCJ has "saved" more than 200,000 Jews from Russia. This alliance of
Jews and Christians raised eyebrows in both the Jewish and Christian worlds.
"Eckstein is selling the dignity of the Jewish people and the state of
Israel by pandering to Christians for money," Anti-Defamation League
Executive Director Abraham Foxman told the Jerusalem Report for a
1999 profile on Eckstein. Falwell, incidentally, has said that the
Antichrist will be a Jewish male who is probably "alive somewhere today," a
statement that set off charges of anti-Semitism in 1999 ... Former Soviet
emigres now represent more than one-sixth of Israel's voters. "I have a
concern that Senator Lieberman knows the context in which these activities
are taking place," says Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance. "I would say to
him precisely what I said to President Bush in a letter to him -- that
Americans have a right to know that U.S. foreign policy is not being shaped
by just one interpretation of biblical prophecy."
Sandy Berger
Probed Over Terror Memos,
Fox News, July 20, 2004
"Former President Clinton's national security adviser is under criminal
investigation for taking highly classified terrorism documents that should
have been turned over to the independent commission probing the Sept. 11,
2001, terror attacks, FOX News has confirmed. Sandy Berger
is under scrutiny by the Justice Department following
the disappearance of documents he was reviewing at the National Archives.
Berger's home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI
agents armed with warrants after the former Clinton adviser voluntarily
returned some sensitive documents to the National Archives and admitted he
also removed handwritten notes he had made while reviewing the sensitive
documents. However, some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the
Clinton administration's handling of Al Qaeda terror threats during the
December 1999 millennium celebration are still missing, officials and
lawyers said. Officials said the missing documents also identified America's
terror vulnerabilities at airports to seaports ... Lanny Breuer, one
of Berger's attorneys, said his client had offered to cooperate fully
with the investigation but had not yet been interviewed by the FBI or
prosecutors. Berger served as Clinton's
national security adviser for all of the president's second term and most
recently has been informally advising Democratic presidential candidate John
Kerry. Clinton asked Berger last year to review and select the
administration documents that would be turned over to the Sept. 11
commission. Late Tuesday, Berger announced that he would no longer
aid Kerry's presidential bid, saying he didn't want to diminish the work of
the Sept. 11 commission. ... David Gergen, who was an adviser to Clinton and
worked with Berger for a time in the White House, said Tuesday, "I
think it's more innocent than it looks."
Background: Not AIPAC's first controversy,
by CALEV BEN-DAVID, THE JERUSALEM POST, Aug.
29, 2004
"A lobby is like a night flower; It thrives in the dark and dies in the
sun." So wrote Steven Rosen, AIPAC director of foreign policy
issues, in an internal organizational memo several years ago. Unfortunately
for the influential pro-Israel lobbying group, this new affair is turning
far too much of the media spotlight on an organization that prefers to work
behind the scenes on Capitol Hill. But it is hardly the first time AIPAC has
found itself at the center of public controversy, although never in such a
serious matter as receiving classified security material. In 1988, the
investigative show 60 Minutes ran a critical piece on AIPAC using
information supplied by its former communications director (and ex-Jerusalem
Post reporter) Barbara Amouyal. Among the material supplied by
Amouyal was an internal memo suggesting that the media be fed stories
regarding Jesse Jackson's private life. Also included in the 60 Minutes
report was another internal memo which seemed to direct how political action
committees should donate money to specific pro-Israel candidates,
a possible violation of federal law forbidding
lobby groups such as AIPAC from directly involving themselves in elections.
A subsequent investigation by the Federal Elections Commission cleared AIPAC
of any violations. Nonetheless, AIPAC continues to
face accusations that it unduly interferes in the electoral process,
especially from politicians who credit their defeats at the polls to the
organization's efforts. The most notable example in recent years was the
2002 congressional race, in which two Georgia Democrats, incumbents Cynthia
McKinney and Earl Hilliard, were defeated in party primaries by contenders
perceived as more pro-Israel. McKinney subsequently commented: "Despite the
fact that I easily won the Democratic vote, 40,000 Republicans maliciously
crossed over and overtook the Democratic Primary. And because AIPAC had
telegraphed in newspaper articles that they were going to target both Earl
Hilliard and me, the Democratic Party was paralyzed" ... AIPAC's efforts to
keep a low media-profile have also led to accusations that it has put undue
pressure on journalists, especially from the Jewish press, who cover it
critically. Among them is Washington Jewish Week reporter Larry Cohler,
who earlier this year told an Internet site: "Their mission statement
doesn't say anything about them mucking around in Jewish newspapers. AIPAC
tried to get me fired, [and editor] Andy [Silow-Carrol] fired
[from The Washington Jewish Week in 1992]." (AIPAC has denied those
charges.) Given its task, it is inevitable that AIPAC
will serve as a perennial whipping-boy for anti-Semitic Jewish conspiracy
theorists, and as the phantom spoiler by disgruntled anti-Israeli
politicians who fall short at the ballot box. But its reported involvement
in the Pentagon-leak story will force it to handle mainstream-media
damage control of the like the organization has
not yet known."
AIPAC's Overt and Covert Ops,
by Juan Cole, antiwar.com, August 30, 2004
"CBS is reporting that a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst detailed to
Undersecretary of Defense for Planning Douglas Feith's Office of
Special Plans is under FBI investigation for spying for Israel. The person
passed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) confidential
documents, including those detailing Bush administration policy toward Iran,
and AIPAC then passed them to Israel. There are wiretaps and photographs
backing up the FBI case (the FBI agents involved are extremely brave to take
this on). But this espionage case is too narrow. Consider what journalist
Jim Lobe wrote about Feith's Office of Special Plans (OSP) and the
Pentagon Near East and South Asia (NESA) office: "[K]ey personnel who worked
in both NESA and OSP were part of a broader network of neoconservative
ideologues and activists who worked with other Bush political appointees
scattered around the national-security bureaucracy to move the country to
war, according to retired Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, who was assigned to
NESA from May 2002 through February 2003. The heads of NESA and OSP were
Deputy Undersecretary William Luti and Abram Shulsky, respectively.
Other appointees who worked with them in both offices included Michael
Rubin, a Middle East specialist previously with the neoconservative
American Enterprise Institute (AEI); David Schenker, previously with
the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP); and Michael
Makovsky; an expert on neocon icon Winston Churchill and the younger
brother of David Makovsky, a senior WINEP fellow and former executive
editor of pro-Likud Jerusalem Post. Along with
Feith, all of the political appointees have in
common a close identification with the views of the right-wing Likud Party
in Israel." Karen Kwiatkowski was an eyewitness in NESA, and Lobe
reports: "[S]he recounts one incident in which she helped escort a group of
half a dozen Israelis, including several generals, from the first floor
reception area to Feith's office. 'We just followed them, because
they knew exactly where they were going and moving fast.' When the group
arrived, she noted the book which all visitors are required to sign under
special regulations that took effect after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. 'I
asked his secretary, "Do you want these guys to sign in?" She said, "No,
these guys don't have to sign in."' It occurred to
her, she said, that the office may have deliberately not wanted to maintain
a record of the meeting." The American Israel Public Affairs
Committee is a lobbying group that used to support whatever government was
in power in Israel, and used to give money evenhandedly inside the U.S. My
perception is that during the past decade AIPAC has increasingly tilted to
the Likud in Israel, and to the political Right in the United States. In the
1980s, AIPAC set up the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as a
pro-Israeli alternative to the Brookings Institution, which it perceived to
be insufficiently supportive of Israel. WINEP has largely followed AIPAC
into pro-Likud positions, even though its director, Dennis Ross, is
more moderate. He is a figurehead, however, serving to disguise the far
right character of most of the position papers produced by long-term WINEP
staff and by extremist visitors and "associates" (Daniel Pipes and
Martin Kramer are among the latter). WINEP, being a wing of AIPAC, is
enormously influential in Washington. State Department and military
personnel are actually detailed there to "learn" about "the Middle East"!
They would get a far more balanced "education" about the region in any
Israeli university, since most Israeli academics are professionals, whereas
WINEP is a "think tank" that hires by ideology. I did some consulting with
one U.S. company that had a government contract, and they asked me about
WINEP position papers (many of them are just propaganda). When I said I
would take them with a grain of salt, the guy said his company had "received
direction" to pay a lot of attention to the WINEP material! ...
The Likudniks like to pretend that they represent
American Jewry, but they do not. And they like to suggest that objecting to
their policies is tantamount to anti-Semitism, which is sort of like
suggesting that if you don't like Chile's former dictator Pinochet, you are
bigoted against Latinos ... A handful of special interests in the
United States virtually dictate congressional policy on some issues.
With regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee and a few allies have succeeded in imposing
complete censorship on both houses of Congress. No senator or
representative dares make a speech on the floor of his or her institution
critical of Israeli policy, even though the Israeli government often
violates international law and UN Security Council resolutions (it would
violate more such resolutions, except that the resolutions never got passed
because only one NSC member, the U.S., routinely vetoes them on behalf of
Tel Aviv.) ... Franklin is a reserve Air Force colonel and former Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst. He was an attaché
at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv at one point, which some might now see as
suspicious. After the Cold War ended, Franklin became concerned with
Iran as a threat to Israel and the U.S., and learned a little Persian (not
very much – I met him once at a conference and he could only manage a few
halting phrases of Persian). Franklin has a strong
Brooklyn accent and says he is "from the projects." I was told by
someone at the Pentagon that he is not Jewish, despite his strong
association with the predominantly Jewish neoconservatives. I know that he
is very close to Paul Wolfowitz. He seems a canny man and a political
operator, and if he gave documents to AIPAC it was not an act of simple
stupidity, as some observers have suggested. It was part of some clever
scheme that became too clever by half. Franklin moved over to the Pentagon
from DIA, where he became the Iran expert, working for Bill Luti and
Undersecretary of Defense for Planning, Douglas Feith. He was the
"go-to" person on Iran for Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz,
and for Feith. This situation is pretty tragic, since Franklin is not
a real Iranist. His main brief appears to have been to
find ways to push a policy of overthrowing its government (apparently
once Iraq had been taken care of). This project has been pushed by the
shadowy eminence grise Michael Ledeen for many years, and Franklin
coordinated with Ledeen in some way. Franklin was also close to
Harold Rhode, a longtime Middle East specialist in the Defense Department
who has cultivated far right pro-Likud cronies for many years, more or less
establishing a cell within the Department of Defense."
The Axis
of Treason Israeli spies in the Pentagon,
by Justin Raimondo, antiwar.com, August 30,
2004
"The death agony of the neoconservatives is going to be a prolonged and
quite ugly procedure, painful not only for them but for the entire country –
which will learn, to its chagrin and growing anger, how and by whom they
were lied into war. It started late Friday, when Lesley Stahl of CBS
News reported that the FBI has "solid evidence" that a spy, embedded in the
top echelons of the Pentagon's civilian leadership, handed over classified
documents, including the draft of a presidential directive on U.S. policy
toward Iran, to Israel. Such an investigation would have been politically
explosive in any case, but add to this the news that Franklin had passed the
documents to Tel Aviv via AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs
Committee, one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, and the result is
political dynamite. Within hours the story had grown from focusing on a
single individual, Lawrence Franklin, described as a "mid-level desk
officer," to include an entire nest of spies ensconced in the top echelons
of the Pentagon, centered around the office of Douglas Feith, the
Director of Policy: "An FBI probe into the handling of highly classified
material by Pentagon civilians is broader than previously reported, and goes
well beyond allegations that a single mid-level analyst gave a top-secret
Iran policy document to Israel, three sources familiar with the
investigation said Saturday. "The probe, which has been going on for more
than two years, also has focused on other civilians in the Secretary of
Defense's office, said the sources, who spoke on condition they not be
identified, but who have firsthand knowledge of the subject' ...But it
couldn't be clearer to those of us who have been following the various
scandals that have recently rocked the national security bureaucracy –
Chalabi-gate, the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, the Niger uranium
forgeries, and now the Franklin affair. They all involve the same cast of
neoconservative characters: the inhabitants of the "policy shop" presided
over by Feith, including the infamous Office of Special Plans –
otherwise known as the Lie Factory – which produced a steady supply of utter
falsehoods to justify the rush to war. Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson,
commenting on MSNBC, said his sources were telling him that the Franklin
affair is also connected to the Niger uranium forgery investigation ... As
regular readers of this column are aware, it's been a long time coming. For
over two years, the feds have put scarce law enforcement resources into this
investigation, and it hasn't been for nothing: they've been watching and
eavesdropping on Israel's American fifth column
for at least that long ... If bin Laden is the chief beneficiary of American
policies in the Middle East, then Ariel Sharon runs a close second.
His government has been given a free hand to do what it wills in the
occupied territories, including increased settlement-building, increased
state terrorism, and even U.S. acquiescence on the "Wall of Separation."
Israeli agents are swarming over Kurdistan, fomenting rebellion, and
threatening Iran. The old Zionist dream of extending Israel's hegemony from
the Nile to the Euphrates suddenly seems close to realization ... The coming
arrest of Franklin, and perhaps some of his confederates, rumored for this
week, will bring the war home. The reaction of the Israelis, and their amen
corner in the U.S., has been uniformly and unintentionally comic: Who, us?
Spy on America? It never happens, at least not since Pollard. But the
reality of Israeli covert agents in America,
far from being something out of a cheap paperback spy thriller, is certainly
borne out by the Franklin affair ... At this point we are lacking some
essential information, including the identities of the "two or three" AIPAC
employees involved. How far up in the organization did knowledge of these
illegal activities go? What else have the feds got on AIPAC – after an
extensive investigation, including electronic surveillance, ongoing for over
two years? We don't know the answers to these questions. But I do know that
if this had been an Islamic or Arab group, they would have been shut down,
their assets impounded, and their headquarters bolted shut. Will something
even approaching that happen to AIPAC? Of course not. But, if not, why not?
Is Israel going to be allowed to openly operate a spy
nest in Washington with impunity? It's an outrage, and it's time
someone said so. Furthermore, those politicians who have taken money from
AIPAC have a lot of 'splaining to do, especially if they don't return the
dough. As Israeli spies in Washington steal our secrets, and feed us lies,
our politicians are pigging out at the trough of AIPAC campaign
contributions, raking in cash while their patrons take in classified
documents. When the American people find out what is going on, God help the
neocons, because they are going to need it. The arrest
and trial of Israel's fifth column in the Pentagon is going to unleash a lot
of anger, because it is going to make Americans understand the nature and
extent of the treason that entrapped them in Iraq. The very word
"neocon" will become a synonym for treason, like Quisling ... Friday night
is the slowest news night of the week, and add to this the coverage eaten up
by the Republican convention, and you have a classic tactic of
bury-that-story. Add to that the usual victimological
posturing and cries of "anti-Semitism," and the strategy of the Amen
Corner is clear: deny everything, and go on the offensive. Will it work? I
doubt it, but we shall see."
Sack
AIPAC! And Abolish Their Tax Exempt Status!,
by Ted Lang, Information Clearinghouse, August
31, 2004
"Why should treason be tax-exempt?
Contributions to the Republican or Democratic Party and the National Rifle
Association are not deductible on our tax returns because these are deemed
as political activities. Our tax law does not allow political contributions
to be deducted as is the case with charitable contributions. The powerful
"Zionist" lobby that is dedicated to furthering the interests of Israel IS
tax deductible! Why is that?! The American Israel Public Affairs Committee
is the so-called "Jewish lobby." It has been proclaimed the second most
powerful lobby in Washington, right behind AARP, the American Association of
Retired Persons, according to Fortune magazine. AIPAC
exists only to benefit Israel, a socialist foreign country virtually solely
dependent on American taxpayer funding. Purportedly, our political
parties exist for the betterment of our once world-renowned political
environment ensuring individual freedom and independence from government.
The only thing government brings to the fore in our society is brute force.
The NRA exists to ensure that brutally forceful government does not abolish
the Second Amendment thereby monopolizing force to suppress the individual
freedoms of the American people. It would seem that these aims are extremely
beneficial to US, yet the Internal Revenue Service of the United States
disallows money donations to these organizations as tax-deductible
contributions. But if political activities and so-called political groups,
whose intentions are for the benefit of all the American people including
their ultimate goal in ensuring the freedoms of Americans are excluded from
tax-exempt status by the IRS, why then are donations
to the foreign State of Israel allowed as sheltered contributions?
AIPAC lobbies exclusively for Israel, and has as part of its agenda, the
maintenance of their tax-exempt status. The question is not as to why AIPAC
wishes to maintain its tax-exempt status - the
question is why American government allows contributions for a powerful
foreign lobby to remain tax-exempt? And now AIPAC and Israel have
been implicated in yet another spy plot against the United States. The
objective of the Israeli-driven espionage is to obtain classified American
government information to assist Israel in involving the United States in a
new war with Iran for the purposes of continuing Israel's imperialistic
ethnic-cleansing expansionism in the Middle East. The blueprints for this
expansionism were drawn up by American traitors traceable to the Project for
the New American Century [PNAC]. Those "traitors" were first offered as
being such by the Hebrew newspaper, Ha'aretz. The future PNACers authored a
paper back in 1996 for then-Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu,
entitled "A Clean Break," which targeted Iraq, Iran and Syria, providing
Israel with a strategy to influence American government to support Israeli
imperialism and ethnocide against the Palestinians and other Mid Eastern
nations. Virtually all the PNACers found jobs within the Bush
administration, whose foreign policy is now shaped solely for the benefit of
Israel. Two leading PNACers are Douglas Feith, third in charge at
Department of Defense, and his subordinate Michael Ledeen, the latter
having arranged for secret meetings in violation of specific CIA guidelines.
