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Maria 26 aug 2010
IS ISRAEL BLACKMAILING AMERICA?
FOX NEWS SPIKES FOUR PART STORY
ON PHONE TAPPING SCANDAL
What follows is the original article I wrote when the news story first broke regarding the existence of a system to tap into any phone in America built into the surveillance system used by law enforcement authorities. Several cases were cited where investigations ranging from drug running and money laundering to the events of 9/11 had been compromised by leaks from the company that operated the phone taps as well as phone data from an associated company that handles billing services for almost every phone in America.
The focus of the article was a single question. Could Israel be blackmailing the entire US Government and media.
The answer is now obvious. Fox News, the so-called "We report, you decide" all news network, has removed the four part story from their website. No explanation is given except for the single Orwellian sentence at the end of one of the links, "This story no longer exists". (It can still be read HERE)
FOX NEWS
12 dec 2001 Carl Cameron Reports
BRIT HUME, HOST: It has been more than 16 years since a civilian working for the Navy was charged with passing secrets to Israel. Jonathan Pollard pled guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and is serving a life sentence. At first, Israeli leaders claimed Pollard was part of a rogue operation, but later took responsibility for his work.
Now Fox News has learned some U.S. investigators believe that there are Israelis again very much engaged in spying in and on the U.S., who may have known things they didn't tell us before September 11. Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron has details in the first of a four-part series.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Since September 11, more than 60 Israelis have been arrested or detained, either under the new patriot anti-terrorism law, or for immigration violations. A handful of active Israeli military were among those detained, according to investigators, who say some of the detainees also failed polygraph questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in the United States.
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."
Fox News has learned that one group of Israelis, spotted in North Carolina recently, is suspected of keeping an apartment in California to spy on a group of Arabs who the United States is also investigating for links to terrorism. Numerous classified documents obtained by Fox News indicate that even prior to September 11, as many as 140 other Israelis had been detained or arrested in a secretive and sprawling investigation into suspected espionage by Israelis in the United States.
Investigators from numerous government agencies are part of a working group that's been compiling evidence since the mid '90s. These documents detail hundreds of incidents in cities and towns across the country that investigators say, "may well be an organized intelligence gathering activity."
The first part of the investigation focuses on Israelis who say they are art students from the University of Jerusalem and Bazala Academy. They repeatedly made contact with U.S. government personnel, the report says, by saying they wanted to sell cheap art or handiwork.
Documents say they, "targeted and penetrated military bases." The DEA, FBI and dozens of government facilities, and even secret offices and unlisted private homes of law enforcement and intelligence personnel. The majority of those questioned, "stated they served in military intelligence, electronic surveillance intercept and or explosive ordinance units."
Another part of the investigation has resulted in the detention and arrests of dozens of Israelis at American mall kiosks, where they've been selling toys called Puzzle Car and Zoom Copter. Investigators suspect a front.
Shortly after The New York Times and Washington Post reported the Israeli detentions last months, the carts began vanishing. Zoom Copter's Web page says, "We are aware of the situation caused by thousands of mall carts being closed at the last minute. This in no way reflects the quality of the toy or its salability. The problem lies in the operators' business policies."
Why would Israelis spy in and on the U.S.? A general accounting office investigation referred to Israel as country A and said, "According to a U.S. intelligence agency, the government of country A conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the U.S. of any U.S. ally."
A defense intelligence report said Israel has a voracious appetite for information and said, "the Israelis are motivated by strong survival instincts which dictate every possible facet of their political and economical policies. It aggressively collects military and industrial technology and the U.S. is a high priority target."
The document concludes: "Israel possesses the resources and technical capability to achieve its collection objectives."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
A spokesman for the Israeli embassy here in Washington issued a denial saying that any suggestion that Israelis are spying in or on the U.S. is "simply not true." There are other things to consider. And in the days ahead, we'll take a look at the U.S. phone system and law enforcement's methods for wiretaps. And an investigation that both have been compromised by our friends overseas.
HUME: Carl, what about this question of advanced knowledge of what was going to happen on 9-11? How clear are investigators that some Israeli agents may have known something?
CAMERON: It's very explosive information, obviously, and there's a great deal of evidence that they say they have collected none of it necessarily conclusive. It's more when they put it all together. A bigger question, they say, is how could they not have know? Almost a direct quote.
HUME: Going into the fact that they were spying on some Arabs, right?
CAMERON: Correct.
HUME: All right, Carl, thanks very much.
http://bit.ly/c4bsf1
Israel, purportedly our friend, has been spying on us all. And we're not talking about individual spooks like Jonathan Pollard, or small-time networks such as the 140 Israelis arrested by the FBI prior to 9/11, or the 60 arrested since (including 5 arrested who were cheering and celebrating as the World Trade Towers collapsed).
It turns out that Israel has had a potential wiretap on every phone in America for years, along with the ability to monitor and record who any person is calling, anywhere in America; information of great value even if one does not listen to the calls themselves. Amdocs, Inc. the company which sub contracts billing and directory services for phone companies around the world, including 90 percent of American phone companies, is owned by Israeli interests. Yet another company, Comverse Infosys, is suspected of having built a "back door" into the equipment permanently installed into the phone system that allows instant eavesdropping by law enforcement agencies on any phone in America. This includes yours.
Concerns about allowing an Israeli company such intimate access to the infrastructure go back many years. As reported by Fox News, the Israeli company Amdocs was implicated in the leaking of police phone data that resulted in the collapse of on investigation into a massive drug and credit card fraud operation with Israeli connections.
In a telling repeat of the Los Angeles drug case, investigators looking into the attacks on the World Trade Towers are again reporting that confidential telephone information is again being leaked in a manner that is interfering with the investigations. Again, Amdocs was implicated.
Not content with the phones of ordinary citizens in the United States, evidence has surfaced that Israel compromised the telephone systems at the highest levels of the US Government.
Now, I want you all to stop and think for a minute of the full ramifications of this. Israeli interests have the ability to listen in on ANY phone in America connected to any of the systems used by Amdocs or Comverse Infosys. They have had this ability for several years. They can listen in and track the phone calls made by anyone's phone, whether police officer, elected official, media talking head, editor, policy setter, news mogul, even the President of the United States. The Ken Starr report on Whitewater describes how Bill Clinton warned Monica Lewinsky that a foreign government was tapping their phone calls.
Few indeed are the people in America who do not have something to hide. That insider trade, the brief but torrid affair, the stolen votes, the deliberate smear, the role one played in an assassination, the acceptance of money from drug runners to look the other way. Be honest. Is there a skeleton in your closet you hope will stay there? Something nobody knows about? Well, if that skeleton involved a phone call, someone may know about it. Amdocs and Comverse Infosys. And their Israeli owners.
