Larry Franklin

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Lawrence Anthony Franklin is a U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel who has pleaded guilty to passing information about U.S. policy towards Iran to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying organization in the U.S, while he was working for the Defense Department in an attempt to get the information passed on to the United States National Security Council, which he could not do through regular Pentagon channels. Two former employees of that organization are also facing charges that they assisted him in the AIPAC espionage scandal and passing classified information to an Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon. On January 20, 2006, Judge T.S. Ellis, III sentenced Franklin to 151 months (almost 13 years) in prison and fined him $10,000. [1] The case was heard in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Ultimately, Franklin was charged with unauthorized disclosure of classified information, not with espionage.

[edit] Franklin at the Office of Special Plans

In 2002 and 2003, Franklin worked at the Office of Special Plans which was set up by Donald Rumsfeld. The office was led by prominent conservative Douglas Feith, who sent Larry Franklin overseas repeatedly for sensitive projects involving foreign citizen contacts. [2] Under Feith's authorization,[3] Larry Franklin met with Iran-Contra figures [4] who were shopping [5] Iraq WMD intelligence to an eager audience. [6] Post invasion, the OSP's evidence of large stocks of WMD in Iraq proved inaccurate. The Iraq Survey Group found Iraq had the capacity to produce WMD, but was not producing nor planning to produce at the time of the invasion.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies: Larry Franklin Case [7]
FranklinGate [8]
Pentagon analyst guilty in Israeli spy scandal [9]
Pentagon Analyst Pleads Guilty in AIPAC-Israeli Spy Case [10]
Larry Franklin not indicted for espionage [11]
Toeing an Illegal Line [12]
"USG0-1" in AIPAC espionage case is former CIA analyst Kenneth Pollack [13]
Dailykos files on Larry Franklin [14]
Bigger Than AIPAC [15]
Larry Franklin, flipped [16]
Mole Hunt [17]
Israeli Spying On U.S. Unravels, Franklin Sings Like Canary [18]
AIPAC Spy Ring Indictment [19]
Keith Weissman at an Iranian event [20]
Steven Rosen Indictment [21]
Notes on Harold Rhode [22]
Iran-Contra II: Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation [23]
Center for Cooperative Research, Profile: Larry Franklin [24]
Israeli Spying archives [25]
Still Dreaming of Tehran [26]
Jail the War Party for treason [27]
Justin Raimondo. Larry Franklin's October Surprise, Antiwar.com, October 8, 2004.
Warren P. Strobel. Pentagon analyst charged with passing secrets to Israeli lobby, Knight Ridder, May 5, 2005.
Jerry Markon. Pentagon spy for Israel given 12 years, Washington Post, January 21, 2006.
USAF Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski (retired): When I was there (Pentagon) in 2002-2003, Larry Franklin was the Iran desk officer with the Defense Under Secretary for Policy, Near East South Asia, moving later to the Office of Special Plans. [28]