It has become crystal clear that the illegal and unconstitutional invasion
of Iraq was based on PNAC's "A Clean Break" paper easily sold to a clueless
George Bush. Bush's close association with Saddam's enemy, Ahmed Chalabi,
leader of the Iraqi National Congress, is also alleged as facilitating the
passing of sensitive information to Iran. Chalabi and the INC have been so
accused. Likewise, Douglas Feith, Undersecretary for Defense Policy,
has been observed secretly dealing with Israeli military officers and other
Israeli operatives, and his office is now under investigation by the FBI as
having provided top secret intelligence information to AIPAC, which has in
turn forwarded the illegally-obtained documents to Israel. The illegal,
unconstitutional invasion of Iran is obviously next on the agenda of Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his war-mongering ethnocidal Likud
Party."
U.S. Spy Probe Focuses on Two Lobbyists,
By CURT ANDERSON, Guardian (UK), September 1,
2004
"Investigators are focusing on two employees of the main pro-Israel lobbying
group in a probe into whether a Pentagon analyst provided them with secret
U.S. material on Iran that they funneled to Israel. The two American Israel
Public Affairs Committee employees involved are director of foreign policy
issues Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, an Iran expert, said
AIPAC attorney Nathan Lewin on Wednesday. They were interviewed by
the FBI on Friday - the same day news first broke of the existence of the
yearlong investigation - but the interviews were halted after the men said
they wanted a lawyer present before answering further questions, Lewin said.
``The FBI could resume the interview. We have not heard from the FBI,''
Lewin said. Rosen and Weissman have hired lawyer Abbe
Lowell to represent them. Lowell, who did not return a telephone
message seeking comment, is a veteran Washington attorney
who is perhaps best known as the Democratic House
Judiciary Committee counsel during President Clinton's impeachment.
Investigators are trying to determine if Rosen and Wiessman obtained
classified Bush administration policy materials concerning Iran from a
Defense Department analyst, Larry Franklin. Franklin works on issues
involving Iran and the Middle East in the office of Defense Department
policy undersecretary Douglas Feith. No charges have been brought or
arrests made in the case. Law enforcement officials have said prosecutors
are weighing whether to charge anyone involved with the most serious offense
of espionage or with lesser counts of mishandling classified documents.
AIPAC officials have said they are cooperating in the probe and have denied
any wrongdoing, as has the Israeli government. Franklin has not responded to
several telephone calls seeking comment ... A senior House Democrat, Rep.
John Conyers of Michigan, is calling for a Judiciary Committee investigation
into the matter and said it should be expanded to include allegations that
sensitive U.S. information may have been given to political opponents of
now-deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, including Ahmed Chalabi. ``The
fact that a rogue element of the United States government may have been
working with a foreign government in possible contravention of current
foreign policy is a grave matter that should be of concern to every American,''
Conyers, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a letter
dated Tuesday to the panel's chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis."
Maqsoud and spying for Israel in the USA Israel-USA, Politics,
Arabic News, September 1, 2004
"Former Director of the Arab League Bureau in Washington, Cloris Maqsoud, on
Tuesday stressed that the American administration's attempt to play down the
shock of the Israeli spying on the U.S. reflects the
extent of the Zionist lobby power on the American administration and the
decision makers there. In an article published in Kuwait-based
"al-Ra'i al-Aam" daily, Maqsoud pointed out that the American administration
pretext that the case is a mere "Documents Divulging" and not a spy
operation forbids the American people of their rights to account the spies
at the expense of appeasing Israel. He said the American administration
seeks to protect Israel from international sanctions and condemnation due to
its continued violation of the international resolutions."
2004 Top
Ten Career Recipients of Pro-Israel PAC Funds,
Compiled by Hugh Galford, Washington Report on Near
Eastern Affairs, August 2004
"House: Current Cycle: Hoyer, Steny (D-MD) $37,500
Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R-FL) 36,000 Berkley, Shelley (D-NV) 35,100 Lantos,
Tom (D-CA) 31,600 Frost, Martin (D-TX) 31,300 Cantor, Eric (R-VA)
23,750 Crowley, Joseph (D-NY) 23,000 DeLay, Tom (R-TX) 23,000 Lowey, Nita
(D-NY) 20,650 Pelosi, Nancy (D-CA) 20,650
House: Career Berkley, Shelley (D-NV) $201,455 Frost, Martin (D-TX)
165,414 Engel, Eliot (D-NY) 137,918 Levin, Sander (D-MI)
113,727 Lowey, Nita (D-NY) 109,738 Lantos, Tom (D-CA) 107,250 Hoyer,
Steny (D-MD) 92,275 Evans, Lane (D-IL) 87,379 Harman, Jane (D-CA) 86,271
DeLay, Tom (R-TX) 81,050
Senate: Current Cycle: Specter, Arlen
(R-PA) $80,350 Boxer, Barbara (D-CA) 73,000 Murray, Patty (D-WA)
72,495 Daschle, Tom (D-SD) 70,500 Reid, Harry (D-NV) 64,999 Bayh, Evan
(D-IN) 56,500 Bennett, Robert (R-UT) 55,750 Wyden, Ronald (D-OR) 55,000
Brownback, Samuel (R-KS) 50,850 Shelby, Richard (R-AL) 38,500
Senate: Career Daschle, Tom (D-SD) $533,635 Specter, Arlen
(R-PA) 461,973 Lautenberg, Frank (D-NJ) 433,806 Durbin, Richard
(D-IL) 326,671 Reid, Harry (D-NV) 318,801 Wyden, Ronald (D-OR) 255,562
Lieberman, Joseph (D-CT) 227,758 Boxer, Barbara (D-CA) 223,794
Dodd, Christopher (D-CT) 221,178 Conrad, Kent (D-ND) 201,939"
Axis Of Spies,
TomPaine.Comnon sense, September 1, 2004
"Here's the axis we should be worried about: The Axis of Spies made up by
the American Enterprise Institute, AIPAC and the Embassy of Israel.If the
FBI weren’t so busy trying to catch nonexistent Al Qaeda suspects, they
might consider devoting a few more resources to tracking down
this expanding Israeli nest of spies. (Oh, and
The New Republic is very quiet on the Larry Franklin spy scandal so far.
Very quiet. Too quiet.) The Jerusalem Post reports, at least, the FBI has
seized computer files from AIPAC’s Steve Rosen, a good start: FBI
agents on Friday copied the computer hard drive of a senior staffer at the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee who has been questioned in relation
to the case of a Pentagon official suspected of turning over a classified
document either directly to Israel, or via the pro-Israel lobby group. That
same article, which you can read here , notes that members of Congress are
rallying (predictably) around AIPAC. Welcome to the nest of spies,
Congressman Hoyer. Haaretz reports that Abraham Foxman of the ADL is
huffing and puffing, demanding that a special commission be appointed to
investigate the person who leaked the probe. That’s dangerous, Mr. Foxman,
because the person who leaked it did so, it is now obvious, in order to stop
the investigation, since Franklin was cooperating with the FBI to help them
get deeper into the nest of spies. So if we find out who leaked it in the
first place, it won’t make Foxman happy ... Both Steve Rosen,
and another AIPAC spy (okay, alleged spy) Keith Weissman, are named
as part of the FBI’s investigation, according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency
and the Los Angeles Times. Neither Rosen nor Weissman have
emerged to defend themselves. “You mean us? Spies?” According to the New
York Times, both have been interviewed by the FBI, and are being defended by
(who else?) Abbe Lowell. The Times also quotes the Israeli
ambassador, Danny Ayalon, saying that the investigation is “fizzling
out because there's nothing there.” Besides, we shredded all that. Meanwhile
Jim Lobe, bane of neocons, writing for Inter Press Service, has a wonderful
piece reminding us that Larry Franklin, the hapless Pentagon apparatchik and
official Stooge of Feith, who wandered into an AIPAC-Israeli embassy
meeting that was being monitored by the FBI, is just the tip of the iceberg.
As Lobe points out, many of the principals in the U.S.
Israeli lobby have been caught up in spy probes going back 25 years,
including Steve Bryen and Doug Feith himself. Also under
investigation have been Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen and
Paul Wolfowitz, as Lobe reports, citing a book by Stephen Green, Taking
Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel: Perle,
Ledeen, and Wolfowitz have also been the subject of FBI
inquiries, according to Green's account. In 1970, one year after he was
hired by Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, an FBI wiretap authorized for the
Israeli Embassy picked up Perle discussing classified information
with an embassy official, while Wolfowitz was investigated in 1978
for providing a classified document on the proposed sale of a U.S. weapons
system to an Arab government to an Israeli
official
via an AIPAC staffer."
Pollard Affair Casts Large Shadow. Latest spy allegations seen colored by
1985 espionage case,
by Joshua Mitnick, Jewish Week,
September 3, 2004
"As Israeli officials struggled this week to deflect allegations of spying
on the United States, they derided FBI suggestions of an Israeli Pentagon
mole as a “poor imitation” of the 1985 arrest of U.S. naval intelligence
analyst Jonathan Pollard for selling classified data to Israel. With
U.S.-Israeli security collaboration on Iraq and Iran as cozy as ever,
cultivating an informant in the office of Douglas Feith,
undersecretary of defense for policy, made little sense, the officials
argued. And yet, the espionage charges made public over the weekend
highlight the residue of suspicion from the Pollard
affair that still colors Israel’s relationship with its most important ally
nearly two decades later. The FBI inquiry is not the first official
accusation of Israeli betrayal to rankle U.S. ties over the last decade, and
some predict it won’t be the last. “I think this will escort us for many
years to come,” said Danny Yatom, a former chief of the Mossad,
Israel’s espionage agency. “There was one attempt made by Pollard,
and since then there is still an assessment that Israel will try again
whenever it is pushed into a corner.” Pollard, who provided Israel
intelligence on Soviet shipments to Iraq and Syria, was sentenced to life in
prison. While initially claiming that Pollard was part of an unauthorized
intelligence operation, Israel issued a formal apology to the U.S. and
renounced all future espionage activities on American soil. At the same
time, Israel’s government disbanded the obscure defense ministry agency
responsible for the Pollard connection, the Lakam, Science Liaison Bureau.
Separate from the Mossad, army intelligence or the Shin Bet,
the agency had been instructed to obtain technology
for Israeli biological and nuclear projects, according to experts.
The Pollard affair chilled strategic cooperation between the two countries
in the ensuing years. But by the 1990s, the dialogue began to deepen once
again as Israel and the U.S. set up a host of joint forums between their
military, intelligence and diplomatic agencies. As time went by, Israel
became more open about its relationship with Pollard,
granting him citizenship. During the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
at Wye Plantation in 1998, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
asked for a grant of clemency from President Bill Clinton. Ministers made
pilgrimages to Pollard’s North Carolina prison. But that only made the
shadow over the Pollard affair endure longer, Israeli experts said. “If
Israeli politicians keep visiting Pollard in jail and keep raising it in
meetings with the president, it’s an open wound in that regard,” said Itamar
Rabinovich, who was an Israeli ambassador to the United States during the
mid-1990s. “If it were resolved five or 10 years ago, the lingering effect
would be reduced. Because the file was not closed, it’s still causing
damage.” The former ambassador recalled from his tenure in Washington a
series of allegations about unauthorized Israeli sales of U.S. military
technology to China. The accusations were eventually dropped. Yatom
said that as Mossad chief he was compelled to fly to the U.S. on one
occasion to defuse claims from former CIA Director George Tenet that Israel
had placed an informant in the intelligence agency. And when former U.S.
ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, had his
security clearance stripped for creating secret cables on an unclassified
laptop computer, it stirred suspicion whether the American Jewish
diplomat had leaked the information to Israel.
Critical "attacks" on AIPAC's spying and dual loyalty is
also an attack on the Jewish community. So says AIPAC.
Broader FBI Probe Into Pro-Israel AIPAC Dates To Early Bush
Administration,
By CURT ANDERSON, KSDK News Channel 5,
(originally from Associated Press), September 3, 2004
" The FBI first briefed senior White House
officials early in the Bush administration about an investigation into
whether a major pro-Israel lobbying organization was providing U.S.
intelligence information to Israel, officials said Friday.
President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleeza Rice, and her top
deputy, Stephen Hadley, were informed of the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee probe not long after Bush took office in 2001,
according to two administration officials speaking on condition of
anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity. The exact date of the
first briefing about the long-running counterintelligence investigation
was unclear but was probably at least two years ago, the officials said.
The timing suggests that investigators only recently began to focus on
Larry Franklin, a Pentagon analyst specializing on Iran and Middle
Eastern affairs in the office of policy undersecretary Douglas Feith.
That part of the probe concerns whether Frankin passed a classified,
draft White House directive to two AIPAC officials, who in turn
allegedly provided it to the Israeli government. No one has been charged
in the case, which is expected to go before a federal grand jury as
early as next week in Alexandria, Va. Franklin has not responded to
repeated requests for comment but was said by officials to be
cooperating. Both AIPAC and Israel have denied any wrongdoing. Another
part of the investigation concerns whether Pentagon officials provided
information to Ahmad Chalabi, once a leading Iraqi politician and prewar
Defense Department favorite, The Washington Post reported in Friday's
editions. FBI and Justice Department officials said they could not
confirm the account. Disclosure of the broader investigation raises a
series of new questions about the case, including whether other AIPAC or
Pentagon officials are involved or whether it reaches into the Israeli
government. One senior official at the Israeli Embassy in Washington,
Naor Gilon, has acknowledged meeting with Franklin but said he did
nothing illegal. AIPAC and its allies, meanwhile,
have begun to mount a public relations campaign to limit the
political damage. AIPAC, long considered one of the most
influential lobbying groups in Washington, said in a statement issued
Thursday that its members should contact members of Congress "to
continue expressing your strong support" for the group and for
U.S.-Israeli relations. Larry Nussbaum, president of AIPAC's
chapter in Kansas City, Mo., said in a separate statement that the
investigation amounts to "not only an attack on the organization itself,
but on the Jewish community. AIPAC must
prove that attacks such as this one will only make us grow stronger."
[Douglas Feith: Jewish, avid Zionist.]
Secretive Pentagon office target of FBI probe, sources say,
BY JAMES GORDON MEEK, Duluth News Tribune
(from New York Daily News, September 2, 2004
"An unorthodox Pentagon outfit responsible for
much of the Bush administration's discredited intelligence on Iraq
is the target of a broad FBI national security probe, sources told the
New York Daily News Wednesday. The secretive Office of Special Plans and
a related project are being investigated over how they obtained
top-secret intelligence and whom they shared it with, according to four
federal sources. "It involves the improper transfer of information,"
said one source briefed on the case. "A lot more is going to come out."
The Office of Special Plans was overseen by
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, the
Pentagon's No. 3 and a close aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Feith's team has been blamed by Democratic lawmakers and others
for sexing up uncorroborated intelligence on Iraq's arsenal from Iraqi
dissident Ahmed Chalabi and other sources, including a bogus informant
code-named "Curveball." The Senate Intelligence Committee is examining
those charges. The office also sought to establish links between Iraqi
deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida after Sept. 11."
FBI
probe of AIPAC said to go beyond alleged mole,
Haaretz (Israel), September 2, 2004
"In a report that hinted of possible security breaches beyond the
allegations that Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin passed information
to Israel via AIPAC, the Washington Post reported Thursday that
classified intelligence from the National Security
may have been passed to the Jewish state. Quoting unnamed U.S.
officials and other sources, the paper said that the FBI had been
investigating for more than two years whether the AIPAC pro-Israel
lobbying group has been passing classified intelligence data to Israel.
"The counterintelligence probe, which is different from a criminal
investigation, focuses on a possible transfer of intelligence
more extensive than whether Franklin passed
on a draft presidential directive on U.S. policy toward Iran, the
sources said. The FBI is examining whether highly
classified material from the National Security Agency, which conducts
electronic intercepts of communications, was also forwarded to Israel,"
the paper said. Israel responded that the characterization of the probe
was speculative."
FBI Informed White House of AIPAC Probe Two Years Ago,
By Adam Entous, Reuters, September 2, 2004
"President Bush's top national security advisers were told more than two
years ago of an FBI investigation into whether classified information
was passed to Israel by a powerful pro-Israeli lobbying group, U.S.
officials said on Thursday. The counterintelligence investigation
started earlier than the year-old criminal investigation now focusing on
whether a Defense Department analyst passed secret documents to Israeli
intelligence through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or
AIPAC. A senior administration official said national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, were "apprised of the
counterintelligence investigation of AIPAC" more than two years ago.
The official said the investigation centered on
whether AIPAC was acting as a "conduit" -- relaying information the
group collected from the administration and the U.S. Congress to Israel,
Washington's closest ally in the Middle East. As part of
the criminal investigation, first
disclosed last week, FBI agents met on Friday with two officials at
AIPAC to ask about their contacts with the Pentagon analyst. The FBI
copied one of their computer hard drives and AIPAC provided
investigators with some documents, sources said on Wednesday. The
interviews, stopped when the AIPAC officials asked for their lawyers,
have yet to resume, officials said."
