The Franklin Affair and the Terror Enigma

From antiwar.com

The Franklin Affair and the Terror Enigma

The recent arrest of Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin on charges that he handed over vital U.S. secrets to Israel recalls the wave of stories about Israeli spies in the U.S. in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Weeks after the attacks, the Washington Post ran a story saying that at least 60 Israelis had been rounded up and deported back to Israel -- under the same legal rubric that permitted the round-up of suspected Islamists. A year later, the London Telegraph reported:

"Up to 200 young Israelis, some of them former members of military intelligence units, have been arrested in America in the past year, a leaked government report disclosed yesterday."

What were the Israelis up to? In December 2001, the Fox News network ran a four-part series that started out with this jaw-dropping statement:

"There is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9-11 attacks, but investigators suspect that they Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared it. A highly placed investigator said there are 'tie-ins.' But when asked for details, he flatly refused to describe them, saying, 'evidence linking these Israelis to 9-11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information.'"

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http://www.antiwar.com/blog/index.php?id=P2069

i think

I'm reluctant to respond because I'm not sure what to think. The fact that it was Fox, primarily, that was pushing this story makes it a little suspicious to me. I'm thinking "limited hangout", "patsies"... Didn't they try this during the Iran-Contra mess, blame the Israelis?

That being said, I think at least some of those people were genuinely Mossad. But my initial guess would be that they were simply doing what intelligence agencies originally were meant to be doing - spying. On the terrorists/patsies. I don't want to be a Mossad apologist here, I have some idea of what they are capable of. But none of the other leads point in that direction, do they. So I fear it may be a red herring.

How could Fox be airing something like this, such a short time after 9/11 if there was any fear whatsoever that it wouldn't please their Republican masters? I don't think they would have.

It is also not surprising that it is Justin Raimondo that is linking the Franklin case to those Mossad agents (which are really two unrelated cases I think), he has his way of seeing Israel behind every Bush.

What really makes me suspicious, though, is the story of the dancing and cheering Mossad agents. I mean, please. The most professional spy agency in the world? Dancing of joy? That sounds very unlikely, and gives the impression of being planted specifically to trigger certain sentiments that some people have towards jews, as a distraction from other, more likely culprits.

The same goes for the "art students", knocking on the doors of high-ranking military people. That sounds awfully like people wanting people to notice them to me.

So these Mossad agents may be a very important lead, but I would hate to swallow a disinfo bait here, especially when it's not more compelling than this. Many intelligence agencies knew about 9/11 in advance. Certainly the Mossad did. I don't find it odd that they were present in America, keeping an eye on things. It could be that they were actually co-conspirators though. I'm not ruling anything out. As I said, I'm not sure what to think about this.