← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · AntiYuppie
Thread ID: 18319 | Posts: 9 | Started: 2005-05-20
2005-05-20 19:30 | User Profile
IT'S STILL THE SAME OLD STORY May 5, 2005
by Joe Sobran
"It remains unclear whether any classified
information reached Israel," the WASHINGTON POST reports with dry humor. Where, then, was the information supposed to wind up?
The story concerns Lawrence Franklin, a Defense
Department policy analyst who has now been charged with passing on highly classified info to two pro-Israel lobbyists, a foreign official (we are left to guess what country he works for), and "unidentified members of the media." Franklin also seems to have ties to neoconservative notables like Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, and 83 classified documents were reportedly found in his West Virginia home.
The two lobbyists were (allegedly, as they say) top
officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC. Ask your congressman if he's ever heard of it. Chances are his knees will buckle and his mouth will dry up. You may take that as a Yes.
Franklin's lawyer says his client is innocent and
will fight the charges. Israeli officials say they aren't involved in the case and have never received any secret information. AIPAC has long since denied everything, saying the investigation smacks of anti-Semitism and stuff. Don't they all.
There have been innumerable stories of Israeli
espionage and technology theft against this country over the years. The most famous was the Jonathan Pollard case twenty years ago. At first the Israeli government denied everything then too, saying Pollard was part of a "rogue operation" it hadn't authorized. But it soon promoted his handler and, after he received a sentence of life in prison, pressured the U.S. Government for his release. He's still in prison, but a generous pension awaits him if he ever gets to Israel, where he's considered a national hero.
This is, as your congressman would probably say,
"our only reliable ally in the Middle East," whose agents and advocates in this country agitate tirelessly for war on Israel's enemies, which is the main reason the United States keeps fighting Arab and Muslim countries that haven't attacked us. These wars, in turn, are the chief reason the United States has become the most unpopular country in the world.
Our consolation is that we are very popular in
Israel. The lion's share of American foreign aid goes to one tiny country, a very rich one (as measured by personal income) and the only one in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons. Your congressman probably votes for annual increases in that limitless largesse. Ask him what we've gotten in return, besides 9/11.
Our prestige has fallen so low that it's surprising
that the Israelis don't dissociate themselves from America in their own interest. Both countries are widely regarded as threats to the world's peace, but the United States has been killing far more people than Israel has. American propaganda is starting to resemble the old Soviet variety, with its Orwellian blather of "liberation" and "democracy" to cover horrifying acts of violence.
George Washington and Alexander Hamilton warned that
republics are especially vulnerable to "foreign corruption." No doubt that's still true, but the United States also produces plenty of the home-grown stuff. Do you know whom your congressman had lunch with today?
Americans are forever congratulating themselves on
enjoying the blessings of self-government, but nobody bothers to measure them. Before our Revolution, the historian Paul Johnson points out, the average American paid sixpence a year to the British Crown. When our own income tax was adopted less than a century ago, only the very richest paid the top rate: 7 per cent. (Another historian mentions that under the Roman Empire, income taxes might have been "as high as one per cent.")
Israel is a small country with a big government. The
United States is a big country with a humongous government. But don't worry. It's not just government, we're assured; it's self-government! We can all vote. That makes everything all right, according to the slogans of democracy that the looters employ to placate the looted.
In truth, we are all implicated in a system so vast
and intricate that nobody can comprehend it; and all the world's governments increasingly cooperate with each other. Modern war is terrifying, but modern peace is sinister.
2005-05-20 20:04 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Ask him what we've gotten in return, besides 9/11.[/QUOTE] Uh,... pickeled herring?
AntiYuppie,
I called Bill Bennett's program last year, Bagels with Bill or Moonshine in America, something like that to ask him a rhetorical question. I wanted to know why Israel couldn't send three divisions to Iraq? I pointed they have the fifth biggest army in the world upon full mobilization. He replied that they helped us in other ways besides military and hung up. At the time I was puzzled, but upon reflection I think the "other ways" Bill referred to was tongue in cheek. Maybe Bennett considers "help" to be the sort that Israel has been giving us for years- causing us problems.
Good column by Sobran.
2005-05-20 20:50 | User Profile
[QUOTE=AntiYuppie]The two lobbyists were (allegedly, as they say) top officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC. Ask your congressman if he's ever heard of it. Chances are his knees will buckle and his mouth will dry up. You may take that as a Yes.[/QUOTE]Ths is really pretty astounding, at least for its brazeness. AIPAC reps don't even bother to get a deniable underling to do their spying for Israel, they do it themselves. And at the same time maintain close ties with the highest DoD officials.
At one time, this sort of the thing was thesort of event that would automaticaly bring gov't down in a parliamentary type of government.
[QUOTE=Sertorius]Good column by Sobran.[/QUOTE]You know where this was published - link or anything?
2005-05-20 21:15 | User Profile
I'm not even sure this would bring down Blair's government.
As to where this came from: [url]http://www.sobran.com/columns/index.shtml[/url] The lastest column.
2005-05-22 13:52 | User Profile
AIPAC conference set to open today By Nathan Guttman
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) , America's pro-Israel lobby, opens its 2005 policy conference today in Washington with 5,000 delegates and dignitaries present, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Congress leaders and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
This is AIPAC's first conference since it was discovered last summer that seniors in the organization were being investigated for receiving secret information from Pentagon official Larry Franklin, and conveying it to Israel.