Groups Rally to Lobby's Side as FBI Intensifies Israeli Espionage Probe.
ADL's Foxman Calls for Federal Investigation Into Media Leaks,
By Ori Nir, [Jewish] Forward, September 3,
2004
"As the FBI intensifies its investigation of Washington's pro-Israel
lobby, Jewish organizations are charging
elements of the government with orchestrating a borderline-antisemitic
smear campaign against the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee. The community's wall-to-wall defense of
the pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse comes in response to media
reports that the FBI is investigating the possibility that a Pentagon
analyst passed classified material on to Aipac officials, who then
handed the information over to the Israeli embassy in Washington. Early
in the week, many Jewish communal officials were advising a relatively
muted response, hoping the scandal would blow over quickly. But in
recent days, law enforcement officials have told reporters that the
FBI's investigation is intensifying, arrests are
imminent and the case has been assigned to federal prosecutors.
In addition, according to one top GOP congressman, the House could end
up launching its own probe of the allegations. Depending on how the
investigation plays out, Jewish communal insiders said, the allegations
could severely undermine the influence of Aipac, the most influential
pro-Israel organization in Washington and one of the country's most
powerful lobbying groups. In turn, they added, the scandal could damage
American-Israeli relations and hamper efforts to stop Iran's push for
nuclear weapons. With the stakes running so high,
Jewish communal leaders are rallying to Aipac's defense. Several
Jewish organizational leaders are expressing outrage over reports that
an Israeli diplomat and Jewish organizational officials were under FBI
surveillance. Others are also calling for a
federal probe into what they describe as an unfounded campaign of
government leaks aimed at smearing Aipac and Israel in order to
weaken neoconservative officials in the Bush administration. "The leaks
are more serious than the charges because once you look at the charges,
they don't amount to anything," said Abraham Foxman, national
director of the Anti-Defamation League. "When things quiet down, we
should be calling for hearings and investigations into the leaks." The
ADL director also blasted the apparent surveillance being conducted by
the FBI. "We wake up in the morning to learn that the American
government is surveying a registered diplomat — based on what? And then
the case grows because he happens to have lunch with a bureaucrat and a
Jewish organization?" Foxman said. "All that is very troubling. I hope
if there is an investigation or hearings that we will come to some
understanding about who set this in motion." A
spokesman with one Jewish group said it was likely that other Jewish
organizations were also being monitored. The FBI refused to
answer any questions about its ongoing investigations or surveillance
targets. In an August 27 dispatch for CBS News, Leslie Stahl
reported that the FBI has been investigating for more than a year
whether a Pentagon analyst passed to Israel secret materials about White
House deliberations over Iran, using Aipac as a conduit. The probe was
described as an espionage investigation.
But press reports during the weekend suggested that the suspicions were
less severe and that they may involve an unauthorized leak of
confidential information rather than spying. This week, however, Justice
Department sources have been painting a more ominous picture in leaks to
reporters. According to some press reports, the
FBI was surveying an Israeli diplomat and Aipac officials for more than
a year and a half, on suspicions of spying. The surveillance,
reportedly, included phone tapping and photographing. There was no
indication of what may have triggered the probe. In the course of the
investigation, more than a year ago, FBI agents were reportedly
monitoring a meeting between an Israeli diplomat and an Aipac official
at a Washington restaurant. As the two were talking, Pentagon official
Lawrence Franklin, the head of the Iran desk at the Department of
Defense, joined the two. Franklin, who was previously stationed in
Israel as a specialist for the U.S. Air Force Reserve, soon became the
focus of the probe, and at one point reportedly was seen trying to pass
a classified document on the administration's Iran policy to an Aipac
staffer. Two Aipac staffers were mentioned in press reports in
connection to the investigation: Steve Rosen, the group's veteran
director of foreign policy affairs, who is considered
second in seniority to Aipac's executive director,
Howard Kohr, and Keith Weissman, who handles Iran, the
Persian Gulf and oil issues. The two were reportedly interviewed by FBI
agents August 27, as the story broke in the media. The interviews were
reportedly halted when the two asked to talk to a lawyer... In a
conference call Monday with Kohr and Aipac's president, Bernice
Manocherian, Jewish communal leaders from
across the political spectrum voiced staunch support for the
organization and expressed confidence that its officials had done
nothing wrong ... Several participants in the conference call said they
believed that the allegations were part of an effort by certain elements
in the CIA and the State Department to undercut the influence of
neoconservative officials in the Bush administration ... "We all believe
that this story will quietly deflate," said the head of one Jewish
organization. "If it doesn't, however, and the accusations will really
amount to crimes, that would be devastating... for the whole community."
In several ways, Jewish community leaders said, the scandal is bound to
cause damage to Israel and Aipac, as well as to the United States-Israel
relationship. American officials are likely to be worried about the FBI
monitoring in their contacts with Israelis. Aipac, an organization that
to a large degree is successful because of its image of virtual
omnipotence, is weakened when portrayed as vulnerable. Cooperation
between Israel and the United States in stopping Iran's quest for
nuclear weapons also may suffer. In the short run, Jewish activists
said, the greatest damage could be the re-emergence of the specter of
Jonathan Pollard, the American Jewish Navy analyst who was sentenced
to life in prison in 1987 for spying on the United States for Israel.
His case raised new questions in certain quarters of the defense
establishment about the loyalty of Jewish
employees."
Jews Fear Fallout On Fed Spy Probe. Serious consequences even if no
charges are filed,
by James D. Besser, Jewish Week, September 3,
2004
"This week’s media sensation, centering on allegations that the primary
pro-Israel lobby in Washington passed secret information to Jerusalem, has
left Jewish leaders uncertain about the motives behind the reported federal
spy probe and deeply concerned about its consequences — even if no charges
are filed. Early in the week, pro-Israel forces,
backed by powerful political friends, mounted a major damage control effort.
But that was impaired by a lack of knowledge about exactly what and whom the
federal government is targeting. Jewish leaders pointed to similar media
frenzies about alleged Israeli spies in the past that fizzled, and some
expressed the expectation that this week’s controversies — which began with
a CBS News expose on Friday asserting that federal authorities were
investigating a possible Israeli “mole” inside the
Pentagon — would be no different. “For years, since Pollard,
we’ve seen a slew of leaks, innuendo, accusations, and none of them ever
amounted to anything, except for a little news coverage that gives a black
eye to Israel or to the Jewish community or to both,” said Anti-Defamation
League director Abraham Foxman, referring to Jonathan Jay Pollard,
whose 1985 arrest for spying for Israel continues to shadow Jews in
sensitive government positions. “This isn’t new. It’s important people
understand that.” But on Tuesday there were reports federal prosecutors in
Alexandria, Va. — the site of several high-profile spy and terrorism trials
in recent years — were nearing a decision on legal action.
The Jerusalem Post reported that computer data
belonging to a top official of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby, has been searched. Two AIPAC
officials, Steven Rosen, the group’s longtime foreign policy
director, and Keith Weissman, an analyst specializing in Iran, have
reportedly been questioned by the FBI. The controversy left Jewish leaders
with some disconcerting questions, like why a political officer of the
Israeli embassy was being followed by government investigators. It was that
surveillance that reportedly ensnared the focal point of the investigation,
Larry Franklin, a mid-level Pentagon analyst who specializes in Iran policy.
Reports suggest that Franklin gave over to AIPAC officials U.S.
documents dealing with alternatives for the U.S. in dealing with the growing
nuclear threat from Iran, and that the AIPAC officials passed the
information on to Israel. “The first question I have is this: Do we trail
the representatives of the embassies of other friendly countries?” asked
Shoshana Bryen, special projects director for the Jewish Institute for
National Security Affairs (JINSA), a Jewish group with close ties to the
military and intelligence communities in both countries. “If not, why was he
being trailed?” The Israeli representative is Naor Gilon, a political
adviser at the Israeli embassy in Washington. Israeli officials this week
expressed concern that Gilon apparently was the focus of U.S. surveillance,
but they would not seek an explanation from Washington, according to Israeli
press reports. Those reports said Gilon was having lunch with a top AIPAC
official when they were joined by Franklin, a non-Jew who, as an Air Force
Reserve officer, once worked in the U.S. defense attaché’s office Tel Aviv.
Such meetings are routine for U.S., Israeli and AIPAC officials. “If they
weren’t doing that, they weren’t doing their jobs,” said Neal Sher, a former
AIPAC executive director and Justice Department official “I was surprised to
read the suggestion these meetings were being surveiled by the FBI. That’s a
big unanswered question in all this.” Federal authorities have refused to
identify the original target of their investigations. Jewish leaders
suggested that the leak that produced the CBS report could have been part of
the ongoing battle within the defense and military establishments over the
role of several high-profile neo-conservatives, including Deputy Defense
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
Douglas Feith — both lightning rods for criticism over the
administration’s war in Iraq. There is also speculation that the original
leak may have been part of a preemptive effort by anti-neo-con forces inside
the government to prevent a U.S. confrontation with Iran by suggesting
an improper Israeli role in setting U.S. policy on the
issue. In a series of conference calls since the initial story, Jewish
leaders tried to work out a strategy for minimizing the impact of reports
that could damage U.S.-Israeli strategic cooperation, the effort to
slow Iran’s rush to nuclear weaponry and the careers of
countless Jewish defense and intelligence
personnel, even if the investigation does not result in arrests and
convictions ... Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) said in a statement that
“AIPAC is an organization of American patriots
committed to promoting America’s interest in strengthening ties with our
democratic ally Israel. ... AIPAC deserves our
gratitude and support for its important service and devotion to our
country.” Laudatory statements also came from Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the
Senate majority leader, Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the Minority Leader and
Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the House majority whip, among others. In the
communal conference calls on Monday and Tuesday, AIPAC leaders admitted they
had been worried that the sudden negative publicity might lead politicians
to shun their convention events. That didn’t happen.
AIPAC officials and independent sources say attendance by political figures
met or exceeded expectations. “The response was absolutely remarkable at the
convention,” said Lonnie Kaplan, a former AIPAC president. “All our events
had greater attendance than we expected. Nobody canceled, and we had many
expressions of support.”
AIPAC'S POWER
BASE AMERICA'S REAL TERRORISTS!,
By: Ted Lang, Etherzone, September 3, 2004
"Our entire government is controlled by Israel!
Through a small, rich and powerful Jewish supported pro-Israeli tax-exempt
lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or simply AIPAC,
virtually all American domestic and foreign policy is now being controlled
by a foreign government entanglement. This is done by targeting American
politicians: those who are pro-Israel receive campaign funding and favorable
publicity through a myriad of Jewish organizations, magnified by the liberal
and Democratic Party-leaning American press; those politicians not favoring
policies benefiting Israel are targeted by Jews all over America who send
money to help finance that politician’s opponent. Former Georgia
Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, who was critical of the dominance Israel
enjoyed controlling our government, was defeated in this way by Jewish
contributions coming in from all over the United States. Those contributions
had to be requested en masse, funneled to a finance manager, and then
distributed to all the right places to both the opposing candidate and key
media outlets to generate the necessary opposing campaign propaganda. At the
Republican Party’s highly expensive convention bash being orchestrated smack
in the middle of New York City this week, FOXNews.com reports: "About 1,500
supporters of Israel attended the posh event hosted by United Jewish
Communities, the Republican Jewish Coalition and the American-Israel
Political Action Committee. The event, held at Pier 60 in Manhattan, was
attended by dozens of congressional members, governors and administration
officials, and featured Bloomberg, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
and Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman."
Groups Rally to Lobby's Side as FBI Intensifies Israeli Espionage Probe.
ADL's Foxman Calls for Federal Investigation Into Media Leaks,
By Ori Nir, [Jewish] Forward,
September 3, 2004
"As the FBI intensifies its investigation of Washington's pro-Israel
lobby, Jewish organizations are charging elements
of the government with orchestrating a borderline-antisemitic smear
campaign against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The community's wall-to-wall defense of the
pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse comes in response to media
reports that the FBI is investigating the possibility that a Pentagon
analyst passed classified material on to Aipac officials, who then
handed the information over to the Israeli embassy in Washington. Early
in the week, many Jewish communal officials were advising a relatively
muted response, hoping the scandal would blow over quickly. But in
recent days, law enforcement officials have told reporters that
the FBI's investigation is intensifying, arrests
are imminent and the case has been assigned to federal
prosecutors. In addition, according to one top GOP congressman, the
House could end up launching its own probe of the allegations. Depending
on how the investigation plays out, Jewish communal insiders said, the
allegations could severely undermine the influence of Aipac, the most
influential pro-Israel organization in Washington and one of the
country's most powerful lobbying groups. In turn, they added, the
scandal could damage American-Israeli relations and hamper efforts to
stop Iran's push for nuclear weapons. With the stakes running so high,
Jewish communal leaders are rallying to Aipac's
defense. Several Jewish organizational leaders are expressing
outrage over reports that an Israeli
diplomat and Jewish organizational officials were under FBI
surveillance. Others are also calling for a federal probe into what they
describe as an unfounded campaign of government leaks aimed at smearing
Aipac and Israel in order to weaken neoconservative officials in the
Bush administration. "The leaks are more serious than the charges
because once you look at the charges, they don't amount to anything,"
said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation
League. "When things quiet down, we should be calling for hearings and
investigations into the leaks." The ADL director
also blasted the apparent surveillance being conducted by the FBI.
"We wake up in the morning to learn that the American government is
surveying a registered diplomat — based on what? And then the case grows
because he happens to have lunch with a bureaucrat and a Jewish
organization?" Foxman said. "All that is very troubling. I hope
if there is an investigation or hearings that we will come to some
understanding about who set this in motion." A spokesman with one Jewish
group said it was likely that other Jewish
organizations were also being monitored."
Israel Has Long Spied on US, Say Officials,
by Bob Drogin and Greg Miller, Common Dreams
(from Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2004
"Despite its fervent denials, Israel secretly
maintains a large and active intelligence-gathering operation in the United
States that has long attempted to recruit U.S. officials as spies and
to procure classified documents, U.S. government officials said. FBI
and other counterespionage agents, in turn, have covertly followed, bugged
and videotaped Israeli diplomats, intelligence officers and others in
Washington, New York and elsewhere, the officials said. The FBI routinely
watches many diplomats assigned to America. There
is a huge, aggressive, ongoing set of Israeli activities directed against
the United States. Anybody who worked in counterintelligence in a
professional capacity will tell you the Israelis are among the most
aggressive and active countries targeting the United States. Former
intelligence official Officials said FBI surveillance of a senior Israeli
diplomat, who was the subject of an FBI inquiry in 1997-98, played a role in
the latest probe into possible Israeli spying. The bureau now is
investigating whether a Pentagon analyst or pro-Israel lobbyists provided
Israel with a highly classified draft policy document. The document
advocated support for Iranian dissidents, radio broadcasts into Iran and
other efforts aimed at destabilizing the regime in Tehran, officials said
this week. The case is unresolved, but it has highlighted Israel's unique
status as an extremely close U.S. ally that presents a dilemma for U.S.
counterintelligence officials. "There is a huge, aggressive, ongoing set of
Israeli activities directed against the United States," said a former
intelligence official who was familiar with the latest FBI probe and who
recently left government. "Anybody who worked in counterintelligence in a
professional capacity will tell you the Israelis are among the most
aggressive and active countries targeting the United States." The former
official discounted repeated Israeli denials that the country exceeded
acceptable limits to obtain information. "They undertake a wide range of
technical operations and human operations," the former official said.
"People here as liaison … aggressively pursue classified intelligence from
people. The denials are laughable." Current and
former officials involved with Israel at the White House, CIA, State
Department and in Congress had similar appraisals, although not all were as
harsh in their assessments. ... The U.S. officials all
insisted on anonymity because classified material was involved and
because of the political sensitivity of Israeli
relations with Washington. Congress has
shown little appetite for vigorous investigations of alleged Israeli spying
... In public, Israel contends it halted all spying operations
against the United States after 1986, when Jonathan Jay Pollard, a
former Navy analyst, was convicted in U.S. federal court and sentenced to
life in prison for selling secret military documents to Israel. U.S.
officials say the case was never fully resolved because a damage-assessment
team concluded that Israel had at least one more
high-level spy at the time, apparently inside the Pentagon, who had
provided serial numbers of classified documents for Pollard to retrieve. The
FBI has investigated several incidents of suspected intelligence breaches
involving Israel since the Pollard case, including a 1997 case in
which the National Security Agency bugged two Israeli intelligence officials
in Washington discussing efforts to obtain a sensitive U.S. diplomatic
document. Israel denied wrongdoing in that case and all others, and no one
has been prosecuted. But U.S. diplomats, military officers and other
officials are routinely warned before going to Israel that
local agents are known to slip into homes and hotel
rooms of visiting delegations to go through briefcases and to copy computer
files. "Any official American in the intelligence community or in the
foreign service gets all these briefings on all the things the Israelis are
going to try to do to you," said one U.S. official. At the same time,
experts said relations between the CIA and Israel's chief intelligence
agency, the Mossad, were so close that analysts sometimes shared highly
classified "code-word" intelligence on sensitive subjects. Tel Aviv
routinely informs Washington of the identities of the Mossad station chief
and the military intelligence liaison at its embassy in America. "They
probably get 98% of everything they want handed to them on a weekly basis,"
said the former senior U.S. intelligence officer who has worked closely with
Israeli intelligence. "They're very active allies. They're treated the way
the British are." Another former intelligence operative who has worked with
Israeli intelligence agreed. "The relationship with
Israeli intelligence is as intimate as it gets," he said. Officials
said Israel was acutely interested in U.S. policies and intelligence on the
Middle East, especially toward Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. "They
are sophisticated enough to want to know where the levers are they can
influence, which people in our government are taking which positions
they can try to influence," said a former high-ranking CIA official.
