Israel Lobbyists Facing Charges in Secrets Case

[Left of Larry]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/polit ... ?th&emc=th
Israel Lobbyists Facing Charges in Secrets Case

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: August 5, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 - Two former officials of a pro-Israel lobbying group were charged in an indictment filed Thursday with illegally conspiring to gather and disclose classified national security information to journalists and an unnamed foreign power that government officials identified as Israel.
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Related Text: The Indictment

The indictment accused Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, formerly senior staff members at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, with improperly disclosing national security information beginning in April 1999. The group dismissed the two men last April.

As the committee's director of foreign policy issues, Mr. Rosen was a highly visible figure in Washington who helped the organization define its lobbying agenda on the Middle East and forged important relationships with powerful conservatives in the Bush administration. Mr. Weissman was a senior Middle East analyst.

The charges in the long-running inquiry were expected, but nevertheless unusual. Neither Mr. Rosen nor Mr. Weissman, who have denied any wrongdoing, held security clearances.

They were not government employees and they operated in a foreign policy world in which private lobbyists, public officials and journalists often trade delicate information about executive branch decision-making that is related to other countries.

The indictment did not accuse any journalist of wrongdoing, but cited several conversations that Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman had with unidentified journalists as "overt acts" that furthered the conspiracy. Government officials have said investigators want to interview reporters who talked with either of the two men. It is not clear who the journalists are or whether any them have been interviewed.

The indictment said the two men had disclosed classified information about a number of subjects, including American policy in Iran, terrorism in central Asia, Al Qaeda and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment in Saudi Arabia, which killed 23 Americans, mainly military personnel.

Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman were each charged with a single count of conspiracy; Mr. Rosen was also charged with an additional count of passing classified information. The government has never offered a motive for the actions the men are accused of taking. The indictment said Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman had seemed keenly aware of the delicateness of information they had obtained from at least three American officials, including Lawrence A. Franklin, a former Defense Department analyst who met the two men in February 2003. The indictment did not name the other two American officials.

Mr. Franklin has already been charged in the case, and he was the subject of additional charges in Thursday's indictment. Mr. Franklin, Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman are scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 16 before Judge T. S. Ellis III of Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va.

The indictment charged that Mr. Franklin, Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman had talked about the classified nature of the material they shared, referring to it in conversations with each other, as well as with foreign officials and journalists, as "extremely sensitive" or "secret." At one point, the indictment said, Mr. Franklin seemed to know that he was disclosing secrets, warning Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman against discussing classified information about possible attacks on American forces in Iraq.

The offenses charged in the indictment fall under the Espionage Act, but no one has been charged with spying. Although the statutes do not explicitly apply only to government officials with security clearances, prosecutors have not often pursued cases like the one against Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman. They are accused of transferring classified information to journalists and foreign government officials that could be "used to the injury" of the United States or "to the advantage" another country.

Among the meetings with journalists, the indictment charged, was one that occurred in December 2000 after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman met with an unidentified American official. It said that Mr. Rosen met with an unidentified "member of the media" to whom he gave classified information dealing with United States strategy options involving an unnamed Middle Eastern country and internal American deliberations about those options.

The indictment contained additional charges against Mr. Franklin, an expert on Iran. It accused him of using his position as a desk officer to gather information to hand over to Mr. Rosen or Mr. Weissman, or to an unidentified foreign official, who government officials and lawyers involved in the case have said was Naor Gilon, an Israeli Embassy political officer. The indictment refers to two other foreign government officials, but does not identify them. Both are Israelis, a government official said.
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Related Text: The Indictment

Lawyers for Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman said the charges were unfounded. Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Mr. Rosen, said in a statement: "The charges in the indictment announced today are entirely unjustified. We expect that the trial will show that this prosecution represents a misguided effort to criminalize the public's right to participate in the political process."

John N. Nassikas III, a lawyer for Mr. Weissman, said in a statement that "we are disappointed that the government has decided to pursue these charges, which Mr. Weissman strongly denies."

Plato Cacheris, a lawyer for Mr. Franklin said, "It's not a welcome event, but were not surprised by it."

The United States attorney in Alexandria, Va., Paul J. McNulty, said in a statement that the case was about the protection of national security material.

"When it comes to classified information, there is clear line in the law," Mr. McNulty said. "Today's charges are about crossing that line. Those entrusted with safeguarding our nation's secrets must remain faithful to the trust. Those not authorized to receive classified information must resist the temptation to acquire it, no matter what their motivation may be."

The indictment does not suggest that Aipac, as an organization, is suspected of any wrongdoing. Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for the group, said: "Aipac dismissed Rosen and Weissman because they engaged in conduct that was not part of their jobs, and because this conduct did not comport in any way with the standards that Aipac expects of its employees. Aipac could not condone or tolerate the conduct of the two employees under any circumstances. The organization does not seek, use, or request anything but legally-obtained appropriate information as part of its work."

The charges left unanswered a delicate question. It is unclear what action, if any, the government plans to take against any embassy official who met with Mr. Franklin, Mr. Rosen or Mr. Weissman. Israeli officials have said in the past that it had no part in the case, and a spokesman for the embassy has said that Israeli diplomats conduct themselves in accord with established practices.

So far, there is no indication that any Israeli diplomats have been expelled, although. Mr. Gilon has moved to another post outside of Washington. Efforts to reach an embassy spokesman on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Mr. Franklin's trial had been scheduled for September, but that date is almost certain to be postponed in light of the new charges. He was initially charged in May in a complaint that accused him of passing highly classified information about possible attacks on American forces in Iraq to Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman. When he was indicted in June, he was accused of meeting more than a dozen times with an Israeli Embassy official.