[lit-ideas] Guardian Unlimited: FBI fears Israel has Pentagon spy

Omar Kusturica spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you 
should see it.

To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to 
http://www.guardian.co.uk

FBI fears Israel has Pentagon spy
Gary Younge in New York
Saturday August 28 2004
The Guardian


The Federal Bureau of Investigation believes an Israeli spy has infiltrated the 
highest level of the Pentagon and may have tried to influence United States 
policy towards Iran and Iraq, it emerged last night. 

The FBI has launched a wide-ranging investigation into a suspected mole with 
ties to top Pentagon officials who is thought to have supplied Israel with 
classified material that included secret White House deliberations on Iran, the 
CBS News network reported.  

The Israeli embassy in Washington immediately refuted the report. "We 
categorically deny these allegations. They are completely false and 
outrageous."  

But CBS News said the FBI believed it had solid evidence that the mole leaked 
sensitive information to Israel. It said the operative had ties to top Pentagon 
officials Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith.  

An FBI official confirmed an investigation had been set up, telling the 
Associated Press that no arrests had yet been made.  

"The FBI has a full-fledged espionage investigation under way and is about to 
... roll up someone agents believe has been spying, not for an enemy, but for 
Israel, from within the office of the secretary of defence [Donald Rumsfeld]," 
the network reported.  

The network described the spy as "a trusted analyst" assigned to a unit within 
the defence department which helps develop the Pentagon's Iraq policy.  

CBS said the spy was thought to have been passing secrets to Israel through 
intermediaries at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a 
pro-Israel lobby.  

AIPAC said it was cooperating with the government and had hired outside 
counsel. It denies any wrongdoing by the organisation or any of its employees.  

"Our sources tell us that last year the suspected spy ... turned over a 
presidential directive on US policy toward Iran while it was 'in the draft 
phase'," the network said.  

"This put the Israelis - according to one of our sources - 'inside the 
decision-making loop' so they could 'try to influence the outcome'," CBS 
reported.  

It is not the first time the issue of Israel and espionage has surfaced, 
creating tension with America's closest ally.  

In 1985 Jonathan Pollard, who worked in a special US Navy intelligence unit, 
was arrested at the gates of the Israeli embassy in Washington. Mr Pollard was 
tried, convicted and handed a life sentence. Israel later apologised and 
disbanded the intelligence cell that he operated under. 

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
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