AIPAC Spy Figure Larry Franklin Describes Mafia-Style Murder Threat

By Jeff Stein | July 1, 2009 9:47 PM | | Comments (0)

Somebody wanted Larry Franklin out of the way. 

In court documents filed last week, a sketchy tale surfaced suggesting that someone wanted Franklin, the former Pentagon analyst who had agreed to testify against two pro-Israel activists on charges of espionage, dead.

In a Tuesday, June 30 interview, Franklin and his attorney Plato Cacheris, the famed criminal defense lawyer, elaborated on the shadowy incident.

"Somebody approached Larry and suggested it would be good if Larry could disappear and fake a suicide," Cacheris said, "and this person would assist him in doing that."
 
Franklin didn't take it that way: It was more like a page out of The Sopranos, which would end with him disappearing -- forever.
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Israel 'Spy Scandal' Figure Larry Franklin Breaks Silence

By Jeff Stein | July 1, 2009 7:24 PM | | Comments (1)

He insists he did it for his country, to head off a disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq. 

But instead, Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin found himself charged with giving classified information to suspected agents of Israel. In 2006 he was sentenced to almost 13 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, later reduced to probation and 10 months house arrest for cooperating with the feds. 

Today, the former Iran specialist is mopping floors at a Roy Rogers near his home in West Virginia and serving a 100 hour community service sentence at a halfway house for abused children

Now, breaking silence for the first time since he became entangled in the Israel-spy-ring-that wasn't, Franklin says he gave sensitive information to a pro-Israel lobbyist in hopes that it would be passed on to the White House.
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U.S. Journalist Quizzed on Foreign Contacts After Landing at Miami

By Jeff Stein | June 29, 2009 6:05 PM | | Comments (1)

A veteran American journalist returning from Latin America on Saturday was closely questioned by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent about where he went and whom he talked to.

John Dinges, a former NPR managing editor for news and currently professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism, landed at Miami International Airport June 27 after visiting Venezuela and Chile.

After examining his passport, he said, the CBP agent asked him, "What were you doing on this trip?"
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Harman Comes Out Swinging Once More in Israel Wiretap Flap

By Jeff Stein | June 25, 2009 4:46 PM | | Comments (1)

Rep.  Jane Harman, D-Calif, who was reportedly overheard on a 2005 NSA wiretap agreeing to lobby Bush administration officials on behalf of two accused Israeli agents, released a letter from the Department of Justice today that she says clears her of any wrongdoing. 

"It states I am not a target or subject of an investigation," a press release from Harman's office said. "This reaffirms similar information I received in early 2007 following initial unsubstantiated leaks."

But in claiming absolution from the Justice Department, Harman has continued a public relations tack of effectively denying something she was never charged with.
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Ex-CIA Columnist Suspects Interference by His Former Employer

By Jeff Stein | June 24, 2009 11:32 PM | | Comments (0)

Stephen Lee, a former CIA operations manager who blogs for The Washington Examiner, suspects the spy agency's censors are trying to sabotage his new career.

Lee recently launched the critical "Examiner Spy" column for the Examiner newspaper chain, which has a D.C. daily edition.  He also pens a biting cartoon for his own Web site, NationalSecurityDrone.com, under the name Frank Naif.

"I believe I am being subjected to a campaign of low-level harrassment," Lee said Wednesday.
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Mousavi, Celebrated in Iranian Protests, Was the Butcher of Beirut

By Jeff Stein | June 22, 2009 7:45 PM | | Comments (2)

He may yet turn out to be the avatar of Iranian democracy, but three decades ago Mir-Hossein Mousavi was waging a terrorist war on the United States that included bloody attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
 
Mousavi, prime minister for most of the 1980s, personally selected his point man for the Beirut terror campaign, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-pur, and dispatched him to Damascus as Iran's ambassador, according to former CIA and military officials.
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Times Was Prepared to Pay Ransom for Rohde

By Jeff Stein | June 20, 2009 6:59 PM | | Comments (0)

The New York Times was prepared to pay Taliban kidnappers a $5 million ransom to free its reporter David S. Rohde, who escaped Friday after seven months of captivity, according to a source with direct knowledge of the case.

Over months of secret contacts with Rohde's captors preceding his escape, The New York Times accepted the prospect of paying the ransom to free Rohde, said the source, who was involved in the hunt for Rohde. The source insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Bill Keller, the executive editor of the Times, refused to comment Saturday on the circumstances that led to Rohde's release, but said, "We paid no ransom."
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CIA, Mossad Hitting Iran's Hezbollah Hard, Report Says

By Jeff Stein | June 18, 2009 3:03 PM | | Comments (1)

American and Israeli intelligence organizations, in cooperation with local security services, have scored notable recent successes against Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terror organization, according to a new report.
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Ensign Affair: It's Not About the Sex

By Jeff Stein | June 17, 2009 3:02 PM | | Comments (0)

Embattled Sen. John Ensign's admission of an affair with the wife of a staff aide made him vulnerable to blackmail by hostile spy services or other interests eager to pry secrets from his position on sensitive national security committees, veteran counterintelligence officials say.

Ensign is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, including its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, giving him and his staff access to extremely sensitive national defense information.

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Should the CIA Meddle in Iran Now?

By Jeff Stein | June 15, 2009 6:13 PM | | Comments (1)

A half century ago the CIA could bring down an Iranian prime minister with a few rent-a-crowds, well placed payments to key generals and a pliable replacement.

Could it do the same today?

Not likely, but events in Iran have often contradicted the prognostications of Westerners, especially at the CIA.
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