AIPAC is aiming to turn the conference into a display of force that will prove that AIPAC was not compromised by the investigation. A great deal of attention, therefore, was placed on publicizing the conference and on bringing top-notch officials from the administration and from Congress to speak at the event.
The organization claims the investigation is ongoing, and that the dismissal of the senior officials who were involved in the affair, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, did not affect the organization's work on Capitol Hill and with the U.S. administration.
"AIPAC is focused on its one central mission - strengthening Israel-U.S. ties," AIPAC's spokesman Josh Block said last week.
This year the lobby has set itself two central goals - first, to guarantee support for Israel as it carries out the disengagement from Gaza, both by generating a majority of supporters in Congress for disengagement and by guaranteeing special financial aid from the U.S. to fund the disengagement and to develop the Negev and the Galilee. [url]http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/578623.html[/url] ============================
Judging by the number of whores from Congress and the Administration attending I'd say that unless something really nasty (as if treason wasn't enough) comes out that AIPAC will get away with it.
2005-05-22 15:37 | User Profile
"AIPAC is focused on its one central mission - strengthening Israel-U.S. ties," AIPAC's spokesman Josh Block said last week. Well, he's telling the truth about that. The problem is that those "ties" are a leash around the neck of the US and held by Jewish hands.
The mere existence of the AIPAC and similar organizations is an intolerable disgrace to this country. All organizations that lobby on behalf of foreign powers should be outlawed. Their sole purpose can only be subversion.
2005-05-24 18:51 | User Profile
:shocking: :eek: :yawn:
FT.com
Iran's nuclear tactics send delegates into interactive dystopia
By Caroline Daniel in Washington Published: May 23 2005 03:00 | Last updated: May 23 2005 03:00
In the bowels of the Washington Convention Centre lurks an interactive dystopia: a step by step guide to how Iran is "pursuing nuclear weapons and how it can be stopped".
The tour is the brainchild of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and has been created for its largest ever policy conference, which began yesterday. AIPAC has made fears about Iran's nuclear intentions a central plank of its congressional agenda.
Underlining AIPAC's status as the most influential foreign policy lobbying organisation, speakers at the conference will include Ariel Sharon, prime minister of Israel; Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state; New York senator Hillary Clinton; the Republican and Democratic party chairmen Ken Mehlman and Howard Dean; and other senior leadership figures.
The Disney-inspired nuclear tour begins in a dark room, with a strange mottled effect on the carpet and a giant screen introducing "the five main players in Iran's nuclear cat and mouse game".
It offers a precis of the situation: that Iran had received help from "the notorious Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan", that Iran has said "no incentives could convince it to end its nuclear activities", and that the US, "while it has cautiously supported the EU3 [Britain, France and Germany, which are negotiating with Iran on the issue], favours referring Iran to the UN Security Council".
The exhibition opens as Hassan Rohani, the top Iranian official responsible for the nuclear brief, prepares to meet the EU3 foreign ministers on Wednesday as talks continue to find a solution to the nuclear impasse.
Attendees are encouraged to "walk through the steps Iran is taking to produce highly enriched uranium and plutonium". The room contains a conveyer belt, heaped with large stones, which are funnelled through a metal box plastered with signs warning "caution, radiation", and "danger, keep hands clear."
On the other side the stones have been transformed into bright yellow sand, depicting "yellowcake" (a form of uranium). In a nod at Chinese aid, a wooden crate in the corner with paint cans full of "yellow cake" are stamped: "To: Iran, From: China."
Russia is criticised for aiding proliferation and giving Iran scientific expertise and nuclear fuel. In spite of concessions made by Russia after President George W. Bush's trip earlier this year, AIPAC warns: "Iran may not return to Russia the spent nuclear fuel containing plutonium which can be used for creating a bomb."
In the "nuclear power plant" room, dominated by a replica fuel rod with blue lights sparking on and off and coloured tubes, voiceovers from different rooms start to overlap. There is a steady echo of the phrases "make an atomic bomb," "uranium enrichment" and "the threat is real".
The penultimate room asks: "When will Iran get the bomb?" The display says: "Iran is known to have carried out experiments with a substance called polonium whose only purpose is to trigger and intensify nuclear explosions." TV footage depicts marching Iranian soldiers and a map showing how far Iran could strike with its Shihab-3 ballistic missiles. With a range of 1,200 miles, AIPAC warns that 250,000 US servicemen are "directly within range of Iranian missiles".
AIPAC's display ends with a sombre caution. "Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. Iran already has the means to deliver them. The world can still act. The threat is real. The clock is ticking."
And the multimedia clock starts to tick.
[url]http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ef034220-cb27-11d9-9abe-00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=1.html[/url]
2005-05-24 19:12 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Angler]The mere existence of the AIPAC and similar organizations is an intolerable disgrace to this country. All organizations that lobby on behalf of foreign powers should be outlawed. Their sole purpose can only be subversion.[/QUOTE]Correctimundo. It's one of those things that, the more you think about it, the more incredible it becomes that such a thing is even tolerated.
2005-05-25 00:19 | User Profile
[QUOTE=SteamshipTime]Correctimundo. It's one of those things that, the more you think about it, the more incredible it becomes that such a thing is even tolerated.[/QUOTE] Don't foreign countries have embassies? I have been to embassy row in DC, are those maybe just party houses?
Sign me up for a "me too" on the lobby for furriners score. :furious: