Word: franklin
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That phone call, which the Iraqi described to TIME last week, seems to be an indication that two complicated spy cases have become linked. Several weeks ago, according to federal law-enforcement officials, Franklin, who had been under investigation by the FBI for giving classified information to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), agreed to cooperate in a probe into whether the pro-Israel group was passing sensitive U.S. secrets to Israel. Franklin's call to the ex-I.N.C. man, who has provided TIME with credible information in the past, suggests that Franklin was also assisting...
According to law-enforcement officials, Franklin began cooperating with the FBI after agents first confronted him with evidence that he had given classified material to AIPAC, one of Washington's most powerful lobbying organizations. Israel and AIPAC have denied the spy allegations; neither the Pentagon nor Franklin would comment. The law-enforcement officials say Franklin was persuaded in recent weeks to make "pretext calls"--scripted conversations monitored by FBI agents and designed to tease out incriminating evidence about other suspects. It was within this time frame that Franklin approached the ex-I.N.C. official who spoke to TIME...
...that the bureau sought information on key AIPAC personnel, their meetings with White House and other national-security officials in Washington and even details about their personal lives. At one point, the FBI was surveilling a meeting between an Israeli diplomat and an AIPAC official when the Pentagon's Franklin suddenly appeared, igniting concerns. Franklin, a former Air Force Reserve officer, served briefly in the U.S. military attache's office in Israel in the late 1990s. Since the summer of 2001, he has worked as an Iran expert for Douglas Feith, the Pentagon's third ranking official, a neoconservative long...
According to a former U.S. government source, the material Franklin passed to AIPAC included a draft of a National Security Presidential Directive dealing with U.S. policy on Iran. The document, a source says, had gone through several versions without ever achieving the status of official U.S. policy because of deep disagreements within the Administration over how to cope with Iran. A source familiar with multiple drafts of the document said it was a "glorified Op-Ed looking at how engagement [with Iran] doesn't work and how the U.S. needs a more robust strategy." A former senior U.S. official...
...including Franklin, is known to have been charged in either case. In the meantime, AIPAC and its allies have launched a p.r. blitz, urging backers to bolster the group by contacting members of Congress with expressions of support. Whatever happens in the case, many in the FBI believe their ability to get to the bottom of the matter has been seriously compromised by the revelation of Franklin's name and other details leaking out about the scandal. "We may never know what really happened or how big and wide it was," says a bureau official. Using Franklin to make more...