Time Line: Why Franklin Arrest May Be Bigger Than We Know
by LITBMueller
Thu May 5th, 2005 at 12:00:06 PDT
I thought it might be interesting to put together a timeline of events concerning the arrest of Lawrence Franklin and compare it to when certain Neocons like Feith, Wurmser, Luti, etc. either decided to leave or were shuffled around, and out of the DoD.
By just poking around on the net, I found a lot more than I bargained for! Forgive me if this has been explored before, but, personally, I had no idea that the people uor country has been trusting with top secret intelligence information have had a history of violating that trust. That is why I think the arrest of Franklin may be a sign of bigger things to come.
Below is the timeline I pieced together. * = new update!
Diaries :: LITBMueller's diary :: :: Trackback ::
1970 - An FBI wiretap authorized for the Israeli Embassy picked up Richard Perle, then a Senator's staffer and working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussing with an Embassy official classified information which he said had been supplied to him by a staff member on the National Security Council. An NSC/FBI investigation found the staff member, Helmut Sonnenfeldt, who had been previously investigated in 1967 while a staff member of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, for suspected unauthorized transmission to an Israeli Government official of a classified document concerning the commencement of the 1967 war in the Middle East. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1978 - While working for the Arms Control and Disarmament agency in 1978, Paul Wolfowitz was the subject of an investigation that alleged he had provided a classified document on the proposed sale of U.S. weapons to an Arab government to an Israeli government official via an AIPAC intermediary. However, the probe was eventually dropped. (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040824-102938-1916r.htm)
April 1979 - The Attorney General's office recommends that Dr. Stephen Bryen, then a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, be investigated by a grand jury because he had been overheard in the Madison Hotel Coffee Shop offering classified documents to Israeli Embassy official Zvi Rafiah, the Mossad station chief in Washington, in the presence of the director of AIPAC. The investigation was eventually shut down and Bryen resigned. He then served as Executive Director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), and provided consulting services to AIPAC. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1981 - Shortly before being appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy (ISP), Perle was paid a consulting fee by an Israeli arms manufacturer, Soltam. Shortly after assuming his post, Perle wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Army urging evaluation and purchase of 155 mm. shells manufactured by Soltam. Bryen becomes Deputy to Perle and receives top secret clearances. Wolfowitz, as head of the State Department Policy Planning Staff, hires Michael Ledeen as a Special Advisor. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1982 - Perle hires Douglas Feith to be his Special Counsel (he later becomes Deputy Assistant Secretary for Negotiations Policy). (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html) F. Michael Maloof also becomes an aide to Perle as Foreign Affairs Specialist. (http://www.findaresume.com/1985.html)
1983 - Feith is fired because he had been the object of an inquiry into whether he had provided classified material to an official of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. FBI had opened an inquiry into this allegation. (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040824-102938-1916r.htm) Also, on the recommendation of Perle, Ledeen was hired at the Department of Defense as a consultant on terrorism, where his superior first became concerned that he was viewing classified material that he was not cleared to see. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1984 - Ledeen leaves his position in DoD and joins the National Security Council (NSC) as a consultant. He suggests to Oliver North, his new boss at NSC "that Israeli contacts might be useful in obtaining release of the U.S. hostages in Lebanon." (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
August 20, 1985 - Ledeen's Israeli intelligence contacts are used to broker Iran/Contra. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3031803.stm ) He worked with an Iranian named Manucher Ghorbanifar to set up the deal. (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040412&s=dreyfuss). Concerned over his relationship with Israel, NSC downgrades Ledeen's security clearance. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
January 24, 1986 - North writes to John Poindexter of his suspicion that Ledeen, along with Adolph Schwimmer and Ghorbanifar, might be making money personally on the sale of arms to Iran, through Israel. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1986 - Feith leaves ISP to form a law firm in Israel. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html) Maloof becomes Chief of Technology Security Operations and, at the direction of Perle, creates a task force intended to respond to the growth of front companies created for the illegal diversion of technology for conventional and unconventional weapons. Serves in this role until 2000. (http://www.findaresume.com/1985.html)
