U.S. investigators want to question Israeli diplomat

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I've searched for over an hour to check if there was a previous thread on this topic. The last on AIPAC was "FBI Uncovers Israeli Spying Yet Again" on May 8, so not current. I'm nervous about posting now after being warned. I'm certainly guilty of "trying to push an anti-bush agenda".

U.S. investigators want to question Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon, head of the political department at Israeli Embassy in Washington and a specialist on proliferation issues as well as other Israeli diplomats about their contacts with Franklin. Gilon returned to Israel a few days ago. Franklin, who worked on the Iran desk within the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the time the government says he disclosed the information, had already been charged with disclosing top-secret information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq to the two AIPAC employees. The full story is in Reuters.

"Pro-Israel lobbyists charged in US Pentagon case"
Thu Aug 4, 2005 3:29 PM ET ...By James Vicini, ALEXANDRIA, Va.

Did Israeli diplomat Flee from U.S. investigators questions!!!

A federal grand jury indicted two former officials of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC Thursday on charges they received classified national defense information from a Pentagon analyst, court documents show. The indictment charges Steven Rosen, the former foreign policy director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, with receiving classified information from analyst Lawrence Franklin and helping Franklin pass on written classified information. AIPAC's former senior Middle East analyst, Keith Weissman, also was charged with receiving classified information. Franklin, who worked on the Iran desk within the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the time the government says he disclosed the information, had already been charged with disclosing top-secret information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq to the two AIPAC employees. Thursday's indictment also charges him with giving the information to an unidentified diplomat and to Rosen and Weissman, whom AIPAC fired in April. It accuses Franklin of disclosing to a foreign diplomat classified information about a Middle Eastern country's activities in Iraq. Sources familiar with the investigation have said the diplomat was an Israeli. Franklin pleaded not guilty to the original charges.

The Israeli diplomat in Washington who met several times with Franklin has been identified as Naor Gilon, head of the political department at Israeli Embassy in Washington and a specialist on proliferation issues. Gilon returned to Israel a few days ago as part of a long-scheduled rotation, according to an Israeli official in Washington. U.S. investigators want to question Gilon and other Israeli diplomats about their contacts with Franklin, officials said. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Adam Entous)

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The Israeli diplomat in Washington who met several times with Franklin has been identified as Naor Gilon, head of the political department at Israeli Embassy in Washington and a specialist on proliferation issues. Gilon returned to Israel a few days ago as part of a long-scheduled rotation, according to an Israeli official in Washington. U.S. investigators want to question Gilon and other Israeli diplomats about their contacts with Franklin, officials said. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Adam Entous)

Further information on Naor Gilon, head of the political department at Israeli Embassy in Washington and a specialist on proliferation issues.

Juan Cole The Israeli foreign ministry has confirmed that Lawrence Franklin, the Pentagon's top Iran desk officer, met repeatedly in Washington with "Naor Gilon, head of the political department at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, and a specialist on Iran's nuclear weapons program." Gilon appears already to have been under surveillance by the FBI. At one point Franklin is said to have offered him a document, which he declined to take, but asked what it said and got an oral report. Gilon was unaware that he was being monitored and clearly thought he would be safe as long as he did not have any incriminating paper in his possession (conversations can be denied or spun, as long as they aren't taped). Franklin did succeed in giving a confidential draft presidential directive on Iran to AIPAC officials, who then passed it to someone at the Israeli Embassy, perhaps Gilon. It is telling that the official took hard copy from AIPAC, presumably because he trusted them implicitly, whereas Gilon had rejected it from Franklin. That Gilon is a specialist in Iran's nuclear weapons program suggests that Franklin wanted to consult with him about what the US should do about that issue. Gilon was "Director of the Division for Strategic and Military Affairs in the Center for Policy Research in Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 2000-2002." Franklin harbors feelings of profound hatred for the regime in Tehran and wanted to see it destroyed. Israeli government officials and people like Dennis Ross at the AIPAC-funded "Washington Institute for Near East Policy" keep saying that this case makes no sense, since if Israel wanted to know something about US policy toward Iran, they could just make a call. This line of defense doesn't really help, though, since it suggests that there are no US government secrets to which Israel would be denied access on a simple request. That is an impossible proposition, and if it were true then it really would be the case that AIPAC runs the US government.

[center]Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan. [/center]

[monty of ll]

This is getting good now and I have talked to several Jewish people about it and they just hate it. That's a good sign! If anyone wants some cheap entertainment from this issue, just ask any Jewish American how he sees the whole spying allegation. Ask him if he's an American first or a backer of those who would spy on his country and then kick back and listen to the double talk.

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Quote by: monty of ll This is getting good now and I have talked to several Jewish people about it and they just hate it. That's a good sign! If anyone wants some cheap entertainment from this issue, just ask any Jewish American how he sees the whole spying allegation. Ask him if he's an American first or a backer of those who would spy on his country and then kick back and listen to the double talk.

Maybe if you were at New York JFK airport you might have gotten some answers.

Some US Jews move to Israel despite Gaza evictions
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16159789.htm
16 Aug 2005 22:04:45 GMT ...Source: Reuters ...By Chris Sanders

NEW YORK, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Some American Jews leaving for new lives in Israel are making the move even though immigration to the country is slowing and say they are not deterred by the forced removal of Gaza Strip settlers from their homes. A crowd of 250 immigrants boarding an El Al flight for Israel from New York on Tuesday said their desire to be part of a Jewish homeland erased any hesitancy they may have felt after watching media reports of Israeli troops clearing settlers from their homes in the Gaza Strip. The evictions were the first uprooting of Jewish settlements on land Palestinians want for a state. "My thoughts are with the people being 'disengaged' -- we share their pain," said Rivka Segal, a mother of five moving from Baltimore to Jerusalem. "The best way we can show support for what they believe in is to move to Israel." Several people interviewed by Reuters at New York's JFK International Airport spoke of their lifelong dream of moving to the Jewish state and bolstering its economy. Most of those leaving were married couples with several children.

Immigration from around the world to Israel has been declining. Last year, 21,000 Jews immigrated to Israel compared to 23,000 in 2003, as immigration from Russia and other former Communist states slowed.

I can only speak for the Irish. Whether they were called Irish-American or American-Irish one thing was for sure - there was no doubting their loyalty to America. Their hearts may have been with the 'old sod' for generations but their loyalty was firmly American.

You'll have to tell me about the loyalties of American-Jews or Jewish-Americans. Which army they serve in if often a good place to start!