Larry Franklin, the Pentagon analyst suspected of passing classified information to American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) bigs, has been arrested by the FBI. Franklin, who recently went back to work at the Pentagon, turned down goverment offers to cooperate. Previously, it was reported that the information Franklin passed to AIPAC had to do with Israeli agents in Kurdistan. Now Ha’aretz is reporting Franklin is charged with passing the lobbying group “classified information about potential attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq.” If this is not a reporting error, it sounds like a potentially more serious charge. Ha’aretz also writes, maybe a little too hopefully, “Franklin’s arrest indicates that the AIPAC affair may be nearly over.”
An analysis in Ha’aretz notes the FBI indictment charges the information Franklin passed to AIPAC was “highly classified.” (Previous speculation had been the information had a lesser status.)
FBI investigators go to great lengths in the indictment to explain that Franklin clearly told the two that the information was “highly classified” and that he asked them not to use it. If the FBI has proof of this, it will make it very difficult for the AIPAC officials to defend themselves, as they cannot claim that they did not know what type of information they were receiving.
The analysis also states that “Franklin transferred information to a “foreign official.”(Ha’aretz, May 4)
