"Ex-AIPAC official threatens to uncover mass spying at Israel lobby" Daniel Tencer

Sunday, November 21st, 2010 -- 11:41 am

Top AIPAC officials visited prostitutes, regularly watched porn at work: claim

Is US's most influential advocate for Israel about to implode?
A former foreign policy chief for the largest Israeli lobby in the US is threatening to provide evidence members of the organization regularly trafficked in classified US government information.
The claim comes in the midst of an increasingly ugly lawsuit in which parties have alleged or admitted to mass viewing of pornography among senior staffers at AIPAC as well as extra-marital affairs.
Steve Rosen, who was in charge of foreign policy issues at AIPAC until 2005, is suing his former employer for $20 million, alleging that AIPAC defamed him when they fired him. Rosen and colleague Keith Weissman were charged in 2004 with espionage for allegedly pressuring a Washington Post reporter into running classified US government information they had obtained about Iran. The charges were dropped last year, evidently due to lack of evidence.

But AIPAC fired Rosen years before the charges were dropped, on the grounds that Rosen's "conduct did not comport with what AIPAC would expect of its employees."
But Rosen disputes this, and his lawsuit aims to prove that what he allegedly did was standard practice at AIPAC. The Washington Post's Jeff Stein reports:

Rosen says his actions were common practice at the organization. He said his next move is to show that AIPAC, Washington’s major pro-Israeli lobbying group by far, regularly traffics in sensitive U.S. government information, especially material related to the Middle East.
“I will introduce documentary evidence that AIPAC approved of the receipt of classified information,” he said by e-mail. “Most instances of actual receipt are hard to document, because orally received information rarely comes with classified stamps on it nor records alerts that the information is classified.”
But Rosen said he would produce “statements of AIPAC employees to the FBI, internal documents, deposition statements, public statements and other evidence showing that [the] receipt of classified information by employees other than [himself] ... was condoned … for months prior to being condemned in March 2005 after threats from the prosecutors.”

"Unfortunately for AIPAC, Rosen has 180 documents which could prove that Howard Kohr, AIPAC's executive director, and probably the AIPAC board as well, knew exactly what Rosen was doing," reports M.J. Rosenberg at Al-Jazeera.
He suggests that Rosen's threat to reveal AIPAC trafficking of data is meant to intimidate the lobby group into settling out of court. Making the lawsuit go away "will not be easy - even if Steve Rosen ultimately accepts a payoff from the organization and refrains from telling what he knows," Rosenberg writes.
Other elements of the lawsuit could prove embarrassing, if not politically toxic. Lawyers for AIPAC got Rosen to admit he viewed pornography on work computers, but Rosen has countered that the head of AIPAC and his closest colleagues openly watched porn at work. The Jewish Daily Forward reports:

“I witnessed [AIPAC executive director] Howard Kohr viewing pornographic material, [Kohr’s secretary] Annette Franzen viewing pornographic material, probably a dozen other members of the staff,” Rosen said in his deposition. He added that, according to a Nielsen survey, more than a quarter of Americans regularly view pornographic websites at their workplace.
Later in his deposition, the former lobbyist also said he had heard from directors at AIPAC about their visits to prostitutes and he claimed Kohr had routinely used “locker room language” at the AIPAC offices.

Rosenberg posits that the lawsuit "could well destroy the lobby without ever making its way on to the front page. AIPAC is under siege, and is spending millions to stay alive."

 

Comments

[CK]

Sand in my eyes, sand in my eyes ...viewing porn, talking crassly, visiting professionals, sand in my eyes.

[J]

CK,

Israel in its present Zionist form is presumptuous before heaven. Any presumptuous act on their and their 'extensions' parts (i.e. AIPAC is an extension of GOI's MFA)like this 'stuff' that Rosen is bringing to the surface is going to come back and bite Zionist Israel on its ass in the bigger picture. It's not nice to be presumptuous before Heaven, as Zionist Israel is pretending before the world to represent the Creator of Creation's dictates. If you created a toy and that toy decided to act up and be presumptuous in its representations of you and what you were all about, wouldn't you be pissed too?

[J]

CK,

If one applies Biblical applications, Zionist Israel has become a corrupted clay pot, that clay pot cannot be saved or cleaned of its corruption as it has embedded itself into the clay itself. Ergo, the Zionist state of Israel has to be ---- and what would be the Biblical standard that is applied to corrupted clay pots?

This is the point that the Neturei Karta Rabbis have been trying to get across to the public at large, Zionism and its Zionist Israel are corrupted clay and need to be dealt with accordingly -- dismantled.

[Jose]

Porn and Prostitutes?

Maybe this will finally make the evening news...lol

[Fred]

I'm just 'shocked' that prostution is even mentioned, espceially since it is legal in Israel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Israel

Sounds like they are rounding up the usual excuses.

[Phil Giraldi]

Unfortunately $10 to $20 million is indeed small change to the monied interests behind AIPAC. Rosen will be bought off and the fact that AIPAC has traded in US secrets will be ignored by the Attorney General. If there were any desire in Washington to go after Israeli spies and their dual loyalty associates people like Richard Perle, Doug Feith, and Stephen Breyer would all be in jail right now.

