Haaretz
Sivan 7, 5765
WASHINGTON - The federal court in Alexandria,
Virginia, Monday made public the indictment of U.S. Defense Department
analyst, Larry Franklin. He is charged with leaking classified military
information to employees of an unnamed lobby group.
According to
reports, the group is AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee.
Five charges of the six-count indictment accuse Franklin
of conspiring to disclose national defense and classified information to
people not authorized to receive it, including information about potential
attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. One count accuses him of conspiring to
communicate the information to an agent and representative of a foreign
government. The indictment was handed down on May 26, but not unsealed
until Monday.
The charge sheet does not mention the names of the
AIPAC officials nor does it mention the organization by name. It outlines
in great detail Franklin's ties with what is called "a foreign official."
Sources close to the case have identified him as Naor Gilon, in charge of
policy at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
From the charge sheet,
it transpires that FBI agents kept a close surveillance on Gilon, Franklin
and the two AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weismann, for more than
two years. The FBI tapped their telephones and listened in on other
conversations they held.
Israeli sources said Monday that there
were no indications in the charge sheet of suspicions against Israel and
that the details did not indicate any inappropriate behavior on the part
of diplomats from the embassy. Nevertheless, the charge sheet states that
Franklin passed on information to the foreign country and that he "acted
on requests for additional information," a clause which could indicate
active Israeli
involvement.
The maximum punishment for the
first five counts is 10 years, and for the sixth, five
years.
Franklin, a 58-year-old Air Force Reserve colonel who once
worked for the Pentagon's No. 3 official, Douglas Feith, pleaded innocent
to all counts at the hearing in the federal court Monday. U.S. District
Judge T.S. Ellis set a September 6 trial.
The connection between
Gilon and Franklin began when Gilon arrived in the U.S. capital and
presented himself to Franklin as the "policy person" and the one with whom
to be in contact. The charge sheet outlines a long series of telephone
calls and 14 other talks between the two, as well as a number of faxes.
Most of the conversations dealt with Iran's nuclear weapons build-up,
although Iran is also not specifically mentioned.
At a meeting on
May 23, 2003, at the Pentagon Officers' Athletic Club, the issue came up
as did the attitude of the European countries toward it. As a result,
Franklin sent a memorandum to his superiors which allegedly "incorporated
suggestions made by the foreign official."
The offense of
communicating national defense information to persons not entitled to
receive it allegedly took place at a meeting on June 8, 2004, when
Franklin allegedly gave Gilon information about Iranian activity in Iraq.
This apparently was an FBI sting operation in which Franklin told the
official that the Iranians were planning to hurt Israelis operating in the
Kurdish region of Iraq.
According to the charge sheet, Franklin
also requested a letter from Gilon that would help his daughter enter
Israel from Jordan during a Middle East tour. Gilon faxed Franklin the
letter.
FBI agents twice last year searched AIPAC offices.
The charge sheet also gives details of a meeting between Franklin
and Uzi Arad whom it describes as "a former intelligence agent of a
foreign country." Arad, who chairs the Herzliya Conference on Policy,
invited Franklin to the prestigious event.
Franklin's lawyer, Plato
Cacheris, said his client denied all the charges.