[Peace-discuss] Neocons Blast Bush's Inaction On 'Spy' Affair

[David Green]

>From The Forward, Yiddish/Jewish weekly:

Neocons Blast Bush's Inaction On 'Spy' Affair

By MARC PERELMAN

September 10, 2004

In an indication of their growing estrangement with
the Bush 
administration,
neoconservatives are slamming the White House for
failing to stop what 
they
describe as an antisemitic campaign to marginalize
them being conducted 
by
the CIA and the State Department.

This view was outlined in a memo circulating among
neoconservative 
foreign
policy analysts in Washington. Obtained by the
Forward, the memo 
criticizes
the White House for not refuting press reports on the
FBI's 
investigation of
Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin that suggest
wrongdoing on the part 
of
Jewish officials at the Defense Department.

"If there is any truth to any of the accusations, why
doesn't the White
House demand that they bring on the evidence? On the
record," the memo
stated. "There's an increasing antisemitic witch
hunt."

A source who has seen the memo said it was written by
Michael Rubin, a
former member of the Pentagon's policy planning staff
who dealt with 
Iran
policy. Rubin, now a resident scholar at the American
Enterprise 
Institute,
declined to comment for this story.

"I feel like I'm in Paris, not Washington," the author
of the memo 
wrote. He
added: "I'm disappointed at the lack of leadership
that let things get 
where
they are, and which is allowing these bureaucratics
(sic) to spin out 
of
control."

The memo comes as the FBI is investigating the
possibility that 
Franklin
passed classified information on Iran policy to
officials of the 
American
Israel Public Affairs Committee, who in turn provided
the documents to
Israel. Israel and Aipac have denied any wrongdoing.
Media reports 
suggest
that several other Pentagon officials have been
questioned in 
connection to
the probe.

Some Washington insiders claim that the White House
silence over the
Franklin affair reflects a growing view within the
administration that 
the
neoconservatives ‹ widely seen as leading proponents
of the Iraq war 
‹
represent a mounting political burden, given the
continuing chaos in 
Iraq.

While President Bush and his closest advisers openly
shared the
neoconservatives' belief that American military action
was needed to 
remove
Saddam Hussein, the two sides seem to have parted ways
over Iran.
Neoconservative analysts in and out of government are
calling on the 
United
States to attempt to secure regime change in Tehran.
The administration 
has
increasingly suggested that it has no plans to take
such forceful steps
against Iran.

The recent controversy surrounding the FBI
investigations also can be 
traced
to renewed concerns in some quarters of the
intelligence and security
communities that Washington's close relationship with
Jerusalem ‹ 
centered,
in the critics' view, in the neoconservative group at
the Pentagon ‹ 
is
hurting American national interests.

While they generally refuse to speak on the record,
some former 
intelligence
and law-enforcement officials have alleged that Israel
operates an
aggressive spying operation in America. Israeli
officials, including 
Prime
Minister Sharon, have vehemently denied such claims,
insisting that 
their
country does not conduct espionage operations against
the United 
States.

Some observers point to the harsh treatment of accused
spy Jonathan 
Pollard
as evidence of the intelligence community's strong
feelings on the 
issue.
Pollard, a former Navy civilian analyst, is serving a
life sentence for
providing Israel with classified documents about
Soviet armament. 
Members of
the security establishment have worked aggressively to
block attempts 
by
Jewish organizations to have Pollard's sentence
commuted on 
humanitarian
grounds.

This old resentment toward Israel and its supporters
in the United 
States
has found new echo with the growing criticism of the
neoconservatives 
for
their advocacy of war in Iraq. In recent months,
several critics of the
neoconservatives' influence on Middle Eastern policy
have openly 
accused
Israel of pushing a hawkish agenda.

Retired general Anthony Zinni, a former chief of the
U.S. Central 
Command
and presidential Middle East envoy, told CBS in May
that "the 
worst-kept
secret in Washington" was that the neoconservatives
pushed the war in 
Iraq
for Israel's benefit. Similar criticism of Israel and
Jewish groups 
appeared
in the recent book "Imperial Hubris," by Anonymous,
who was later 
identified
as Michael Scheuer, a serving senior CIA official.

"Objectively, al Qaeda does not seem off the mark when
it describes the
U.S.-Israel relationship as a detriment to America,"
wrote Scheuer, a 
former
head of the CIA analytical team focusing on Al Qaeda.
"One can only 
react to
this stunning reality by giving all praise to Israel's
diplomats,
politicians, intelligence services, U.S.-citizen
spies, and the retired
senior U.S. officials and wealthy Jewish-American
organizations who 
lobby an
always amenable Congress on Israel's behalf."

In recent months, signs of alienation from the
neoconservatives have 
come as
well from the Bush administration. American officials,
for example, 
have
accused longtime Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi,
leader of the Iraqi
National Congress, of warning Iranian intelligence
officials that the 
United
States had broken Iran's secret communications codes.
The FBI's
investigation to determine who in government had told
Chalabi about the
secret code-breaking operation has focused on Defense
Department 
officials,
sources said. 

American officials, speaking anonimously, have given
conflicting 
comments on
whether the Franklin and Chalabi probes are linked.

The barrage of news reports on the allegations of
improper conduct on 
the
part of Aipac and Pentagon officials has fueled a
suspicion among
neo-conservatives that they are the victims of a smear
campaign quietly
endorsed by the White House. The recent memo being
circulated in
neoconservative circles points a finger at several
State Department
officials, including Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage, and at
members of the National Security Council, including
Robert Blackwill, 
who
took over Iraq policy recently and is said to be
behind the Chalabi
crackdown.

The memo, in an apparent reference to a June 2003
article in The 
Washington
Post describing administration infighting over U.S.
policy toward 
Tehran,
asserted that media leaks from the State Department
sank an effort by
Pentagon officials to call for more aggressive action
against Iran in a 
key
policy document called the national security
presidential directive, or
NSPD.

"It was bad enough that the White House rewarded the
June 15, 2003 leak 
by
canceling consideration of the NSPD," the memo stated.
"It showed the 
State
Department that leaks could supplant real debate. But
while Armitage or
Blackwell (sic) might be seeking to score points
inside the beltway, 
they
are feeding conspiracies in the Middle East that will
sink the 
president's
policies in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, etc."

To back up claims of antisemitism, the memo points to
reports that the 
FBI
has hired Stephen Green, a longtime critic of
American-Israeli ties, as 
a
consultant. A former United Nations official, Green
has a long record 
of
claiming that Israel uses Jewish Americans, some of
them prominent, to 
spy
on the United States. Green has said in interviews
that FBI officials
interviewed him at length in the past few weeks.

"Green has... been on a one-man mission to expose
deep-cover Israeli 
agents
for decades," the memo said.

Green stresssed that the bureau had sought him out
"and not the other 
way
around" and that its officials did not ask about
Franklin but about 
leading
neoconservatives like Wolfowitz and Feith.

Copyright 2004 © The Forward



		
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