Finally! Some decent analysis of the Pentagon Spy Incident --

[Eloriel]

I haven't even finished reading it yet (I'm about to plow thru Update IV), but wanted to pass it along right away. From the blog, "War and Peace," which I'm not at all familiar with, tho the author claims to be an assocaite of JMM (working on The Washington Monthly story):

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/001067.html

snip

It’s no secret that some prominent neoconservative officials like Doug Feith, Vice Presidential advisor David Wurmser, and the former Defense Policy Board chair Richard Perle are sympathetic to the government of Ariel Sharon and the Likud government. Feith, Wurmser and Perle co-authored the paper, A Clean Break, which advocated that Israel abandon the Oslo peace process. But Franklin, although a passionate advocate of regime change in Iran, is not really among them. From modest beginnings, Franklin reportedly put himself through school, earned a PhD, and is now the Pentagon’s top Iran analyst. It would be an irony if he were to be the target of an investigation into passing US intelligence to Israel.

A friend points out one other irony is that what the Pentagon official is alleged in the CBS report to have passed to AIPAC and the Israelis is essentially a diplomatic document that describes a draft US policy position to Iran; in other words -- hardly the crown jewels, and hardly enough to warrant wiretaps and surveillance of Aipac's offices, he says. "The Israelis can get that stuff by going directly to Condoleezza Rice." In other words, it's not deeply technical knowledge about US satellite technology, for instance, or information the Americans had gotten from the Jordanians, or information about say a possible secret US back channel to Hezbollah. He wonders if this case is not politically motivated. It's no secret as well that there's intense competition over who would be national security advisor in a second term Bush administration. Anything that taints Feith and Wolfowitz could benefit their internal Bush administration foes.

We obviously haven't heard the last of this yet. Stay tuned.

Update: Or does this story leaking now indicate rather, a case of "controlled burn?" An investigation that was leaked or interrupted before it could go further, as reader MC suggests? Franklin is seemingly more expendable than others.

Update II: I can't get over the sense this is a ruse, to get somebody else. As Wagster writes in the comments below:

The NYT reports tonight:

Government officials suggested Friday that investigators were seeking the cooperation of the Pentagon official being investigated.


Doesn't that seem to hint that they're using the media to put some heat on the guy, and that they suspect the involvement of others? Why else would they be seeking his cooperation?


Why else indeed.

-- much more including more details we haven't known about --

[Dover]

1. Looks like Rummy needs to clean house

This article was written a year ago:

Excerpt -


Looks like Rummy needs to clean house:

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.

Harold Rhode has gotten himself in trouble before:

A delegation of Saudi diplomats attended a meeting at the Pentagon with deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz in the spring of 2001, shortly after the Bush administration had taken office. As the meeting was breaking up, one of the attendees, Harold Rhode -- Wolfowitz's Islamic affairs adviser -- approached Adel Al-Jubeir, a soft-spoken Saudi diplomat who is foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah. Rhode told Al-Jubeir that once the new administration got its affairs in order there'd be no more pussyfooting around, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The United States would take care of Saddam and start calling the shots in the region, and the Saudis would have to fall in line. Al-Jubeir demurred.

Rhode then shoved his finger in the diminutive Saudi's chest and told him, "You're not going to have any choice!"

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

[realFedUp]

2. interesting...still reading it....

nice catch.

[Eloriel]

3. One of the comments addresses what occurred to me

when I read that first paragraph I posted, the one saying that Franklin really wasn't one of the "in crowd." --

My best guess as to what is really going on? (Because thus far NOTHING makes an ounce of sense).

The Israelis hardly need some analyst level grunt to feed them when they own the whole department...... do they?

More likely... Larry's been set up (for other reasons such as halitosis, body odor etc.) to take the fall for something else that was shared/OKAYed? with Sharon-Likud-(AIPAC) by Feith-Wolfie anyhow. - some really classified inside track stuff that is going to make a stink that's a lot bigger than this little fishie.

BUT - it is not something that will come out a) before the "election" or b) at all, if Bush gets back in.... (in which case the "investigation" will die a death and-or be limited to Luckless Larry/ "big misunderstanding" etc.

Implication. If the Jewish vote goes Kerry's way... they will end up covered in the brown sticky stuff... and if it goes Bush's... they can continue running US foreign policy.

That... seems to be the simplest explanation.

Posted by: Dr. Procter at August 28, 2004 02:53 AM

---

yep, that's the one that makes the most sense to me.

[leftchick]

5. it makes sense to me as well....

