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Ex-Pentagon man gets 12 years in AIPAC case
By Shmuel Rosner
Haaretz Correspondent in Washington and AP
01/20/06 "Haaretz" -- -- WASHINGTON - Former Pentagon analyst
Larry A. Franklin was sentenced Friday to a 12 years and seven
months imprisonment for passing classified information to former
American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists.
Franklin was also found guilty of sharing classified information
with Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon. He was also fined $10,000.
In sentencing Franklin, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said
the facts of the case led him to believe that Franklin was
motivated primarily by a desire to help the United States, not
harm it.
Franklin, 59, had worked with top Pentagon officials, including
former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith, and
is an expert on Iraq and Iran.
Franklin pleaded guilty in October in a plea bargain, and will
testify in the trial of former AIPAC lobbyists Steve Rosen and
Keith Weissman slated to start in April 2005. Franklin's
sentence could be then further reduced because of his
cooperation with the government.
Rosen and Weissman, who are facing charges of disclosing
confidential information to Israel, were fired from AIPAC in
2004.
The judge said that Franklin believed the National Security
Council was insufficiently concerned with the threat posed by an
unspecified Middle Eastern nation. Franklin thought leaking
information might eventually persuade the Security Council to
take more serious action, he said.
While the Middle Eastern country was not named in the court
record, sources and the facts of the case point to Iran.
Ellis said he viewed Franklin's case differently than a case
involving information leaked to the Soviets at height of the
Cold War.
"But not different to the extent of excuse. Not at all," Ellis
said.
Franklin at one time worked for Feith, then the Pentagon's No. 3
official, on issues involving the Middle East. During a court
appearance last year, Franklin said he would occasionally be
questioned directly by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and
former top Pentagon official Paul Wolfowitz on policy issues.
As a result, Franklin said, he sometimes took classified
information home to stay up to speed. One of the charges to
which he pleaded guilty was unlawful retention of classified
national defense information.
Franklin admitted that he met periodically with Rosen and
Weissman between 2002 and 2004 and discussed classified
information, including information about potential attacks on
U.S. troops in Iraq.
Rosen and Weissman would subsequently share what they learned
with reporters and Israeli officials.
Rosen was a top lobbyist for Washington-based AIPAC for more
than 20 years, and Weissman was the organization's top Iran
expert. AIPAC fired them in April and says it has cooperated
with the investigation.
Prosecution attorneys said Friday in U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia they would consider releasing the
court from federal sentencing guidelines once Franklin completes
his cooperation in the case against Rosen and Weissman.
Franklin asked that he be allowed to serve his sentence at a
minimum security prison near his home.
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon said in reaction
"this is an internal American affair. Israel had no connection
to the trial and, of course, to its outcome."
© Copyright 2006 Haaretz
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