This is bad in so many ways I don't like to think about it: FBI Probes Pentagon Spy Case CBSNews.com 08/27/04.
I actually first say the story at the Spanish site for El Mundo, whose headline included the most dramatic element of the story: El FBI cree que hay un espía israelí entre altos cargos del Pentágono 08/28/04. (The FBI believes there is an Israeli spy among high officials of the Pentagon.)
The CBS story (which is the source for the El Mundo piece) reports:
CBS News has learned that the FBI has a full-fledged espionage investigation under way and is about to -- in FBI terminology -- "roll up" someone agents believe has been spying not for an enemy, but for Israel from within the office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.
60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports the FBI believes it has "solid" evidence that the suspected mole supplied Israel with classified materials that include secret White House policy deliberations on Iran.
The story reports that the secret material was reportedly passed to Israel through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), lobby group. AIPAC is a leading pro-Israeli lobby group. Needless to say, it figures heavily in any number of conspiracy theories, most of them with an anti-Semitic edge. AIPAC has become more of an advocate for hardline policies in the Middle East in recent years, and is considerably more conservative in that sense than the general opinion among American Jews.
This article provides some good background on AIPAC: Deal Breakers by Michael Massing American Prospect 03/11/02. Massing writes:
Jews remain one of the most liberal groups in American society. And although concern about Israel's security has pushed some of them to the right, the majority have supported the peace process, including the efforts of President Clinton late in his term to bring about an agreement with the Palestinians. During and since those years, however, the two Jewish organizations with the most influence on foreign policy have had leaders who are far more conservative and hard-line than are most American Jews.
One of those groups is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Long regarded as the most effective foreign-policy lobby in Washington, AIPAC has an annual budget of $19.5 million, a staff of 130, and 60,000 members. Those members constitute a powerful grass-roots network that can be activated almost instantly to press Congress to take this action or that. ...
This is sensitive territory. On the streets of Cairo, Beirut, and Tehran, vendors hawk anti-Semitic pamphlets claiming that a small cabal of Zionists runs the world. Among Arab elites, it's an article of faith that the "Jewish lobby" dictates U.S. policy toward the Middle East. In fact, that policy reflects an array of factors, including America's dependence on foreign oil, its fight against Islamic terrorism, its efforts to contain Iraq and Iran, and the fact that Israel is the one and only democracy in the region. What's more, American Jews, in seeking to influence U.S. policy in the area, are simply exercising their rights as American citizens to organize politically and press their interests.
Now, after the fiasco of the Wen Ho Lee affair, in which it's a toss-up whether the government prosecutors or the press behaved more irresponsibly, I'll be watching what actually develops on this one closely.
This story is going to send the conspiracy theorists wild. But it will be well to remember the old joke, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you." If AIPAC employees and/or a Pentagon official has involved themselves in espionage with Israel, it's serious business, even though anti-Semites will be quick to seize on it for their purposes.
And it's a serious problem in foreign policy, as well. Neither more secular Arab nations nor the Islamac fundamentalists of various sorts among them needed any encouragement to think the US is part of a "Zionist conspiracy" against the Arab countries if not all of Islam.
The Bush administration has not helped the image of the US, nor advanced the cause of an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, by backing the aggressive policies of Ariel Sharon's rightwing Likud Party more-or-less uncritically. The most recent incident was the American agreement with Sharon's plans to expand the Israeli settlments in the West Bank. The settlements are illegal under international law and are probably the worst single obstacle to reaching a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
All previous US administrations had tried to maintain not only the appearance but the reality of being an honest broker in the Middle East while making clear American support for the survival of Israel as an independent state.
Conspiracy theorists have also seized on the fact that a number of leading "neoconservatives" (though by no means all) are Jewish. In fact, the "neoconservative" viewpoint has been heavily influenced by Likud Party hardline policies.
But, despite all the gnashing of teeth among the conspiracy-minded about AIPAC and Jewish conspiracies, by far the most important influence on the Bush administration Middle Eastern policies is the Christian Right. I've discussed their particular apocalyptic views that translate in practice into support for the most hardline policies of the Israeli Likud Party and opposition to any meaningful peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The article on the story in Ha'aretz (Israel) is based mainly on the CBS and AP reports, and adds a brief note about Jonathan Pollard, arrested in 1985 and later convicted for spying on the US on behalf of Israel: Report: FBI probing whether Israeli spy operating at Pentagon 08/28/04.
Laura Rozen at her blog names the individual at the Pentagon who is the most likely target of the FBI probe: The FBI Investigation 08/27/04. And has quite a bit to say about the case. Among other things, the names of two major figures from the Iran-Contra scandal, Elliot Abrams and arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar, pop up in connection with this story. One of the worst things the Bush administration has done is to involve itself with so many Iran-Contra figures.
In any event, the repercussions from this case are likely to be significant. We'll be hearing lots more about this one.
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