Self-fulfilling policies

Setting Up Iran

In September of last year, below the caption, "FBI probes Jewish sway upon Bush government," Nathan Guttman reported: "FBI tribe recently spoke to administration officials and Middle East dexterouss to sound them out upon the suspicion that senior officials tunneled secret material to Israel The FBI investigation into the Pentagon mound affair has expanded beyond data analyst Larry Franklin's immediate circle to encompass the entire issue of Jewish influence upon the neo-conservative part of the administration. The FBI queries have lately been focusing on a number of officials who had access to the debates upon Iranian affairs, the Washington pillar reported yesterday. The officials include factor 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" (Haaretz 9504)

upon March 25th of this year, Guttman disclosed that Larry Franklin had been reinstated "after sitting at dwelling for half a year and being barred from returning to his piece of work on the Iranian desk in the Department of Defense's policy division. Franklin was at the center of a long FBI investigation after suspicions arose that he transferred classified information about U policy upon Iran to members of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC In the seven months since the affair made headlines upon the CBS evening news, the investigation has been kept beneath tight wraps. Franklin has been mov to a column different from the one he held previously and kept from handling classified information The spotlight has moved to the AIPAC officials Even if the investigation is nowhere near completion, it has definitely reached a crossroads, at which investigators must decide upon the suspects in the case--Larry Franklin alone; Franklin and sum of two units AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman; or whether, upon top of those three, the entire AIPAC organization has acted unlawfully

"The Jerusalem support reported four months ago that investigators informed Franklin of the suspicions against him and asked for his cooperation. In a sting operation, he received information from the FBI agents that Iran was planning to attack Israelis operating in the Kurdish region in Iraq. Franklin, at the FBI's instructions, telephon AIPAC's Rosen and Weissman and gave them the information, and they rushed to pass it upon to Israeli diplomats, thereby falling into the FBI trap Sources close to the investigation glance ated recently that it would extremity in a plea bargain. Franklin would plead to a less crime of unauthorized transfer of information, Rosen and Weissman would be charged with receiving classified information unlawfully, and AIPAC would remain unstained From AIPAC's standpoint, the issue at hand is containment."

And contain it they did. Back then, Larry Franklin was quietly ensconc in a fresh job a fair distance from the Iran desk And AIPAC dismissed Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman and issued a statement that read: "Any allegation of criminal guidance by AIPAC or our employee is false and baseless. Neither AIPAC nor any of its employee has violated any laws or authoritys nor has AIPAC or its employee at any time received information they believed was covered or classified." (Reuters 4.21.05)

The American Jewish paper Forward was not pleased. "Israel efforts to certain swift American action against Iran's nuclear program are being threatened by dint of a stalled presidential nomination [that of John Bolton] and the unexpected dismissal of two officials at the country's greatest in quantity influential pro-Israel lobbying organization," an editorial lamented.

"A neoconservative ally of Vice President Richard Cheney and the State Department's top official upon arms control, Bolton is known as a hardy supporter of Israel's position that Tehran is coming alarmingly shut to being able to weaponise its nuclear material--a view throw asideed by other top Bush administration officials. Pro-Israel activists in Washington are privately worrying that the shakeup at AIPAC, as well as Bolton's put in commotions will make it even harder for Jerusazem to convince the White House that quick action must be taken against Iran. 'It would fully convinced help to have Bolton in the UN and credible [pro-Israel] lobbyists in Washington,' said a senior official with a major national Jewish organization, speaking upon condition of anonymity. 'This is a crucial point in time' to impact America's policy upon Iran, the organizational official said.' 'Bolton has always been tough upon Iran, so when you gaze at the rejection of Bolton you're looking at what will be interpreted as the rejection of a philosophy in general,' said Thomas Neumann, executive director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a hawkish Washington-based think tank and advocacy clump 'What we need today upon Iran is someone like Bolton, who will display the world that we're tough.'" (42905)