I am sure Feith is a direct conduit for any information the Israelis need or want. He doesn't need any stinkin messenger. He probably has a hot button phone for Sharon and the rest in his freakin office!
I sure hope the real damning information behind this sees the light of day soon.

[Eloriel]

8. Oh, and another really interesting Comment --

I have not heard of this "journalist," so am just passing along at face value....


DEAR LAURA,
YOU ARE RIGHT THAT DR.LARRY FRANKLIN MIGHT BE A SCAPEGOAT IN A MUCH LARGER AND MORE IMPORTANT AFFAIR.
FOR SOME TIME NOW THERE IS A SECRET FBI INVESTIGATION INTO THE ACTIVITIES OF DR. RICHARD PERLE, CONCERNING IRAQ AND IRAN. PART OF THE INVESTIGATION IS BEING HELPED BY THE FRENCH COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE SERVICE, THE D.S.T. IT CONCERNS DR.PERLE'S SECRET MEETINGS IN FRANCE WITH ISRAELI AND RUSSIAN ENVOYS.
THIS TRAIL MIGHT BE VERY INTERESTING.

BEST REGARDS
DAVID M. DASTYCH
JOURNALIST
[e-mail]
2004-08-28

Posted by: David M. Dastych at August 28, 2004 11:45 AM

[leftchick]

12. How convenient....

perle does after all own a very nice spread in France. I think it even lends more credibilty to this. There are no coincidences with the BFEE.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. Perle was on the "Defense Board" of the US AND Israel at the same time

[realFedUp]

6. Why isn't Chalabi being fried?

Seems to me that he would have
been the first to be investigated.

Interesting little comment about
Israeli sources could just go
to Condi Rice for information
on Iran policies...

[Eloriel]

7. Ooooo, look at this Comment

DU's SeemsLikeADream has consistently brought up the name Dov Zakheim on these various spy scandal DU threads -- here's someone else who has some REALLY interesting information, downthread in the original link:


Also, Lou Dobbs, good ol' Lou -- first blowhard to make sure *Islamic* is in front of it when the word *terrorist* is uttered-- did a very curious piece last week, the title was something like "Do think tanks have too much influence?"

I almost fell off the couch but truly felt as if I were in bizarro world when he said the words "The Project for the New American Century"

Four years too late, Lou gets a clue.

In regard to PNAC, Rabbi Dov Zakheim, later appointed Pentagon Comptroller by Georgie-poo (May 2001, I think), was one of the authors of that remarkably prescient document "Rebuilding America's Defenses" that predicted that it would take a Pearl Harbor scaled attack to rally A-mur-cans 'round the PNAC agenda one year before the 9/11 attacks --que coincidence!

Here's even more of a coincidence- just before he took over so effectively (NOT) the finances of the Pentagon, Rabbi Dov was CEO of the intl. div. of a company called System Planning Corp.

www.sysplan.com

It specializes in homeland security and includes systems that at the point Zakheim was there could remotely control planes, specifically in case of a hijacking.

Don't believe me, check it out for yourselves.

Posted by: Too early for this... at August 28, 2004 11:11 AM

[seemslikeadream]

11. Thanks Eloriel

Thanks so much



:hi:

DoD Statement on Jack Shaw and the Iraq Telecommunications Contract
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x743997

[Dover]

13. Dov Zakheim and the 9/11 Conspiracy

9/11 Conspiracy: http://www.conspiracynewsnet.com/shadow.html



Jewish 9-11 Mastermind Forced From Pentagon Office
Dov Zakheim, Alleged To Have Coordinated 9--11 Attacks, Quietly Removed From Office

7/10/2004 10:19:11 PM LSN Staff

Washington, D -- Dov Zakheim, a Jewish neo-conservative who advocated a "new Pearl Harbor" and who is accused of coordinating the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States, has been quitely removed as Chief Financial Officer of the US Pentagon.

Zakheim, an Orthodox Rabbi, has been accused by "conspiracy theorists" of the being the point man contact between the Jewish Mossad agents and their American Jewish co-conpirators in leading the 9-11 terror attacks,
which were then framed on Muslims. (is this AIPAC??)

Zakheim is also accused of mismanaging funds. As a former consultant to Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas, he is accused of misdirecting as much as $30 billion in government contracts to those companies and their
subsidiaries.