Just think about it for a moment. Everyone's private phone traffic, right up to the President, potentially visible to Israeli interests. And you cannot find the phone taps or bugs because they are built right into the phone system!
Suddenly, a lot of events which have puzzled observers start to make sense.
Like the way the US vetoed the UN resolution calling for peace in Palestine, despite being the only 1 out of 15 voting nations to have voted against the measure. The USA gained nothing by this veto. But Israel did.
Over the last few weeks, the people of the United States have seen a great deal of evidence pointing the finger of blame for 9/11 at Osama bin Laden and Arabs in general, evidence which is circumstantial, often self-contradictory, and in some cases faked. Yet as was reported in the news, evidence also exists linking many of the arrested Israeli spies (some of whom worked for the Israeli telecom companies above) with the events of 9/11. Yet this evidence is NOT being broadcast endlessly on the news. In fact, this evidence is CLASSIFIED. Someone has "persuaded" the US Government and the media that the American people are ONLY supposed to see the evidence that points a certain direction, and must never see any evidence that points someplace else. Likewise, the media has been "persuaded" not to report evidence that Israel knew of the 9/11 attacks ahead of time. The foreign press has outright accused the Mossad of taking part in the 9/11 attacks but the American media have been "persuaded" not to cover these accusations.
It was well known that there was an Israeli spy inside the Clinton White House. But Clinton ordered the FBI to cease searching for the mole, code-named "Mega". It is now known that "Mega" was not just Mossad spy but top Mossad agent in America. The cancellation of the hunt for "Mega" occurred at the same time Clinton warned Monica Lewinsky that their phone conversations were being recorded. This strongly suggests that Clinton was "persuaded" to call off the FBI's hunt for "Mega" with the threat of a recorded phone sex session being made public.
Because of the purported links between Muslims and the attacks on the World Trade Towers, the US Government has been shutting down all Muslin linked charities in the USA. But theChairman of the Jewish Defense League, a group with a violent history, was arrested recently in a plot to bomb a US congressman. But the US Government has been "persuaded" not to take actions against Jewish charities, while the media has been "persuaded" to allow the story of hard evidence of JDL terrorism to fade away as quickly as possible.
Two Mossad agents were arrested with dynamite inside the Mexican Congress.
The Mexican government was persuaded to release the two men without trial. Meanwhile, the American media has been "persuaded" not to report on the Mexican arrests.
Israel receives a hugely disproportionate share of foreign aid from the United States, about $5 billion a year. A large segment of the US population questions the sending so much money to such a small population while so many people remain homeless on our own streets. But somehow, Congress is "persuaded" to keep sending more cash each and every year.
Sharon faces war crimes trial.
The American media is "persuaded" not to make a big deal of the story. Israel is in violation of the Geneva Accords.
The American media is "persuaded" not to make a big deal of this story.
The United Nations accuses Israel of using torture on children.
The American media is "persuaded" not to make a big deal of this story, either.
How is such persuasion possible?
Blackmail.
The revelation of an Israeli-linked system for monitoring and potentially listening in to the phone calls of every single person in the nation at will opens up the possibility that a massive blackmail operation, unprecedented in scale, is the real force shaping media bias and United States policy.
The reality is that this nation's politicians and media leaders all have secrets to hide. Mistresses, drug habits, links to that airfield in Mena, Arkansas, BCCI cash sitting in that bank in Barbados, loot from ADFA in the Cayman's; in a corrupted society only the corrupt can reach the heights of power, and they all have secrets to hide. They are all vulnerable to blackmail. And being the kind of people who were willing to, and usually did, anything to get power, they are also the people willing to do anything to keep it. Look the other way when the drugs come in, spike an embarrassing news story or plant a fake one that embarrasses your enemy, alter the books, destroy a report, falsify data, destroy evidence, maybe even allow the military might of the United States and the blood of her children to be tricked into fighting someone else's war.
History has shown that if a crime is possible, it is also inevitable. The cold hard reality is that Amdocs and Comverse Infosys are the most powerful tools a blackmailer could ever hope for, opening up the private lives of everyone in the nation, including the secrets of targets able to control the media and US policy.
Dare we ignore this potential threat?
Or will the media be "persuaded" that all this fuss about Israeli-owned companies with wires into the phone system is just a lot of nonsense?
There is one more aspect to this issue that needs to be looked at. If indeed Israel is blackmailing our officials and media icons, it is because those who are being blackmailed ARE blackmailable. If we elect a government of criminals, we elect a government subject to blackmail. Finally, given the fact that blackmail may be assumed to be as widespread as the collection system itself is, those who persist in trying to defend Israel may no longer be assumed to be operating from the purest of motives. After all, who will defend a blackmailer more staunchly than those who are the blackmailer's victims?
http://bit.ly/9Wxb4e
20 Aug 2010
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4JOYVJT1vU
Imagine if this took place during the Cold War and this group were Soviet agents bribing the media instead of Israeli agents, whose been exposed here to have done and covered-up by a sealed Senate investigation. Amazing how they get a pass.
Files declassified in America have revealed covert public relations and lobbying activities of Israel in the U.S. The National Archive made the documents public following a Senate investigation. They suggest Israel has been trying to shape media coverage of issues it regards as important. You can download the files from the web-site of the Institute for Research on Middle Eastern policy. And we can cross to Washington now and talk to Grant F. Smith who is a director at that Institute.
"You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month." - CIA operative discussing with Philip Graham, editor Washington Post, on the availability and prices of "Presstitutes" willing to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories. "Katherine The Great," by Deborah Davis (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1991)
http://bit.ly/b8DH4G 15 oct 2010, 18:57 , Respect -
Maria 28 aug 2010
The Israeli Lobby: Declassified Documents Expose Its Influence
James Petras' powerful 2006 book titled, "The Power of Israel in the United States" explained the enormous Jewish Lobby influence on US Middle East policies. Often harming American interests, they're pursued anyway because of its grassroots and high-level control over government, the business community, academia, the clergy and mass media since at least the 1960s.
Intolerant of opposing views, they're suppressed for its own agenda, funded by PR propaganda domestically and overseas, America's top publications paid off to go along, now revealed by a secret document subpoenaed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (FRC) investigation into the American Zionist Council (AZC), AIPAC's parent lobbying arm.
"Between 1962-1963, the FRC subpoenaed" AZC's internal documents, examining their activities as "registered agents of foreign principals," learning that over $5 million in tax exempt (and perhaps overseas funds) "had been laundered through the Jewish Agency's American Section into the (AZC)."
The Agency is a quasi-Israeli government branch, funded to review legislation ahead of its submission to the Knesset under its Covenant Agreement in violation of IRS regulations regarding tax exempt charitable funds and the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act.