1987 - After leaving the ISP in 1987, Perle goes to work for Soltam. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1988 - Bryen is the key figures behind the attempted export of "klystrons," small microwave amplifiers that are critical missile components, to Israel. Bryen resigned his post with DoD in late 1988 and worked for several defense technology consulting firms. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1992 - The first Bush Administration launches a broad inter-departmental investigation into the export of classified technology to China. During the investigation, it is discovered that Wolfowitz, as Undersecretary for Policy under Dick Cheney, was promoting the export to Israel of advanced AIM-9M air-to-air missiles. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, aware that Israel had already been caught selling the earlier AIM 9-L version of the missile to China in violation of a written agreement with the U.S. on arms re-sales, cancels the proposed deal. Feith writes in Commentary magazine, "It is in the interest of U.S. and Israel to remove needless impediments to technological cooperation between them. Technologies in the hands of responsible, friendly countries facing military threats, countries like Israel, serve to deter aggression, enhance regional stability and promote peace thereby." (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1998 - Harold Rhode reportedly had his security clearances at DoD suspended, based on allegations he had given classified information to Israel, according to UPI in 2004. (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040824-102938-1916r.htm)
2001 - As Deputy Defense Secretary, Wolfowitz helped Feith obtain his appointment as Undersecretary for Policy. Feith then appointed Perle as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html). Rhode was officially assigned to the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment, but was later involved in OSP. (http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html)
April 2001 - With the support of Wolfowitz and Sen. Richard Shelby, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert appoints Bryen a Member of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission (his appointment is later extended through December of 2005). The Commission had been created in the last months of the Clinton Administration due to concerns about the continuing transfer of advanced U.S. arms technology to the burgeoning Chinese military program. It is suspected that this position, again, gives Bryen Top Secret clearance. Likewise, Ledeen is appointed to the China Commission and, with the support of Feith, he has also been employed as a consultant for the OSP. Again, both positions involve the handling of classified materials and require high-level security clearances. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
June 2001 - Rhode meets with Ghorbanifar in Paris and discusses regime change in Iran. He had been introduced to Ghorbanifar by Ledeen, who had maintained his ties with him. (http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3706341&p1=0).
September 2001 - Feith and Rhode recruit David Wurmser, the director of Middle East studies for the American Enterprise Institute, to serve as a Pentagon consultant. He helped create the secret Pentagon intelligence unit involved in developing Iraq intelligence. (http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html) Maloof is also assigned to assist with the organization of the unit. (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/31/2d_probe_at_the_pentagon_examines_actions_on_i raq?pg=2)
* December 2001 - Rhode, Lawrence Franklin and Ledeen have meetings in Rome with Ghorbanifar and other Iranians and discuss regime change in Iran. White House officials OK'd what they believed was a Pentagon effort to gather info about Iranian terrorist activity in Afghanistan, but they didn't know Ghorbanifar was involved. (http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3706341 and http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshall.html&p1=0)
Early 2002 - Wolfowitz and Feith create an Iraq war-planning unit in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia Affairs section, run by Deputy Undersecretary of Defense William Luti, under the rubric "Office of Special Plans" (OSP), into which the Wurmser-Maloof intelligence unit is folded. Luti had come to DoD by way of Cheney's office. Wurmser becomes senior adviser to Undersecretary of State John Bolton, who was in charge of the State Department's disarmament, proliferation, and WMD office and was actively promoting the Iraq war at State. OSP begins a relationship with Ahmed Chalabi, from whom they receive intelligence. (http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html). Rhode also serves as a liaison between the Defense Department and Ahmad Chalabi. (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040412&s=dreyfuss).
