Lawrence Franklin

Lawrence A. Franklin, a career analyst at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, pled guilty to passing classified documents to Israel via the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In 2006, he was convicted of unauthorized disclosure of classified information and sentenced to 151 months in prison and fined $10,000. According to U.S. government sources the FBI quietly investigated Franklin for months, to determine whether Franklin gave classified information — which is said to have included a draft of a presidential directive on U.S. policies toward Iran — to two Israeli lobbyists in the U.S., who were then alleged to have passed it on to the Israeli government.

Franklin, an Air Force reserve officer who has served two short stints in the US Embassy's defense attache office in Tel Aviv (but was never permanently assigned there), was also an officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency. During the Bush administration, Franklin was promoted to the Pentagon policy division as a specialist on Iran, where U.S. law enforcement officials said he consistently argued for a hard-line stance against the Iranian government. Last fall, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld confirmed that Franklin was one of two Pentagon officials who met in 2001 with Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Middle Eastern arms dealer and onetime intermediary in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s. Ghorbanifar, who has said he remained in contact with Franklin and the other official until last year, is seeking US support to overthrow Iran's government.

Franklin also was a key link between the Defense Department and Iraqi National Congress Leader Ahmed Chalabi, according to the officials and Chalabi aides.

Last updated: February 04, 2009.

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Lawrence Anthony Franklin

Lawrence Anthony Franklin is a former U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel who has pleaded guilty to passing information about U.S. policy towards Iran to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying organization in the U.S, while he was working for the Defense Department. He claims this was an attempt to get the information to the United States National Security Council, which he was not able to do through regular Pentagon channels. Two former employees of AIPAC (Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman) also faced charges (that would later be dropped) that they assisted him in the AIPAC espionage scandal and passing classified national defense information to an Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon. On January 20, 2006, Judge T.S. Ellis, III sentenced Franklin to 151 months (almost 13 years) in prison and fined him $10,000 which Ellis later reduced to probation with ten months house arrest.^[1][2] The case was heard in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Ultimately, Franklin was charged with unauthorized disclosure of classified information, not with espionage.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Franklin at the Office of Special Plans 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

Franklin at the Office of Special Plans

In 2002 and 2003, Franklin worked at the Office of Special Plans which was set up by Donald Rumsfeld. The office was led by prominent neoconservative Douglas Feith. Under Feith's authorization, Lawrence Franklin met with Iran-Contra figures; critics allege they discussed Iraq intelligence, while supporters say they discussed only the War on Terrorism.^[3][4]

See also

United States Air Force portal

• Lawrence Franklin espionage scandal
• AIPAC

References

1. ^ Johnston, David (2006-01-20). "Pentagon Analyst Gets 12 Years for Disclosing Data". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/politics/20cnd-franklin.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=1a2688daa350509b&hp=&ex=1137819600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 
2. ^ Sentence Reduced In Pentagon Case Washington Post June 12, 2009
3. ^ Royce, Knut; Timothy Phelps (2003-08-09). "Arms dealer in talks with US officials about Iran". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/08/1060145871467.html. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 
4. ^ Bender, Bryan (2004-08-31). "2d probe at the Pentagon examines actions on Iraq". The Boston Globe (The New York Times Company). http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/31/2d_probe_at_the_pentagon_examines_actions_on_iraq. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 

External links

• Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies: Lawrence Franklin Case [1]
• Pentagon analyst guilty in Israeli spy scandal [2]
• Lawrence Franklin indictment
• Center for Cooperative Research, Profile: Lawrence Franklin [3]
• Jerry Markon. Pentagon spy for Israel given 12 years, Washington Post, January 21, 2006.
• "Israel 'Spy Scandal' Figure Larry Franklin Breaks Silence"

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