No matter. Israel got a pass to act illegally for nearly 50 years, doing it today more aggregiously than ever. In 1962, after being ordered to register as a foreign agent, AZC transferred its responsibilities to AIPAC,"which refuses to register as (an Israeli) foreign agent" and gets away with it.
In November/December 1960, news and editorial content covered Israel's new nuclear reactor (for peace, not bombs they said), Arab refugees when the General Assembly was discussing them, the Eichmann case, Israel's aid to African states, and seating the UAR in the Security Council, reports presenting one-sided, pro-Israeli propaganda.
"It can be said that the press of the nation, during 1960, has by and large shown sympathy and understanding of Israel's position." Arab views have been largely "counteracted."
"The US contingent of 60 Mayors returned from Israel where they attended (an earlier) Conference. While (there), a number of them were interviewed by (US reporters) who sent (pro-Israeli) stories back to their hometown papers; they were also recorded in interviews for local radio stations."
Other plans were made to have those attending meet with Jewish and Christian audiences to disseminate friendly Israeli commentaries. In addition, opinion makers are invited to Israel at government expense, paid off to report friendly stories. An Israeli student got a scholarship "to transfer to the Monterey Peninsula College where propaganda carried on by three Arab professors has been most hurtful."
Other schools were infiltrated the same way. Further, "We continue to cultivate (pay off) faculty people in many areas and are making progress here our friends in San Francisco (are trying) to persuade Stanford to drop Fayez Sayeh from the faculty on the grounds that he is a paid propagandist rather than an objective academician." Efforts at other US schools were similar pressure to fire Arab professors, replacing them with pro-Israeli ones.
"Prof. Arnold Toynbee was invited to spend about five months in this country. When (his) accusations first broke in the press, we (enlisted) major non-Zionist groups and evolved a common policy (to):
(1) Discourage all Jewish (organizations) from issuing invitations to Toynbee;
(2) Monitor all (his) public appearances and refrain from bringing up the subject of Israel or the Jews unless Toynbee raises the subject in his presentation."
Overall, measures were taken to counteract his unfriendly Israeli positions, the same policy used against all critical public figures, strike back to discredit them.
Calling the American Council for Judaism (ACJ) "the most effective anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli force on the American scene," efforts were made to give them "much more attention than in the past."
Bribing major US publications and their writers helped do it, including at the Reader's Digest, Atlantic Monthly, Look, Holiday, Parade, Saturday Review, the New York Times Magazine, and various women's and business ones. Today, the entire US major media serve as Israel's PR arm, its mouthpiece, the fruition of efforts begun 50 years ago.
Earlier, and of course now, TV shows were also arranged, and "We continue to counteract Arab speakers wherever they appear, by placing our own speakers on the same platforms." In addition, "Mailings have gone out to public opinion molders dealing with current issues."
In November 1961, the Atlantic Monthly was paid off to run a pro-Israeli "64-page Supplement, (featuring) some of Israel's top names." Earlier in September, the Atlantic ran a "20-page article on "The Arabs of Palestine" which is "one of the best (we've seen done) on the subject." Jack Anderson also did a friendly piece for Parade Publications after returning from Israel.
In addition, AZC officials arranged speaking engagements for pro-Israeli figures throughout the country. Their mission counteract "anti-Israeli propaganda a careful check of newspapers, bulletins and confidential sources of our own (can) give us reliable information on the movements and itineraries of these propagandists." Community contacts were then alerted to furnish speakers to discredit them.
AZC's Research Bureau also analyzed books and articles on Israel. "When a book is favorable, it is recommended. When (it's not), it is analyzed and distortions are pointed up by providing the factual data required, so that our local Councils will be prepared to react. Further, we (arrange) book presentations (in) community and university libraries."
Written for the AZC, Marc Siegel's play, "A Message from Dimona" was described by The New York Times as a "story of a new city in the Israeli desert," suppressing the reactor's bomb-making purpose, Israel's open secret, well known, but not discussed.
"The nuclear reactor story inspired (other) editorial writers, columnists, science writers and cartoonists. Most of (them) accept(ed) the thesis that the reactor was being built for peaceful purposes and not for bombs. Drew Pearson's syndicated column justified Israel's secrecy; (science writer) William Laurence in the New York Times stressed Israel's peaceful intent."
In 1945, the same William Laurence led a double life as both Times science writer and shill on the War Department's payroll. Writing press releases for the Manhattan Project, he mislead the public, sold the program, lied about Alamorgordo, NM tests and the Hiroshima/Nagasaki horrors. He also denied what historian/attorney Jonathan M. Weisgall later called the "silent nuclear terror of radioactivity and radiation" that it condemns exposed people to a slow, painful death, but it benefitted Laurence.
He won a Pulitzer Prize for his lying, and got to fly on the plane that bombed Nagasaki, later describing the experience in The Times with religious awe. Today, the entire US major media cheerlead for Israel, even its most unjustifiable, unconscionable, criminal acts. Entirely suppressed is its history of international law violations, including:
-a violence doctrine over peace;
-crimes of war and against humanity;
-excessive force and abuse;
-collective punishment and economic strangulation;
-expanding illegal settlements;
-dispossessions and home demolitions;
-mass arrests and political imprisonments;
-targeted assassinations and torture;
-land theft and crop destruction;
-policies of closure, separation, isolation, checkpoints, ghettoization and curfews;
-denial of the most fundamental human rights and civil liberties; and
-an overall Kafkaesque "matrix of control" designed to crush Palestinians' will to resist.
In the old days, journalists were bought off to ignore them. They now do it willingly and reflexively, knowing the consequences otherwise, the Israeli Lobby's power to remove unfriendly voices from Congress, academia and the media.
Demanded is that Israel be portrayed as peaceful, never aggressive, surrounded, beleaguered, and victimized, acting solely in self-defense. In contrast, Palestinians are called militant terrorist threats to Israeli security, its propaganda machine relentless in pounding that message, the Senate's investigation failing to expose and halt it.
As a result, it's more virulent and pervasive than ever, what no congressional committee will touch, what no major media report will reveal. Israel's power in America suppresses everything unfavorable, willing fourth estate stooges going along, or else.
It's why Project Censored warns about a "truth emergency," the urgency for media reform, and need for a cadre to do what all responsible journalists should their job, what's sorely absent in America, especially in reports about Israel.
* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected]. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/08/28/israeli-lobby-declassified-documents/
15 okt 2010
Declassified Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
The demise of CNN and its hostile takeover by neo-conservatives who turned CNN News into an echo chamber for Israel supporters and neocons and Headline News into a tabloidish concoction of crap news was brought about by a concerted effort by Time Warner executives to embarrass CNN founder Ted Turner and force him out of the corporate leadership, according to informed sources in Atlanta who spoke to WMR.
