(Franklin) Plea May Affect Aipac Lobbyists' Cases

[seemslikeadream]

Plea May Affect Aipac Lobbyists' Cases<
By FORWARD STAFF AND JTA
October 7, 2005

...


Rosen was Aipac's chief strategist and political enforcer for more than two decades; Weissman was the committee's former Iran specialist. Both were charged with illegally receiving the information and then sharing it with foreign officials and with journalists.

...


"I am having a hard time, Mr. DiGregory, getting over the fact that the defendants can't hear their own statements, and whether that is so fundamental that if it doesn't happen, this case will have to be dismissed," Ellis said. "Have you ever heard of a case where a defendant couldn't have his own statements? I have been on the bench 18 years, with another 20 years before that, and it has never happened."

Prosecutors said the wiretap material was "owned" by various government intelligence agencies and that it was up to those agencies to share the material.

Thomas Reilly, a Justice Department lawyer, invoked the notorious secrecy of the three-judge panel that orders wiretaps under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He suggested that the sensitivity lay not in what Rosen and Weissman had said but in the party with whom they were speaking.

"It involves FISA-derived electronic surveillance, your honor, of the defendants and third parties," Reilly said.

...

Lowell said in court that he had spoken to lawyers for the foreign officials — apparently the Israelis — and had little hope of calling them for the defense.

...

Aipac's bill for the pair's defense has topped $1 million.

Rosen and Weissman were charged with "conspiracy to communicate national defense information to people not entitled to receive it," which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Rosen also is charged with actual communication of national defense information, also punishable by 10 years in prison.

The charges come under the Espionage Act but do not rise to the level of espionage.

The indictment lists charges involving incidents dating back to 1999, and is related to information on Iran and to terrorist attacks in Central Asia and in Saudi Arabia. For a period in 2004, Franklin worked covertly with the government and relayed allegedly classified information to Rosen and Weissman. One charge against the pair accuses them of relaying the information to a foreign official, widely reported to be an Israeli Embassy staffer.


more

http://www.forward.com/articles/4585

[Me.]

1. Any Word If Franklin

accepted a plea today? Also, I hope that not being able to hear the tapes doesn't become a technicality that gets those two off.

[texpatriot2004]

2. Yeah, any word on the Franklin plea? n/t

[seemslikeadream]

3. Supposed to be today

A spokesman for the U.S. District Court clerk in Alexandria, Virginia, Edward Adams, said a hearing to accept Franklin's guilty plea had been scheduled for Wednesday. The charge or charges to which he would enter the plea were not disclosed. Franklin was indicted on five counts.

The government is not accusing Franklin, Rosen and Weissman of espionage, although the FBI has questioned at least one Israeli official.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/631009.html

[texpatriot2004]

4. Yes That's what I read too n/t

[Danmel]

5. On Rosh Hashanah no less?

Inetersting

[texpatriot2004]

6. Is that about atonement? I don't recall exactly? n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

7. No.

Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year. Yom Kippor is the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippor is coming up, though.

[Me.]

8. Here's The Story

Franklin admits: I gave Israel secret material


“Former Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin admitted in court Wednesday he passed classified information to Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon and to two former AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman.

Franklin agreed in court to testify against the two AIPAC officials and to prove that he had indeed passed classified information on to them, and had told them clearly this information was classified.

This was the first time that Israel was explicitly mentioned in the courtroom and that Gilon's name was disclosed. When asked by Judge T.S. Ellis whether he communicated classified information to a foreign official, Franklin replied: "I met occasionally with Naor Gilon from the Israeli embassy." Cont…”

JTA reported that one of the US government officials is David Satterfield, then deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and now the No. 2 man at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The other is Kenneth Pollack, a Clinton-era National Security Council staffer and now an analyst at the Brookings Institution”cont…


http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128478900053