Source: Reuters
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-08-04T192907Z_01_N04128471_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-SECURITY-PENTAGON-DC.XML
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Thu Aug 4, 2005 3:29 PM ET
By James Vicini
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - A federal grand jury indicted two former officials of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC Thursday on charges they received classified national defense information from a Pentagon analyst, court documents show.
The indictment charges Steven Rosen, the former foreign policy director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, with receiving classified information from analyst Lawrence Franklin and helping Franklin pass on written classified information.
AIPAC's former senior Middle East analyst, Keith Weissman, also was charged with receiving classified information.
Franklin, who worked on the Iran desk within the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the time the government says he disclosed the information, had already been charged with disclosing top-secret information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq to the two AIPAC employees.
Thursday’s indictment also charges him with giving the information to an unidentified diplomat and to Rosen and Weissman, whom AIPAC fired in April.
It accuses Franklin of disclosing to a foreign diplomat classified information about a Middle Eastern country’s activities in Iraq. Sources familiar with the investigation have said the diplomat was an Israeli.
Franklin pleaded not guilty to the original charges.
Abbe Lowell, attorney for Rosen, said the charges were unjustified.
“We expect that the trial will show that this prosecution represents a misguided attempt to criminalize the public’s right to participate in the political process,” Lowell said.
Weissman’s attorney, John Nissikas, said in a statement, “We are disappointed that the government has decided to pursue these charges, which Mr. Weissman strongly denies.”
The Israeli diplomat in Washington who met several times with Franklin has been identified as Naor Gilon, head of the political department at Israeli Embassy in Washington and a specialist on proliferation issues.
Gilon returned to Israel a few days ago as part of a long-scheduled rotation, according to an Israeli official in Washington.
U.S. investigators want to question Gilon and other Israeli diplomats about their contacts with Franklin, officials said. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Adam Entous)
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