ADL Asking the FBI to Investigate Leak in Pentagon Case

WASHINGTON – After nearly two weeks of rumor and innuendo surrounding an FBI probe into the possibility of an Israeli spy in the Pentagon, the Anti-Defamation League has formally requested that the FBI get to the bottom of who leaked news of the investigation to the press.In a letter sent yesterday, the organization’s national director, Abraham Foxman, wrote, “We are deeply troubled by what appears to be an intentional leak to the press about the investigation. As a result of this intentional leak, AIPAC and the State of Israel have been subjected to a litany of allusion, intimation and unsupported supposition.”Another letter, sent by Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat of Florida, to Attorney General Ashcroft, read, “It appears as though the Administration has responded to this investigation with both negligence and deception.” The Wexler letter questioned why a two-year-long counterespionage probe has yet to lead to any arrests or indictments if the evidence was as strong as anonymous officials have told some newspapers.Sources close to the Pentagon tell The New York Sun that members of the staff of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith have been harassed since the probe was leaked. They have received anonymous phone calls that play radio broadcasts in the background announcing the arrests of Israeli spies. In other cases, intelligence briefings on Iran have deliberately included information on Israel that would normally not be included. Last week, the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff refused for two days to share classified papers with officials working for Mr. Feith, sources say. Cooperation between the two offices only resumed after individuals at the highest levels of the Pentagon ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to cooperate.The FBI is expected to interview members of Mr. Feith’s staff today. The focus so far of the bureau’s inquiry is a Pentagon analyst, Lawrence Franklin, who specializes on Iran. Mr. Franklin has been alleged in press reports based on anonymous sources to have attempted to pass a draft policy paper on Iran to two members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who in turn gave the information to Israel. Aipac has denied any wrongdoing.A source familiar with the investigation told The New York Sun yesterday that Mr. Franklin is scheduled to appear before a grand jury on Thursday.On August 27, the day word of the investigation found its way into the press, Attorney General John Ashcroft referred the case to the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, Paul McNulty, effectively stalling arrests the FBI were prepared to make in the coming days.In recent days, some news reports on the story suggest that Mr. Franklin is cooperating with the FBI in a much broader probe that may touch on an investigation into whether sensitive information on America’s breaking of Iranian government codes was given to Iraqi leader Ahmad Chalabi, who in turn, according to these allegations shared the information with the Islamic republic.Mr. Chalabi has denied doing this and has filed suit against the Kingdom of Jordan, alleging that it concocted the smear. Mr. Chalabi has also offered to appear before Congress to dispute the allegations, which no American official has aired publicly.A Washington-based adviser to Mr. Chalabi, Francis Brooke, told the Sun yesterday he received a call from Mr. Franklin in the week before the story broke of the investigation into Mr. Franklin.Mr. Brooke said Mr. Franklin told him, “I am being contacted by a number of reporters and they are asking questions about Dr. Chalabi and this whole Iran story. I can help you spin the story the right way. What is our strategy? What are we doing?”Mr. Brooke said he told Mr. Franklin, “You know we didn’t know anything about this, we didn’t know anyone who knows anything about code breaking and no one ever told us anything about this. So it’s just impossible.”Mr. Brooke said Mr. Franklin then became angry and said, “This is serious business. You have to take this seriously.”In an interview yesterday Mr. Foxman said that he believed it was totally appropriate for the FBI to investigate cases that threaten American national security and that he was not criticizing the bureau for conducting the probe. “But permitting government officials to leak stories about pending investigations will only encourage and legitimate anti-Semitism,” he said.Mr. Foxman, who met Tuesday with government officials about the probe, said his organization’s polling data from earlier indicates that one of three Americans believe that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America.“We see how the extremist and pro-Arab spokesmen have jumped on this issue to buttress their charge that not only Jews are disloyal but control the foreign policy of this government,” he said. “Pat Buchanan has been silent on this subject for a while. Now he has a platform and we heard it on ‘Meet the Press’ Sunday,” he added, referring to the former presidential candidate’s warning that “Pollardites” may be employed by the Pentagon.Mr. Foxman said that it was distressing that Senator Graham, a Democrat of Florida, who appeared on the program with Mr. Buchanan, “failed to speak out and challenge the anti-Semitic rhetoric of Pat Buchanan.”Mr. Foxman is not the only person who has criticized the administration’s handling of the investigation. Mr. Wexler, the Democrat from Florida, wrote Mr. Ashcroft on September 3 asking for a detailed briefing on the counter-intelligence probe.“It would seem illogical that President Bush would openly praise Aipac’s role in meeting America’s security challenges – and even more puzzling that contacts at the highest level would have continued between the Administration and Aipac – if highly incriminating evidence existed to substantiate this alleged espionage case,” he wrote.

ADL Asking the FBI to Investigate Leak in Pentagon Case

More from the New York Sun

A Tale of Two Harvards

A Japanese Defense Buildup Could Form a Regional Counterweight to Communist China

Belichick’s Hall of Fame Snub Exposes the NFL’s Uncomfortable Cheating Debate

More from the New York Sun

A Tale of Two Harvards

A Japanese Defense Buildup Could Form a Regional Counterweight to Communist China

Belichick’s Hall of Fame Snub Exposes the NFL’s Uncomfortable Cheating Debate

U.S. Borrows Itself Into a Corner

US Military Catches Sanctioned Oil Tanker in Indian Ocean Weeks After It Left Venezuela

King Charles Pledges ‘Support’ for Police Investigation Into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Families of Druze Children Killed in Hezbollah Rocket Attack on Soccer Field Sue Terror Group for $26 Million

Trump Aims for Win in Stormy Daniels Case: Will Appeals Court Overrule Judge, 92, Who Refuses To Move Prosecution to Federal Court?