From the background included in the three men’s indictments, it is clear that Franklin was an inadvertent victim in a larger FBI probe of the senior AIPAC officials. Apparently, Franklin, who had tried to draft the two men to assist him in convincing the Bush administration to take the threat of the Iranian nuclear weapons program more seriously, walked straight into an FBI dragnet. For reasons that remain unknown, the FBI had been trailing Rosen, AIPAC’s senior policy guru, for five years.
Once he was observed meeting with Rosen and Weissman, Franklin was apparently compelled by the FBI to act as its agent in a sting operation its agents orchestrated against Rosen and Weissman. Franklin was wired and sent to meet with the two AIPAC lobbyists armed with fabricated “classified” information relating to an apparent imminent threat to the lives of Mossad agents operating in Iraqi Kurdistan. At the behest of his FBI handlers, he urged the two men to inform the Israeli embassy of the situation. That is, although the men were subject to an ongoing FBI probe, the only reason they were caught technically breaking the law is because the FBI itself placed them in a situation where they felt that lives were at stake.
It is unclear why the FBI decided to go after AIPAC officials. As Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, stated week before last, “that two patriotic American citizens who are working for Jewish organizations, who did nothing to violate American security, should have to stand trial and be subject to the public scrutiny and public humiliation, frankly I find very disturbing and a matter that we all have to look at in a much more serious way.”
Distressingly, rather than stand by its employees, AIPAC has led the charge in publicly humiliating them. After firing them from the organization last year, its spokesman announced: “AIPAC dismissed Rosen and Weissman because they engaged in conduct that was not part of their jobs and because this conduct did not comport in any way with standards that AIPAC expects of its employees … AIPAC could not condone or tolerate the conduct of the two employees under any circumstances.”
Similarly, contrary to earlier pledges, AIPAC has ceased to pay the legal fees of the two men’s defense, which are already running over a million dollars. Recent reports indicate that AIPAC was negotiating with the men’s lawyers regarding future payments. But those talks failed due to AIPAC’s insistence that Rosen and Weissman commit themselves not to file damage suits against the organization.
Even more disturbingly, AIPAC – as Sher pointed out in an open letter to the organization – in an apparent attempt to distance itself from any actions that might displease the FBI and the Bush administration, has curtailed its lobbying efforts on Israel’s behalf.
Sher notes that AIPAC has refused to involve itself in lobbying for Congressional approval of the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act placed before Congress last year.
If it were to become law, the act would compel the U.S. government to force Saudi Arabia to cease its active support for terrorism. Given the Saudi government’s leading role in both indoctrinating Muslims to the cause of jihad against the U.S. and financing Hamas, there can be no doubt that supporting such a bill, which the Bush administration opposes, should be AIPAC’s clear responsibility. From Sher’s perspective, AIPAC’s refusal to involve itself in lobbying for the passage of the bill is evidence that “Having given in on Rosen and Weissman, AIPAC has sent clear signals that it is willing to preserve ‘access’ at the expense of influence.”