Ted Turner made his professionally-fatal mistake of merging CNN with Time Warner in 1996. Turner resigned as vice chairman of the merged AOL Time Warner in 2003. Turner lost some $7 billion in stock after the merger in 1996 but his financial losses would soon grow larger.
In 1998, Time Warner, according to our Atlanta sources, convinced CNN to run a story about Operation Tailwind, a covert U.S. military and South Vietnamese Montagnard incursion into Laos from September 11 to 13, 1970, that was designed to put pressure on North Vietnamese troops during a Laotian Army offensive. CNN ran a "Newstand CNN & Time" story called "Valley of Death." The piece was narrated by CNN correspondent Peter Arnett with lead CNN producer being April Oliver. The investigation was conducted in cooperation with Time magazine. CNN reported that US forces used sarin gas in Laos between 9/11 and 9/13, 1970. CNN also reported that 100 Laotian villagers were killed by a US sarin gas attack.
WMR has learned that in an operation similar to the setting up of CBS News's Dan Rather in the George W. Bush Texas Air National Guard AWOL story, bogus elements were introduced into an otherwise legitimate story on Operation Tailwind. Moreover, according to our sources in Atlanta, the false elements were known to certain executives of CNN and Time Warner with the intention of weakening CNN to the point where its executive management could be fired and replaced with those who would steer the pre-eminent news network to the right in all respects, including strong support for Israel in its Middle East coverage. It was CNN-US President Rick Kaplan who pushed the Tailwind story over the objections of several CNN news veterans. Kaplan is now the executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric in the anchor chair once occupied by Rather.
As with the CBS 60 Minutes story on Bush's AWOL status that was reported by Rather, CNN named an investigation panel to examine the facts of the story after the Pentagon stated that no sarin gas was ever used and the story was false. Ultimately, CNN agreed that there were several factual errors in the story and issued a retraction. Some military experts suggested that while CS tear gas may have been used in Tailwind, sarin was somehow substituted in the story, resulting in the controversy and retraction. Former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer claimed he was erroneously quoted about sarin being used in Laos.
Producers Oliver and Jack Smith were fired after the retraction and Arnett left the network after being formally reprimanded. Arnett briefly joined HDNet, the same network that hired Rather after his departure from CBS News. CNN President Tom Johnson left CNN a few years later.
CNN was faced with law suits from Tailwind veterans. Turner, who lost several billions in stock after the merger with Time Warner in 1996, saw the company's stock take a further hit as a result of the Tailwind debacle. The stock value loss weakened Turner's financial interest in the firm, making it more vulnerable for a buyout. Turner would see Time Warner and its chairman Gerald Levin, a heavy donor to Jewish causes, exercise more control over the editorial direction of CNN. After the disastrous Time Warner merger with AOL in 2000, CNN, as it was originally envisaged by Turner when he founded the world's first global cable news network, was a thing of the past. CNN's editorial direction saw correspondent Wolf Blitzer, formerly a public affairs spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), assume dominant anchor responsibilities for CNN's influential Washington bureau after first becoming a CNN anchor in 1999 and moving up the ranks to hosting the three-hour Situation Room in 2005.
The recent firings of CNN Middle East editor Octavia Nasr and news anchor Rick Sanchez capped off the slow drift of CNN to becoming a propaganda outlet for Israel and the Israel Lobby in the United States. CNN announced that in its move to help rehabilitate former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, forced from office over a prostitution scandal, he would co-host a program in Sanchez's time slot. CNN Washington is now essentially a Blitzer and Spitzer operation.
The lesson of the demise of CNN is a textbook case of how special interests have and will continue to dictate news content and reporting in the United States. After the recent verbal attack by Broadcasting Board of Governors chairman Walter Isaacson, the managing editor of Time during the Tailwind episode and, from 2001 to 2003, the chairman and CEO of CNN, on the expanding independent global news networks of RT [Russia Today], Telesur of Venezuela, Iran's Press TV, and a planned Chinese network as "enemies" of America, these and other embryonic networks like Turkey's TRT English network, should take note of the downfall of CNN and the players who engineered it. Forewarned is forearmed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbQvmCBgBOU
CNN's Wolf Blitzer - agent of Zionism
and CNN's Larry King and "femme sioniste" Christiane Amanpour
By Freedom Research, May 2009 | radioislam.org
CNN's anchor Wolf Blitzer has for years been one of their main media profiles in charge of explaning the news flow for the millions of CNN viewers.
Some people have understood that mr. Blitzer - although he doesn´t carry the Jewish skullcap/yarmulke - is a Jew. But that he also is an ardent follower of the state ideology of Israel, Zionism, is perhaps not so well known. The facts are even more compromizing as mr. Blitzer has a background as an open and even paid Zionist propagandist.
From the 1970s Blitzer worked for the pro-Israel lobby organization the American Israel Public Affairs Committee where he had the position as the editor of their monthly in house publication, the "Near East Report". In 1973 Blitzer was hired as a a journalist for the English language Israeli Newspaper "Jerusalem Post" where he worked as their Washington correspondent/Bureau Chief until 1990, when he quit for CNN.
In CNN Blitzer has been involved in programs such as the "Late Edition" and "The World Today", as CNN's man to cover the 2004 and 2008 US presidential elections and "The Situation Room", a three-hour afternoon/early evening program.
One can hear Blitzer in his advertisement trailer for the "The Situation Room" as regularly aired on CNN, calling his show "An American perspective on US politics".
An "American" perspective? This makes grim irony when knowing his Zionist agenda.
The clip bellow from a 8th of November 1989 debate at the Penn State University is particularly revealing, where Wolf Blitzer is acting as an advocate of Israel and confronted by anti-Zionist Jewish writer Norman Finkelstein.
(7:17) Norman Finkelstein vs Wolf [AIPAC] Blitzer on Israel-Palestine
Here we can hear the Zionist Blitzer rant:
"Israel has all the justifications in the world to exist."
"Thank God that there is at least one Israel."
"And I think, as I said before, all of us should be delighted that we happen to be around at a time in this world when there is this Israel."
"Zionism is an ideology, its the national liberation movement, of the Jewish people. To deny Zionism, to reject Zionism, is about as racist an element as you can get."
These are the opinions of a man who for millions of viewers worldwide - especially the so-called "elites" who boast that they regularly view CNN to keep themselves "informed" - has the enormous privilege of choosing which news should be divulged and how they should be interpreted, who chooses who to interview and which questions to pose. A racist Zionist deeply entangled both emotionally and professionally with the state of Apartheid Israel.
Jewish Zionist Wolf Blitzer interviews Pakistan´s Benazir Bhutto, as he has interviewed other corrupt Moslem leader such as Pakistan´s Presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Pervez Musharaf and the Afghanistan stooge of Zionism, President Hamid Karzai.
