Israeli Spies to Be Let Off the Hook?
Let me get this straight... if the White House refuses the subpoena request, the case could be dismissed? Huh? And when did we vote for AIPAC to act as a "diplomatic back channel?"
 Â
Condoleezza Rice forced to testify in pro-Israel lobbyists' spy trial
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday November 3, 2007
The Guardian
The ruling threatens to expose how officials used calculated leaks to the American Israel public affairs committee (Aipac) to influence ideological infighting about the Middle East within the Bush administration. It would require Ms Rice and others to testify about internal conversations as well as contacts with the pressure group.
The two Aipac officials were arrested in a FBI sting operation in 2004 after they were fed false information about a plot to kill Israeli agents in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Steve Rosen, the former foreign policy chief, and Keith Weissman, the organisation's senior Iran analyst, argue that their conversations were in line with the administration's unofficial practice of using the lobby as a diplomatic back channel.
Judge TS Ellis III granted lawyers for the two men wide latitude to question Ms Rice, the former national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, the deputy national security adviser and leading official on the Middle East, Elliot Abrams and other key officials. "Defendants are entitled to show that, to them, there was simply no difference between the meetings for which they are not charged and those for which they are charged," Mr Ellis wrote.
"They believed that the meetings charged in the indictment were simply further examples of the government's use of Aipac as a diplomatic back channel."
He held out little hope that he could be persuaded by administration efforts to block the subpoenas. "The government's refusal to comply with a subpoena in these circumstances may result in dismissal or a lesser sanction," he wrote.
The former deputy Pentagon chief, Paul Wolfowitz, will also be compelled to testify. The Aipac officials are the first people to face charges under a 1917 espionage law that makes it illegal for civilians to receive classified information. A former FBI official was jailed for 12 years last year after pleading guilty to leaking information.
- gretavo's blog
- Login to post comments
MUST READ on Israeli spies Rosen and Weissman's bogus defense...
Justin Raimondo, though a closet LIHOPPER, has it right about the AIPAC spying case. This is a must read!
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11856
Now there has been a major development on this front. No one took seriously the defense's motion, made a few months ago, that they be allowed to subpoena Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, National Security Council chief Stephen Hadley, and a whole platoon of government officials and former officials. The motion was made on the grounds that these officials, too, had transmitted classified information to AIPAC, and that this is proof that such behavior was and is routine, part of the normal way of doing business in the world of Washington lobbyists. The defendants' case has always been that they have a First Amendment right to commit espionage, and that their indictment amounted to a government assault on their right to "free speech." Gee, too bad the Rosenbergs never thought of this unique rationalization for treason, although I doubt it would've gotten them anywhere. The AIPAC defendants, however, may have more luck in this department…
No judge had ever allowed such a thing, at least in recent memory, and no one expected Judge Ellis to look favorably on this request. That he granted the defense motion in all but a few cases is bad news for the government – and good news for the Israel lobby, which may just be spared the embarrassment of having its essential nature as a fifth column for Israel exposed to the light of day.