Aipac Leaders Will Address FBI Probe

WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Sharon is slated to address America’s largest pro-Israel lobbying group today as the organization tries to distance itself from an FBI probe of two of its former employees and a Pentagon Iran analyst.In the vast central banquet room of a convention center here, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s executive director addressed the elephant in the room at his organization’s annual policy conference. “We now know directly from the government that neither Aipac nor any of its current employees, is, or ever has been, the target of this investigation,” Howard Kohr said. “I can say definitively that Aipac will emerge from this, and no part of our work – on Capitol Hill, in the administration, in our grassroots – will be affected by this investigation.”Mr. Kohr’s words were met with roaring applause from the 1,500 pro-Israel activists gathered at the conference’s opening lunch. In the hallways at the conference, however, some supporters expressed concern. “The truth is, we don’t know what the FBI will do,” one fund-raiser who asked to remain anonymous told The New York Sun.Grand juries in Virginia and West Virginia are expected late this week to release a detailed indictment of Pentagon Iran analyst Lawrence Franklin on charges of mishandling classified documents. The charges, while short of espionage, are part of the statute that lists crimes of spying. Earlier this month, the FBI filed an affidavit and requested the arrest of Mr. Franklin, who turned himself in. He is now free on bail. The indictments, according to three sources familiar with the case, will provide more details on meetings Mr. Franklin held with journalists and one Israeli embassy official in Washington.The FBI affidavit states that on June 26, 2003, Mr. Franklin passed classified information to two American citizens, widely reported to be Aipac’s director of foreign policy, Steve Rosen, and Aipac Iran analyst Keith Weissman. Aipac fired both men last month after the organization’s attorney, Nathan Lewin, heard the highly classified case against them and advised the organization to sever its relationship with the two. The charges against Messrs. Rosen and Weissman, which have yet to be made publicly, were so secret that Mr. Lewin needed security clearance just to hear them. Aipac is still paying the legal fees – more than $50,000 a month – for their former employees.The charges so far against Mr. Franklin center on the 2003 meeting, but the case against the former Aipac employees may focus on a meeting between Messrs. Weissman and Franklin more than a year later, in July 2004. At that meeting, according to sources familiar with the investigation, Mr. Franklin was working with the bureau and verbally conveyed that both Americans and Israeli agents in Iraq were threatened by specific Iranian agents on the ground. Mr. Weissman told Mr. Rosen, who in turn brought the information to the attention of the Israeli government and the Washington Post.According to sources familiar with the case, the FBI is now prepared to say that Mr. Weissman lied to the FBI in an early interview with the bureau when he said he had not received classified information from Mr. Franklin. The bureau is also prepared to allege that Mr. Rosen knowingly passed on American secrets to the state of Israel. Attorneys for Messrs. Rosen and Weissman are prepared to argue that neither man was aware that the information they conveyed to others contained government secrets.Yesterday, Mr. Kohr subtly tried to make the case that Messrs. Rosen’s and Weissman’s behavior was out of the ordinary for employees of the organization that considers itself one of the most powerful in Washington. At the same time, Mr. Kohr said he has taken steps to ensure that no lines in the future will be crossed by his lobbyists and analysts.“I will take steps necessary to ensure that every employee of Aipac, now and in the future, conducts themselves in a manner of which you can be proud, using policies and procedures that provide transparency, accountability, and maintain our effectiveness,” he said. Mr.Kohr and a legal adviser, Richard Fishman, this morning are set to address lay leaders of the organization for a more detailed briefing on the FBI probe.Mr. Sharon is scheduled to address the Aipac conference this evening, where he will once again call on the Palestinian Authority to crack down on and not accommodate Hamas and other groups that practice terror before evacuating settlements in Gaza. The leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will arrive here tomorrow and is scheduled to meet President Bush on Thursday.

Aipac Leaders Will Address FBI Probe

Aipac Leaders Will Address FBI Probe

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