Jews and national security

2006

2006-11-16-Shapiro

Obituaries
Sumner Shapiro, Long-Serving Director of Naval Intelligence
by Adam Bernstein
Washington Post, 2006-11-16

Sumner Shapiro, 80, a Navy rear admiral who
served as director of naval intelligence from 1978 to 1982 and
expressed early warnings about Jonathan Pollard,
a Navy intelligence analyst later revealed to have spied for Israel,
died Nov. 14 at his home in McLean.

...

Adm. Shapiro, who was Jewish, said he was bothered that
many Jewish organizations supported Pollard
during the diplomatic controversy that followed his imprisonment.

“We work so hard to establish ourselves and to get where we are,
and to have somebody screw it up . . .
and then to have
Jewish organizations line up behind this guy
and try to make him out a hero of the Jewish people,
it bothers the hell out of me,”
Adm. Shapiro told The Washington Post in 1998.

2007

2007-08-27-Giraldi

An excerpt from Philip Giraldi’s “Deep Background” column
by Philip Giraldi
American Conservative, 2007-08-27

Many Americans would be surprised to learn that, thanks to Congress,
Israeli companies are allowed to bid on
extremely sensitive defense department and intelligence agency projects
even though it is no secret in Washington that
Israel continues to spy very aggressively against the United States.
In 2001,
the FBI strongly suspected that two Israeli telecommunications companies,
AMDOCS and Converse Infosystems,
had penetrated secure telecommunications systems operated by
the Pentagon, DEA, and the White House.
In 2005, an Israeli company called Foxcom Wireless
installed an antenna system in congressional office buildings
that would have permitted monitoring of cellphone calls made by congressman.
On July 17 [2007], yet another Israeli company,
computer-security provider Check Point,
was named an official supplier for
the Department of Defense and other federal agencies.
Check Point,
founded in 1993 by Gil Schwed, Shlomo Kramer, and Marius Nacht,
will provide software to protect
“sensitive, unclassified data residing on government laptops.”
Check Point has offices in California and Texas,
but its main development centers are in Israel and Belarus.
In March 2006, Check Point was blocked from purchasing Sourcefire,
a Maryland-based company that produces intrusion-detection software
used on many military and intelligence computers
because it would have been
an “irrevocable technology transfer to a foreign party.”
This time around,
there was apparently no objection to the contract on security grounds,
in spite of the fact that software that protects a system
can also have spyware or a so-called backdoor feature
that could permit a third party to enter and retrieve protected information.

2007-09-14-Bromwich

Iraq, Israel, Iran
by David Bromwich
Huffington Post, 2007-09-14

[An excerpt; emphasis is added.]

If one passage cited by Mearsheimer-Walt is quoted accurately,
it would seem to be the duty of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
to subject [Elliott] Abrams to as exacting a challenge
as the Senate Judiciary Committee brought to Alberto Gonzales.
The man at the Middle East desk of the National Security Council
wrote in 1997 in his book Faith or Fear:

there can be no doubt that Jews,
faithful to the covenant between God and Abraham,
are to stand apart from the nation in which they live.
It is the very nature of being Jewish to be apart--
except in Israel--
from the rest of the population.

When he wrote those words,
Abrams probably did not expect to serve in another American administration.
He certainly did not expect to occupy a position
that would require him to weigh the national interest of Israel,
the country with which he confessed himself uniquely at one,
alongside the national interest of a country
in which he felt himself to stand
“apart...from the rest of the population.”
Now that he is calling the shots against Hamas and Hezbollah,
Damascus and Tehran,
his words of 1997 ought to alarm us into reflection.

[For a discussion and amplification on this, see Philip Weiss’s
“A Jewish Writer Says
Senate Should Investigate Neocon Abrams Re Dual Loyalty”.]

2007-11-03-NYT-AIPAC-Rice

Defense May Seek U.S. Testimony in Secrets Case
By PHILIP SHENON
New York Times, 2007-11-03

[An excerpt; emphasis is added.]

A federal judge on Friday ordered
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser,
to be ready to testify as defense witnesses
at the trial of two former pro-Israel lobbyists
accused of receiving secret national security information.

The judge, T. S. Ellis III of Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va.,
agreed with defense lawyers that
Ms. Rice, Mr. Hadley and several other government officials
could be subpoenaed
because they might help the defendants demonstrate that
they were engaged in traditional “back channel” lobbying —
not in espionage —
in their contacts with the government over Middle East policy.

