US DISMISSES ISRAEL LOBBYIST CASE

Prosecutors said they no longer felt they were able to win the case

The US has moved to dismiss a case against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of conspiring to pass defence secrets to unauthorised persons.

Prosecutors had said Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman intended to disclose the details to Israel and to the media.

But the government said it was unlikely to win the case and that trial could exposed classified information.

Critics said the case had been a bid to criminalise commonplace exchanges between journalists and politicians.

Mr Rosen and Mr Weissman, formerly working for the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), were the first lobbyists to be charged under the Espionage Act of 1917.

Acting US attorney Dana Boente said that when the charges were first filed, “the government believed it could prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt based on the statute”.

But he said that after the Judge TS Ellis demanded that prosecutors proved the men intended to harm the US with their actions, there was now a “diminished likelihood the government will prevail at trial”.

In the statement to the court, Mr Boente asked that they dismiss the indictment given the “inevitable disclosure of classified information that would occur at any trial in this matter”.

‘Hardship’

Lawyers for the two men said the decision was “a huge victory for the First Amendment”, which constitutionally guarantees the right to free speech in the US.

The Associated Press reported Baruch Weiss as saying that a prosecution victory would have set a precedent for journalists seeking sensitive information to face possible prosecution.

But Mr Weiss said the four-year process had been a “tremendous hardship” for the two men, who were dismissed by Aipac in 2005.

Former defence analyst Lawrence Franklin was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in jail in 2006 for disclosing classified information to Mr Rosen and Mr Weissman.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/8029884.stm

Kill 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza with U.S. supplied and manufactured weapons? What’s the big deal, eh, another sterling example of Israel “defending” itself from a population hemmed-in on all sides from a nuclear-armed state, America’s stationary aircraft carrier in the Middle East.

Oh yes, let’s talk about the “peace process” while we’re at it!

thank you for that info. That is absurd.

In line with that:

Another professor has been attacked by the zionist lobby

“I included some material which was highly critical of the Israeli invasion of Gaza as part of the reading material for a course on globalization and global affairs, and this was in January. And I am now facing charges, here at the university, of anti-semitism and violating the faculty code of conduct.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/henwood04292009.html

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/04/billboards-criticizing-us-aid-to-israel-taken-down-under-pressure.html

Billboards criticizing US aid to Israel taken down under pressure
(photo of one of the billboards on the link)

A few weeks ago we posted about ten billboards going up around Albuquerque, NM calling for congress to cut off aid to Israel. They were put up by The Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel, a multi-ethnic, multi-religious coalition working to “end to the ten year commitment of $30 billion in U.S. taxpayer-funded military aid pledged to Israel in 2007 by the Bush administration.” Today, the coalition sent out a press release saying that although Lamar Outdoor Advertising had signed a contract to run the billboards for eight weeks, they are coming down after three. From the press release:

On April 8th, the Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel erected the billboards throughout the Albuquerque area in order to inform the public about the misuse of their tax dollars, denominated in human lives. The group was motivated by concern for the Palestinian people who had recently been subjected to a massive invasion of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military. Over 1,400 Palestinians – mostly civilian, including three hundred children – were killed and over 5,000 were injured. In 2007 the Bush administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding that provides $30 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel over a ten year period beginning in 2008. The majority of these dollars will be used to purchase American-made weapons.

The design of the billboard had been approved by Lamar and the billboards’ wording and final image were suggested by Lamar’s graphics designer.

According to information from Lamar, it appears groups claiming to be pro-Israel have conducted a campaign to pressure Lamar to remove the billboards. The Coalition believes this is a deliberate attempt to silence its right to free speech because the humanitarian message of the billboards supports equal rights for the Palestinian people, thereby necessitating criticism of Israel.

Members of the Coalition will be meeting with Lamar on Friday. We’ll be sure to post an update.

Posted by Adam Horowitz at 02:11 PM in Adam Horowitz, Gaza, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, U.S. Policy in the Mideast | Permalink

First question calls for speculation since nobody knows for sure, but IMO most folks out there, including (or especially?) most of the “progressives” don’t have much idea what’s going on. Even those who are reputed to be pro-Palestine leaders usually avoid the touchiest questions, whether out of lack of knowledge or abundance of “prudence” is not to me clear.

most of the ’settlers’ in palestine also have never stated what their final solution is. This is a taboo topic among christians.
by silence, the judeo-christian ad hoc bloc tacitly say, Well, we’ll see! We don’t know how much, but as much as we can, and by any means until we are fully sated. tnx

but on whose truth wld have beeen the aggressions against afhgh’n, pak’n, and iraq justified? On american? Yes, of course! And a truth can be manufactured with equal ease as a lie.

so, what is the difference? None, since we wld have had the three wars as long as we say that US has no rigth to wage wars based on lies but only based on truth.

in short, it appears lot better to object to all wars based on words and justify them solely on deeds.
in case of iraq, war against it cld have been waged only by UN and only after we saw a smoking bomb.
but only after a severe demand iraq’s WMD be destroyed.
but US had taken the law into its own hands; its words [lies/truth] suffice as a justification to attack any land.

They have us surrounded and infiltrated to the point where I don’t even believe what I think.

AIPAC is just tip of the iceberg. Besides all the other lobbying/influencing outfits like the Council of Presidents, don’t overlook the JCRC’s, the ADL, the Fed, the campus orgs, Stand With Us, the presence in all your local “progressive” or Liberal ecumenical activities, the stranglehold on the News Media incl. nearly all of the “left” same, the control of Organized Labor, of the “Civil Rights” organizations whose annual budgets are dependent on Zionist Power Network support, of all the local Democratic party clubs, candidates, campaigns & minor office holders.
Not even the far-left ANSWER Coalition will countenance suggestions that it might be worthwhile to investigate the role of US Jewish Zionist figures and organizations in the contemporary US political/economic process.