[confusedponderer]

As far as I am concerned, while perhaps standard practice at AIPAC, porn and prostitutes are the least interesting aspect of the entire thing.

If Rosen can indeed introduce that documentary evidence that AIPAC approved of the receipt of classified information and that was common practice that would be a bombshell.

Mind you, there are other venues for the Lobby, but AIPAC is one of the best known and visible ones. It would cause enduring damage. That must cause a hostile reaction.

[Medicine Man]

I like the blizzard of BS; what AIPAC must be trying to argue is that Rosen was fired in 2005 because he violated the ethical standards of his organization with his consumption of pornography. What a load! 2005 wasn't so long ago that I don't remember why Weissman and Rosen were jettisoned by AIPAC; they were under investigation for trafficking in classified information. Trying to change the story now with all of these lurid details is some form of distraction or spin.

Just so someone states it explicitly, I'll say it. What is going on with AIPAC and Rosen is not anything revolutionary; it is actually a very old story. Rosen and Weissman got caught doing what their employer, AIPAC, trusted them to do. When the heat came down, the organization decided that the body was more important than a few limbs and cut the exposed employees loose. Call them sacrifices or scapegoats, if you wish. One of the scapegoats, Rosen, decided he wasn't going to fall on his sword for his organization. He knows where the bodies are buried, has the dirt, etc. and at any rate what he was doing was the SOP for AIPAC anyhow, so his bosses will have to do better than merely washing their hands of him, Rosen decides. A grand hilarious theatre ensues.

This is a damaging spectacle, for certain, but I'm not holding my breath in hopes that it sinks that lobbying garbage scow. This debacle may completely de-pants AIPAC in public but law enforcement and the media have to be on-board for anything material to emerge from the whole episode. So far the media is predictably MIA.

[walrus]

I wonder if this is sufficient to retard or cancel the planned war against Hezbollah?

Via Asia Times and Mondoweiss:

"The US, UK and French will first use the UN to soften the target:

(1) Israel is withdrawing from northern Ghajar to put it in compliance with UNSC Res 1701. Pressure will now be exerted on Lebanon to comply with 1701 by disarming Hezbollah;

(2) The Special Tribunal on Lebanon (STL) will indict members of Hezbollah for Hariri's assassination, sparking sectarian Shia-Sunni discord;

(3) The threat of a devastating Israeli attack will foment domestic pressure supporting Hezbollah's disarmament to preempt such an attack;

(4) The UNSC will then start passing resolutions (reminiscent of 1990-1991 against Iraq) putting sanctions on Lebanon. Once the ground has been prepared Israel will move in for the kill. Of course, the Palestinian "Authority" will be told that once the Hezbollah threat is removed, Israel will be prepared to make real concessions for peace."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LK20Ak05.html

[Castellio]

For the record, Uwe Barschel, the German MP, was killed by the Mossad in 1987. It's an article well worth reading for those interested in how these murders are effected:

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2010/11/21/mossad-accused-of-1987-assassination-of-german-mp/

[Castellio]

I apologize, this is the more complete story:

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2010/11/21/die-welt-on-uwe-barschels-murder-and-possible-mossad-connection/

[Retired (once-Serving)Patriot]

I, for one, am immensely enjoying Rosen's gambit. And downing lots of popcorn along the way!

But sadly, Medicine Man is right. Little will come from the revelations and certainly no one in a position of law enforcement authority (or media authority) seem inclined to act upon the revelations. The scow will sail onward.

RP

[Cal]

I have some confusion and/or question.
Rosen has admitted in public that he has evidence that AIPAC as an org did engage in and sanction what would be considerd by most as espionage against the US.
Several years ago the FBI went on hunt thru a dead reporters files to try and find some tidbit of info they obviously thought would revealed some espionage on some one's part.
Why can't they get a warrant to seize Rosens material? They got one for him and a search of AIPAC's offices when they busted him originally.

[Jake]

Lets see. The man says he has proof of espionage against the United Sates. The FBI is doing what about this?

Yes boys and girls! You try this and see what happens!

[Lysander]

While I'd love to believe this will be AIPAC's death knell, I fear the opposite is true. Information of actual espionage made public and the relevant law enforcement agencies do nothing. No politician opens his mouth.

The message to aipac will be "hey!! We totally got away with it! What should we try next? And in fact they will be even bolder in the future.

Add to that a deal to free pollard and viola! Israeli espionage is now the accepted norm. Only anti-Semites and old curmudgeons would even bother to complain about it.

[optimax]

Reading Mike(?) Wallace's interview with Hillary is discouraging--not one question about the 3 bn. dollar bribe to Israel (Lockheed Martin.) Mostly about the TSA body scanners (Chertov money maker) and groping which will surly extend to train stations, football games, malls, etc.