...

[Judge Ellis’s] ruling noted that
the former lobbyists had asserted that
“Aipac played an important role in U.S. foreign policy”
and that
“U.S. government officials routinely conveyed
sensitive, nonpublic information
to them and others within Aipac
with the expectation that
Aipac employees would further disclose the information to
their co-workers,
foreign government officials,
members of the media and
any other individual who could use it
to advance U.S. foreign policy development.”

2007-11-03-WP-AIPAC-Rice

Rice, Others Told to Testify in AIPAC Case
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post, 2007-11-03

[An excerpt; paragraph numbers and emphasis are added.]

[1]
A federal judge yesterday issued a rare ruling that ordered
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and more than 10 other prominent current and former government officials
to testify on behalf of
two pro-Israel lobbyists accused of violating the Espionage Act
at their upcoming criminal trial.

[2]
The opinion by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria
directed that subpoenas be issued to officials who include
Rice,
national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley,
former high-level Department of Defense officials
Paul D. Wolfowitz and
Douglas J. Feith, and
Richard L. Armitage, the former deputy secretary of state.

[3]
Their testimony has been sought
by attorneys for Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman,
former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC,
who are accused of conspiring to obtain classified information
and pass it to members of the media and the Israeli government.

[4]
Attorneys for Rosen and Weissman say
Rice and the other officials could help clear them because
they provided the former lobbyists with sensitive information
similar to what they were charged for,
according to Ellis’s ruling and lawyers familiar with the case.
Prosecutors have been trying to quash the subpoenas
during secret hearings and in classified legal briefs,
but Ellis wrote that the testimony could help
“exculpate the defendants
by negating the criminal states of mind the government must prove.”

[I would view this somewhat differently:
If both the big shots and the little shots did essentially the same thing,
then either
all should be prosecuted or none should be.
But just because the big shots did it
doesn’t make it legal, does it?
Is that the attitude of federal judges?
That seems to be Ellis’s.]

[5]
Legal experts said it would be highly unusual
for such a parade of senior officials
to testify at a criminal trial.
Although
former president Ronald Reagan and former attorney general Edwin I. Meese III
testified at a trial arising from the Iran-contra affair in the 1980s,
judges usually decline to grant such subpoenas on the grounds that
high-level officials are too busy or that
the information can be obtained from other sources.

[6]
“It’s certainly been a long time, if ever,
since a district court ordered the government
to produce witnesses
who currently occupy such sensitive national security positions
to testify at trial in a matter of this sensitivity,”
said David Laufman, a Washington lawyer
who previously handled national security cases
in the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria.

[7]
Legal experts said Ellis’s ruling
leaves the government with difficult choices and
sets up a potential clash between the executive and judicial branches.
Prosecutors might try to appeal,
but it is unclear whether an appellate court would take the case,
because the ruling came before the lobbyists’ trial, scheduled for Jan. 14.

[8]
Prosecutors also might invoke some sort of privilege
and refuse to allow the officials to testify
on the grounds that it could reveal sensitive information
about national security and U.S. foreign policy.
That would likely lead to sanctions from the judge,
which could include dismissals of the indictment.

[9]
The State Department referred questions to the Justice Department,
which declined to comment.
Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman,
said the administration is “aware of the order.”
He declined to comment further.

[10]
Attorneys for the two former lobbyists said they welcomed the ruling.

[11]
“For over two years, we have been explaining that
our clients’ conduct was lawful and completely consistent
with how the U.S. government dealt with
AIPAC and other foreign policy groups,”
the two lawyers, Abbe D. Lowell and John Nassikas, said in a joint statement.
“We are gratified that the judge has agreed that
the defense has the right to prove these points
by calling the Secretary of State and all of these other government officials
as our witnesses.”

...

---

Staff writer Peter Baker and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

2007-11-05-Raimondo

AIPAC, Espionage, and Legal Sabotage
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com, 2007-11-05

Has the AIPAC spy trial been derailed?