But the official said the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, at least
in intelligence circles, "is not one of complete trust
at all" ... What mystifies those who know AIPAC is how one of the
savviest, best-connected lobbying organizations in Washington has found
itself enmeshed in a spy investigation. Although never previously implicated
in a potential espionage case, AIPAC has frequently been a subject of
controversy. Its close ties to Israel and its
aggressive advocacy of Israeli government positions has drawn criticism that
it should be registered as an agent of a foreign country.
Others, noting its ability to organize significant backing for or against
candidates running for national office, have demanded that it be classified
as a political action committee. So far the group has avoided both
classifications, either of which would impose major restrictions on its
activities. Three years ago, Fortune magazine ranked AIPAC fourth on its
list of Washington's 25 most powerful lobbying groups — ahead of such
organizations as the AFL-CIO and the American Medical Assn."
Franklin-Gate and the Jews,
by james d. besser, Jewish News Weekly,
September 3, 2004
"Hours after CBS News first reported that federal officials were
investigating a possible Israeli “mole” at the Pentagon, the first analysis
hit the wires claiming that the emerging scandal wouldn’t damage U.S.-Israel
relations. It was quick journalistic work, but it wasn’t worth the bytes it
was written on. The plain fact is, the scandal, dubbed “Franklin-Gate” after
the implicated Department of Defense official, will affect Jewish and
pro-Israel interests in myriad ways even if the federal investigation
fizzles and no charges are brought. Any proof that Israel was spying on the
Pentagon with the cooperation of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, would be
devastating both for Israel and for the Jewish community here, but few other
than anti-Israel conspiracy theorists expect that result. More likely is a
confusing mess centering on the many gray areas created when two close
allies share military and strategic information through a web of formal and
informal contacts. “In an open relationship like this, there are
conversations, there are meetings and conferences all over the world, where
Israelis and Americans, Jews and non-Jews, share soft intelligence,” said
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “If the
mere fact of people having lunch together results in an investigation,
that’s very intimidating.” Jewish leaders believe the leaks that produced
the CBS story and the exaggerated talk of a mole may have been
triggered by the bitter struggle between
administration neoconservatives — many of them Jewish, many in the
top ranks of the Pentagon organization chart — and the traditional
conservatives and military and intelligence professionals who fear the
neocons have led America into a military debacle in Iraq and want to do the
same in Iran. In particular, these forces have been critical of
Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy, a hawk’s hawk
and the boss of the man at the epicenter of the controversy, Pentagon
analyst Larry Franklin ... But even if the investigation produces no arrests
and no evidence AIPAC went beyond the bounds of legal lobbying, it has the
potential to cause damage to Israel, to Jewish interests here and to
U.S.-Israel relations. The accusation of a “mole” — that term made
sensational headlines, but it wasn’t borne out by later reporting — plays
into the ongoing belief by many on both ends of the
political spectrum that a cabal of Jewish neoconservatives led America into
a destructive war in Iraq, not because of America’s interests but Israel’s
... There may be a growing longing for convenient scapegoats if public
opinion continues to turn against the war, and this week’s reports offer up
some traditional favorites: Israel and the Jews. The scandal will refocus
attention on a group of Jewish neoconservatives who have been polarizing
figures both inside and outside government circles, including Feith
and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The charges, even if
unsubstantiated, could impede the widespread military cooperation between
Washington and Jerusalem — ties that are even more important as the allies
fight the terrorist forces that have targeted both nations.
The charges will also have a chilling effect on
countless Jews serving in important government positions. Many say
life hasn’t been the same since the 1985 arrest of Jonathan Pollard,
the young Navy intelligence analyst who provided documents to his Israeli
handlers. The shadow of “dual loyalty” already hangs
over every Jewish official with a security clearance; the new spy
scandal ensures that it won’t lift anytime soon. ... But even if the charges
are quickly revealed as overblown, the fact that they have exploded in the
middle of an emotionally charged presidential campaign and as protests
proliferate over the Iraq war could adversely affect the Jewish community
and Israel. Jewish leaders are worried — and they are right to be."
Political Big Names Come Out To Back Lobby at the GOP Convention,
By E.J. KESSLER, [Jewish] Forward,
September 3, 2004
"Less than 48 hours had passed since CBS News broke the news about an FBI
investigation involving the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and
the lobbying powerhouse was facing its first public test. The setting was
Sunday's "community celebration" sponsored by Aipac, United Jewish
Communities and the Republican Jewish Coalition. The list of expected guest
included 1,000 delegates to the Republican convention, Jewish communal
leaders, volunteers and public dignitaries. In the end, according to an
Aipac spokesman, all the big names showed up.
The crowd included more than 60 members of the House of Representatives,
eight senators, two Cabinet officials, five governors, one lieutenant
governor, the top three members of the Bush campaign staff, New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg and his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani. They joined
nearly 1,500 other guests in packing the main hall at Chelsea Piers, a
cavernous sports and events space on the Hudson River docks in Lower
Manhattan, munching on a buffet that included grilled vegetables, beef
dishes cooked up hot in woks and sliced smoked salmon. If the Republicans
were feeling burned by Aipac, it was not apparent in their speeches. The
speakers took turns praising the organization's efforts in Washington "I
know Aipac, I know the Aipac leadership," Senator Bill Frist said. "It is an
outstanding organization." Bush campaign manager
Kenneth Mehlman and Giuliani each gave red-meat, partisan
speeches, replete with attacks on Democratic nominee John Kerry.
Bloomberg also spoke. All the national Republican speakers gave ringing
defenses of the war in Iraq, saying that the ousting of Saddam Hussein made
both Americans and Israelis safer. Between bites, the
mood among Aipac members was one of outrage and defiance at the news stories
on the eve of the convention. In her speech to the assembled crowd, the
organization's president, Bernice Manocherian, declared: "Be assured
that we will not allow innuendo or false allegations to distract us from our
central mission, which is supporting American interests in the Middle East
and advocating for a strong U.S.- Israel-relationship....
The allegations are outrageous as well as baseless. They will not dissuade
us from exercising our rights as American citizens to be involved in the
political process." The chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Sam
Fox, took pains in his speech to emphasize the
closeness that his group feels with Aipac. "I've worked closely with
Aipac for a quarter-century," he said. "I know Aipac. It has always
reflected the very best qualities of professionalism." Fred Zeidman,
a longtime friend of Bush's who is chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Council and a top Republican Jewish Coalition leader, acknowledged that the
affair "can't all be bulls—t," but added:
"We're obviously hoping it's bulls—t. Obviously there's a reason they timed
it right now. This is the best president Israel ever had and the best
communication between Israel and the administration. There's no reason for
it to have happened. There's something surreptitious going on. We don't know
what it is." Zeidman stressed: "The good news is that the
administration is continuing [to show support for Aipac and the Jewish
community]. I don't think that if there was anything behind this, the
administration would be as open as it is," referring
to the many administration officials in attendance. Republican
officials were out in force, with Cabinet secretaries Gale Norton and Anne
Veniman CK, Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten, and
dozens of lawmakers. Top campaign officials at the event included Mehlman,
chairman Marc Racicot, chief strategist Matthew Dowd and top fund raiser
Jack Oliver. Even as Republican leaders made their pitch for Bush, the
controversial news reports were the talk of the event, with both Republicans
and Jewish communal officials expressing alarm and unease over the impact of
the scandal. "It doesn't smell right," said one Jewish communal official who
deals with international affairs. "The Israelis don't need the information.
With professionals doing this for so long, it doesn't make sense that they
would do it through a Jewish organization." "How is
this going to play outside New York and Washington?" the official
wondered. "Will it increase suspicion of Jews? It makes our job harder. Why
would they trust us?" The Bush-Cheney campaign's liaison to the Jewish
community, Michael Lebovitz, declined comment on the controversy,
saying: "It would be totally inappropriate."
Others tried to put the events into perspective. Former Nixon aide G. Gordon
Liddy, greeting admirers as he got some food at the event's buffet, was
nonchalant. "I doubt that the Israeli government had any knowledge of it,"
he said ... Prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority leader Tom
Daschle, were also defending Aipac. "For more than five decades, America as
a country and Americans as individuals have stood by Israel," Daschle said
in a statement. "Aipac and its members have tirelessly led that effort, and
America is better and stronger for it. It is vital work — work I know Aipac
will continue to lead effectively."
Jewish Republicans track Michael Moore's comments on Israel,
Israel Insider, September 4, 2004
"Republican Jewish Coalition Michael Moore's Radical Views Republican Jewish
Coalition Israel is not mentioned in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. But
when Moore showed up as a journalist at the Republican National Convention,
the conventioneers were none too pleased. Earlier this summer, a coalition
of Jewish Republicans researched his stands on Israel over the past two
decades. Michael Moore dedicated his 2003 book, Dude Where's My Country?
to Rachel Corrie, an International Solidarity Movement volunteer who was
accidentally killed when she climbed in front of a caterpillar bulldozer
destroying tunnels used by Palestinian terrorists to illegally smuggle
weapons from Egypt into Gaza. Moore expressed his understanding for other
victims of the conflict. "Of course, many Israeli children had died too, at
the hands of the Palestinians. You would think that would make every Israeli
want to wipe out the Arab world, but the average Israeli does not have that
response. Why? Because in their hearts," he explained,
[the Israelis] know they are wrong, and they know they would be doing just
what the Palestinians are doing if the sandal were on the other foot."
He had some suggestions for preventing suicide terrorists. "Hey, here's a
way to stop suicide bombings - give the Palestinians a bunch of
missile-firing Apache helicopters and let them and the Israelis go at each
other head to head. Four billion dollars a year to Israel - four billion
dollars a year to the Palestinians - they can just blow each other up and
leave the rest of us the hell alone." Moore has a long history of
supporting, and being rewarded for, anti-Israel stances. In 1987, Moore was
honored by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for his
"courageous efforts in journalism." He attended and spoke at a June 5, 1990
demonstration protesting the continued Israeli occupation at the Israeli
Embassy in Washington D.C. In October 2003, Moore was honored by the Muslim
American Public Affairs Council (MPAC) with a media award. In his book,
Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation, Moore
proposed that Congress give Israel 30 days to end the bloodshed taking place
in its name, and if Israel does not do so, funding to Israel should be cut.
He also noted that while individual terrorism is bad,
state sponsored terrorism is truly evil. Moore proposed that the
Palestinians be given statehood and receive twice as much economic
assistance from the United States as Israel receives."
The Latest Spy Scandal in US: Will It Be Bryen Case All Over?,
by Michael Saba, Al-Jazeera, (from Arab News), 4 September 2004
"Yuval Steinitz, the chairman of the Israeli Parliament’s foreign and
defense committee, responding to the recent Israeli spy scandal with the
United States, said recently, “I’m 100 percent confident — not 99 percent,
but 100 percent — that Israel is not spying on the United States.” As the
scandal broke, a friend of mine who formerly served in the US diplomatic
corps e-mailed me the following: “Years ago, I asked
an Israeli friend of mine why his guys kept on running spy operations
against us when they could get 99 percent of our secrets from loyal
Jewish-Americans for nothing. He laughed and said Israelis want 100
percent.” Former Sen. Jim Abourezk and I spoke a few days ago. He
commented: “My gosh, over 25 years ago you came to my office in the US
Senate and told me you had just overheard a strange conversation between an
American government employee and a group of Israelis in a Washington, D.C.
restaurant and you didn’t know who to report it to. I told you that I
thought that AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) was probably
involved in that conversation. That incident turned into an Israeli spy
scandal. And the Israeli spy scandal, the Larry Franklin case, that erupted
this week, started with an American government employee and a group of
Israelis in a Washington, D.C. restaurant with AIPAC involved. Are there any
more similarities between the two cases?” “Yeah”, I told him, “They just
announced that Nathan Lewin, the attorney for that government
employee 25 years ago, is the attorney for AIPAC in the case today.” In
1978, the conversation that I overheard in the restaurant and the subsequent
reporting of what was said to the FBI, led to an investigation of that
government employee, Stephen Bryen, and a recommendation from the FBI
investigators that the matter be brought before a grand jury with charges of
espionage for Israel. That case was then mysteriously
dropped. I wrote a book about this case and the investigation details
titled “The Armageddon Network” which was published in November of 1984.
Major characters in the book in addition to Stephen Bryen and
Nathan Lewin, included Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen and
Elliot Abrams. Those same names have been all over the news again in
the current spy scandal. When I reported the facts of the 1978 Israeli spy
scandal, I initially met with John Davitt, who was then the chief of the
Justice Departments Internal Security Division. Davitt had essentially run
the counterespionage section of the Justice Department from the end of World
War II through the Cold War and up until the late 1970s. Davitt later told
me and the New York Times that, up to that point,
after the Soviet Union, the second most active espionage service
investigated for spying on the United States was Israel. Yet through
all of this spying and many Israeli espionage cases investigated, the
Bryen case was the first made public and no one had been brought to
trial. Bryen not only got off without being formally charged, but he
also later became a high official in the US Defense Department. Richard
Perle hired him in 1981. ... Author Stephen Green wrote the foreword to
“The Armageddon Network” and later wrote two books of his own, “Taking
Sides” and “Living by the Sword” in the mid and late 1980s, about Israeli
espionage against the United States. Green wrote an article in early 2004
about five current and former American government employees, Stephen
Bryen, Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith
and Paul Wolfowitz. Through extensive research and years of Freedom
of Information requests to the US government, Green had compiled files that
proved that each of these five individuals had been
investigated at some time during their government careers for passing
information to a foreign government, namely Israel. Over twenty
mainstream American publications, most of which had previously published
Green’s works, rejected the article for reasons given that ranged from
“nothing new here” to “this is anti-Semitic”. One pundit said, “You can’t
publish something like that about Israel in an election year”. Finally the
article was published on an Internet publication, CounterPunch, in late
February. Green has been receiving numerous requests lately for copies of
his article as the names of the five individuals that he wrote about are
reappearing in the current Franklin spy scandal. Congressman John Conyers,
the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee has written to the
chairman of that committee calling for a special investigation of this
Israeli spy scandal and its possible connections to the Ahmad Chalabi/Iran
information leakage case and misinformation regarding the US invasion of
Iraq. And the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), one of the largest Jewish
organizations in North America, has called on the Bush administration to
immediately appoint a special counsel to investigate the circumstances of
leaks to the American media regarding suspicions of an alleged Israeli
“mole” in the Pentagon. That’s right, the ADL is calling for an
investigation because they feel that the leak was made with malicious intent
to defame Israel, its American supporters and AIPAC. The ADL and its head,
Abraham Foxman, claim that the allegations of spying for Israel are
“baseless.”
FBI probes
Jewish sway on Bush government,
By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz (Israel),
September 5, 2004
"The FBI investigation into the Pentagon mole affair has expanded beyond
data analyst Larry Franklin's immediate circle to
encompass the entire issue of Jewish influence on the neoconservative part
of the administration. The FBI queries have recently been focusing on
a number of officials, all from the neoconservative wing, who had access to
the debates on Iranian affairs, the Washington Post reported yesterday. The
officials include Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz;
Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith; Pentagon adviser Richard
Perle; adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, David Wormser; and
Iran specialist Harold Rhode, all of them
Jews. The Washington Post reported that FBI people recently spoke
to administration officials and Middle East experts to sound them out on the
suspicion that senior officials funneled secret
material to Israel. They asked each official whether he believes that
a certain group of people could spy for Israel and transfer secret
information. The investigation now appears to center on the claim made by
the opponents of the neoconservatives in the administration - that the
latter are responsible for the U.S. Middle East policy
and that they are suspected of bias in favor of Israel's interests.
The issues being queried have also increased. It transpires that the FBI is
investigating, in addition to funneling classified information to Israel,
the possibility that secret information had been given to Ahmed Chalabi, of
the Iraqi opposition. Chalabi was close to many of the people mentioned in
the affair and was a central source of information to the Americans on the
goings-on in Iraq before the war. The Washington Post said the FBI asked the
administration officials about Israeli embassy officials in Washington who
allegedly held contacts with administration officials to procure secret
information. So far, only the name of Naor Gilon, the political
adviser in the embassy, was mentioned as involved in the affair. The L.A.
Times reported on Friday that the American
administration does not believe Israel's contention that it does not spy on
America and that U.S. government officials say Israel secretly maintains a
large and active intelligence-gathering operation in the U.S. The
officials said the FBI and other bodies spy on Israeli diplomats in
Washington and New York as a matter of routine. The
report said that Israel has long attempted to recruit U.S. officials as
spies and to procure classified documents, according to the Times.
Israel said it set a policy of not spying on the United States after
Jonathan Pollard's arrest in November 1985 and the damage it did to
bilateral relations in general and to intelligence and security ties in
particular."
Pro-Israel Lobby Has Strong Voice. AIPAC Is Embroiled in Investigation
of Pentagon Leaks,
By Thomas B. Edsall and Molly Moore, Washington
Post, September 5, 2004
"On May 18, President George W. Bush stood before the annual conference
of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington and spoke
effusively to its members. "AIPAC is doing important work," Bush said.