* February 2002 - Stephen Hadley learn about the involvement of Ghorbanifar in the 2001 meetings, and that regime change was on his agenda. They decide further contacts were "not worth pursuing," but Ghorbanifar continues to communicate with Rhode, and sometimes Franklin, by phone and fax five or six times a week (the contacts were not authorized by top Pentagon officials). (http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3706341 and http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshall.html&p1=0)
January 2003 - Maloof meets with a Lebanese-American friend, Imad al-Hage, who had been recruited by Maloof to assist in the War on Terrorism. Hage had met a Syrian intelligence official who had expressed frustration to him about the difficulties Syria faced in communicating with U.S. officials. Maloof arranged for Hage to meet Perle. (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_thwarted_Iraqi_110303.htm)
February 19, 2003 - Hage faxes a 3-page report on his Baghdad trip to Maloof. He indicates that the Iraqis have pledged to (1) cooperate in fighting terrorism; (2) give "full support for any US plan" in the Arab-Israeli peace process; (3) give " first priority [to the U.S.] as it relates to Iraq oil, mining rights;" (4) cooperate with US strategic interests in the region; (5) allow "direct US involvement on the ground in disarming Iraq." (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_thwarted_Iraqi_110303.htm)
March 7, 2003 - Hage meets with Perle and Perle tells him he wants to pursue the matter further with people in Washington; a few days later, he tells Hage that Washington refused to let him meet with Habbush or discuss any peace offers. As the month goes by, Hage continues to pass on urgent messages from Iraq to Maloof and others. Perle and others have knowledge of the peace overtures, but no action is taken. (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_thwarted_Iraqi_110303.htm)
May 2003 - Maloof is stripped of his security clearance after the FBI link him to a Lebanese-American businessman under investigation by the FBI for weapons trafficking. A handgun registered to Maloof had been found in the possession of Hage, who is suspected of dealing arms. Investigators begin to seek to learn whether Maloof's alleged contacts with Hage and a hard-line former Lebanese general, Michel Aoun, may have been part of a back-channel effort to destabilize Syria, which has occupied Lebanon for nearly two decades. (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/31/2d_probe_at_the_pentagon_examines_actions_on_i raq?pg=2 and http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_thwarted_Iraqi_110303.htm)
June 2003 - Rhode meets with Ghorbanifar in Paris and discusses regime change in Iran, but his communications with Ghorbanifar end shortly thereafter. The meeting had not been authorized by the Pentagon. (http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3706341&p1=0)
June 26, 2003 - FBI observes Franklin divulging secret information re: Iraq to AIPAC's Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman while having lunch. (http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24410~2853235,00.html)
June 30, 2003 - FBI find the document Franklin disclosed in his office, pursuant to warrant, and Franklin admits his guilt in an interview. FBI search Franklin's home and find 83 documents of various levels of classification being held illegally. Franklin is stripped of his security clearance. (http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/dod/usfrnkln50305cmp.pdf).
September 2003 - Wurmser is moved from State to Dick Cheney's office, under Scooter Libby, as Middle East adviser. (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1020-10.htm)
August, 2004 - FBI gets Franklin to pass a fake tip re: a plan by Iran to attack Israeli operations in the Kurdish regions of Iraq. Rosen and Weissman pass the info on, and fall into the trap. FBI raids AIPAC offices. Franklin later stops helping FBI, fires his public defender, and hires a top a D.C. defense lawyer. (http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0331/dailyUpdate.html)
August 24, 2004: UPI reports that Rhode and Luti are being investigated by FBI for passing classified material to Israel. (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040824-102938-1916r.htm)
August 27, 2004 - CBS reports on the Franklin case, and it becomes public. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/27/eveningnews/main639143.shtml)
December, 2004 - FBI raids AIPAC once more. Grand jury subpoenas are issued to four top staffers: Howard Kohr, executive director; Richard Fishman, managing director; Renee Rothstein, communications director; and Raphael Danziger, research director. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111807178234&a page=1)
January-February 2005 - Several of the above four top AIPAC staffers testify before a federal grand jury convened by U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111807178234&a page=1). AIPAC places Rosen and Weissman on paid leave and Franklin is quietly rehired at the Pentagon, against the FBI's wishes, in a non-sensitive position. (http://www.jewishtimes.com/News/4683.stm).
Late January 2005 - Douglas Feith announces he is leaving his post later this year, (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050126-054711-1300r.htm), but he will still be involved in setting defense policy. Specifically, the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2638-2005Apr19.html)
* February 8, 2005: A "team" that includes CIA search the documents of Sen. "Scoop" Jackson stored at the University of Washington, reportedly to remove any classified materials. (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002172910_jacksonpapers07m.html) Besides Perle, Feith is a former Jackson staff member (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/15/201851/101) (Thanks to Miss Devore and the Kos diary of Thistime) March 7, 2005 - Bolton nominated to be next UN Ambassador. (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/07/bolton/index.html).
* March 2005: Former Mossad senior official and head of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Israel's Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Uzi Arad is questioned by FBI in connection with the Franklin probe. He is told that his name came up three times in connection with Franklin. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115000578317 and http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=nir20050504953) April 16, 2005 - Paul Wolfowitz is announced to be the new head of the World Bank, (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/20050316-7.html) although he, like Feith, will still be involved in the QDR. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2638-2005Apr19.html)
Late April 2005 - AIPAC dismisses Rosen and Weissman. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1114049938008)
May 3, 2005 - Luti is moved over from DoD to the NSC. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050503-3.html)
Thu May 5th, 2005 at 12:00:06 PDT
I thought it might be interesting to put together a timeline of events concerning the arrest of Lawrence Franklin and compare it to when certain Neocons like Feith, Wurmser, Luti, etc. either decided to leave or were shuffled around, and out of the DoD.