Endnotes - two other famous CNN faces with Zionist connections
Larry King (actual name Lawrence Zeiger) hosting the show "Larry King Live" is another Jew who has a prominent position in CNN since the start of his show in 1985.
Mugshot of Larry King during his larceny investigation. In the early 1970s, King was entangled in
legal and financial troubles. He was arrested on December 20, 1971 and charged with grand larceny.
The charges stemmed from a deal he had made with another Jewish person, Louis Wolfson, who had been convicted of selling unregistered stock in 1968.
Larry - King of CNN
The Jewish Journal.com writes in its article "Q & A With Larry King" by Gaby Wenig, November 13, 2003:
"Larry King is as known for sitting hunched over a microphone, schmoozing with everyone who is anyone, as he is for wearing big black glasses and suspenders over shirt sleeves. But as the TV icon approaches the big 7-0 (his birthday is Nov. 19), he's increasingly wearing something else on his sleeve: his Judaism.
Viewers are as likely to spy him at a benefit for the State of Israel Bonds or the Jewish Braille Institute as they are to see him interviewing the Duchess of York or Barbara Bush on CNN's 'Larry King Live.'"
Larry King also contributed with a chapter in "What Israel Means to Me: By 80 Prominent Writers, Performers, Scholars, Politicians, and Journalists", compilated by arch-Zionist Alan Dershowitz, published by John Wiley and Sons, 2007.
In it we can read some revealing Larry King statements on the state of modern Apartheid, Israel. King writes (pages 223, 224)
"There is something uplifting and breathtaking about the way Israel was born."
Press Release highlighting Larry King as a prime supporter of Israel.
"Visionary Zionists had been working for a Jewish state for some sixty years before Israel´s birth."
"The establishment of the state of Israel was an awesome historical event."
"Israel isn´t a symbol. Israel is the practical manifestation of hope, freedom, and self-determination.
I´ve never been a particularly observant Jew, but when I look upon Israel´s achievements, its strength and its vibrant democracy, I feel tremendous pride to be a Jew."
CNN's Christiane Amanpour is CNN's Chief International Correspondent and well embedded/in-bedded in the Zionist establishment as she since 1998 is married to James Rubin, whose jewish, who at the time was an Assistant Secretary of State and spokesman for the US State Department during the Clinton regime. The couple Amanpour-Rubin even have a son together.
The New York Times, August 9, 1998 (page 6 of the New York edition), reported on their half-Jewish wedding:
"Christiane Amanpour, the chief international correspondent for CNN, was married yesterday to James Phillip Rubin, the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.
The Rev. Ambrose O'Farrell, a Roman Catholic priest, performed the ceremony at the Church of Santo Stefano in Bracciano, Italy. Later in the day, Rabbi Guy D. Hall performed a Jewish ceremony at Castello Orsini-Odescalchi."
In the Clinton times, Rubin was considered the likewise Jewish Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's right-hand man. Rubin has since worked for Jewish Presidential Candidates General Wesley Clark and John Kerry but also as anchor at the TV show "World News Tonight" on Zionist Rupert Murdoch´s Sky News.
An article by James Rubin (The Huffington Post, September 4, 2008) on mr. Joe Biden, who became the Vice-President of the US, reveals Amanpour´s husband´s Zionist affiliations. Rubin writes:
"As far as Israel is concerned, having worked as his senior foreign policy adviser for five years, I know Senator Biden is one of Israel's staunchest supporters in the Senate. In fact, during the time I worked for him, Israel was one of the few subjects we rarely spoke about because his views were so clear and long-standing there wasn't much to say.
He did tell me how support for Israel and Jewish causes was one of the first positions he adopted in the Senate -- initially after talks with a close friend from Delaware and then as a result of his first trip abroad in 1973 when he met Prime Minister Golda Meir and her young military aide, Yitzhak Rabin.
He also told me how much he learned from the late Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor and until recently Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who worked as an adviser to Senator Biden in the 1970s. Podhoretz's story about an exchange with Menachem Begin is more than anything else a reminder of how long-standing and close the Senator's relationship is with the state of Israel and how much he has fought for Israel over the years, leading the fight in Congress against the sale of F-15s and AWACs to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s and taking on semi-official anti-semitism in the Middle East and Europe."
The Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR) carries an article in it´s Newsletter for Autumn 2001 on a lecture delivered by James Rubin at that Jewish institution.
In the photo above From the left: William Frankel CBE,
Vice-President of JPR, with James Rubin, former
US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and
Lord Rothschild GBE, JPR President.
Again proof that Zionists in the political and media establishment of non-Jewish majority "Gentile" host-states, use their connections to promote Jewish networks and the influence of the Jewish state of Israel.
"Uzi Safanov, a writer at the Seawanhaka newspaper of Long Island University in New York, agreed. 'I'm a Jew before being a journalist, before someone pays me to write,' he said. 'If I find a negative thing about Israel, I will not print it and I will sink into why did it happen and what can I do to change it.'
Safanov said that even if he eventually wrote about negative incidents that happen in Israel, he would try to find the way 'to shift the blame.'
- Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, November 23, 2001, in an article reporting on a Jewish journalist meeting at "Do the Write Thing", a special program for student journalists sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities.
http://bit.ly/90Qduo 3 nov 2010, 19:15 , Respect -
Maria 12 sept 2010
Israel Lobby Investigation: Jewish Agency to AIPAC money laundry [Podcast]
On Wednesday host Jeffrey Blankfort interviewed Grant F. Smith on his public radio program "Takes on the World" about newly unsealed Senate Foreign Relations Committee files investigating the Israel lobby.
Today the Israel Lobby Archive releases correspondence between the Jewish Agency (a quasi governmental organization headquartered in Jerusalem) and the American Zionist Council which housed AIPAC as its lobbying division.
The documents reveal quarterly $5,000 payments from the Jewish Agency to AIPAC for the lobbying newsletter "Near East Report" and stealth public relations programs to undermine American free speech. The implications are discussed in the radio interview. Listen to the podcast here: http://bit.ly/ddhVIz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXQGyG2Ahos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq8UU-Iq7ow -
Maria 15 oct 2010
How CNN was Taken Over by the Neocons and Zionists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4JOYVJT1vU
3 nov 2010
U.S. midterms: AIPAC lauds re-election of pro-Israel stalwarts
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid after delivering his victory speech at his election night party in Las Vegas on Nov. 2, 2010.
Pro-Israel group hails success for supporters on both sides of the political divide, as well as election of three new Jewish members of Congress.
America's largest pro-Israel lobby group on Wednesday hailed the results of midterm elections in the U.S. which saw staunch supporters re-elected to Congress on both sides of the party political divide.
