FBI Probes Pentagon Spy Case

[zimv20]

link (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/27/eveningnews/main639143.shtml)


CBS News has learned that the FBI has a full-fledged espionage investigation under way and is about to -- in FBI terminology -- "roll up" someone agents believe has been spying not for an enemy, but for Israel from within the office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.

60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports the FBI believes it has "solid" evidence that the suspected mole supplied Israel with classified materials that include secret White House policy deliberations on Iran.

At the heart of the investigation are two people who work at The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

The FBI investigation, headed up by Dave Szady, has involved wiretaps, undercover surveillance and photography that CBS News was told document the passing of classified information from the mole, to the men at AIPAC, and on to the Israelis.

CBS sources say that last year the suspected spy, described as a trusted analyst at the Pentagon, turned over a presidential directive on U.S. policy toward Iran while it was, "in the draft phase when U.S. policy-makers were still debating the policy."

This put the Israelis, according to one source, "inside the decision-making loop" so they could "try to influence the outcome."

The case raises another concern among investigators: Did Israel also use the analyst to try to influence U.S. policy on the war in Iraq?

With ties to top Pentagon officials Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, the analyst was assigned to a unit within the Defense Department tasked with helping develop the Pentagon's Iraq policy.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been made aware of the case. The government notified AIPAC today that it wants information about the two employees and their contacts with a person at the Pentagon.

AIPAC told CBS News it is cooperating with the government and has hired outside counsel. It denies any wrongdoing by the organization or any of its employees.

An Israeli spokesman said, "We categorically deny these allegations. They are completely false and outrageous." The suspected spy has not returned repeated phone calls from CBS News.

[trebblekicked]

here's cnn's take LINK (http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/08/27/fbi.spy/index.html)

after reading the article, a couple of things stood out to me...

1) there are conflicting statements of how high the suspect's influence could have reached

2) it's sketchy as all hell, naming "unnamed sources" "another source" "a government official", much like the sandy berger nonsense. another non-story that sounds like a story?

3)"the united states is israel's most cherished friend and ally"

4) someone had the balls to call the evidence against the suspect a "slam-dunk case"

i'm worried about this. it's not the news that scares me; it's what people will do with it. the argument about how much influence israel has on american foreign policy (especially the neo-con variety) is very touchy, and there are some pretty pointed feelings on both sides. anti-semitism, real, implied or interpreted will be brought into this. witness the adbusters fiasco a couple of months ago...(link pending) once the cork is popped on that bottle a lot of ugly stuff can happen.

edit: here's the link (http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/52/articles/jewish.html) to the original adbusters article. i'm trying to find a link to the venomous three or four page forum debate that ensued.

A note to the (leo) people who will cry about bias or whatever: i'm not linking the article as evidence of anything, i'm not supporting it's points or denouncing them. i'm only showing that an article that touches on the subject can enrage a large proportion of a politically united group (the adbusters readership is ********** proud to be called liberal)- imagine what will happen when this issue comes up across a population as politically polarized as ours is today.

EDIT 2: adbusters is revamping their message board system, so the old messages aren't readily available. if someone deems it worthy, we can pick up the details later. :)

[IJ Reilly]

Everybody spies on everybody else, enemies and allies. This in itself is not shocking. But this could become a political story, if it turns out this alleged spy had access to or influence over the Bush administration's Mideast policy.