Former officials with pro-Israel group indicted

[Pirate Smile]

Former officials with pro-Israel group indicted

By Shannon McCaffrey and Warren P. Strobel

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department indicted two top former officials with a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group Thursday for allegedly conspiring to communicate classified defense information.

U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said the men were attempting to influence U.S. foreign policy. He said trafficking in information is commonplace in the nation's capital but a "clear line separates classified information from everything else."

"Today's charges are about crossing that clear line," McNulty said.

The indictment paints a more detailed picture of the case against Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, who was charged in May with leaking classified information to the pro-Israel lobbyists about possible attacks by Iran on U.S. forces in Iraq.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/12305279.htm

[Pirate Smile]

1. Iran???

"Thursday's indictment adds some new facts to a case that has been shrouded in uncertainty from the beginning.

It charges that Rosen, 63, of Silver Spring, Md., and Weissman, 53, of Bethesda, Md., dealt in secret information as far back as 1999, several years before they are alleged to have met Franklin. Rosen met with "Foreign Official 1" - presumably an Israeli diplomat - on April 13, 1999, and disclosed sensitive intelligence he had picked up regarding terrorist activities in central Asia, it alleges.

Franklin and Rosen first made contact in a phone call on Aug. 15, 2002, after Rosen sought out someone at the Defense Department with expertise on Iran, the indictment alleges.

The three men met at a restaurant in Arlington, Va., in February 2003. In a phone call on the way to that initial meeting, Rosen said he was excited to meet with the "Pentagon guy," who he described as a "real insider."

[Moderator]

2. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1677055