WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More than one thousand
documents released under Freedom of Information Act filings reveal details of
a secret battle that raged between founders of the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and top US law enforcement officials. The new book
"America's Defense Line: The Justice Department's Battle to Register the
Israel Lobby as Agents of a Foreign Government" reproduces and analyzes these
files and their troubling implications for rule of law in the United States.
"America's Defense Line" also reveals stunning details of a preferential deal
engineered within the highest levels of the US Department of Justice over the
course of three years and implemented in 1965 -- but kept secret from the
American public until today. Old documents and new analysis from the Center
for Policy and Law Enforcement raise many questions about the upcoming October
2008 AIPAC espionage trial.
In 2005, Colonel Lawrence Franklin was indicted alongside two executives of
AIPAC for allegedly violating the 1917 Espionage Act. Franklin later pled
guilty to passing AIPAC a classified presidential directive and other secrets
concerning America's Iran policy. Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman of AIPAC
allegedly forwarded the highly sensitive information to Israeli government
officials and select members of Washington's media establishment. This covert
leaking appears to be one of many AIPAC tactics designed to encourage tougher
U.S. policies toward Iran, from financial boycotts to naval blockades and
possibly even military strikes.
On October 28, 2008, government prosecutors are scheduled to appeal the ruling
judge's order that they must prove the alleged AIPAC leaks of national defense
information actually harmed the United States. The 1917 Espionage Act actually
requires a much lower standard of proof: "the injury of the United States or
to the advantage of a foreign country."
According to Grant F. Smith, the declassified documents bolster the
prosecution's position that the Espionage Act should be tightly interpreted as
it was written. "In the early 1960s, the Attorney General found that the
Israel lobby was acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Israel and
ordered it to register. Nevertheless, after a similar three-year period of
delays and appeals, AIPAC's predecessor was allowed to file a secret Foreign
Agents Registration Act (FARA) statement, our nation's first exception to that
very important public disclosure law. Forcing today's prosecutors to operate
under a higher standard of evidence smacks of institutionalized preferential
treatment for a lobby that has serially engaged in activities harmful to the
United States."
Federal, state and local law enforcement officials may request a complimentary
hard copy of "America's Defense Line" by sending their agency's mailing
address to
info@IRmep.org from a government email domain. Complimentary books
will be sent only while supplies last.
Members of the public can purchase the hardcover edition of "America's Defense
Line" for $29.95 at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other fine bookstores. The
340-page report's ISBN number is 0-9764437-2-4.
About the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc.,
www.IRmep.org:
IRmep is a Washington-based nonprofit that studies US policy formulation
toward the Middle East. IRmep's Center for Policy & Law Enforcement examines
how balanced and vigorous law enforcement can improve trade, economic
development and America's international standing.
SOURCE Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy
Grant Smith of IRmep, +1-202-342-7325
US Justice Department's Battle to Register the Israel Lobby as Agents of a Foreign Govt.
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