Along with other sources, today's
Newsday covers the story of the second FBI raid of AIPAC's offices since late August:
WASHINGTON -- For the second time this year the FBI yesterday executed search warrants at the office of the nation's most influential pro-Israel lobbying group. The agency also issued grand jury subpoenas on four of its top officers, a signal that the two-year investigation into the alleged transfer of classified material may be winding down.
More in extended copy...
As the story goes on to show, the inquiry extends as high as Executive Director Howard Kohr and Managing Director Richard Fishman.
It seems the the classified material is being traced back to Larry Franklin (who Newsday states is cooperating with the FBI), which the LA Times reveals works for one of our favorite people:
Franklin works on Iran and Middle East issues in the office of policy undersecretary Douglas J. Feith. Franklin has not commented on the probe and has not been charged.
Emphasis on Feith is my own --ed.
Also according to Newsday, Franklin was picked up after he met with Israeli personnel already under counterintelligence surveillance, and is suspected of turning over sensitive Iran-related material to them.
To your humble commentator, this has all the hallmarks of a little fish being picked up and essentially turning state's evidence for immunity, in exchange for nailing a bigger fish. My call: the BIG FISH IS DOUG FEITH.
Which obviously begs some interesting questions. We know that Feith's office was part and parcel of the effort to, ahem spin, you might say, CIA and DIA intel into versions more favorable for the case for war in Iraq. To what degree was this effort motivated by potentially pre-existing intelligence ties with Israel? Also, how soon, if at all, can we expect these jokers to be in the same boat as Pollard, the last Israeli agent put behind bars for treason? And, when will the average American realize the extent to which our "special" (read: supine) relationship with Israel has been directing our foreign policy?
This all worries me...obviously. However, the emerging pre-eminence of Evangelicals who wish to hasten the Rapture by building the 3rd Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has me even more worried that these issues will never be resolved any time soon.