2008

2008-01-06-Raimondo

The AIPAC Spy Trial: A Case of Prosecutus Interruptus
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com Blog, 2008-01-06

2009

2009-04-22-Raimondo-Harman

Harmanic Convergence
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com, 2009-04-22

Jane Harman, AIPAC, and the Rosen-Weissman spy case

2009-04-24-Raimondo-Harman

The Shamelessness of Jane Harman
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com, 2009-04-24

She should have the decency to step down

2009-04-25-MacDonald-Harman-Saban-AIPAC

Jane Harman, Haim Saban, and AIPAC:
The Disloyalty Issue in Multicultural America
by Kevin MacDonald
The Occidental Observer, 2009-04-25

2009-04-27-Giraldi-Harman

Some Might Call It Treason
by Philip Giraldi
Antiwar.com, 2009-04-27

The real Harman story is about

Israeli intelligence operations
directed against the United States
which have brought about
the systematic corruption
of the American political system
by a foreign power
aided and abetted by
friends strategically placed
throughout the government and the media.

2009-04-29-Raimondo-Harman

Calamity Jane Harman Shoots Herself in the Foot
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com, 2009-04-29

She promptly contradicts her own fabrications

2009-04-30-Weiss

Scott Horton Interviews Philip Weiss
by Scott Horton and Philip Weiss
Antiwar.com Radio, 2009-04-30

[Note: This is double posted, at
Jews and politics and
Jews and national security.]

Investigative journalist Philip Weiss discusses
all the implications of the Jane Harman wiretap story
the MSM hasn’t run with yet,
the evidence of
Israeli attempts to dominate U.S. policy decisions on Iran to start a war,
the J Street lobby’s moderating influence, and
how Israeli leaders are oblivious of
the political re-evaluation of Israel by American Jews.

[From the interview, between 18:10 and 18:27.
The emphasis is added.]

Philip Weiss:
He [Obama]’s not going to do a thing [about pressuring Israel]
without political cover, and political cover means:

He can’t alienate the Jewish community.
It’s just too crucial to the Democratic Party,
too crucial to the sort of establishment,
leadership of the movement that he represents.
He can’t alienate the Jews.

2009-05-04-Bromwich-AIPAC

The AIPAC Case in Washington, Iraq, and Beyond
by David Bromwich
Huffington Post, 2009-05-04

2009-05-04-Raimondo-AIPAC

The Spies Who Got Away
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com, 2009-05-04

2009-12-02-Smith-Nozette

The Israel Lobby Celebrates Espionage in New York
by Grant Smith
Antiwar.com, 2009-12-02

2009-12-17-Giraldi

No-Fault Espionage
By Philip Giraldi
Antiwar.com, 2009-12-17

...

Spies are traitors in every sense of the word,
unless, of course, if one is spying for Israel.
Israel aggressively spies on the US
both to influence policy and steal high technology,
but getting caught only very rarely has any consequences....

If you are an American who spies for Israel,
a separate and unequal criminal justice system kicks in and
the media quickly excuses your actions
and then makes the story go away just as fast as it can.

...

2010

2010-01-28-Giraldi-Stealing-Success-Tel-Aviv-Style

Stealing Success Tel Aviv Style
by Philip Giraldi
Antiwar.com, 2010-01-28

2010-01-29-Lang-on-Giraldi

Giraldi on Israeli spying in the US
by Patrick Lang
Sic Semper Tyrannis, 2010-01-29

Israel has been conducting espionage against the United States
for a very long time.
Anyone who thinks that they stopped after the Pollard affair is naive.
They issued a phony policy statement,
changed the names of the activities doing the spying
and continued with their work.

Do I hold that against them? No.
They have no sense of us an ally,
any more than do any of the Arab states.
We are merely a large and vulnerable turkey available for the plucking.
People should read Giraldi’s article carefully.
It is packed with information.

David Brooks is particularly insidious.
His surface affability and “reasnableness” masks
one of the more effective zionist agents of influence in the United States.
pl

[In terms of “agents of influence,”
it is interesting to note how many American politicians
have taken advantage of the offers of Jewish groups to send them on
all-expense-paid “fact-finding” trips to Israel.]

2010-04-15-Giraldi-Kass

Dr. Strangelove, Made in Israel
by Philip Giraldi
Antiwar.com, 2010-04-15

One would expect the Air Force’s top civilian adviser
to be someone who has spent some time in the US military
or who has a very particular educational or skills set
that brings something special to what is, after all,
a very senior and sensitive position.
Not so.
Dr. Lani Kass, who is the senior Special Assistant
to the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force
General Norton A. Schwartz,
was born, raised, and educated in Israel
and then served in that country’s military
where she reached the rank of major.

...

2010-08-23-ACM-Giraldi-Mossad

Mossad in America
by Philip Giraldi
AmConMag Blog, 2010-08-23