[Cal]

Lysander

I fear you are right. But how much bolder can they get? They already demand we institute a war with Iran for them.
As it is now no US political candidate can get elected without publicly swearing to spend every last drop of US blood, treasure and reputation in Israel's behalf. And some of them actively work at doing just that.
Maybe I am too old, too old school to understand why all Americans aren't up in arms over this bizarre allegiance to a foreign country by US leaders.
The only reason I can figure is that the media keeps them ignorant of the extent and ramifications of the US-Israel problem.

I understand what has happened but I never will really understand it.

[Clifford Kiracofe]

"what has happened"

Cal,

Seems to me the Continental sharks have eaten the yoeman farmers over the last century and a half here.

Stephen Birmingham presented useful background in his book "Our Crowd" anent Wall Streeters.

Next phase here for social control will be a form of gradual Sovietization adapted to US conditions, of course...creeping Orwellian state one might posit. International terrorism and US crime and violence owing to the disintegrating narco-state south of the border will provide the public rationale.

[Harper]

I think that the scandalous behavior of Steve Rosen and the entire upper echelon of AIPAC at their headquarters (America Israel Pubic Affairs Committee?) is not only wonderful to see coming out in the Court record. It is not separate from their cavalier espionage operations and their bribing and bullying of Congress. It is symptomatic of the same thing. They are an immoral and perverse lot, and the more that their sexual exploits are made a public mockery, the sooner their power over Congress will wane. This is not the time to lament their survival or their large wallets. Make it a public embarrassment to have had anything to do with these creeps for those hyperloyal to their cause. Use humor, spread the word, since it's in their own words. The Rosen deposition ought to be a fullpage ad in the New York Times. The mainstream media is certainly not going to give this story adequate coverage. At AIPAC, it seems that they both ask and tell!

On a related matter that has come up in the context of the U.S. bribe to Israel to get a 90 day freeze extension: Bibi has now added another demand to the list. He wants Jonathan Pollard freed, on "compassion" grounds that he has already served 25 years in jail, and this is too harsh a punishment for someone who, after all, was only spying for "a friend."

Let's remember that Pollard was not acting alone. He was at least abetted wittingly by what was referred to as a "Mr. X." The reality is that then-Defense Secretary Weinberger had amassed, through his general counsel, a list of what could be called the "X Committee," a large network of neocons inside the Pentagon, who were all under suspicion of aiding Pollard in his espionage operations. Names that came up at the time included Stephen Bryen, Richard Perle, Doug Feith and Michael Ledeen. There were others as well. But the fact is that Pollard has refused to cooperate and name any of his co-conspirators. This is a really big deal, considering how these characters (innocent until charged and proven guilty) resurfaced during the Bush-Cheney administration as leading officials at the Pentagon, the Defense Policy Board, etc. Remember that one of Doug Feith's staffers, Larry Franklin, did plead guilty to passing classified material to Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, so we may be seeing more of a continuity between the Pollard spy affair in its full dimensions, and events that played out 15-plus years later.

If Obama cuts this further deal with Netanyahu and lets Pollard return to Israel as a conquering hero, for having protected the identity of the others on the "X Committee" it will be another dark moment for U.S. national security.

While this comment on Pollard may take a different tone than my earlier remarks on the Rosen "affair" I think that the two points are complementary. We should rub AIPAC's collective nose in their own dirt as one tact for cutting down the power of the Lobby to size commensurate with their sleaze, and we should at the same time make sure that extended Pollard spy network is made to feel the heat.

[jon]

There seems to be great concern for a lobbying organization; one that lobbies on behalf of a foreign government.

I'm concerned about treason. I don't care about porn watching, unless it reveals the use of steganography.

[J]

Colonel,

How many of the AIPAC head weenies do you suppose that the Mossad entrapped in their 'honey traps' so as to 'keep them in line'?

[walrus]

CK:

"Next phase here for social control will be a form of gradual Sovietization adapted to US conditions, of course...creeping Orwellian state one might posit."

I'm in furious agreement. The current TSA searches are going to be extended to trains and buses. Car number plate recognition systems already exist to track your movements.

What will then happen is that "profiling" will be discovered and that will allow authorities everywhere to question anyone anywhere anytime about what they are doing and why with legal penalties for lying.

Benjamin Franklin was prophetic; you can have Liberty or Security but not both. The sheep have chosen security.

[Cal]

"The Rosen deposition ought to be a fullpage ad in the New York Times. The mainstream media is certainly not going to give this story adequate coverage."..Harper

I donated to several full page ads in the NYT done by the Council for the National Interest several years ago. One showed AIPAC as King Kong sitting on top of Capitol Hill. I don't think they did much good however...didn't impress any politicians evidently.
I would donate again for some huge billboards North and South of all DC interstates saying "You are Now Entering Israeli Occupied Territory -Check Points Ahead".
Or some tractor trailers to circle Capitol Hill and Penn. Ave pulling a billboard all day long in full view of the tourist and politicians saying ..."AIPAC and AIPAC POLITICANS ONLY ROAD...AMERICANS VERBOTEN.

[Fred]

Walrus,

Let's not forget facial recognition software and the non-security of sites like Facebook. What's a little photo-shop amongst friends. Start now while the up and comers are in the Young Democrats/Republicans. Nothing like having the ammo saved up for future use in 10-12 years.