"Many of the strongest friends and supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship were reelected on Tuesday," the group said in a statement.
These included Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Reps. John Boehner (R-OH), widely tipped to be named Republican majority leader in the lower House of Representatives, which his party seized from Democratic control.
Other pro-Israel successes cited by AIPAC included outgoing House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), as well as Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD).
"It is abundantly clear that the 112th Congress will continue America's long tradition of staunch support for a strong, safe and secure Israel and an abiding friendship between the United States and our most reliable ally in the Middle East," AIPAC said.
Israel's Washington embassy also expressed satisfaction with the results.
"Support for Israel at the Congress is strong and bipartisan, an embassy spokesman told Haaretz.
AIPAC also welcomed the election of three new Jewish members of Congress: Senator-elect Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Congressman-elect David Cicilline (D-RI), and Congresswoman-elect Nan Hayworth (R-NY).
Cicilline becomes the fourth openly gay member of Congress and third Jewish gay member of Congress.
Some Jewish incumbents lost out, however among them Florida Democrat Alan Grayson, who ran a controversial campaign in which he labeled his opponent, Daniel Webster, Taliban Dan. Another incumbent, Ron Klein lost to the republican Allen West, in Florida.
In Wisconsin, Republicans picked up two seats, ousting Jewish Democratic incumbent, Steve Kagen, who lost to Reid Ribble. Another Jewish Congressman to leave the House is John Adler of New Jersey.
Jewish vote
According to an election day poll by J Street, another lobby group that sees itself as AIPAC's more liberal rival, 66 percent of U.S. Jews voted Democrat.
Only 7 percent of Jews polled identified Israel as a decisive issue, with 62 percent citing the economy and 31 percent mentioning healthcare as a major concern.
Sixty percent of U.S. Jews approved of the way President Barack Obama is handling his job, while 53 percent approved of the way he is handling the Arab-Israeli conflict.
A decisive 83 percent of American Jews supported an active U.S. role in resolving the conflict. Seventy-one percent supported a U.S. policy involving publicly stating disagreements with Israel and the Palestinians, while 65 percent said they were prepared to see America "exert pressure on the sides to push them toward peace.
The poll, conducted by conducted by Gerstein Agne Strategic Communications, surveyed 1000 Jewish voters across the U.S. and 600 Jewish voters in Pennsylvania on the evening of November 2nd. A separate poll, conducted before the election from October 20-24, surveyed 400 voters in Illinois Ninth Congressional District.
http://bit.ly/all6Fo 14 nov 2010, 00:14 , Respect -
Maria 10 nov 2010
PIC: Abu Mujahid Says Israel's Propaganda on Resistance is Addressed to the West
The spokesman for the popular resistance committees, Abu Mujahid, told the Palestinian Information Centre, on Tuesday night, that recent claims by the Israeli authorities about new attempts by the Palestinian resistance to capture more soldiers were directed at western countries.
Mujahid commented that Israel's propaganda campaign is aimed at convincing western countries that the Palestinian resistance has great potential to pave the way to launch a "destructive war in the region".
The spokesman stated that the resistance would stay steadfast and respond to any future attack.
http://bit.ly/bYEMjr
Abu Mujahid: IOA propaganda about resistance directed to the West
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority's (IOA) recent claims about fresh attempts by the Palestinian resistance to capture more soldiers and about aborting some of those attempts were directed at the western countries, Abu Mujahid, the spokesman for the popular resistance committees, said.
He told the PIC on Tuesday night that the IOA was exaggerating the resistance's potentials to pave the way before launching a new "savage" attack on it.
Abu Mujahid said that the IOA propaganda campaign was aimed at convincing the western countries that the Palestinian resistance's potentials were big enough to launch a "destructive war in the region".
The spokesman said that the resistance would remain steadfast and would confront any future attack.
http://bit.ly/cnLdwP
IDF fears kidnapping attempt
Commanders brief soldiers on security protocols following recent military intelligence on intention to carry out soldier abductions.
Following recent warnings regarding a possible attempt to kidnap soldiers, the IDF is refreshing its security protocols, Ynet reported Tuesday.
Southern and Central Command soldiers were convened over the week for a briefing, in which security procedures were reiterated, with a special emphasis on the prohibition to hitch rides while donning a uniform.
The IDF initiated the briefings on the backdrop of recent military intelligence pointing to terror organizations' intention to kidnap soldiers using various methods.
According to estimates, the abduction attempt might take place in a pick-up stop in one of the country's main junctions in the center or south of the country, including the West Bank area.
Although the security establishment has long been concerned with soldier kidnapping, certain instances show a clear indication of such an attempt in the works.
During the briefings, commanders urged soldiers to pay close attention to any suspicious activity or person, and remain alert while in public. Soldiers were also sternly warned against catching a ride while wearing army uniform.
The Military Police has been staging fake abductions in order to create deterrence among soldiers, and those caught hitching rides in clear violation of army orders face harsh punishments.
Military sources stated that terror organizations have been limited by IDF activity, and therefore the threat of kidnappings has increased. The sources noted that the military is taking additional steps to counter the threat.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3982210,00.html
Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land
Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land from Global Information Services on Vimeo.
16 nov 2010, 21:52 , Respect -
Maria 14 nov 2010
European campaign warns of believing Israel's lies about easing Gaza siege
BRUSSELS, (PIC)-- The European campaign to end Gaza siege warned of believing Israel's lies about alleviating its blockade on the Gaza Strip, affirming that the visiting international delegations are witnesses to the escalating destructive impacts of the siege on all aspects of life in the Strip.
Member of the campaign Mohamed Hanoun said that the reports issued by the UN institutions operating in Gaza and the Palestinian health ministry confirm that Israel's siege is still stifling more than one and a half million Gazans.
Hanoun added that the international community has humanitarian and moral obligations to reveal the reality of the tragic situation which Gazans are living in because of the siege instead of considering Israel's claims about easing its blockade on the Palestinians in Gaza
He pointed out that Israel's blockade rendered tens of thousands of Gazans unemployed and there is still a total ban on exports and the entry of raw and construction materials, adding that hundreds of Palestinian families are homeless and unable to rebuild their homes which were destroyed in the last Israeli war on Gaza.
In another incident, the UNRWA and representatives of the Red Crescent and Al-Shifa hospital received the food and medical aid donated by the UAE Red Crescent to Gaza people.
