DoD Spy for Israel given 12 ½ years!

January 21, 2006
by Jerry Markon
Washington Post

A former Defense Department analyst was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison yesterday for passing government secrets to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group and to an Israeli government official in Washington.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said Lawrence A. Franklin did not intend to harm the United States when he gave the classified data to the employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, one of Washington's most influential lobbying organizations. When he pleaded guilty, Franklin, an Iran specialist, said he was frustrated with the direction of U.S. policy and thought he could influence it through "back channels."

"I believe, I accept, your explanation that you didn't want to hurt the United States, that you are a loyal American," said Ellis, who added that Franklin was "concerned about certain threats to the United States" and thought he had to hand information about the threats to others to bring it to the attention of the National Security Council.

But Franklin still must be punished, Ellis said, because he violated important laws governing the non-disclosure of secret information.

"It doesn't matter that you think you were really helping," Ellis said as he sentenced Franklin to 151 months -- 12 1/2 years -- in prison. "That arrogates to yourself the decision whether to adhere to a statute passed by Congress, and we can't have that in this country."

The sentence fell at the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines, which called for a term as long as 188 months. "It could have been tougher,"' said Michael Greenberger, a former Justice Department official who heads the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland.

The sentencing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria closed one chapter of a long-running investigation into an alleged conspiracy to obtain and illegally pass classified information to foreign officials and reporters. But with the case still shrouded in secrecy, yesterday's hearing cast no new light on the information Franklin provided, whether its transmission harmed the United States and whether anyone will be charged other than the two lobbyists, who have been fired by AIPAC and are awaiting trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Di Gregory told Ellis that Franklin had reason to believe that the information could be used against the United States. "When you disclose national defense information to people not entitled to receive it," he said, "the U.S. government loses control of that information and there is no way to know in whose hands it might fall."

Plato Cacheris, Franklin's attorney, emphasized that Franklin is "a longtime dedicated public servant" who has had "a long and distinguished career." Cacheris said that Franklin has been cooperating extensively with investigators and that he expects the government to file a motion later to reduce Franklin's sentence.

Franklin pleaded guilty in October to three counts: conspiracy to communicate national defense information, conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government, and unlawful retention of national defense information.

Court documents said Franklin provided classified data -- including information about a Middle Eastern country's activities in Iraq and weapons tests conducted by a foreign country -- to the lobbyists and to an unnamed "foreign official."

The Middle Eastern country was not named, but Franklin disclosed at his plea hearing that some of the material related to Iran. He also said in court that the foreign official was Naor Gilon, who was the political officer at the Israeli Embassy before being recalled last summer. Israeli officials have said they are cooperating in the investigation, and they denied any wrongdoing.

Franklin is expected to testify against the two former AIPAC lobbyists, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, at their trial, which is scheduled for April.

Rosen, of Silver Spring, is charged with two counts related to unlawful disclosure of national defense information obtained from Franklin and other unidentified government officials on topics including Iran, Saudi Arabia and al Qaeda. Rosen was AIPAC's director of foreign policy issues and was instrumental in making the committee a formidable political force.

Weissman, of Bethesda, faces one count of conspiracy to illegally communicate national defense information.

The FBI monitored a series of meetings between Franklin and the former AIPAC officials dating back to early 2003, multiple sources familiar with the investigation have said. At one of those meetings, a session at the Pentagon City mall in Arlington in July 2004, Franklin warned Weissman that Iranian agents were planning attacks against U.S. soldiers and Israeli agents in Iraq, sources said.

Franklin had faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Ellis said Franklin would not have to go to jail until he finished his cooperation with the government.