In September of 2000, in a paper presented to the Project for a New American Century, a Jewish thinktank involved in linking the foreign policies of the United States and the Zionist Entity, Zakheim argued that "the process of transformation , even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor." He then went on to advocate that American Jews must work with the Jews in the Zionist Entity to
stage a major Pearl-Harbor like terrorist attack in order to force the US into "war" and then use "war powers" to launch a coup against any non-Jewish forces in the government....cont'd

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=53412


His bio: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/zakheim/zakheim.php


What HE says about his role in Iraq War:

...From the time when reports about the Bush administration's intention to go to war started to circulate, critics have charged that Jewish neoconservatives in the Pentagon were responsible for dragging the U.S. into war with Iraq, with the intention of protecting Israeli, not American, interests. Proponents of this claim hail from all parts of the political spectrum, starting with arch-conservative Pat Buchanan, and continuing with two Democrats from Capitol Hill, Congressman Jim Moran (Virginia), and Senator Friz Hollings (South Carolina).

"Pat Buchanan, in my view, is an anti-Semite," said Zakheim. "I'm sorry, but you cannot keep saying what he says, and say he's not an anti-Semite. He is an anti-Semite. I know one when I see one."

Brushing aside claims that Jews were behind the war in Iraq, he cites a policy-making core of neo-cons who are not Jewish - Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Asked to elaborate, he denies that Jews persuaded decision-makers that America should go to war. "Did the Jews brainwash Donald Rumsfeld? Are you kidding? And President Bush? He's not a fool, or he would not be president."

Zakheim believes attacks against senior U.S. officials who are Jewish about responsibility for the war are a new form of anti-Semitism. "It's some sort of the `Protocols of the Elders of Zion' all over again," he claims. "This has become the fashionable way to be anti-Semitic. It's like saying `some of my best friends are Jews, but those neo-conservatives...'"

Zakheim says claims about the war in Iraq being orchestrated to help Israel are ridiculous. Were this to be the case, he explains, Bush would have referred to the plan during the 2000 Presidential elections, and promised that he would fight against Saddam Hussein in order to save Israel. After his more than three years in the Pentagon, Zakheim believes that the toppling of Saddam Hussein didn't have much impact on Israel - the war in Iraq did little to improve Israeli security, he claims. Asked specifically whether Israel is safer today because of the war in Iraq, he said: "No. Israel's problem is with the Palestinians."

..snip..

Zakheim dismisses criticism about the rationale for America's involvement in Iraq. The suspicion that Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction was reasonable, he says. Saddam, says Zakheim, "acted as though he had weapons of mass destruction. It would have made much more sense for him to let the UN inspectors do their jobs, and to keep enjoying money from the `oil for food' program that built his palaces while his people were starving."

..snip..

Alongside such claims about corruption in Saddam Hussein's regime, Zakheim brings up the issue of terror. Given Saddam Hussein's well-known support for Palestinian suicide bombers, "why is it so hard to believe that he had ties with Al-Qaida," Zakheim wonders. "If you make the connection - Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism - then it definitely becomes a world problem," he concludes.

The situation today, he continues, is not bad at all. In terms of the big picture, the Middle East is better off without Saddam Hussein. The majority of Iraqis support America's presence; and the world is starting to stand behind the U.S. effort. Resistance by rebel groups will be defeated, Zakheim predicts. "So the balance is definitely positive."....cont'd

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/441712.html

[Eloriel]

9. Feith and Perle have a history of passing intel to Israel --

Again, from the Comments section:


Both Feith, Perle, and Wolfowitz have been accused of leaking classified information to the Israelis before. The definitive article on this was written for Counterpunch by Stephen Green, and is online at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html

"In 1970... An FBI wiretap authorized for the Israeli Embassy picked up Perle discussing with an Embassy official classified information..."

"(In) March of 1972, Feith was a Middle East analyst in the Near East and South Asian Affairs section of the National Security Council . . . Feith was fired because he'd been the object of an inquiry into whether he'd provided classified material to an official of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. The FBI had opened the inquiry."

"In 1978, (Wolfowitz) was investigated for providing a classified document on the proposed sale of U.S. weapons to an Arab government, to an Israel Government official, through an AIPAC intermediary."

Posted by: Mark Kraft at August 28, 2004 01:39 PM

[Dover]

10. Here's Josh Marshall's Talking Points today

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

So Franklin is just getting the squeeze so he'll talk. And the real targets are others in Feith's office.....or maybe ALL.

The FBI/CIA are throwing a wide net over the whole neocon empire....connecting to BCCI, Riggs Bank, Thatcher's arrest, Pinochet's stripped immunity, Chalabi, etc. They aren't going for a token bad egg.....they are going after the whole rotten nest.