Another painful spying case

6/19/2005

The unsealing of a federal indictment against former Pentagon analyst Lawrence A. Franklin may unfortunately be the start of another long case of Israeli spying against the United States.

Mr. Franklin, who will go to trial Sept. 6, pleaded not guilty to the six-count grand jury filing. If the charges turn out to be true, the result could be even more painful for U.S.-Israeli relations than the Jonathan Pollard case.

Pollard, a U.S. Navy intelligence officer convicted in 1987 of spying for Israel in return for money, is serving a life sentence. The sensitivity of the Pollard case to this day was underscored by Israelis who demonstrated for his release during Laura Bush's visit to Jerusalem in May.

Mr. Franklin is accused of passing classified information not only to an officer of the Israeli Embassy in Washington but also to the American-Israel Political Action Committee. The Pollard case did not involve AIPAC.

The indictment identifies two former AIPAC lobbyists as co-conspirators with Mr. Franklin. They are not named in the filing, but government officials have said they are Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman. Both were dismissed by AIPAC after news of the Franklin case broke. By doing so, AIPAC has sought to demonstrate disapproval of their suspected involvement, as well as disassociate itself from the storm that may come when the trial starts.

The information that Mr. Franklin is accused of having passed to the Israeli Embassy and AIPAC concerns Iranian nuclear testing. Israel and the United States have both threatened military action against Iran over its nuclear program.

Some say the United States, stretched thin militarily with the continuing Iraq and Afghanistan wars, might be thinking of giving the Israelis a green light to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, as they did Iraq's in 1981.

Such action would risk setting off a major regional war between Israel and Iran, with the United States inevitably drawn in, which is what makes Mr. Franklin's alleged misdeeds so important.

If the charges against Mr. Franklin turn out to be true, it is hard to understand why the Israeli government or AIPAC would feel the need to try to obtain classified information through an American spy.

Both Israel and AIPAC must be aware not only of the bad public relations fallout of such activities when exposed, but also of the erosion of confidence between the two countries that inevitably ensues in a case of espionage.

The Israeli Embassy and AIPAC both should have told Lawrence Franklin to get lost and even reported him to his government if he approached them.