By just poking around on the net, I found a lot more than I bargained for! Forgive me if this has been explored before, but, personally, I had no idea that the people uor country has been trusting with top secret intelligence information have had a history of violating that trust. That is why I think the arrest of Franklin may be a sign of bigger things to come.
Below is the timeline I pieced together. * = new update!
Diaries :: LITBMueller's diary :: :: Trackback ::
1970 - An FBI wiretap authorized for the Israeli Embassy picked up Richard Perle, then a Senator's staffer and working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussing with an Embassy official classified information which he said had been supplied to him by a staff member on the National Security Council. An NSC/FBI investigation found the staff member, Helmut Sonnenfeldt, who had been previously investigated in 1967 while a staff member of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, for suspected unauthorized transmission to an Israeli Government official of a classified document concerning the commencement of the 1967 war in the Middle East. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1978 - While working for the Arms Control and Disarmament agency in 1978, Paul Wolfowitz was the subject of an investigation that alleged he had provided a classified document on the proposed sale of U.S. weapons to an Arab government to an Israeli government official via an AIPAC intermediary. However, the probe was eventually dropped. (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040824-102938-1916r.htm)
April 1979 - The Attorney General's office recommends that Dr. Stephen Bryen, then a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, be investigated by a grand jury because he had been overheard in the Madison Hotel Coffee Shop offering classified documents to Israeli Embassy official Zvi Rafiah, the Mossad station chief in Washington, in the presence of the director of AIPAC. The investigation was eventually shut down and Bryen resigned. He then served as Executive Director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), and provided consulting services to AIPAC. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1981 - Shortly before being appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy (ISP), Perle was paid a consulting fee by an Israeli arms manufacturer, Soltam. Shortly after assuming his post, Perle wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Army urging evaluation and purchase of 155 mm. shells manufactured by Soltam. Bryen becomes Deputy to Perle and receives top secret clearances. Wolfowitz, as head of the State Department Policy Planning Staff, hires Michael Ledeen as a Special Advisor. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1982 - Perle hires Douglas Feith to be his Special Counsel (he later becomes Deputy Assistant Secretary for Negotiations Policy). (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html) F. Michael Maloof also becomes an aide to Perle as Foreign Affairs Specialist. (http://www.findaresume.com/1985.html)
1983 - Feith is fired because he had been the object of an inquiry into whether he had provided classified material to an official of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. FBI had opened an inquiry into this allegation. (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040824-102938-1916r.htm) Also, on the recommendation of Perle, Ledeen was hired at the Department of Defense as a consultant on terrorism, where his superior first became concerned that he was viewing classified material that he was not cleared to see. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1984 - Ledeen leaves his position in DoD and joins the National Security Council (NSC) as a consultant. He suggests to Oliver North, his new boss at NSC "that Israeli contacts might be useful in obtaining release of the U.S. hostages in Lebanon." (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
August 20, 1985 - Ledeen's Israeli intelligence contacts are used to broker Iran/Contra. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3031803.stm ) He worked with an Iranian named Manucher Ghorbanifar to set up the deal. (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040412&s=dreyfuss). Concerned over his relationship with Israel, NSC downgrades Ledeen's security clearance. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
January 24, 1986 - North writes to John Poindexter of his suspicion that Ledeen, along with Adolph Schwimmer and Ghorbanifar, might be making money personally on the sale of arms to Iran, through Israel. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1986 - Feith leaves ISP to form a law firm in Israel. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html) Maloof becomes Chief of Technology Security Operations and, at the direction of Perle, creates a task force intended to respond to the growth of front companies created for the illegal diversion of technology for conventional and unconventional weapons. Serves in this role until 2000. (http://www.findaresume.com/1985.html)
