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Charged with passing top-secret info

BY TIMOTHY M. PHELPS AND KNUT ROYCE | WASHINGTON BUREAU, Tom Brune of the Washington Bureau contributed to this story.

May 5, 2005

Larry Franklin, of Kearneysville, W.Va., left, leaves the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., with his attorney John Richards after a hearing on Wednesday. The FBI arrested Franklin, a Pentagon analyst on a charge alleging he passed classified information about potential attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq to employees of a pro-Israel group. (AP Photo / May 4, 2005)

WASHINGTON - An analyst in a controversial Pentagon intelligence office was charged yesterday with passing top-secret information to two staff members of a pro-Israeli lobbying group here.

Charged was Larry Franklin, an Iran specialist who worked in the Office of Special Plans, established by Pentagon Undersecretary Douglas Feith in order to give Pentagon civilians an independent source of intelligence that could bolster the case for war with Iraq.

He was charged with passing highly classified information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq to two individuals identified by sources as staff members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in June 2003, shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

It was not clear yesterday whether the information was passed on to Israel. Intelligence sources said the classification - Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information - was often used to protect information from electronic surveillance where disclosure might tip off a foreign government that its communications were being monitored.

But the involvement of Feith's intelligence office and the public affairs committee - the premier pro-Israel lobbying group here and one of the city's largest lobbies - made the charges particularly sensitive.

An Israeli official here said the embassy had not been officially informed of the investigation. "The people who work here are professionals. We are not aware of anything improper that took place with our involvement," the official said.

Neither of the two former senior public affairs committee officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, was charged with a crime. They were fired in April in apparent anticipation of the charges against Franklin.

A source close to the public affairs committee said only that it "has been advised that it is not a target of the investigation."

But the charges come at an embarrassing time for the organization, which is about to hold its annual policy conference, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as featured speakers.

Rosen's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, issued a statement saying, "Steve Rosen never solicited, received or passed on any classified documents from Larry Franklin and Mr. Franklin will never be able to say otherwise."

But an affidavit filed with the charges in federal District Court in Virginia said Franklin disclosed the information orally. It said he was also found a year later to have 83 classified documents at his home and that he disclosed classified information "to a foreign official" and to members of the media.

Franklin, 58, an Air Force Reserve colonel, turned himself in yesterday and was released on bond. His lawyer said he would plead not guilty.

Newsday has reported previously that the investigation could include other officials in Feith's office. The U.S. attorney's office would not address such questions yesterday, but said the probe is continuing.

Tom Brune of the Washington Bureau contributed to this story.