"In Washington and beyond, AIPAC is calling attention to the great
security challenges of our time. "You've always understood and warned
against the evil ambition of terrorism and their networks," the
president continued. "In a dangerous new century, your work is more
vital than ever." Just over three months later, the most powerful
pro-Israel lobbying organization in the United States is embroiled in an
FBI probe into whether Pentagon officials gave AIPAC representatives
classified material -- which sources said may have included information
about Iran -- and whether they in turn passed it to the Israeli
government. For AIPAC, the allegations are
potentially devastating to its credibility and large influence in
Washington, and its officials have vigorously denied any
wrongdoing. " What really is troubling is the issue
of dual loyalties," said Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Calif.), one of
many senior members of the House who have defended AIPAC. The leaked
allegations "raise a troubling specter" with the questioning of AIPAC's
loyalty that Matsui said he is acutely sensitive to as a Japanese
American who was interned in 1940 at age six months with his U.S.-born
parents ... When the existence of the investigation of AIPAC became
public more than a week ago, Pentagon officials said the inquiry was
focused on one mid-level Pentagon analyst -- Lawrence A. Franklin -- and
whether he gave a draft presidential directive on Iran to AIPAC. Last
week, however, The Washington Post reported that
the two-year-old probe was broader and that sources said investigators
were probing whether other defense officials had given sensitive
materials to AIPAC and Ahmed Chalabi, the former Iraqi dissident who was
a favorite at the Pentagon before the war. The material in
question, sources said, included information not just on Iran but also
on the Middle East peace process and on U.S. intentions in Iraq. If
reports of a probe involving AIPAC are true, the group said in a
statement, " then surely the confidence
demonstrated by the President of the United States, the highest
officials in the executive branch [and] key members of the intelligence
committees in continuing to regularly meet and address AIPAC during this
period of time is substantial vindication of AIPAC's loyalty and
trustworthiness." The allegations have, nonetheless, profoundly
shaken members of AIPAC, known as one of the capital's toughest and most
effective behind-the-scenes lobbies. Much of AIPAC's influence lies in
the extensive civic participation of its supporters, the high-profile
role of board members in making and raising campaign contributions, the
strong ties of AIPAC to the government of Israel, and the strategic
importance of Israel to U.S. interests. Every two
years, AIPAC offers each new member of Congress a trip to Israel for a
week to 10 days. Israel was established in 1948, and AIPAC was
set up six years later. It now has 85,000 members,
an annual budget of $33.4 million and a staff of 165, with
offices in Washington, 10 states and Israel. In
2003, the organization reported spending $1.28 million on lobbying.
Though not insubstantial by Washington standards, it is a fraction of
the amounts spent by one of the largest lobbying groups, the AARP, which
dedicated $20.9 million to lobbying last year. The 50 members of the
board of directors are a cross section of influential figures in
Republican and Democratic politics and in civic affairs across the
country. They include Steven Grossman, former chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, and former senator Rudy Boschwitz
(R-Minn.), a major Bush fundraiser. Norman Brownstein, a
prominent Denver lawyer, was an early financial backer of the Kerry
campaign. Since 2000, the board members have contributed an average of
$72,000 each to campaigns and political committees.
One in every five AIPAC board members is a top
fundraiser for Kerry or Bush. The federal investigation itself
has produced the most recent demonstration of AIPAC's power and
standing, in the outpouring of support for the organization from U.S.
officials that began hours after news of the federal inquiry broke. "I
know AIPAC; I know the AIPAC leadership. It is an outstanding
organization," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Senate
Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) declared, "America is better
and stronger for" AIPAC. Two days after the first news reports,
Republican politicians -- normally wary of controversy -- turned out in
force at an AIPAC-sponsored event outside the GOP convention in New
York. By AIPAC's count, the attendees included more than 60 House
members, eight senators, five governors, two Bush Cabinet members and
Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman. Through more than 2,000
meetings with members of Congress, AIPAC
activists help pass more than 100 pro-Israel legislative initiatives a
year. On its Web site, AIPAC lists priorities including
legislation to curb Iran's nuclear program;
procuring nearly $3 billion in aid for Israel; and funding
U.S.-Israeli efforts to build a defense against unconventional weapons.
AIPAC does not have a political action committee and does not endorse
candidates. But it is widely viewed by friends and foes
as wielding significant political power. In
2002, two Democrats in Congress with records of voting against Israel's
interests -- Reps. Earl Hilliard of Alabama and Cynthia McKinney of
Georgia -- faced primary opponents who received substantial support from
Jewish donors. A majority of AIPAC board members gave to either
McKinney's challenger or Hilliard's or both. Hilliard and McKinney lost.
Bill Banks, McKinney's campaign manger, charged that AIPAC had made her
the "No. 1 candidate to try to remove from office." AIPAC denied the
accusation. Even some Israeli officials have said
they are uncomfortable with AIPAC's influence in U.S. politics
... Over the years, AIPAC has accumulated many critics, including angry
competitors, who feel their voices on Middle East policy have been
subordinated to the policy positions taken by AIPAC. ... While many
Israeli and AIPAC supporters have said it is unnecessary for Israel to
engage in espionage inside the United States because of the close
relationship between the Bush and Sharon administrations, some officials
and observers argue that Israel has a strong interest in collecting
information that could help it influence U.S. policy on Iran, which
Israeli officials say is their country's greatest enemy. Both the United
States and Israel have advocated strong stands against Iran's
development of nuclear weapons, but Israel has
urged more aggressive action than Washington. India's
Powerful Jewish Lobby
The Jewish
general who beat Pakistan,
By Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz (Israel),
September 6, 2004
"A victory by the Congress Party under the leadership of Sonia Ghandi in
the elections to be held in India in May will not lead to any change in
India's policy toward Israel. The good relations will continue, and in
certain area even grow deeper," assesses Lieutenant General J.F.R.
Jacob, a former senior Indian army officer and
a Jew, who yesterday completed a five-day visit to Israel. "If I
had to rank the present-day level of relations between India and
Israel," Jacob adds, "I would give them a 9 out of 10." General Jacob
has close ties to the National Party (BJP), which in the course of its
four years in power has tightened relations with
Israel and expanded defense cooperation with it. For many years,
Jacob served as the party's security
adviser. Nevertheless, he says, "based on my personal
acquaintanceship with the current foreign minister, I see that the
Congress Party, like the National Party, has an interest in maintaining
very good relations with Israel." Jacob notes that it was the Congress
Party that in early 1992 established diplomatic relations with Israel,
"and since then, every Indian government has found Israel to be a friend
on which they can rely." ... General Jacob gained prominent fame
in his homeland when he headed the Indian army forces that vanquished
the Pakistani army in the war that broke out between the two countries
in 1971, over control of the Bangladesh region (which after the war
became an independent state, having formerly been East Pakistan). For
his decisive role in the sweeping victory, Jacob was granted a
commendation of merit. Jacob is proud to say that his illustrious
military career is the indelible proof of the tolerance of Indian
society. That is the only way to explain how he succeeded as a young
Jew, the scion of a family that migrated some 150 years ago from Iraq
and settled in Calcutta, to be appointed to one of
the most senior command positions in the army ... He retired from
the military in 1978, following 37 years of service. Jacob tried
his hand in the business world, but remained in close contact with
government echelons. In the late `90s, he became the governor of the Goa
province, and subsequently became the governor of the state of Punjab,
which borders Kashmir. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations
between India and Israel, Jacob has paid
many visits to Israel. Prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
invited him to attend the Jerusalem 3,000 celebrations. On his recent
visit here, he even contributed items of Judaica from his parent's home
to the Museum of Babylonian Jewry in Or Yehuda.
His home in New Delhi has for years been a pilgrimage site for Israeli
diplomats, researchers and security officers."
ADL Asking the FBI to
Investigate Leak in Pentagon Case,
BY ELI LAKE , New York Sun, September 8,
2004
"After nearly two weeks of rumor and innuendo surrounding an FBI probe
into the possibility of an Israeli spy in the Pentagon,
the Anti-Defamation League has formally requested
that the FBI get to the bottom of who leaked news of the investigation
to the press. In a letter sent yesterday, the organization's
national director, Abraham Foxman, wrote, "We are deeply troubled
by what appears to be an intentional leak to the press about the
investigation. As a result of this intentional leak, AIPAC and the State
of Israel have been subjected to a litany of allusion, intimation and
unsupported supposition." Another letter, sent by Rep. Robert Wexler,
a Democrat of Florida, to Attorney General Ashcroft, read, "It appears
as though the Administration has responded to this investigation with
both negligence and deception." The Wexler letter questioned why
a two-year-long counterespionage probe has yet to lead to any arrests or
indictments if the evidence was as strong as anonymous officials have
told some newspapers. Sources close to the Pentagon tell The New York
Sun that members of the staff of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
Douglas Feith have been harassed since the probe was leaked. They
have received anonymous phone calls that play radio broadcasts in the
background announcing the arrests of Israeli spies. In other cases,
intelligence briefings on Iran have deliberately included information on
Israel that would normally not be included. Last week,
the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff refused for
two days to share classified papers with officials working for Mr.
Feith, sources say. Cooperation between the
two offices only resumed after individuals at the highest levels of the
Pentagon ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to cooperate. The FBI
is expected to interview members of Mr. Feith's staff today ...
In an interview yesterday Mr. Foxman said that he believed it was
totally appropriate for the FBI to investigate cases that threaten
American national security and that he was not criticizing the bureau
for conducting the probe. "But permitting
government officials to leak stories about pending investigations will
only encourage and legitimate anti-Semitism," he said. Mr.
Foxman, who met Tuesday with government officials about the probe,
said his organization's polling data from earlier indicates that
one of three Americans believe that American Jews
are more loyal to Israel than to America. "We see how the
extremist and pro-Arab spokesmen have jumped on this issue to buttress
their charge that not only Jews are disloyal but
control the foreign policy of this government," he said. "Pat
Buchanan has been silent on this subject for a while. Now he has a
platform and we heard it on 'Meet the Press' Sunday," he added,
referring to the former presidential candidate's warning that
"Pollardites" may be employed by the Pentagon."
Why Golan
Cipel's Jewishness is important,
By Amir Oren, Haaretz (Israel),
August 18, 2004
"The latest scandal, the resignation of New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey,
is made up of the American holy trinity: money, sex, and politics.
McGreevey's rivals have been charging for more than two years that he is
using his political power to pay off his allies, supporters, and just
plain friends. His confession to being a homosexual and having
extramarital "consenting adult relations" shocked many of his citizens
in New Jersey, in both form and substance - though not all. Internet
discussion forums for months have seen anonymous hints as thick as the
industrial smokestacks - when someone there wondered what made McGreevey
take a particular position on single-sex marriages, someone wrote: Hint:
Golan Cipel. The McGreevey-Cipel pair, they and their
lawyers, are now caught in a dispute over the facts: was there a
relationship, and if so, was it coerced; and did Golan try to
blackmail Jim or did he just take the conventional step of naming a
price (only 10 percent, $5 million, instead of $50 million) to cancel
the threat of a suit over sexual harassment? Those are the romantic
aspects that turned into the criminal, according to McGreevey, or the
criminal without the romantic, according to Cipel. But they were
preceded by an aspect that is a departure from the usual ups and downs
of a male couple: the suspicion first launched at the governor in 2002
when he named Golan - who had neither ability nor the right
citizenship - that he was exposing New Jersey to
treason on behalf of Israel. In the imaginary clash between
Israel and New Jersey, McGreevey's rivals charged, the governor's
advisor on security affairs who makes $110,000 a year might be loyal to
his own homeland - where he is counted among its
reservists! - and not to his adopted state which is exposed to
attacks. Maybe there are some who scoff at the idea of a war between New
Jersey and Israel - which is often described as being "about the size of
New Jersey" to give Americans an indication of Israel's size - but there
should be no scoffing at how deep the feverish
charges of dual loyalty of Israel and Jews can go."
Man at center of McGreevey resignation says he is straight,
USA TODAY, August 15, 2004
"The Israeli man at the center of New Jersey Gov.
James E. McGreevey's resignation over a gay affair said in an
interview published Sunday that he is straight and had no idea at first
that his boss is a homosexual. Golan Cipel told the Israeli daily
newspaper Yediot Ahronot that McGreevey repeatedly made unwanted
advances. Cipel said he informed the governor at one point that
he planned to sue him for sexual harassment, and that lawyers were
negotiating a settlement when McGreevey resigned last week ...
McGreevey, who is married, announced his resignation Thursday,
acknowledging that he is gay and had an affair with a man. Sources
within the McGreevey administration named Cipel as the lover and
said he had demanded millions of dollars to stay
quiet. In a news conference Friday, Cipel's attorneys
denied the claims, saying McGreevey's attorney had offered to pay if
Cipel didn't file a lawsuit. Allen Lowy, one of Cipel's
attorneys, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press
Sunday morning seeking comment. Sources in
McGreevey's administration said Saturday that Cipel originally demanded
$50 million but the figure dropped to $5 million as negotiations
progressed. McGreevey appointed Cipel as New Jersey's
$110,000-a-year homeland security adviser
in 2002, without a background check or official announcement. The
appointment drew criticism, and Cipel was reassigned a few months
later and soon after left government ... Cipel was quoted as
saying he identified with the "feelings of
victimization" women feel when they are sexually harassed."
We may be one, but which one? Blurring the line between American Jewish
leadership and Israel isn't healthy for American Jews or for Israel.
SIMPLY SABRA: Former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey had one too
many Israeli connections ,
by Jonathan S. Tobin, Jewsweek,
September 7, 2004
"It's been an odd week tracking the relationship between Israelis and
Americans. Most of the attention here has focused on the fact that
a young Israeli man named Golan Cipel
was the governor of New Jersey's alleged
extramarital lover or, depending on whose story you believe, the
victim of sexual harassment by the state's chief executive. The fact
that Gov. James McGreevey announced last month that he was "a gay
American" who cheated on his wife wasn't the scandal in the eyes of most
observers. It was the fact that McGreevey had
appointed Cipel
to a high-paying job as a state homeland
security advisor, in spite of the fact that he wasn't remotely
qualified and, as a foreign national, couldn't get a security clearance
to receive classified information from Washington.
The fact that an Israeli who hadn't even troubled
to become an American citizen would even be considered for such a
position marks an interesting turning point in the relationship between
Israel and America. Israel began its history with citizens of
other countries serving key roles in its armed forces. Most famous was
U.S. Army Colonel David "Mickey" Marcus, who commanded the
Israeli forces that lifted the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. Marcus
was buried at his alma mater, West Point, the only American soldier who
died fighting under a foreign flag to be so honored. But Cipel
apparently was ready to return the favor. Like World War I American Gen.
John J. Pershing, who landed in France in 1917 with the words,
"Lafayette, we are here!" on his lips, Cipel might well have proclaimed,
"Mickey Marcus, hinenei - 'I am here!' "
when he entered the office that went along with his $110,000 salary.
Yet the McGreevey mess isn't the only example of Israelis becoming
players on U.S. shores. In a story that hasn't even been a blip on the
radar screen of the secular news media, another Israeli has been
appointed to an American job, raising different though
troubling questions. It was the
announcement that the American Jewish Congress was
appointing Alon Pinkas as its new CEO. Who's Pinkas?
Up until a few weeks ago, he was Israel's consul
general in New York, serving in one of the Jewish state's most important
diplomatic posts. But if the AJCongress gets its way, he will
doff the mantle of diplomat, and take up the less-exalted title of chief
macher for a Jewish organization best known for its unyielding stand on
the separation of church and state in the United States. Perhaps I'm
missing something, but the idea of a man who was
an Israeli envoy just weeks ago taking the helm of a group that attempts
to represent the interests of American Jews strikes me as more than a
bit odd. Granted, maybe not as odd as the idea of the baby-faced
Golan Cipel defending the people of New Jersey from Al Qaida, but
still rather strange ... But AJCongress has still crossed a line.
Pinkas, previously a foreign-policy advisor to Shimon Peres
and Ehud Barak, has spent the last few years waltzing his way
through the complicated labyrinth of New York Jewry. By all accounts, he
has done a fine job, charming both the hoi polloi and the
high-and-mighty. But while some Israelis have finished their terms in
that office and fled back to Israel for a break from unending rounds of
lox-and-bagel breakfasts and caviar receptions, Pinkas apparently
can't get enough of it, and will get a salary from AJCongress far
greater than the pittance New Jersey taxpayers
shelled out to Cipel ... But
don't the good people at AJCongress understand that blurring the line
between American Jewish leadership and Israel isn't healthy for America
Jews or Israel? The old slogan of the United Jewish Appeal
was "We are one." But that was supposed to be a symbol of solidarity,
not an avowal that no difference exists between
being a U.S. citizen and one of the State of Israel ...
But when some ask who do groups like AJCongress
really represent - the State of Israel or the many loyal Americans who
love both nations - do we really want that question answered by a
foreign diplomat? By even contemplating the Pinkas
appointment, AJCongress has stumbled badly. Their timing was also off in
more ways than one. This was, it turns out, not a good week to be hiring
an Israeli to fill a job better suited to an American."
