Policy Analyst Is Said to Have Rejected Plea Deal - Larry Franklin

[seemslikeadream]

Larry Franklin, who is accused of passing secrets on Iran, also has replaced his attorney.

By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — A Pentagon analyst being investigated for allegedly helping pass secrets to Israel has stopped cooperating with authorities and retained a new lawyer to fight possible espionage charges, sources familiar with the case said Tuesday.

The analyst, Larry Franklin, has been a key witness in a continuing FBI investigation looking into whether classified intelligence was passed to Israel by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential Washington lobbying firm.

Franklin has been accused of passing the contents of a classified document about U.S. policy on Iran to two AIPAC officials, who in turn may have given the information to Israeli officials in Washington, sources have said.

Federal prosecutors had proposed an agreement under which Franklin would plead guilty to some of the charges. Such agreements usually are done in exchange for leniency and are accompanied by a pledge of cooperation.

....

Cacheris has represented a number of accused turncoats, including CIA operative Aldrich H. Ames, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994 after confessing to years of spying for the Soviet Union. Cacheris also represented former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert P. Hanssen, also convicted of passing secrets to the Soviets, who received a life sentence in 2002.

Cacheris' other clients have included former Clinton White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky and Nixon administration Atty. Gen. John Mitchell.


more
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-spyprobe6oct06,1,4395904.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

[KittyWampus]

1. Bush Administration Has TWO Spies... Chalabi (Iran) & Franklin (Israel)

why can't Kerry bring this up in the debate?

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Franklin: "key witness in a continuing FBI investigation

into whether classified intelligence was passed to Israel" by AIPAC.

It would be good if everyone remembered this.

Also the fact that the announcement that Franklin was under investigation possibly jeopardized (and possibly, intentionally) the ongoing investigation.

Franklin is just the beginning of this story, but some people would rather we believe he were the beginning and the end.

[seemslikeadream]

3. Yea, like maybe Patrick Fitzgerald according to Peter Lance

Watch this interview on CSPAN
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:TgoOCeTh5DIJ:c-spa...

Peter Lance, Author, "Cover Up": What the Government is Still Hiding

Talks about Patrick Fitzgerald U.S. Attorney working on the Joseph Wilson Plame case had been involved in the TWA case cover up

15:00 minutes into interview it gets interesting

Connects Oklahoma bombings

9/11 report a complete whitewash
http://www.cspan.org/VideoArchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&A...

Peter Lance, Author, "Cover Up"
Peter Lance, author of "Cover Up: What the Government is Still Hiding about the War on Terror," discusses information missed by the 9/11 Commission and the Bush administration in the investigations of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
9/27/2004: WASHINGTON, DC: 45 min.



COVER UP: WHAT THE GOVERNMENT
IS STILL HIDING ABOUT THE WAR ON TERROR

Writer's Write Interview
1115.org Interview
Court TV Catherine Crier Live Interview REAL MEDIA // WINDOWS MEDIA
Fox News Rita Cosby Interview REAL MEDIA // WINDOWS MEDIA
Bo Deitel Imus Interview Part One REAL MEDIA // WINDOWS MEDIA
Bo Deitel Imus Interview Part Two REAL MEDIA // WINDOWS MEDIA
Fox and Friends Interview Part One REAL MEDIA // WINDOWS MEDIA
Fox and Friends Interview Part Two REAL MEDIA // WINDOWS MEDIA
Up in the Air: Did terrorists destroy TWA Flight 800?
Warren Report-Watergate II: Cover Up Review
Did Yousef order airliner's destruction?
The failure of our protective intelligence
9/11 Commission Nixed al-Qaida Link to Flight 800?
Writer accuses FBI of obstruction, cover-up
COVER UP HITS #12 ON AMAZON.COM NON-FICTION BESTSELLER LIST
Connecting the dots S.B. Writer Peter Lance Dismisses 9/11 Commission Report in Cover Up

http://www.peterlance.com /


TWA Flight 800 and the 9/11 Commission Cover Up


TWA Flight 800 and the 9/11 Commission Cover Up: An Interview With Peter Lance
by Claire E. White (September, 2004)

Was the 9/11 Commission Report a cover up? Were we lied to when we were told that 9/11 was the first time that Al-Qaeda hijacked and destroyed an American jetliner? Five time Emmy® award-winning investigative journalist
Journalist Peter Lance
and bestselling author Peter Lance asserts just that in his blockbuster new book Cover Up: What the Government is Still Hiding About the War on Terror (HarperCollins). In his 2003 bestselling nonfiction work, 1000 Years for Revenge (HarperCollins), Lance laid bare the plotting and events that led to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. After reading 1000 Years for Revenge, Governor Kean, Co-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, asked Peter Lance to testify in front of the Commission. His story of his experiences with the Commission and the 9/11 widows is absolutely fascinating.

