An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Are You Kidding Me?

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It is all over the news - the FBI is on the job investigating allegations that someone at the Pentagon is "spying" for Israel (FBI fears Israel has Pentagon spy. My first response was "You have got to be kidding me." The response came not from questions about whether someone was passing information, but that given the neo-con influence in the Bush administration, anyone would get nailed as a "spy."

Sure enough, as I read through the various articles, I found that the "trusted analyst" and suspected "spy," works for Douglas Feith (Under Secretary for Defense for Policy), and has links to the infamous Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense and assistant to Dick Cheney. Both Feith and Wolfowitz are neo-conservatives of the highest order, and Feith is a protege of Richard Perle. [For info in the neo-conservatives check out Who Are the Neo-Cons?] These particular neo-conservatives have essentially been directing our international focus through the Defense Policy Board. The neo-conservatives are beyond pro-Israeli. Given the strong relationship of this group to Israel, the idea of "spying" in the typical sense is ludicrous. More likely, the analyst was told to run the information over to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) - the most powerful Israeli lobby in the U.S.

The "analyst" is suspected of passing on information about Iran to AIPAIC. He (I assume it is a he) is accused of being an Israeli intelligence "mole." While this may or may not be the case, the Israeli government response as reported through DebkaFiles is interesting:

Israeli officials stressed Saturday that no Israeli intelligence-gathering resources had been activated in Washington for many years. The Israeli embassy immediately denied the allegations categorically as “completely false and outrageous.” AIPAC also described information as “baseless and false.” (CBS Reports FBI Suspects Israel has Spy in Pentagon 8/28/04 DEBKAFiles,

This seems to indicate that Israel does have "intelligence-gathering resources" (spies) in the U.S., but haven't "activated" any for a while. Maybe they were freely being given access and information so there was no need to do so. It is hard to imagine, given the current political configuration, that they would need to do so at this time.

Debka states that the analyst may work for William J. Luti who is the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Near East and South Asian Affairs, and "who oversaw the Pentagon's “Office of Special Plans,” which conducted some early policy work for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. " Luti, is linked (according to Namebase.org) to the American Enterprise Institute which is another neo-conservative think tank which is also tied to the Project for a New American Century. Both organizations are locked to the Bush administration through a binding web of multi-level connections through the Cheney's, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz, Libby, Feith, Gingritch, ad nauseum.

The claim that the alleged information was regarding Iran, and given the swelling perception of open conflict between Israel and Iran (with the U.S. willingly jumping in), such "sharing" seems likely. If this incident "proves out," then it will be interesting to see if it goes the way of the prisoner torture investigations. Namely, a "rogue" analyst operating independently, with no one above him/her responsible.

Additional Articles
8/28/04 Anderson, CHB, Pentagon Official May Have Spied for Israel

8/28/04 CNN, FBI looks at Pentagon worker in Israel spy probe

Posted by rowan at August 28, 2004 07:02 AM | TrackBack | Printable Version | [eMail this article!] |