Hungary: US should be less pro-Israel,
Jerusalem Post (from ASSOCIATED PRESS),
September 7, 2004
"The European Union should push the United States to renew its
peacemaking efforts in the Middle East, Hungary's foreign minister said
Tuesday. He also urged Washington to temper what he called
America's pro-Israeli stance. Foreign
Minister Laszlo Kovacs said the EU effort was needed because the United
States "has very much withdrawn" from attempts to find a solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But he said a one-sided approach by
Washington "discredits it in the eyes of the Arabs," and he said the
United States should adopt a more even-handed policy. Kovacs also said
that while Israel had the right to defend itself,
the EU needed to persuade Israel to abide by international law."
Focus / 10 ways the Pentagon spy case may damage Israel,
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz,
September 9, 2004
"The dread felt by Israeli and American Jewish officials was as rooted
as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as fresh as the headline that
they feared could break any minute. Could Israel have used
its client American Israel Public Affairs
Committee lobbying group as a conduit to receive classified information
from a Pentagon analyst or the National Security Agency? Such was the
implication of a flurry of media reports which emerged last month.
Stated differently, could an Israeli agency have been so unwise as to
have, in a single stroke, risked blunting the efficacy of AIPAC,
casting American Jews in the shadow of accusations
of dual loyalty and undue influence on U.S. policymaking, and
endangering the Jewish state's only indispensable alliance, its
lifeblood tie to Washington. Israel says no. AIPAC says the same. And
although from the start the reports have offered much smoke and little
actual fire, the case surrounding Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin
presented Israel and AIPAC with the diplomatic equivalent of an
unexploded cluster bomb. Even as the case recedes from the headlines, it
could do significant harm to Israel in a large number of ways whether
the allegations are true or not. 1. Conspiracy Theory and
anti-Semitism "Even if the present affair pales, shrinks and fades
away, it can supply fuel to the conspiracy theory,
one that is widespread in certain sectors of the American media,"
said political scientist Avi Ben-Zvi, citing maverick Republican
rightist Pat Buchanan and other strident right and left-wing critics of
Israeli influence on American policymaking. According to the theory,
Ben-Zvi said, Jews in key positions in the administration, among
them suspect analyst Franklin's neo-conservative - and Jewish -
superiors, Deputy Defense Minister Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas
Feith, a senior aide to Donald Rumsfeld on Iran and Iraq policy,
represent "an enthusiastically pro-Israeli group
diverting American policy to a direction which serves non-American goals
- manipulating and directing policy." "It sounds almost like the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion," Ben-Zvi said. The
post-Saddam quagmire in Iraq has only intensified the sensitivity of the
issue, as some leftists have argued that only
Israel has benefited from a war which a "cabal" of Jewish
neo-conservatives drove into being. 2. Closing off sources of
shared intelligence Well-placed former members of the Israeli
intelligence community have said that there are as many as thousands of
contacts a year between American and Israeli figures, colleagues in a
number of fields, in which non-classified but potentially valuable
information is exchanged. In the wake of the Franklin case, American
officials, it is feared, will now shy away from contacts with Israelis,
long a key source of information-sharing ... It has been suggested that
a key source of AIPAC's strength is its widespread image of unparalleled
clout in affecting foreign policy regarding Israel, an image that the
affair could sap. In fact, AIPAC's very success in lobbying for Israel's
interests has also rendered the group, which boasts 65,000 members in
all 50 states, vulnerable to charges of undue influence in Washington
decision making ... 5. Estranging American Jewry A major figure in the
U.S. Jewish community responded last month with an explicit sense of
relief on hearing that analyst Franklin was not Jewish. Nonetheless, the
affair has already stirred implied questions of dual loyalty and divided
allegiance among American Jews, until recently a long-buried staple of
native U.S. anti-Semitism. ... 7. Restirring the Pollard affair
In a nadir of U.S.-Israel relations. Jonathan Pollard, a naval analyst,
passed highly classified American material to Israeli intelligence
agents until he was seized in the mid-80s. "Although all of the
information currently available shows that this isn't a new Pollard
affair, in certain respects 'the Franklin affair' could prove more
dangerous for the organized Jewish community," Haaretz Washington
correspondent Nathan Guttman said. "When the case of Jonathan
Pollard erupted 19 years ago, it was easier for Jews to distance
themselves from him and to claim that the man was a lone operative, not
someone who could tarnish the entire community with the 'dual loyalty'
brush. "Now the situation is more problematic, not because of Larry
Franklin, but because of AIPAC's role" ...
10. An anti-neocon backlash Some U.S. Jewish leaders have
suggested that the Franklin affair was part of an wider campaign by CIA
and State Department officials to sandbag, discredit, and ultimately
dethrone the neo-conservatives in positions of influence. Some believe
that the neocon influence has given the Sharon government unprecedented
access and understanding in the administration, a status they fear could
be blunted by a backlash against neocon thought."
Jews press for assault weapons ban,
[Jewish] Forward, Breaking News,
September 10, 2004
"Several U.S. Jewish groups are pushing Congress to renew the ban on
assault weapons. At an interfaith press conference Thursday, Rabbi
David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center for Reform
Judaism, said Congress’ failure to renew the ban is “ensuring the tragic
and violent deaths of an unknown number of Americans across this
country.” Sammie Moshenberg, Washington director of the National
Council for Jewish Women, said, “The idea of having these military-style
assault weapons readily available in this country to extremist groups,
many of whom target Jews and other minorities, is a very frightening
thought.” The 10-year ban expires Monday, and Republican congressional
leaders have said they do not expect renewal legislation to be voted
on."
The Hill, Publisher, Chairman of the Board, President,
and CEO: James
Finkelstein.]
Spy-scandal lobby
blitz AIPAC secures wide backing after secrets charges,
By Hans Nichols, The Hill, September 8,
2004
"Lobbyists for an influential pro-Israel group launched into
congressional overdrive when trails of a Pentagon spy scandal led to
their Washington office. Soon after media outlets reported on the
scandal late last month, American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbyists and their political liaisons across
the country asked Democratic and Republican lawmakers to issue public
statements in support of America’s premier pro-Israel group. The
House will start its probe “with a record of confidence” in AIPAC, said
Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). That intense and frantic lobbying effort, which
began on the eve of the GOP convention and continued unabated in New
York, led dozens of lawmakers of both parties to
testify to AIPAC’s integrity before they had been briefed by the
FBI investigators on the details of the case. Some lawmakers, however,
stressed that they rose to AIPAC’s defense without
any prompting from the group. The FBI is reportedly investigating
whether Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin passed sensitive intelligence to
Israel and the role of two AIPAC employees in the matter. AIPAC had
deployed bipartisan statements in a successful campaign to quell the
potentially disastrous flow of negative articles in the first cycle of
an espionage scandal that FBI investigators say is expanding. That
bipartisan support has also immunized AIPAC from political attacks that
question the pro-Israel group’s patriotism and has shielded it from the
crossfire of a presidential campaign. “As much as we’ve reached out to
members of Congress, they are reaching out to us,”
said Josh Block, a spokesman for AIPAC. “Clearly, expressions of
support from leaders of both parties in both chambers are extremely
important and reflect the deep and abiding relationship between the U.S.
and Israel, and the strong relationship between AIPAC and members of
Congress,” Block said. Dozens of key lawmakers from both parties
have been briefed by AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr, say
numerous congressional aides. In addition,
prominent Jewish community leaders across the country — many of whom are
serious donors — have been phoning their friends on Capitol Hill,
denouncing the allegation that a Pentagon mole slipped classified
documents to AIPAC as the scurrilous work of an FBI zealot. The
briefings from the Washington office have been limited to a detailed
rebuttal of AIPAC’s alleged role in receiving classified material from
Franklin, followed by a pitch for statements of support, say aides.
AIPAC’s Washington briefers have shied away from addressing the broader
charges against Franklin, or any other possible allegation about the
Pentagon leaking drafts of its Iran policy. But Kohr has made himself
very clear that a public statement about AIPAC’s integrity would be
appreciated, while a more forceful, if less tactful, play for
congressional support has come in phone calls from Jewish political
leaders across the country, say congressional aides for members
contacted by AIPAC. In many cases, AIPAC lobbyists
have been very specific about how they wanted the lawmakers’ statements
to be phrased. But in other instances, requests have been made in
general terms, asking only for a public expression of support. AIPAC,
which does not give political donations but spends roughly $1 million a
year on lobbying, has received supportive statements from nearly every
key congressional leader."
The Likudization of the world 9/11's real legacy is that Bush has
adopted Sharon's rigid views,
By NAOMI KLEIN, The Globe and Mail,
September 9, 2004
"Russian President Vladimir Putin is so fed up with being grilled over
his handling of the Beslan catastrophe that he lashed out at foreign
journalists on Monday. "Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him
to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks," he demanded. "No
one has a moral right to tell us to talk to child-killers." Mr. Putin is
not a man who likes to be second-guessed. Fortunately for him, there is
still one place where he is shielded from all the critics:
Israel. On Monday, Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon warmly welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for a
meeting about strengthening ties in the fight against terror ... The
underlying message is unequivocal: Russia and Israel are engaged in the
very same war, one not against Palestinians demanding their right to
statehood, or against Chechens demanding their independence, but against
"the global Islamic terror threat." Israel, as the elder statesman, is
claiming the right to set the rules of war. Not surprisingly, the rules
are the same ones Mr. Sharon uses against the intifada in the
occupied territories. His starting point is that Palestinians are only
interested in annihilating Israel. From this basic belief, several
others follow. First, all Israeli violence against Palestinians is an
act of self-defence, necessary to the country's very survival. Second,
anyone who questions Israel's absolute right to erase the enemy is an
enemy. This applies to the United Nations, other world leaders, to
journalists, to peaceniks. Mr. Putin has clearly been taking notes, but
it's not the first time that Israel has played this mentoring role. On
Sept. 12, 2001, Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was
asked how the previous day's terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington would affect relations between Israel and the United States.
"It's very good," he said. "Well, not very good,
but it will generate immediate sympathy." The attacks, Mr.
Netanyahu explained, would "strengthen the bond between our two
peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many decades, but the
United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror."
Common wisdom has it that, after Sept. 11, a new era of geopolitics was
ushered in, defined by what is usually called the "Bush doctrine":
pre-emptive wars, attacks on "terrorist infrastructure" (read entire
countries), and an insistence that all the enemy understands is force.
It would be more accurate to call this rigid world
view the "Likud doctrine." What happened on Sept. 11 is that the
Likud doctrine, previously used only against Palestinians, was picked up
by the most powerful nation on Earth and applied on a global scale. Call
it the Likudization of the world, the real
legacy of Sept. 11 ... And now the Likudization narrative has spread to
Russia ... There has, indeed, been a dramatic and dangerous rise in
religious fundamentalism in the Muslim world. The problem is that, under
the Likud doctrine, there is no space to ask why this is happening. We
are not allowed to point out that fundamentalism breeds in failed
states, where warfare has systematically targeted civilian
infrastructure, allowing the mosques to start taking responsibility for
everything from education to garbage collection. It has happened in
Gaza, in Grozny, in Sadr City. Mr. Sharon says terrorism is an epidemic
that "has no borders, no fences," but this is not the case. Terrorism
thrives within the illegitimate borders of occupation and dictatorship;
it festers behind "security walls" put up by imperial powers; it crosses
those borders and climbs over those fences to explode inside the
countries responsible for, or complicit in, occupation and domination."
Jewish Woman Named to Canadian High Court,
By Sheldon Gordon, [Jewish] Forward,
September 10, 2004
"Rosalie Abella, a flamboyant legal trailblazer who at age 29 was
appointed Canada's first Jewish female judge, has now become the first
Jewish female named to the Supreme Court of Canada. Abella, who
was promoted last month from the Ontario Court of Appeal, has "strong
credentials," said Lorraine Weinrib, a University of Toronto law
professor. "Her deep understanding of protecting the rights of the
disadvantaged would permeate her work, but it [won't] shift the balance
on the [high] court." Ed Morgan, president of the Canadian Jewish
Congress and also a University of Toronto law professor, calls her
"incredibly lively and interesting." If anything, that's an
understatement. Rosie, as her many fans call her, is known for
her big red hair and her gregarious personality — and for wearing orange
tights under her judicial robes in court. She has a high profile not
only as a liberal jurist whose groundbreaking
rulings have delighted gays and feminists, but also as a public
intellectual who gives outspoken lectures on Canada's Charter of Rights,
antisemitism and other issues of concern to
her. Born Rosalie Silberman in 1946 to Holocaust survivors in a
displaced persons camp in Germany, she and her parents came to Canada as
refugees on an American troop ship when she was 4 years old. She is
married to prominent Jewish historian Irving Abella, a former
president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. In
addition to her duties as a jurist, she sits on the International Board
of Governors of the Hebrew University, and is a member of the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience.
Honored last December by the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews,
Abella spoke forcefully about "Western Europe's seeming indifference to,
and the United Nation's active collaboration in,
the spread of antisemitism." "What we are witnessing today is the
globalization of intolerance and antisemitism is the canary in the
mine," she said in her address. "Does it really matter why some people
and countries are antisemitic? Isn't it enough that they are? Why people
hate Jews does not justify their prejudice. The root cause of prejudice
is prejudice. The motive or explanation is irrelevant.
To create an exculpatory link between Israel and
antisemitism is offensive and cowardly" ... In 1998, she held in
the Rosenberg case that same-sex partners are entitled to
survivor benefits equivalent to married heterosexual couples under the
Income Tax Act — a ruling that spurred the federal government to change
dozens of statutes ... Abella's elevation, and that of Judge
Louise Charron, also from the Ontario Court of Appeal, will bring the
nine-member Supreme Court up to full strength for a busy fall sitting
that begins in October with a landmark hearing on same-sex marriage. For
the first time, there will be two Jewish gavel
jockeys wearing the high court robes. Justice Morris Fish,
a Montrealer, was appointed a year ago."
Aipac Calls for Increased Contributions in Time of Crisis,
[Jewish] Forward, September 10, 2004
"Under FBI investigation and faced with embarrassing daily press
reports, America's pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse
is calling on its members for additional contributions. In an
email to supporters, leaders of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee declared: "Please help us to continue to do our critical work
by sending us a special, additional contribution today. Your support at
this moment will give us needed resources and will demonstrate to our
adversaries that the pro-Israel community is stronger than ever." The
e-mail, signed by Aipac's executive director, Howard Kohr, and
its president, Bernice Manocherian, assured members of the
organizations that "any allegation of criminal conduct by Aipac or our
employees is false and baseless. Neither Aipac nor any of its employees
has violated any laws or rules, nor have Aipac or our employees ever
received information we believed was secret or classified." The
fund-raising e-mail goes on to state that "the allegations are not just
about Aipac. The very essence of the U.S.-Israel
relationship is under assault." At such a time, Kohr and
Manocherian wrote, it is vital for Aipac to
demonstrate financial strength. "Why?" they wrote.
"Decision-makers in Washington will be measuring your commitment to
Aipac as an indicator of Aipac's overall strength. One of the few ways
they can gauge confidence in Aipac is by looking at our relative
financial strength." According to Kohr and Manocherian,
"Aipac is the only organization of its kind working with Congress and
the administration to protect America and Israel from terrorism and to
stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. If we do not work to help
ensure Israel's safety, who do we think will?"
The Neo-Con Trojan Horse. Neo-Cons as Spies.
Neocons Blast Bush's Inaction On 'Spy' Affair,
By MARC PERELMAN, [Jewish] Forward,
September 10, 2004
"In an indication of their growing estrangement with the Bush
administration, neoconservatives are slamming the White House for
failing to stop what they describe as an
antisemitic campaign to marginalize them being conducted by the
CIA and the State Department. This view was outlined in a memo
circulating among neoconservative foreign policy analysts in Washington.
Obtained by the Forward, the memo criticizes the White House for not
refuting press reports on the FBI's investigation of Pentagon analyst
Lawrence Franklin that suggest wrongdoing on the part of Jewish
officials at the Defense Department. "If there is any truth to any of
the accusations, why doesn't the White House demand that they bring on
the evidence? On the record," the memo stated. "There's
an increasing antisemitic witch hunt." A source who has seen the
memo said it was written by Michael Rubin, a former member of the
Pentagon's policy planning staff who dealt with Iran policy. Rubin, now
a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, declined to
comment for this story. "I feel like I'm in Paris, not Washington," the
author of the memo wrote. He added: "I'm disappointed at the lack of
leadership that let things get where they are, and which is allowing
these bureaucratics (sic) to spin out of control." The memo comes as the
FBI is investigating the possibility that Franklin passed classified
information on Iran policy to officials of the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee, who in turn provided the documents to Israel ...
While they generally refuse to speak on the record, some former
intelligence and law-enforcement officials have alleged that Israel
operates an aggressive spying operation in America ... Retired general
Anthony Zinni, a former chief of the U.S. Central Command and
presidential Middle East envoy, told CBS in May that "the
worst-kept secret in Washington" was that the neoconservatives pushed
the war in Iraq for Israel's benefit. Similar criticism of Israel
and Jewish groups appeared in the recent book "Imperial Hubris," by
Anonymous, who was later identified as Michael Scheuer, a serving senior
CIA official. "Objectively, al Qaeda does not seem
off the mark when it describes the U.S.-Israel relationship as a
detriment to America," wrote Scheuer, a
former head of the CIA analytical team focusing on Al Qaeda. "One
can only react to this stunning reality by giving all praise to Israel's
diplomats, politicians, intelligence services, U.S.-citizen spies, and
the retired senior U.S. officials and wealthy Jewish-American
organizations who lobby an always amenable Congress on Israel's behalf"
... To back up claims of antisemitism, the memo points to reports that
the FBI has hired Stephen Green, a longtime critic of American-Israeli
ties, as a consultant. A former United Nations official, Green has a
long record of claiming that Israel uses Jewish
Americans, some of them prominent, to spy on the United States.