1987 - After leaving the ISP in 1987, Perle goes to work for Soltam. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1988 - Bryen is the key figures behind the attempted export of "klystrons," small microwave amplifiers that are critical missile components, to Israel. Bryen resigned his post with DoD in late 1988 and worked for several defense technology consulting firms. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1992 - The first Bush Administration launches a broad inter-departmental investigation into the export of classified technology to China. During the investigation, it is discovered that Wolfowitz, as Undersecretary for Policy under Dick Cheney, was promoting the export to Israel of advanced AIM-9M air-to-air missiles. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, aware that Israel had already been caught selling the earlier AIM 9-L version of the missile to China in violation of a written agreement with the U.S. on arms re-sales, cancels the proposed deal. Feith writes in Commentary magazine, "It is in the interest of U.S. and Israel to remove needless impediments to technological cooperation between them. Technologies in the hands of responsible, friendly countries facing military threats, countries like Israel, serve to deter aggression, enhance regional stability and promote peace thereby." (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
1998 - Harold Rhode reportedly had his security clearances at DoD suspended, based on allegations he had given classified information to Israel, according to UPI in 2004. (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040824-102938-1916r.htm)
2001 - As Deputy Defense Secretary, Wolfowitz helped Feith obtain his appointment as Undersecretary for Policy. Feith then appointed Perle as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html). Rhode was officially assigned to the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment, but was later involved in OSP. (http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html)
April 2001 - With the support of Wolfowitz and Sen. Richard Shelby, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert appoints Bryen a Member of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission (his appointment is later extended through December of 2005). The Commission had been created in the last months of the Clinton Administration due to concerns about the continuing transfer of advanced U.S. arms technology to the burgeoning Chinese military program. It is suspected that this position, again, gives Bryen Top Secret clearance. Likewise, Ledeen is appointed to the China Commission and, with the support of Feith, he has also been employed as a consultant for the OSP. Again, both positions involve the handling of classified materials and require high-level security clearances. (http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html)
June 2001 - Rhode meets with Ghorbanifar in Paris and discusses regime change in Iran. He had been introduced to Ghorbanifar by Ledeen, who had maintained his ties with him. (http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3706341&p1=0).
September 2001 - Feith and Rhode recruit David Wurmser, the director of Middle East studies for the American Enterprise Institute, to serve as a Pentagon consultant. He helped create the secret Pentagon intelligence unit involved in developing Iraq intelligence. (http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html) Maloof is also assigned to assist with the organization of the unit. (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/31/2d_probe_at_the_pentagon_examines_actions_on_i raq?pg=2)
* December 2001 - Rhode, Lawrence Franklin and Ledeen have meetings in Rome with Ghorbanifar and other Iranians and discuss regime change in Iran. White House officials OK'd what they believed was a Pentagon effort to gather info about Iranian terrorist activity in Afghanistan, but they didn't know Ghorbanifar was involved. (http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3706341 and http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshall.html&p1=0)
Early 2002 - Wolfowitz and Feith create an Iraq war-planning unit in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia Affairs section, run by Deputy Undersecretary of Defense William Luti, under the rubric "Office of Special Plans" (OSP), into which the Wurmser-Maloof intelligence unit is folded. Luti had come to DoD by way of Cheney's office. Wurmser becomes senior adviser to Undersecretary of State John Bolton, who was in charge of the State Department's disarmament, proliferation, and WMD office and was actively promoting the Iraq war at State. OSP begins a relationship with Ahmed Chalabi, from whom they receive intelligence. (http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html). Rhode also serves as a liaison between the Defense Department and Ahmad Chalabi. (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040412&s=dreyfuss).