Gaza Red Crescent official Khalil Abu Al-Ful stated that the medical aid arrived in a very critical time, where Gaza hospitals suffer from an acute shortage of some types of medicines.
http://bit.ly/dnwcwF
15 nov 2010
Zionist Congress and Jewish Supremacism - Dr. Edward Fields
(5:07) Zionist Congress and Jewish Supremacism - Dr. Edward Fields 1 x viewed
16 nov 2010
AIPAC Gets Down and Dirty in Pushback vs. Defamation Suit
At War: Steve Rosen (left), the former policy director at AIPAC, is embroiled in a bitter legal fight with the pro-Israel lobbying group. Recent AIPAC filings in the case have taken a salacious turn.
Washington The espionage case against two senior officials of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington was dropped last year. But it has not been forgotten, and it's now threatening to draw the lobby into new depths of mudslinging.
Papers filed in the civil lawsuit of former lobbyist Steve Rosen against his previous employers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee include mutual accusations of using pornographic material at the lobby headquarters, among other allegations. The papers, based on depositions taken from Rosen and from AIPAC principals, dig into the private lives of the involved parties. They also reveal in detail the close ties AIPAC officials held with Israeli diplomats based in Washington.
After reading this stuff, you feel like you need to wash your hands, one pro-Israel activist said after skimming through the 260-page document, which is laced with graphic descriptions and invasive personal details.
At issue is Rosen's $20 million defamation lawsuit against his previous employers at AIPAC, who fired him and his colleague Keith Weissman in 2005 several months after both had been indicted under a rarely used espionage statute because they allegedly received and passed on classified information. AIPAC, in a move that could be seen as meant to embarrass Rosen, revealed in its court filings extensive parts of the depositions, many of them dealing directly with Rosen's personal life.
In an interview with the Forward after the court documents had been made public, Rosen said he was not deterred, and promised that when he files his own motion in December, the information in it will put AIPAC in the hot seat. Any embarrassment I suffered as a result of what they filed will be insignificant compared to the embarrassment they'll suffer after we file our motion, Rosen said.
Rosen's civil lawsuit seeks compensation and damages from AIPAC and from its outside public relations adviser, Patrick Dorton, for defamation. Rosen said he suffered severe damage to his reputation when
Dorton issued a statement on AIPAC's behalf announcing that he and Weissman were fired because their actions did not comport with AIPAC standards. This statement was initially understood as being related to the allegations of Rosen receiving classified information and communicating it to others against AIPAC's policy. But in its motion for summary judgment, filed November 5 with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, AIPAC cites a wider array of alleged points of misconduct that the pro-Israel lobby now says led to the decision to terminate him.
AIPAC claims that Rosen, who was director of foreign policy issues at the lobby and one of its most senior and well-known employees, had engaged in viewing pornography on AIPAC computers at the lobby's Washington offices. Partial transcripts of the lengthy videotaped deposition of Rosen, which were made public as part of AIPAC's motion, show Rosen admitted to surfing pornographic websites from work. But AIPAC's lawyers insisted on more details:
Q: What type of pornography?
A: Sexual pornography.
Q: What type? Man on man, man on woman?
A: Anything. Anything that occurred to me.
Rosen also added more details than, perhaps, the attorney for AIPAC had bargained for.
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.
AIPAC did not seem deterred from getting dragged into a dirty debate. It also chose to include in its court filing an issue relating to Rosen's personal life with only a vague connection to the lobby's claim regarding Rosen's actions being below AIPAC's standards. AIPAC's lawyers questioned Rosen in detail about his attempts to find male sexual companions through the online classifieds site Craigslist, an act Rosen referred to as sexual experimentations. This information came up in one of Rosen's divorce cases he has been married five times and was supposed to remain under court seal.
The court documents also shed light on Rosen's attempts to support himself and his family after being fired from AIPAC. The former lobbyist, as the depositions indicate, received cash gifts from several prominent Jewish philanthropists, among them some who are also major donors to AIPAC. The list includes Hollywood mogul Haim Saban, one of AIPAC's key funders, who gave Rosen a total of $100,000; Daniel Abraham, founder of the Center for Middle East Peace, who gave Rosen, his wife and three children gifts of $5,000 to $10,000; and philanthropist Lynn Schusterman, who paid off a college loan for Rosen's daughter. The list includes several other backers, including two described as bundlers who raised up to $200,000 for Rosen from other donors.
The rationale for introducing this issue is AIPAC's claim that Rosen did not suffer any financial difficulty following his dismissal or due to Dorton's claim in AIPAC's public statement regarding Rosen's supposed misconduct. Rosen believes that by supporting him these donors, many of them still active AIPAC members, demonstrated their displeasure with the manner in which the lobby treated its two former employees.
The personal and financial details that take up much of the deposition seemed to be tense at times, with flare ups between the attorneys of both sides. But the court papers also shed light on the events surrounding the FBI visit to Rosen's home on August 27, 2004 that led to the indictment in the espionage case.
The FBI has alleged that Larry Franklin, a Pentagon analyst at the time, passed on national security information to Weissman, who in turn shared it with Rosen. The two former defendants did not know then that Franklin was cooperating with the FBI and that the information he provided them was part of a sting operation.
Rosen and Weissman learned from Franklin that Iranian forces were allegedly operating in northern Iraq and that they were plotting to kidnap Israeli operatives. They then disclosed this information to a senior Israeli diplomat, Naor Gilon, and to Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler. The depositions reveal that after being confronted by the FBI at his home, in what he described as a very intense exchange of words Rosen made a phone call to AIPAC's legal counsel, who was shaken by the news and asked Rosen to come immediately to the lobby's headquarters.
Rosen then called Rafi Barak, at the time the deputy chief of mission at Israel's Washington embassy. Rosen convinced Barak to cancel other appointments and meet immediately at a coffee shop. He described to the Israeli diplomat the encounter he had just had with the FBI and the allegations they made about Israelis receiving classified information. I probably made some reference to Pollard Rosen recalled, and Barak, according to the deposition, got very upset too.
AIPAC raises this episode in an attempt to prove that Rosen did not follow directly the instructions of the lobby's lawyer to come immediately to the office. This could demonstrate how Rosen did not live up to AIPAC's standards.
But former AIPAC staffer and now liberal columnist M.J. Rosenberg sees more to it. According to Rosenberg, if Rosen proves that his operations, including going to a foreign official to warn him about the investigation, were all part of AIPAC's standard operating procedures, that would mean that AIPAC is not a domestic lobbying organization at all, but something very, very different.
In a statement released by AIPAC from Dorton, the lobbying group said, As is demonstrated in detail in the pleadings that AIPAC has filed, this is a frivolous lawsuit with no merit. Rosen's claims are wildly inaccurate, are undermined by Rosen's own admissions under oath in his deposition, and constitute a blatant attempt to detract attention from the true and relevant facts.
