MORE ON SPY ALLEGATIONS

White House Aware of Probe When Bush, Rice Praised AIPAC
Over two years ago, U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, were "apprised of the counterintelligence investigation of AIPAC" by the FBI regarding whether classified information was passed to Israel, Washington's closest ally in the Middle East, by the pro-Israel lobbying group, a senior administration official said Thursday. Since the White House National Security Council was informed of the case, Bush, Rice, and other senior administration officials have praised AIPAC. In May, Bush said AIPAC was "serving the cause of America," including its role in highlighting "the threat posed by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons." In March 2003, Rice called AIPAC "a great asset to our country."

"Apparently nothing turned up during this rigorous two-year probe of AIPAC's activities to deter President Bush from addressing AIPAC's policy conference on May 18, 2004. Nor has information surfaced that has prevented scores of other administration and congressional leaders from speaking regularly and candidly with AIPAC officials," the group said in a statement. The group has had high-level contacts with the Bush White House, as well as previous U.S. administrations. (Reuters)

See also AIPAC Defiant Over FBI Probe of Alleged Leak - Janine Zacharia
"It is surely inconceivable that if any shred of evidence of disloyalty or even negligence on AIPAC's part had been discovered in the course of the type of meticulous scrutiny as described by the Washington Post, it would have not been tolerated by American law enforcement or ignored by the president, his national security adviser, and other top officials of the U.S. government," the AIPAC statement said. So far no one has been charged with any wrongdoing in the case. (Jerusalem Post)

See also Israel Has Long Spied on U.S., Say Officials
Israel secretly maintains a large and active intelligence-gathering operation in the U.S. that has long attempted to recruit U.S. officials as spies and to procure classified documents, U.S. government officials said. FBI and other counterespionage agents, in turn, have covertly followed, bugged, and videotaped Israeli diplomats and intelligence officers, the officials said. Israel's unique status as an extremely close U.S. ally presents a dilemma for U.S. counterintelligence officials. "They probably get 98% of everything they want handed to them on a weekly basis," said a former senior U.S. intelligence officer who has worked closely with Israeli intelligence. "They're very active allies. They're treated the way the British are." Another former intelligence operative who has worked with Israeli intelligence said, "The relationship with Israeli intelligence is as intimate as it gets." Officials said Israel was acutely interested in U.S. policies and intelligence on the Middle East, especially toward Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. In 1997 and 1998, the FBI investigated whether Scott Ritter, then a U.S. intelligence official working with UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, was improperly delivering U.S. spy-plane film and other secret material to Israeli intelligence. Ritter was never charged in the case. (Los Angeles Times)

The Evidence, Please - Editorial
It used to be that the FBI enjoyed a fearsome reputation for ferreting out traitors and spies. But in recent years, its selective persecution has exposed a bureau too often better at making headlines than convictions. It's useful to keep those travesties in mind as Washington is convulsed by reports of a new FBI spy investigation. Mid-level Pentagon official Larry Franklin is said to be under suspicion of supplying classified documents on Iran policy to AIPAC, which allegedly handed them over to Israel. As exciting as this story line may be, the evidence that has emerged in the last week also suggests a more prosaic conclusion: Franklin may be guilty mostly of carelessness. Maybe the FBI has come up with damning evidence that Franklin is something other than the bland civil servant he appears to be. But so far, the bureau's most amazing feat is to have made Franklin interesting. (Los Angeles Times)