Green has said in interviews that FBI officials interviewed him at
length in the past few weeks. "Green has... been on a one-man mission to
expose deep-cover Israeli agents for decades," the memo said. Green
stresssed that the bureau had sought him out "and not the other way
around" and that its officials did not ask about Franklin but about
leading neoconservative like Wolfowitz and Feith."
The world Jewish-Zionist conquest of Germany Discussed
Schlepping to Moguldom,
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, New York Times,
September 5, 2004
"HAIM SABAN, one of the nation's richest and most improbable
media magnates, was slouched in a leather seat aboard his Gulfstream jet
during a trip from Los Angeles to New York this spring,
rattling on about his support for Israel. After devouring a bagel
covered in lox, he leaned forward and launched into his favorite story
from the Democratic presidential primaries. "Did I tell you what Howard
Dean told me?" he asked, knowing full well that he had not, at least not
yet today. "Do you know how he tells me that he is going to support
Israel?" he recounted, with a look of incredulity. "He tells me, 'Don't
you know my wife is Jewish?' " Mr. Saban, 59, let out a sharp
laugh, pausing for effect, before delivering his punch line. "Do you
know what I told him? I said, 'Governor, the fact that your wife is
Jewish is your problem.' " A self-described "cartoon schlepper," Mr.
Saban became a billionaire by turning the Mighty Morphin Power
Rangers into a global franchise that he merged with Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation and, in 2001, sold to the Walt Disney Company for $5.3
billion. He has since emerged as perhaps the most politically connected
mogul in Hollywood, throwing his weight and money around Washington and,
increasingly, the world, trying to influence all things Israeli. "I'm
a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel," he said in his first
extensive interview in years. To that end, he has
become one of the largest individual donors in the country to the
Democratic Party and its candidates, giving millions over the
past decade - $7 million in just one donation to the Democratic National
Committee in 2002. He recently had Senator John Kerry over to his
chateau-style home in Beverly Hills. ("We played guitar and kibitzed,"
he said.) He regularly spends hours at a time on the phone with Ariel
Sharon, the Israeli prime minister. He vacations with Bill Clinton.
At the same time, Mr. Saban has been bidding - or at least
kicking the tires - on media properties around the world as he looks to
expand his empire and, by extension, his political
reach. But what really has people talking in Hollywood and
Washington is his most ambitious project yet: he
is the proud owner of the largest television broadcaster in Germany.
"I know, I know. I get the irony," he said with a smile. A year ago, Mr.
Saban beat out his one-time partner, Mr. Murdoch, and many other
media titans to buy the broadcaster, ProSiebenSat.1 Media, putting him
in control of a company that owns the rough
equivalent of CBS, ABC, TBS and Nickelodeon. "That
level of ownership would never be allowed in the U.S.," he
acknowledged. "It would be too much concentration."
Since taking over the broadcaster, he has turned it around - cutting
costs and sending it American hits like "The OC," a Fox Network series
about teenage tribulations, and "Nip/Tuck," a drama centered in a
plastic surgery clinic. Not only is the company making money, but Mr.
Saban may finally be shaking a reputation that has long dogged him:
that he has gone further on luck than talent. "It's easy to be jealous
of someone like Haim," said Peter Chernin,
president and chief executive of the News Corporation. "But I
think the Germany situation has the potential to be not just a financial
score but serve as the cornerstone of something
bigger." That, Mr. Saban readily acknowledged, is the plan. As
one of the richest people in Hollywood, he hears about possible deals
constantly. He is toying with the idea of buying The Jerusalem Post from
Hollinger International, which has been canvassing for buyers. "If they
ever come to earth with the price, I would be interested in it," he
said. He has also stirred controversy in Britain, where
he publicly expressed interest in buying ITV, the
country's biggest commercial network, while accusing its competitors,
BBC News and Sky News, the news arm of the pay-TV provider British Sky
Broadcasting, of pro-Arab coverage. Of course, not every
deal has panned out. Last year, he joined a consortium led by Edgar
Bronfman Jr. that was bidding on Warner Music, only to drop out at
the 11th hour, worried that the group was overpaying ... " Mr. Saban's
path to moguldom has certainly been unusual. He was born in Egypt but
fled to Tel Aviv with his parents, his brother and his grandmother after
the 1956 Suez War. Struggling to get by, the family lived in a one-room
apartment and shared a bathroom, he recalled, "with
a hooker and a pimp." As a teenager, he took up the bass guitar
and began managing bands and promoting concerts. But his business was
wiped out by the 1973 Yom Kippur War and he decided to move to Paris
with his business partner, Shuki Levy. HIS big break came soon
after that. While vacationing in Tel Aviv, he got a call from a producer
in Paris who wanted one of Mr. Saban's clients, Noam Kaniel,
a child singer, to record the theme song for a cartoon called
"Goldorak," which was wildly popular in France in the 70's. So he flew
back to France and headed to the studi ... With the hottest children's
show in the world on his hands [Mighty Morphin Power Rangers], Mr. Saban
formed a joint venture with Fox in 1996. It turned out to be a shrewd
move. The next year, the venture acquired the Family Channel from its
founder, Pat Robertson, for $1.9 billion and turned it into the Fox
Family Channel. Four years later, Michael D. Eisner, the Disney
chief executive, negotiated a deal to buy the channel for Disney for
$5.3 billion. The deal is considered one of Mr. Eisner's worst,
one that he has acknowledged as a drag on his company. But Mr. Saban
walked away with some $2 billion for himself ... In any event, some
of the proceeds from that sale helped to underwrite Mr. Saban's
relatively newfound passion: politics. He
said he caught the political bug in the mid-1990's, when he felt that
support for Israel was slipping in the United States. He and his wife,
Cheryl (who, by the way, is not Jewish), slept in the White House
several times during President Clinton's two terms. And Mr. Saban
has remained close to the former president. "Haim Saban has been
a very good friend, supporter and adviser to me," Mr. Clinton said in an
e-mail message. "I am grateful for his commitment
to Israel, to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and to
my foundation's work, particularly on reconciliation issues." Mr.
Clinton might have added that he is also grateful for Mr. Saban's
commitment to the Democratic Party, including his $7 million donation
two years ago, the largest individual donation in
its history. While Mr. Saban is a vocal opponent of
President Bush - "I think Bush is just messing it up every day more" -
he supports some of Mr. Bush's policies. "On the issues of security and
terrorism I am a total hawk," he said. "I'm a Democrat for the
reinforcement of the Patriot Act. It's not strong enough. The A.C.L.U.
can eat their heart out, but they are living in the 1970's.
We should all have ID's. You betcha. What
do you have to hide? Some friends of mine on the left side think I'm
crazy." Why is he so supportive of Israel? "I hate quoting Tom DeLay, I
really do," Mr. Saban said. "If you're going to quote me quoting Tom
DeLay, say I hate quoting him." He continued, apparently quoting Mr.
DeLay, the House Republican leader: "He said: 'It is the right thing for
us to do to be supportive of Israel. The reasons go back to the
beginning of time.' " Mr. Saban's views on the matter are
straightforward. He is a tireless cheerleader for
Israel. But when it comes to conflict there, his views are hardly
sanguine. "I'm going to make a very controversial statement and I hope
to God that I am proven totally wrong: I think that any resolution will
have to go both on the Palestinian side and Israeli side to some form of
civil war. It's not going to be without spilling blood." In 2002, he
pledged $13 million to start a research organization at the Brookings
Institution called the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. ("I've heard
from leaders on both sides of the aisle in the United States and leaders
in Europe about what Sharon shouldn't do," he said. "I've haven't heard
one educated suggestion about what he should do.") Mr. Saban
spends hours every week drumming up support for a variety of charitable
causes and, especially, for Israel,
sponsoring lunches and dinners at his home and around the country to
raise money for candidates who he believes will support his cause. "He
has no hesitation to bang on your door for a cause he believes in," said
Ron Meyer, president of Universal Studios, who called Mr.
Saban one of the few guys "who puts his money where his mouth is."
In a faxed letter, Mr. Sharon said of Mr. Saban: "To me he will always
be a dear personal friend ... He added that the German government had
been very supportive of him, but not because of his history. "There have
been all kinds of theories because of the fact that I'm an
Israeli-American and the like,'' he said. "I don't think so. I think
it's a pure economic issue." Well, maybe not all economics. Haim Saban
"is not like one of the guys just assembling trophy properties," said
Steven Rattner, the managing director of the Quadrangle Group, an
investment firm that backed Mr. Saban in ProSi ebenSat.1. "He'd
rather be considered a mogul in Germany than here,'' Mr. Rattner said. "He
thinks Germany is critical to Israel."
U.S. government might be interested in "monitoring and combating"
criticism of Israel and the Jewish Lobby in HR 4230
H.R.4230. Title: To authorize the establishment within the
Department of State of an Office to Monitor and
Combat Anti-Semitism, to require inclusion in annual Department
of State reports of information concerning acts of anti-Semitism around
the world, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Lantos, Tom
[CA-12] (introduced 4/28/2004) Cosponsors (34)
President Bush Deserves Our Votes,
By Ed Koch, Our Jerusalem (from
Jewish Press), August 18, 2004
"My decision to vote for the reelection of President George W. Bush,
despite the fact that I am a life-long Democrat, has caused some to call
me a turncoat. But am I really? Or am I moving in a direction the
Democratic Party itself should be going? As mayor of New York City, I
described myself as ca liberal with sanity. It troubled me that over the
years, the Democratic Party had drifted toward the radical left ... Over
the years, I have crossed party lines in mayoral elections because I
believed that John Lindsay, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg,
for whom I campaigned and voted, would be far better for the City of New
York than the Democratic candidates running against them. Party
affiliation is an important consideration but should never be
dispositive when casting a vote. Now, for the first time in my life, I
am going to vote for a Republican candidate for president, the incumbent
George W. Bush ... Why have I endorsed George W. Bush
when I don't agree with him on a single domestic
issue? Because I believe the issue of international terrorism
trumps all other issues. I don't believe the Democratic Party has the
stomach and commitment to deliver on this issue ...
I am a Jew proud of my people's history and
accomplishments. Over the years, I have expressed
my anxieties at the escalating worldwide anti-Semitism that now abounds
in Western European countries such as France, England, Germany, Belgium,
Holland and throughout Eastern Europe, including Russia. We
haven't seen the likes of this rising tide of hatred directed at Jews
since the 1930's. So of course I am interested
in the views of the two presidential candidates toward Israel and its
security. President George W. Bush has amazed me. Bush 41,
the father, was not particularly good on this issue. I do not believe
that he is anti-Semitic, but his secretary of state, James Baker,
perhaps summed up the attitude prevailing in that administration when he
said, "[expletive] the Jews. They don't vote for us anyway." Bush 43,
the son, has fallen far from that tree. I believe most Jewish leaders
will concede that of all U.S. presidents, Bush 43
has been the most supportive and protective of the security of the State
of Israel ... Jews have priorities and are entitled to them just
like every other ethnic group in America ... Having such
priorities does not make you less
American, but more American. For Jews, it is the
security of the State of Israel ... There is nothing wrong with
American Jews, concerned for the safety of all Americans, to be grateful
that President Bush supports the State of Israel when European states in
fear of terrorism capitulate to the demands of the terrorists and are
hostile to Israel."
Arabs: Terror War Has Spread Instability,
Earthlink (from Associated Press),
September 11, 2004
"Victims of the Sept. 11 attacks were mourned worldwide Saturday, but in
the Middle East, amid sympathy for the dead, Arabs said
Washington's support for Israel
and the war on terror launched in the
aftermath of the World Trade Center's collapse have
only fueled anger and violence. From Egypt
to Yemen, Arabs said the world had become less safe during the three
years since 19 militants from the Middle East hijacked four passenger
planes in the United States and used them to kill more than 2,900
people. "Sept. 11 was a tragic day in our history because so many
innocent people were killed at the hands of militants, who find a
fertile ground in our region in view of the biased
U.S. policies toward Israel and against Arab causes," said
34-year-old banker Mahmoud Obeid in the Jordanian capital, Amman. The
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and other bombings since have fueled widespread
soul-searching among Arabs over the connection between Islamic extremism
and terrorism. But that has not shaken a long-held belief that U.S.
policies in the region - including Washington's
support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians -
are also to blame for fomenting the kind of
anti-American hatred that could drive people to launch an attack
of the magnitude of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York and Washington D.C.
Egyptian columnist Fahmy Howeidy called for critical self analysis from
people in the Middle East and Islamic worlds "because those people who
committed the Sept. 11 attacks ... were (also) Muslims and Arabs." "But
... the problem is the Americans don't want to criticize themselves," he
told The Associated Press. "They don't look at their policies and
mistakes, like the U.S. position toward the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By defending the terrorism committed by
Israel against the Palestinians, they are filling people with anger."
The Jewish Lobby Seeks Blinders on the Gentiles of the World as
Seen Here
Push for more government attention to anti-Semitism, but some objections,
By Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Sept. 15, 2004
"Politicians looking at what the United States can do to help quash a
rise in international anti-Semitism are arriving at different
conclusions. Republicans in the U.S. Senate are leading an effort to
raise awareness of the rise of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist attacks in
Europe and elsewhere. At the same time, a bipartisan group of policy
intellectuals is criticizing the Bush administration for not backing new
efforts to monitor and combat anti-Semitism abroad. While the
re-emergence of international anti-Semitism is a phenomenon virtually no
one in Washington disputes, opinions differ as to how to tackle it from
here. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) is pushing
legislation that would mandate an annual State Department report on
anti-Semitism and what countries are doing to combat it. It also would
create an office within the State Department to handle the issue.
“Unfortunately, anti-Semitism has had an appalling upsurge in many
countries across the globe,” Lantos told JTA. “It is my
judgement, as the only Holocaust survivor in this
Congress, that anti-Semitism deserves special attention.”
The State Department opposes the legislation, arguing it already
monitors anti-Semitism in other
annual reports. A group of 104 “prominent
Americans,” coordinated by the David S. Wyman Institute for
Holocaust Studies, sent a letter Monday to Secretary of State Colin
Powell suggesting that the fight against anti-Semitism deserves “specific,
focused attention,” and expressing disappointment that the State
Department opposes Lantos’ legislation. “This is, unfortunately, a
historic and worldwide phenomenon,” former Rep. Steve Solarz
(D-N.Y.), a coordinator of the effort, told
JTA. “We know what the consequences of anti-Semitism are.” Solarz is
joined by Jack Kemp, a former secretary of Housing and Urban
Development; Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a former U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, and James Woolsey, a former CIA director. In its official
comments on the Global Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, the State Department
said that other department reports already touch on anti-Semitism, and
that a report devoted solely to
anti-Semitism “could erode our credibility by being interpreted
as favoritism in human rights
reporting.” The department also said that anti-Semitism issues already
are coordinated out of the Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust
Issues in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Lantos said
Powell told him he agrees with the department´s position. A State
Department spokesman was unavailable for comment. Solarz and Lantos said
they think global anti-Semitism warrants the same treatment as
international human trafficking and the situation in Tibet, which are
dealt with in specific State Department reports. “The notion that Jews
are singled out for special and preferential treatment
is sort of insane,” Lantos said.
“Jews are singled out for persecution, and we need to prevent that.” The
State Department has said it does not oppose a
similar bill sponsored by Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), which
passed the Senate in May and which calls for a one-time report on global
anti-Semitism. It also requires the department to document anti-Semitic
acts in its annual reports on international religious freedom and human
rights. Lantos said he is close to a deal
with Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who is expected to sponsor
the House of Representatives’ version of the
Voinovich legislation, to amend it and make it similar to
Lantos’ vision. Lantos said he
believed the bill could be voted on this year and receive unanimous
support if he can come to an agreement with Smith.
Support for increased monitoring of anti-Semitic acts is popular
on Capitol Hill ... Republicans have been touting their efforts
against anti-Semitism as part of a larger election strategy to court the
American Jewish vote. A recent White House booklet, “President George W.
Bush: A Friend of the American Jewish Community,” focused on Bush’s
condemnation of anti-Semitic comments by the former prime minister of
Malaysia and his decision to send high-level delegations to
anti-Semitism conferences sponsored by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe."
NOBODY LIKES HIM,
By DICK MORRIS, New York Post,
September 15, 2004
"JOHN Kerry is in deeper trouble than the polls indicate. While the Fox
News survey taken last week after the Republican convention shows Bush
with a small lead over Kerry, the internal data indicates big shifts
against the Democrat. For example, Kerry is now seen unfavorably by a
record 44 percent of the voters (his personal worst), giving him a
slightly higher unfavorable ratio than Bush — whom 43 percent dislike.
