Iran-Contra II? -- Josh Marshall article on the Pentagon mole is up

[starroute]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshallrozen.html

The investigation of Franklin is now shining a bright light on a shadowy struggle within the Bush administration over the direction of U.S. policy toward Iran. In particular, the FBI is looking with renewed interest at an unauthorized back-channel between Iranian dissidents and advisers in Feith's office, which more-senior administration officials first tried in vain to shut down and then later attempted to cover up.

Franklin, along with another colleague from Feith's office, a polyglot Middle East expert named Harold Rhode, were the two officials involved in the back-channel, which involved on-going meetings and contacts with Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar and other Iranian exiles, dissidents and government officials. Ghorbanifar is a storied figure who played a key role in embroiling the Reagan administration in the Iran-Contra affair. The meetings were both a conduit for intelligence about Iran and Iraq and part of a bitter administration power-struggle pitting officials at DoD who have been pushing for a hard-line policy of "regime change" in Iran, against other officials at the State Department and the CIA who have been counseling a more cautious approach.

Reports of two of these meetings first surfaced a year ago in Newsday, and have since been the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Whether or how the meetings are connected to the alleged espionage remains unknown. But the FBI is now closely scrutinizing them.

[aquart]

1. Gorbanifar! Yoicks.

What does this mean? That some people are gullible forever?

"Regime change." Jesus. Joseph. Mary. Good freaking God. Because it's going so well in Iraq?

[Peachhead22]

2. What about spying for Israel?

That article is a mess IMO. While all of it is likely true the passing of sensitive documents to Israel was hardly mentioned. And what about the uranium from Niger forgeries and the Plame case? Does any of that fit anywhere in this story?

So they had a back channel to some Iranian dissidents. So? Not good, but not tectonic-plate shifting. Hell, after Chalabi and the INC debacle it's hardly surprising.

[Dover]

3. This article just seems to be rehashing info presented last year

in this article (by the guy who co-produced the movie, OUTFOXED):

http://www.jimgilliam.com/2003/08/inside_rummys_office_part_2.php

Pentagon hardliners pressing for regime change in Iran have held secret and unauthorized meetings in Paris with a controversial arms dealer who was a major figure in the Iran-contra scandal, according to administration officials.

At least two Pentagon officials (Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin) working for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith have held "several" meetings with Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Iranian middleman in U.S. arms-for-hostage shipments to Iran in the mid-1980s.

The senior official and another administration source who confirmed that the meetings had taken place said that the ultimate policy objective of Feith and a group of neo-conservatives civilians inside the Pentagon is regime change in Iran.

He confirmed that Secretary of State Colin Powell complained directly to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld several days ago about Feith's policy shop conducting missions that countered U.S. policy.

...cont'd

So what's the point of the Wash. Monthly story? Unless they are laying the whole thing out sequentially, and this is just chapter one, I don't quite understand what all the hoopla is about.

[KoKo]

7. Good Catch, Dover...I know what you say..but I guess we have to hope

for the best from our "Young Turk" rising new journalist corp who are fighting to be heard against the "old guard" who've had a "Lock" on coverage for so many years that they surpass generational timelines in "claims to faim" when one is "old and grey.

I'll give Josh a pass on this one, although I think he "hyped this story" and it didn't turn out to be the blockbuster he thought, and that one of his partners, Linda Rozen seems to still be "relying on her sources" and not the "truth of it all.

I still applaud Josh, Linda, and the "other guy" for trying to get "REAL NEWS" to us...whether it's old news and they "updated" it all, or whatever..I trust them to at least try to be "somewhat" impartial since they are the "next inline" to overthrow the "Old Guard." :shrug:

[DavidFL]

4. Chalabi's role in this starts to make sense now...

Considering he was passing secrets to Iran while the Pentagon and State knew but looked the other way. It would seem he and the INC were the go-betweens between the neocons and dissidents in Iran. I seem to remember an article from around the time Chalabi's Baghdad offices were raided saying that members of the Revolutionary Guard had penetrated the INC; well, this would explain what they were doing there. It also explains Michael Rubin's pissy editorial in a Baltimore paper after the raid. The question is, did the FBI's investigation of Feith's office begin shortly after Chalabi's offices were raided and was this leg of the Feith/Luti/Franklin/Rhodes/Ghorbinfar connection what was found in Chalabi's records? If so, being that the CIA pushed for the raid of Chalabi's offices, it would seem they have a hand in working behind the scenes in this.

[Octafish]

5. Harold Rhode is a BFEE version of Indiana Jones

The BFEE turd Rhode ties Ledeen and Ghorbanifar and Feith and Perle and all the traitors of Iran-Contra together to George Herbert Walker Bush, Poppy of the BFEE. Starroute and DU have had the guy's number:


The Chalabi Affair... new names ... earlier cited by Kiatowski

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1675445


NEOCON-GATE A Must Read!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1767523


The Crimes of Iran-ContraHave Never Ended

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=598379


Washington's Chalabi nightmare (FBI grills Neocons; TREASON committed?)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=587306


Pricetag for US operations in Iraq to rise steeply: Wolfowitz

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=554212

EDIT: tippo

[reprehensor]

6. bump