The next round in this battle is expected with Rosen's counter filing on December 2. Both sides can decide to settle the case outside the court before that, or at any phase before it reaches a jury trial.
http://bit.ly/bQbh6P 17 nov 2010, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 16 nov 2010
AIPAC Gets Down and Dirty in Pushback Against Rosen Defamation Suit
Washington The espionage case against two senior officials of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington was dropped last year. But it has not been forgotten, and is now threatening to draw the lobby into new depths of mudslinging.
Papers filed in the civil lawsuit of former lobbyist Steve Rosen against his previous employers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee include mutual accusations of using pornographic material at the lobby headquarters, among other allegations. The papers, based on depositions taken from Rosen and from AIPAC principles, dig into the private lives of the involved parties. They also reveal in detail the close ties AIPAC officials held with Israeli diplomats based in Washington.
After reading this stuff you feel like you need to wash your hands, said one pro-Israel activist after skimming through the 260-page document, which is laced with graphic descriptions and invasive personal details. He declined to be named, out of a desire to avoid involvement in the case.
At issue is Rosen's $20 million defamation lawsuit against his previous employers at AIPAC, who fired him and his colleague Keith Weissman in 2005 several months after both had been indicted under a rarely used espionage statute because they allegedly received and passed on classified information. AIPAC, in a move that could be seen as meant to embarrass Rosen, revealed in its court filings extensive parts of the depositions, many of them dealing directly with Rosen's personal life.
In an interview with the Forward after the court documents had been made public, Rosen said he was not deterred and promised that when he files his own motion next month, the information in it will put AIPAC on the hot seat. Any embarrassment I suffered as a result of what they filed will be insignificant compared to the embarrassment they'll suffer after we file our motion, Rosen said. Rosen's civil lawsuit seeks compensation and damages from AIPAC and from its outside public relations adviser, Patrick Dorton, for defamation. Rosen said he suffered severe damage to his reputation due when Dorton issued a statement on AIPAC's behalf announcing that he and Weissman were fired because their actions did not comport with AIPAC standards. This statement was initially understood as being related to the allegations of Rosen receiving classified information and communicating it to others against AIPAC's policy. But its motion for summary judgment, filed November 5 with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, AIPAC cites a wider array of alleged points of misconduct that the pro-Israel lobby now says led to the decision to terminate him.
AIPAC claims that Rosen, who was director of foreign policy issues at the lobby and one of its most senior and well-known employees, had engaged in viewing pornography on AIPAC computers at the lobby's Washington offices. Partial transcripts of the lengthy videotaped deposition of Rosen, which were made public as part of AIPAC's motion, show Rosen admitted to surfing pornographic websites from work. But AIPAC's lawyers insisted on more details.
Q: What type of pornography?
A: Sexual pornography.
Q: What type? Man on man, man on woman?
A: Anything. Anything that occurred to me.
Rosen also added more details than, perhaps, the attorney for AIPAC had bargained for.
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 executive director Kohr had routinely used locker room language at the AIPAC offices.
AIPAC did not seem deterred from getting dragged into a dirty debate. It also chose to include in its court filing an issue relating to Rosen's personal life with only a vague connection to the lobby's claim regarding Rosen's actions being below AIPAC's standards. AIPAC's lawyers questioned Rosen in detail about his attempts to find male sexual companions through Craigslist, an act Rosen referred to as sexual experimentations. This information came up in one of Rosen's divorce cases he has been married five times and was supposed to remain under court seal.
The court documents also shed light on Rosen's attempts to support himself and his family after being fired from AIPAC. The former lobbyist, as the depositions indicate, received cash gifts from several prominent Jewish philanthropists, among them some who are also major donors to AIPAC. The list includes Hollywood cartoon mogul Haim Saban, one of AIPAC's key funders, who gave Rosen a total of $100,000; Daniel Abraham, founder of the Center for Middle East Peace who gave Rosen, his wife and three children gifts of $5,000 to $10,000; and philanthropist Lynn Schusterman, who paid off a college loan for Rosen's daughter. The list includes several other backers, including two described as bundlers who raised up to $200,000 for Rosen from other donors.
The rationale for introducing this issue is AIPAC's claim that Rosen did not suffer any financial difficulty following his dismissal or due to the Dorton's claim in AIPAC's public statement regarding Rosen's supposed misconduct. Rosen believes that by supporting him these donors, many of them still active AIPAC members, demonstrated their displeasure with the manner in which the lobby treated its two former employees.
The personal and financial details that take up much of the deposition seemed to be tense at times, with flare ups between the attorneys of both sides. But the court papers also shed light on the events surrounding the FBI visit to Rosen's home on August 27, 2004 that led to the indictment in the espionage case.
The FBI has alleged that Larry Franklin, a Pentagon analyst at the time, passed on national security information to Weissman, who in turn shared it with Rosen. The two former defendants did not know then that Franklin was cooperating with the FBI and that the information he provided them was part of a sting operation.
Rosen and Weissman learned from Franklin that Iranian forces were allegedly operating in Northern Iraq and that they were plotting to kidnap Israeli operatives. They then disclosed this information to a senior Israeli diplomat, Naor Gilon, and to Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler. The depositions reveal that after being confronted by the FBI at his home, in what he described as a very intense exchange of words Rosen made a phone call to AIPAC's legal counsel, who was shaken by the news and asked Rosen to come immediately to the lobby's headquarters.
Rosen then called Rafi Barak, at the time the deputy chief of mission at Israel's Washington embassy. Rosen convinced Barak to cancel other appointments and meet immediately at a coffee shop. He described to the Israeli diplomat the encounter he had just had with the FBI and the allegations they made about Israelis receiving classified information. I probably made some reference to Pollard, Rosen recalled, and Barak, according to the deposition got very upset too.
AIPAC raises this episode in an attempt to prove that Rosen did not follow directly the instructions of the lobby's lawyer to come immediately to the office. This could demonstrate how Rosen did not live up to AIPAC's standards. But former AIPAC staffer and now liberal columnist M.J. Rosenberg sees more to it. According to Rosenberg, if Rosen proves that his operations, including going to a foreign official to warn him about the investigation, were all part of AIPAC's standard operating procedures, that would mean that AIPAC is not a domestic lobbying organization at all, but something very, very different.
In a statement released by AIPAC from Dorton, the lobby said, As is demonstrated in detail in the pleadings that AIPAC has filed, this is a frivolous lawsuit with no merit. Rosen's claims are wildly inaccurate, are undermined by Rosen's own admissions under oath in his deposition, and constitute a blatant attempt to detract attention from the true and relevant facts.
The next round in this battle is expected with Rosen's counter filing on December 2. Both sides can decide to settle the case outside the court before that, or at any phase before it reaches a jury trial.
Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/133172/#ixzz15YVFSnRW
http://www.forward.com/articles/133172/
Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/133172/#ixzz15YUxDyg2