(Bush's edge comes from the fact that he gets 51 percent to rate him
favorably, while Kerry has only a 46 percent favorable rating.) But
worse, the poll shows that Kerry must face a basic problem: His own
voters don't like him very much ... Kerry never had time to make America
like him. He won the nomination before anyone really got to know him and
has coasted on anti-Bush campaigning ever since. Even now, he relies on
the old National Guard records of Bush to animate his campaign, as if we
are about to form our judgment of how Bush would be as a commander based
on 30-year- old, possibly forged records rather than on our own
observation of how he has done the job. But Kerry has got to close the
most fundamental gap of his candidacy: Voters don't like him very much."
Sheriffs study antiterror tactics,
By YAAKOV KATZ, Jerusalem Post,
September 8, 2004
"The US is perceived to be somewhat like an international police officer
who travels around the world seeking justice and freedom for citizens
everywhere. This week, however, US sheriffs came
to Israel to study counterterrorism tactics from local security experts.
"We came here to study police tactics and procedures specifically in the
area of terrorism and suicide bombers," Michael Brown, sheriff of
Bedford County in southwest Virginia and a board member of the National
Sheriff Association (NSA) which organized the trip, told The Jerusalem
Post. Brown, 61, is part of a 41-man group of
sheriffs and deputy sheriffs, from all over the US here in Israel
on what he calls the "first rodeo" sent by the NSA as a pilot group,
which he hopes will pave the way for many more in
the future. Brown, who is in charge of 100 deputy sheriffs in his
county, says that American law-enforcement officials have lots to learn
from Israeli security agencies and their experience fighting the
suicide-bomber phenomenon. "Nobody is expecting suicide bombers not to
happen in America," he said during a break from a tour of the National
Police Headquarters in Jerusalem on Wednesday. "We have been lucky in a
number of ways, but to say that it can't happen in the US would be
wrong. We don't have the terrorist activity that Israel has but we have
to prepare for it." During the week-long trip, the group has so far met
with Israel Police officials and heard lectures on anti-terror tactics
and on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Later in the week, the group is
scheduled to travel up north to tour the Jordan Valley and will also
hold a training session on various weapons. The 3,000 sheriffs in
America, Brown says, are elected officials, who work face-to-face with
their constituents on a daily basis. "We are the representatives of the
local law enforcement and as elected officials we are as close to the
citizens as one can get," he said, adding that the
group participants intend to run community programs upon their return to
speak to citizens about their experiences in Israel and update
them on global terrorism. "On a professional level," Brown says he is
impressed with "the dedication of Israeli police officers, their drive,
their interest in the citizens and their professionalism." Prior to
becoming sheriff eight years ago, Brown was a federal agent assigned to
the Department of Justice. He says that already then he became aware of
Israel's law-enforcement capabilities.
Calling them "top notch and the best in the world," Brown says that in
his past job he worked together with Israeli intelligence agents and saw
then that America can learn from Israel. "We will go back with a
tremendous amount of knowledge and with an understanding of what
citizens and police officers contend with here on a daily basis," he
said. "I think we need this and I think all law enforcement in the US
would benefit from seeing what Israelis contend with."
The Chechens' American friends. The Washington neocons' commitment to
the war on terror evaporates in Chechnya, whose cause they have made
their own,
by John Laughland, The Guardian (UK),
September 8, 2004
"An enormous head of steam has built up behind the view that President
Putin is somehow the main culprit in the grisly events in North Ossetia.
Soundbites and headlines such as "Grief turns to anger", "Harsh words
for government", and "Criticism mounting against Putin" have abounded,
while TV and radio correspondents in Beslan have been pressed on air to
say that the people there blame Moscow as much as the terrorists. There
have been numerous editorials encouraging us to understand - to quote
the Sunday Times - the "underlying causes" of Chechen terrorism (usually
Russian authoritarianism), while the widespread use of the word "rebels"
to describe people who shoot children shows a surprising indulgence in
the face of extreme brutality. On closer
inspection, it turns out that this so-called "mounting criticism" is in
fact being driven by a specific group in the Russian political spectrum
- and by its American supporters. The leading Russian critics of
Putin's handling of the Beslan crisis are the pro-US politicians
Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Ryzhkov - men associated with the extreme
neoliberal market reforms which so devastated the
Russian economy under the west's beloved Boris Yeltsin - and the
Carnegie Endowment's Moscow Centre. Funded by its
New York head office, this influential thinktank - which operates
in tandem with the military-political Rand Corporation, for instance in
producing policy papers on Russia's role in helping the US restructure
the "Greater Middle East" - has been quoted
repeatedly in recent days blaming Putin for the Chechen atrocities.
The centre has also been assiduous over recent months in arguing against
Moscow's claims that there is a link between the Chechens and al-Qaida.
These people peddle essentially the same line as that expressed by
Chechen leaders themselves, such as Ahmed Zakaev, the London exile who
wrote in these pages yesterday. Other prominent figures who use the
Chechen rebellion as a stick with which to beat Putin include Boris
Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch who, like Zakaev, was granted
political asylum in this country, although the Russian authorities want
him on numerous charges. Moscow has often accused Berezovsky of
funding Chechen rebels in the past. By the same token, the BBC and other
media sources are putting it about that Russian TV played down the
Beslan crisis, while only western channels reported live, the
implication being that Putin's Russia remains a highly controlled police
state. But this view of the Russian media is precisely the opposite of
the impression I gained while watching both CNN and Russian TV over the
past week: the Russian channels had far better information and images
from Beslan than their western competitors. This harshness towards Putin
is perhaps explained by the fact that, in the US, the leading group
which pleads the Chechen cause is the American Committee for Peace in
Chechnya (ACPC). The list of the self-styled
"distinguished Americans" who are its members is a rollcall of the most
prominent neoconservatives who so enthusastically support the "war on
terror". They include Richard Perle, the notorious Pentagon
adviser; Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra fame; Kenneth Adelman,
the former US ambassador to the UN who egged on the invasion of Iraq by
predicting it would be "a cakewalk"; Midge Decter, biographer of
Donald Rumsfeld and a director of the rightwing Heritage Foundation;
Frank Gaffney of the militarist Centre for Security Policy; Bruce
Jackson, former US military intelligence officer and one-time
vice-president of Lockheed Martin, now president of the US Committee on
Nato; Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, a
former admirer of Italian fascism and now a leading proponent of regime
change in Iran; and R James Woolsey, the former CIA director who is one
of the leading cheerleaders behind George Bush's plans to re-model the
Muslim world along pro-US lines. The ACPC heavily promotes the idea that
the Chechen rebellion shows the undemocratic nature of Putin's Russia,
and cultivates support for the Chechen cause by emphasising the
seriousness of human rights violations in the tiny Caucasian republic.
It compares the Chechen crisis to those other fashionable "Muslim"
causes, Bosnia and Kosovo - implying that only international
intervention in the Caucasus can stabilise the situation there. In
August, the ACPC welcomed the award of political asylum in the US, and a
US-government funded grant, to Ilyas Akhmadov, foreign minister in the
opposition Chechen government, and a man Moscow describes as a
terrorist. Coming from both political parties, the ACPC members
represent the backbone of the US foreign policy establishment, and their
views are indeed those of the US administration. Although the White
House issued a condemnation of the Beslan hostage-takers, its official
view remains that the Chechen conflict must be solved politically.
According to ACPC member Charles Fairbanks of Johns Hopkins University,
US pressure will now increase on Moscow to achieve a political, rather
than military, solution - in other words to negotiate with terrorists, a
policy the US resolutely rejects elsewhere. Allegations are even being
made in Russia that the west itself is somehow behind the Chechen
rebellion, and that the purpose of such support is to weaken Russia, and
to drive her out of the Caucasus."
Is Israel 'Swing State' That Could Tip U.S. Election?,
Reuters, Sep 14, 2004
"BETRAYED BY BUSH? Whatever votes the Democrats lose in Israel could be
offset by gains among the estimated 40,000-strong Palestinian-American
communities of the West Bank and Gaza. Traditionally conservative, they
and their fellow Arab-Americans voted mostly for Bush in 2000 but are
now ready to abandon him in droves. Anti-Bush sentiment has taken root
in Deir Dibwan, where half of the village's 10,000 inhabitants hold U.S.
passports and local restaurants cater to a taste for hamburgers and
pizza. Palestinians from Deir Dibwan have a long tradition of emigrating
to the United States, where some have earned their fortunes before
returning to build luxury villas atop the rocky hills. Many are now
moving back to America, embittered by what they see as Bush
administration complicity in an Israeli military crackdown that has
crippled the Palestinian economy. Palestinian-Americans are also
furious at Bush for agreeing Israel should be allowed to retain large
swathes of the West Bank and bar the return of refugees under any future
peace deal. While harboring few illusions that a Democratic White House
would significantly alter Middle East policy, some are holding out hope
that Kerry would take a more even-handed approach. "I voted for Bush and
he betrayed us," said Mohammed, 30, a California-registered voter. "This
time I'm going for Kerry. If that doesn't bring us justice, it'll be
Ralph Nader in 2008."
Pollardites in the Pentagon?,
by Pat Buchanan, World Net Daily, September
8, 2004
"In 1987, Jonathan Pollard, U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, was
imprisoned for life for selling a roomful of U.S. secret documents to
Israel. Tel Aviv refused to return them. At the Clinton-Netanyahu
summit at Wye River, Pollard became a subject of contention.
"Bibi" Netanyahu wanted to fly the American traitor back to Israel
where he is a hero. Clinton balked. CIA's George Tenet would resign,
Clinton told Netanyahu, if he pardoned Pollard. This
history is recalled for a reason. Washington today is rife with reports
the FBI has been investigating whether or not a
nest of Pollardites inside the Pentagon has been funneling secrets,
through the Israeli lobby AIPAC, to the Reno Road embassy and on
to Sharon. Suspected mole Larry Franklin, a Pentagon Iranian
analyst, was reportedly sighted trying to hand over to an AIPAC official
a draft copy of a National Security Presidential Directive on Iran. With
the mullahs apparently pursuing atomic bombs,
Israel wants the United States to attack, denuclearize and bring down
its No. 1 enemy, the regime in Tehran. Franklin popped up on FBI
radar when he joined a breakfast meeting between an AIPAC man and an
Israeli diplomat. AIPAC had been under FBI
surveillance for over two years as a probable conduit to Israel of the
fruits of espionage against the United States. Franklin, a devout
Catholic and hawk on Iran, is now said to be cooperating with the FBI.
His boss, William Luti, is the deputy to the Pentagon's No. 3,
Douglas Feith, who has close ties to Likud. According to the
Washington Post, the FBI is now interviewing present and ex-officials
from Cheney's office and the Pentagon as to whether Feith,
Richard Perle, David Wurmser and Paul Wolfowitz might
have leaked U.S. security secrets to Israel, AIPAC or Ahmed Chalabi.
Chalabi, once the Pentagon's candidate to succeed Saddam, has lately
fallen from favor ... In 1970, Perle was
picked up on an FBI wiretap discussing NSC secrets with the Israeli
Embassy. In 1981, as assistant secretary of defense, Perle
got a top-secret security clearance for his chosen deputy Stephen
Bryen, who is said to have narrowly eluded indictment
for offering top-secret documents to Mossad's man
in Washington. In 1982, Feith was
the object of an inquiry as to whether he had given secret documents to
the Israeli Embassy. Fired from the NSC,
he was hired by Perle. Feith left the Pentagon
in 1986 to form a law firm – in Israel.
Hired by Rumsfeld in 2001, Feith set up the Office of Special
Plans, which cherry-picked the intelligence to the White House that
turned out to be false, but facilitated the war on Iraq ... In the first
hours after 9-11, according to Bob Woodward and Clarke, Wolfowitz
wanted Iraq invaded, not Afghanistan. For his role in steering us into
war, Wolfowitz was named Man of the Year –
by the Jerusalem Post. In my new book, "Where the Right Went
Wrong," there is a line that now appears prophetic: "America
needs a Middle East policy made in the USA, not in Tel Aviv, or at AIPAC
or AEI." Having promised him a cakewalk to Baghdad and a rose
garden thereafter, neoconservatives misled President Bush. He should
have fired the lot of them. Having failed to do so, he ought now, in his
own interests, as well as our nation's, name Patrick "Bulldog"
Fitzgerald, now heading up the investigation into the Valerie Plame
leak, to head up the investigation of Israeli espionage,
and possible treason, against the United
States."
Why West is losing,
By Eric Margolis, Toronto Sun, September 12,
2004
"Three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks,
America's politicians and media continue to gravely deceive the public about
the so-called war on terrorism. Now the definitive book on terrorism
has appeared that should be mandatory reading for every thinking person.
It's called Imperial Hubris: Why The West is Losing the War on Terror.
The cover simply identifies the author as "Anonymous," but he's already been
widely identified in the American media as Michael Scheuer, a senior
terrorism analyst for the CIA. It is unprecedented that a serving CIA
officer was allowed to publish a book, one that is clearly a dramatic rebuke
to the neoconservatives who drove the U.S. into two wars. Scheuer's work is
a goldmine of information and brilliant analysis. It breaks taboos and
sweeps away the clouds of lies about al-Qaida, Iraq and Afghanistan. He says
U.S. leaders refuse to accept the obvious -- "we are
fighting a worldwide Islamic insurgency -- not criminality or terrorism."
The U.S. has made only "a modest dent in enemy forces." None of bin Laden's
reasons for waging war on the U.S., writes Scheuer, "have anything to do
with our freedom, liberty, and democracy (as President George Bush claims),
but everything to do with U.S. policies and actions in the Muslim world,"
notably unlimited support for Israel's repression
of the Palestinians and the destruction of Iraq. "For cheap,
easily accessible oil, Washington and the West have supported Muslim
tyrannies (Osama) bin Laden and other Islamists seek to destroy," Scheuer
writes. "The war has the potential to last beyond
our children's lifetimes and be fought mostly on U.S. soil." A
coup for bin Laden Bin Laden, argues Scheuer, is widely viewed by much of
the Muslim world, infuriated by American actions in the Mideast, as neither
a terrorist or madman but as a skilled warrior, the sole Muslim leader
standing up to predatory western powers. Ironically
U.S. and British military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq "are
completing the radicalization of the Islamic world," a prime bin Laden goal.
Bush's misbegotten invasion of Iraq was "icing on bin Laden's cake." The
threat today facing America "is the defensive jihad (holy struggle), an
Islamic military reaction triggered by an attack by
non-Muslims on the Islamic faith, on Muslims, on Muslim territory."
Muslims are increasingly fighting back. The Muslim world believes it is
under total attack led by Bush -- a massive effort to crush all who oppose
U.S. domination, destroy Islam's inherent political role, eliminate Muslim
charities, impose western values on the Islamic world
and maintain puppet rulers -- "spreading democracy" in Bush's lexicon.
Terrorism is merely the tactics of the poor
fighting the rich. The ultimate taboo "U.S. military operations
in the Muslim world," he adds, "validate bin Laden's contention the U.S. is
attacking Islam and supports any country willing to kill or persecute
Muslims." Scheuer, breaking the ultimate taboo,
observes of Washington's "one-way alliance" with Israel that "Israelis
have succeeded in lacing tight the ropes binding the American Gulliver to
the ... Jewish state and its policies." The wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq are lost causes, Scheuer concludes. The U.S. is totally unable to
create legitimate governments in either chaotic nation, only puppet regimes,
supported by American bayonets. If the U.S. stays, it will bleed endlessly;
if it retreats, it faces political disaster. Washington, he charges, has no
strategy and is merely "winging it." In one of his most acute insights,
Scheuer explains the U.S. cannot, for all of its riches, buy its way to
victory in Afghanistan or Iraq. "Honour is still the currency of value in
the Middle East, more so than goods and services." Blood-links trump all
other affiliations or loyalties. Honour is why the Taliban refused to hand
over bin Laden to the U.S., a man they regarded as their guest and a war
hero, and why he has still not been betrayed in spite of a $25-million US
reward in a nation where the annual income is $147. At least there is one
person in Washington who understands the violence surrounding us -- and has
the courage and patriotism to tell Americans the truth: Their own arrogance
and ignorance are driving them into a no-win war against 1.3 billion
Muslims."
[Jeff Jacoby is Jewish.]
The Sweetheart Contract With
Sharon,
by Patrick Buchanan, antiwar.com, November 17,
2004
"'In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows,
hanged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. ...
In a better world, George Bush would not have said, on hearing the first
reports that Arafat had died, 'God bless his soul.'
"God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! ... God, I am quite sure, will
damn him for eternity."
So writes
Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe. And we are
surely fortunate to have columnists who know the mind of God. In defense of
President Bush, if that was his first reaction to Arafat's death, it
bespeaks a Christian heart. As a boy in World War II, I was taught by
Catholic nuns that while permissible to pray for the death of Hitler or Tojo,
it was impermissible to pray for their damnation. That
was hatred, and hatred is a sin. That Arafat's PLO harbored
terrorists and his Fatah committed acts of terror is undeniable. And some of
those acts were done with Arafat's approval. But if, as Jacoby writes,
Arafat "inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich,"
why did Ehud Barak offer him 95 percent of the West Bank
and a capital in Jerusalem? Why did "Bibi" Netanyahu give
him Hebron? Why did Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin
share a Nobel Prize with him? Why did Bill Clinton invite him to
the White House more times than any other leader? Were they all enablers of
terrorism? No. All realized something that neoconservatives reject. For
better or worse, as the explosion of grief at his death demonstrated, Arafat
came to personify and symbolize the just cause of
Palestinian nationhood. And if one desires peace for Israel, that cause must
be accommodated."
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