Apr 29, 2005 – Last August, on the eve of the High Holidays, the Washington Post's front page featured a story on a two-year ongoing FBI investigation of a low level U.S. Department of Defense employee alluding to his over-friendly relationship with Israel and AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The Post hung on to the story for seven days, making it front page news for three of them.
The TV side of the media barrage kicked off the night before with Leslie Stahl's report on CBS that there was a big espionage story brewing and a "mole" was working with AIPAC. CBS's Web site said, "The FBI believes it has solid evidence that the suspected mole supplied Israel with classified materials that included secret White House Policies and Deliberations on Iran." This went on the air on Friday night. Friday night is a traditional night for charges against Jews to be aired.
The Washington Post said Larry Franklin, the DOD employee, and five others who had "strong ties to Israel" were close to being charged and that "arrests in the case could come as early as next week."
Then came the pile on.
Pat Buchanan on "Meet the Press": “We need to investigate whether there is a nest of Pollardites in the Pentagon who have been transmitting American secrets through AIPACÖto the Israeli embassy.” Buchanan, who feels the Middle East would be at peace if only Israel would disappear, brought up the name of Douglas Feith, who is Jewish and a high ranking member of the Department of Defense. Taking care not to be too specific, Buchanan smeared him and impugned his boss, Donald Rumsfeld, at the same time.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich stood up to the provocative questioning of host Tim Russert and presciently responded, “If somebody’s guilty [of wrongdoing] arrest them, indict them, convict them. But to have people who are supposed to be in charge of security out smearing people, I think makes one worry…”
Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations patiently waited until January before rebutting this story and astutely pointed out, "While the reports imply or assert various charges, none, in fact, has been lodged, despite an investigation that has lasted more than a year. While information has dribbled out, it's still hard to discern exactly what wrong has been allegedly committed that would justify such a highly publicized case." This is still the case.
It is now much later than "next week," and there've been no "arrests" or indictments. The Post and CBS have had little to say since they "broke" the story. If not for the notice of astute and watchful columnist Joel Mowbary, there'd be nothing written on this anywhere. "The passage of time has largely debunked the Post'sÖcoverage," writes Mowbary in a recent posting on FrontPageMagazine. The Post's own web site tells us that there's "nothing new" to report "or we would have written something."
Mowbary who hasn't stopped watching, feels that the new thing is that there’s nothing new.
Step back to remember the time and the target. The Iraq conflict was further from resolution than it is today. Our November elections were fast approaching. Someone somewhere felt that scapegoating President Bush's Jewish advisers could have a negative political impact for the president. Douglas Feith was a target, and it is also clear that the word neoconservative, as used, was a euphemism for Jewish.
The dual loyalty smear is neither new nor novel. It spans the centuries, but has no place here. Hoenlein and the organizations he represents were properly alarmed and should continue to pursue the source of this leak-story and the motivation behind it.
According to Mowbary, Franklin, the subject of the hysterical coverage, is "back working for the Department of Defense. He has still not been arrested, let alone charged. His security clearances remain pulledÖthough he was never suspendedÖhe's back to work."
Here's what we said at the time (Jewish Ledger, Sept. 23, 2004):
"Let FBI director Mueller speak out. Let him tell us it was not the FBI. Tell him to ask his right-hand man where he was when one of his people was talking to the media.
"Secretary Powell needs to say where his deputies were during all of this and why it happened. He too has to question his top people about how this could happen on their watch and who was involved from the State Department.
"Ask them both why the security of their departments and this country were compromised. Let the media know that pointedly ignoring this purposeful act is tantamount to participating in it because they are, as recipient of the leak, party to it already. Ignoring their part in it creates the appearance of collusion and reaches back to other places and darker times.
"There is a need for accountability, and it is a time for naming names."
The media cop-out no doubt is what it always is. They were just doing their job. But these were major outlets and they had to be aware of how they were being used and what they were doing. Giving this flimsy story weight and priority was a distortion of major proportion.
Dual loyalty might not be a blood libel, but it is certainly its close relative. Those responsible for the leak in either the FBI or State Department and those responsible at CBS and the Washington Post have yet to be called to account. Our society reviles the "race card" and should equally reject this Jewish card. The media that abets its use is as liable as those that perpetrate the smear.
ó NRG

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