[lit-ideas] Guardian Unlimited: FBI fears Israel has Pentagon spy
- From: omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 14:09:35 +0000 (UTC)
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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