So far, Lance's new book, Cover Up: What The Government Is Still Hiding About The War On Terror, a meticulously researched and entertainingly written expose, has been embraced by the right, the left and the middle. Partisan interests seem to see the facts that Lance has brought to light through the lens of their beliefs. Lance has already appeared on Fox News, CNN and many other major news programs to discuss his insights. Lance lays out the amazing blunders and cover ups which began in the Clinton Administration and which continue to this day with officials in the current Department of Justice. As a journalist, Lance says he is just following the trail of facts regardless of where they lead. He is adamant that "If we are truly to be safe, we have to de-politicize the debate over terrorism." But his trail of incendiary facts would seem to have some major political implications -- especially in an election year. Lance provides evidence that Ramzi Yousef, the Al-Qaeda perpetrator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was likely responsible for the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996, with the help of his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the originator of the 9/11 plot. Lance also raises some disurbing questions about the events of 9/11 itself. For instance, it is not common knowledge that the morning of September 11, 2001, there were three war games simulations was taking place. One was being conducted near Dulles Airport in Washington to test the response of the National Reconnaissance Office in case a plane was flown into the NRO building. At the time of the attacks, two F-16s were actually in the air practicing bombing runs, within eight minutes flying time, yet they were never called by NORAD to intercept the attackers. The 9/11 Commission heard sworn testimony about these and many other facts, but failed to mention them in its Final Report which, generally speaking, did not place blame. In fact, much of the most important testimony was never made public, much to the anger of the "Jersey Girls," the 9/11 widows who lobbied for the creation of the 9/11 Commission.

Peter spoke with us about testifying in front of the 9/11 Commission and discusses some of the immensely disturbing facts he uncovered while writing Cover Up. He also addresses the growing threat of terrorism and why Americans need to be informed about the facts before the upcoming presidential election.

What was it like to testify in front of the 9/11 Commission?

This is a short question that will require a long answer. As one who had set out to do a book on the Commission’s work, my “testimony” before the Commission on March 15th was an eye opener.

......

I had sent my book to Governor Kean (the chairman) over Christmas and he had responded, saying that he wanted to hear my findings. I had only two conditions: first that I not be forced to reveal confidential sources and second, that my information be made a part of the permanent Commission record.
more
http://www.readersread.com/features/peterlance.htm

[Barrett808]

4. kick

[seemslikeadream]

5. Plato Cacheris, who defended convicted spies Hanssen and Ames

Franklin was previously reported as having been "turned" by the FBI, giving them information in exchange for the promise of leniency when it comes time to file charges, but that now appears to have changed. According to the Los Angeles Times, Franklin has rejected a proposed deal in which he would plead guilty to some of the charges, dismissed his court-appointed lawyer, and is now represented by Plato Cacheris, who defended convicted spies Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames.

When Cacheris took up the case of Ana Belen Montes, Castro's top spy in the United States, neoconservative writer Ronald Radosh argued that he "seems to be the chosen counsel for most of the recent American spies for foreign powers." But this misses the real point to be made about the Washington super-lawyer: he specializes, not in espionage cases, but in high profile scandals, the kind that make mile-high headlines. From Watergate (he represented Attorney General John Mitchell) to Iran-Contra (he got Fawn Hall immunity in exchange for her testimony) to Lewinsky-gate (he was one of Monica's attorneys), one thing is clear: the spotlight is his natural habitat – yet another indication that the Franklin affair, which seems to have dropped into the black hole of journalistic memory, is going to resurface big time.

The Franklin case is a byproduct of a two-year investigation: law enforcement was routinely listening in on a conversation between two high-ranking AIPAC employees and Israeli officials when they stumbled on Franklin's treason. The story was deliberately leaked, not by the FBI, but by parties who were interested in prematurely forcing the whole investigation out into the open – giving the Israelis involved time to flee the country, and others an opportunity to destroy evidence and take cover. Franklin's stonewalling, and apparent decision to fight – "Any charge of espionage will be met with fierce resistance," says Cacheris – is a challenge to the FBI to either put up or shut up.

"It looks like there is going to be a battle," said a source cited by the Times. It can't be long now before charges are filed, and the story of how Israel infiltrated the highest echelons of the Pentagon's policy shop – where Franklin works as an Iran specialist – comes out in lurid detail.

With a month to go until the election, the exposure of AIPAC as the vital conduit through which Israeli moles in the government passed sensitive information to Israel is so politically explosive that it's no wonder the White House handed the case to a compliant political appointee and told investigators to "slow down," according to the Financial Times. But it looks like Franklin has single-handedly nixed that plan.

....

As we begin to ask questions about who lied us into war, and why; as we trace the fabrications, the forgeries, the phony "intelligence" back to the original source, in the context of the hardest-fought presidential election in recent memory – and a war that we appear to be losing – the implications of the Franklin-AIPAC espionage case are so hot as to be nearly radioactive. Neither candidate is willing to touch it. But Franklin, in an effort to save his own skin, may have forced the issue onto the table.

more
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=3727

[seemslikeadream]

6. Scanlon's attorneys, Plato Cacheris and Stephen L. Braga

Scanlon's attorneys, Plato Cacheris and Stephen L. Braga, did not return calls for comment last week.

The large lobbying and public relations fees Abramoff and Scanlon garnered from Indian tribes that operate gambling casinos -- known to total at least $50 million -- are the subject of a grand jury investigation in Washington. The FBI and a task force of five federal agencies are investigating campaign contributions the two men directed the tribes to make to members of Congress, and whether tribal funds were misused in the contracts the two men obtained or the fees they collected, among other issues, according to government sources.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee also has been investigating Abramoff's and Scanlon's work with the tribes and has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday. The FBI and the committee have issued numerous subpoenas for documents as part of their investigations.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/26/MNGIG8VDAJ1.DTL