* February 2002 - Stephen Hadley learn about the involvement of Ghorbanifar in the 2001 meetings, and that regime change was on his agenda. They decide further contacts were "not worth pursuing," but Ghorbanifar continues to communicate with Rhode, and sometimes Franklin, by phone and fax five or six times a week (the contacts were not authorized by top Pentagon officials). (http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3706341 and http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshall.html&p1=0)
January 2003 - Maloof meets with a Lebanese-American friend, Imad al-Hage, who had been recruited by Maloof to assist in the War on Terrorism. Hage had met a Syrian intelligence official who had expressed frustration to him about the difficulties Syria faced in communicating with U.S. officials. Maloof arranged for Hage to meet Perle. (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_thwarted_Iraqi_110303.htm)
February 19, 2003 - Hage faxes a 3-page report on his Baghdad trip to Maloof. He indicates that the Iraqis have pledged to (1) cooperate in fighting terrorism; (2) give "full support for any US plan" in the Arab-Israeli peace process; (3) give " first priority [to the U.S.] as it relates to Iraq oil, mining rights;" (4) cooperate with US strategic interests in the region; (5) allow "direct US involvement on the ground in disarming Iraq." (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_thwarted_Iraqi_110303.htm)
March 7, 2003 - Hage meets with Perle and Perle tells him he wants to pursue the matter further with people in Washington; a few days later, he tells Hage that Washington refused to let him meet with Habbush or discuss any peace offers. As the month goes by, Hage continues to pass on urgent messages from Iraq to Maloof and others. Perle and others have knowledge of the peace overtures, but no action is taken. (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_thwarted_Iraqi_110303.htm)
May 2003 - Maloof is stripped of his security clearance after the FBI link him to a Lebanese-American businessman under investigation by the FBI for weapons trafficking. A handgun registered to Maloof had been found in the possession of Hage, who is suspected of dealing arms. Investigators begin to seek to learn whether Maloof's alleged contacts with Hage and a hard-line former Lebanese general, Michel Aoun, may have been part of a back-channel effort to destabilize Syria, which has occupied Lebanon for nearly two decades. (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/31/2d_probe_at_the_pentagon_examines_actions_on_i raq?pg=2 and http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_thwarted_Iraqi_110303.htm)
June 2003 - Rhode meets with Ghorbanifar in Paris and discusses regime change in Iran, but his communications with Ghorbanifar end shortly thereafter. The meeting had not been authorized by the Pentagon. (http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3706341&p1=0)
June 26, 2003 - FBI observes Franklin divulging secret information re: Iraq to AIPAC's Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman while having lunch. (http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24410~2853235,00.html)
June 30, 2003 - FBI find the document Franklin disclosed in his office, pursuant to warrant, and Franklin admits his guilt in an interview. FBI search Franklin's home and find 83 documents of various levels of classification being held illegally. Franklin is stripped of his security clearance. (http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/dod/usfrnkln50305cmp.pdf).
September 2003 - Wurmser is moved from State to Dick Cheney's office, under Scooter Libby, as Middle East adviser. (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1020-10.htm)
August, 2004 - FBI gets Franklin to pass a fake tip re: a plan by Iran to attack Israeli operations in the Kurdish regions of Iraq. Rosen and Weissman pass the info on, and fall into the trap. FBI raids AIPAC offices. Franklin later stops helping FBI, fires his public defender, and hires a top a D.C. defense lawyer. (http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0331/dailyUpdate.html)
August 24, 2004: UPI reports that Rhode and Luti are being investigated by FBI for passing classified material to Israel. (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040824-102938-1916r.htm)
August 27, 2004 - CBS reports on the Franklin case, and it becomes public. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/27/eveningnews/main639143.shtml)
December, 2004 - FBI raids AIPAC once more. Grand jury subpoenas are issued to four top staffers: Howard Kohr, executive director; Richard Fishman, managing director; Renee Rothstein, communications director; and Raphael Danziger, research director. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111807178234&a page=1)
January-February 2005 - Several of the above four top AIPAC staffers testify before a federal grand jury convened by U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111807178234&a page=1). AIPAC places Rosen and Weissman on paid leave and Franklin is quietly rehired at the Pentagon, against the FBI's wishes, in a non-sensitive position. (http://www.jewishtimes.com/News/4683.stm).
Late January 2005 - Douglas Feith announces he is leaving his post later this year, (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050126-054711-1300r.htm), but he will still be involved in setting defense policy. Specifically, the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2638-2005Apr19.html)
* February 8, 2005: A "team" that includes CIA search the documents of Sen. "Scoop" Jackson stored at the University of Washington, reportedly to remove any classified materials. (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002172910_jacksonpapers07m.html) Besides Perle, Feith is a former Jackson staff member (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/15/201851/101) (Thanks to Miss Devore and the Kos diary of Thistime) March 7, 2005 - Bolton nominated to be next UN Ambassador. (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/07/bolton/index.html).
* March 2005: Former Mossad senior official and head of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Israel's Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Uzi Arad is questioned by FBI in connection with the Franklin probe. He is told that his name came up three times in connection with Franklin. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115000578317 and http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=nir20050504953) April 16, 2005 - Paul Wolfowitz is announced to be the new head of the World Bank, (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/20050316-7.html) although he, like Feith, will still be involved in the QDR. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2638-2005Apr19.html)
Late April 2005 - AIPAC dismisses Rosen and Weissman. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1114049938008)
May 3, 2005 - Luti is moved over from DoD to the NSC. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050503-3.html)
posted by washington | 10:43 PM
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