I hope you are right about this reopening the questions of our invasion of Iraq. I smell something, though, re: the timing of this leak. Are there still people of integrity in our intelligence community? Did the leak happen to make sure it was not swept under the carpet until after Nov. 2? Why is there discrepancy between the DOJ and DOD and FBI, etc.? I hope there are still good guys out there. Thanks for starting your blog. You are doing a service to our nation, and I'm not being flip.
Jack Bettis
Eureka, CA. 95503

Steve, thanks for framing this. I think that thus far this situation sounds more like a case of conscience and Israeli patriotism -- than of money. But if the latter, wow -- the administration will have a huge problem. But if this was just inappropriate handling of documents, or purposeful sharing of info, people will be more forgiving I think.

You are providing us with a hugely valuable service. I agree with Jack,
darci

So far what we're being told makes little sense. But I'm hoping against hope that behind the Franklin probe lies a deeper investigation into US/Israel/Iran intelligence circuits and what role they may have played in those Niger forgeries. And we may need to add the UK MoD's Operation Rockingham into the mix, too. We know we have that operation, the OSP and a similar operation inside Sharon's government but operating outside Mossod. Most of this stuff has been known since summer 2003, back when Dr. David Kelly's death was shaking foundations in the UK . . .

Frankly, I think that if this a case of "ideology" and "Israeli patriotism", we are in far more dire straits than if it's just a case of some schmuck needing college tuition for his kids. I don't know what darci meant to suggest with the phrase "Israeli patriotism" but I do think that what is good for the Sharon government is transparently not so good for us.

Given your interest in Michael Ledeen, you might be amused by the online exchange I had with him today:

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/231

He didn't admit anything, of course. But what he chose to deny or ignore might be interesting.

Is there a possiblity any of this is retaliation for the Plame case???

Also, is there any connection to the "Jack Idema" affair going on in Afghanistan. It seems to me that all of this leads to the (Office of Special Plans) and has Rumsfailed, Wolfy, and Feiths dirty fingers all over this. If these guys are running some type of rogue intel/covert ops out of the DoD, like in the movie JFK, then what are the chances this actually becoming exposed.

Franklin would just be a fall guy, another Oswald, if some Senior Admin officials don't get fired or killed over all of this. Spy vs. Spy indeed.

Meanwhile, what do you know of the Montesinos case going on in Peru Steve? Was there another Iran/Contra affair going on in Peru during the summer of 2001 that the public never learned about because of 9-11? I think it was the same Iranian arms dealer at the Paris Meeting in 2003 that was floating Montesinos weapons in 2001.

Oh holy Jeebus let this not be the apocalypse!

Spy of ideology and conscience vs. spy for money... First, this particular dichotomy doesn't appear to have much bearing on the actions of those in and around DoD: Certainly Perle and probably Feith, among others no doubt, have been raking it in under the rubric "conscience." But ideology and conscience are two separate categories, most especially during the phase when an ideology is being conscientiously put in place from a power base on high rather than from a power base among the masses. This is apparently a case of parallel government. Is parallel government an instance of ideology, conscience, money? Franklin was a Soviet analyst, who quickly learned Farsi (???) and became an Iran specialist. Who are the Iran specialists in orbit around DoD? Ledeen, who apparently doesn't speak Farsi and who began his career with an encomium on Italian fascism: Universal Fascism (1972)? Imposing ideology takes work.

One other observation: In a another comment, I believe I previous mentioned Paxton's The Anatomy of Fascism, which attempts to move the debate away from ideology and toward expedient alliances. Take a look today at Juan Cole's overview of the Franklin affair, together with the Marshall/Rozen piece. If the pro-Isreal Neoconservative-Christian Right alliance had already seemed disturbingly outlandish in a distinctly American vein, the revelations of connections to the old European far right in the form of input/output from Berlusconi's SISMI or, previously, support from Aznar -- to bolster Israeli policy -- is really over the top and extremely dangerous.

What I have found most disturbing is the apparent inability of the NSC to rein in the rogue activities of the Pentagon. I believe it was the Marshall, Rozen, et al, piece in the Monthly that described Tenet going to Hadley and complaining that staff from Feith's office were meeting illegally with members of the Italian intelligence service. Apparently Hadley told DOD to stop, but Tenet got word that they continued to have these illegal meetings. So, what's the deal? Does Hardley, and presumably Rice, tacitly condone this DOD foreign policy exercise and are just pretending to slap DODs hand? Did Tenet raise his objections during his meetings with the president? Now that Tenet is gone, has the DOD rogue behavior been ratcheted up? Why does no one seem to holding Rice accountable for any of this?

Earlier today I read the theory (from Juan Cole's site) that Franklin wasn't so much passing top secret info to the Likuds, as passing around some potential policy outlines regarding US/Iran relations and looking for feedback, approval, etc., from AIPAC and the Likud govt.

I'm starting to wonder if the hand of Bush sr. is working behind the scenes here somehow. He has to be aware of the way his son is being manipulated by the neo-cons. He must be furious and heartbroken over the disaster in Iraq. He just may, along with the Baker, Schultz crowd, have decided to take some action to prevent the same thing happening with Iran.

I did a little research on Ghorbanifar. He certainly is a shady character.

He circulated throughout the intelligence community that Qadaffi was planning to assassinate Reagan in _1981_. He also was allegedly involved in the 1980 "October Surprise," involving Iran's release of hostages. Which also involves Judge Laurence Silberman, the person tasked with investigating Iraq intelligence failures.

Dave
fugop.blogspot.com

This is just too weird. Is this a case where the Neocons do not trust the career staff and are going outside, even to foreign governments to develop policy? WTF. First "Plan B" at the CIA and now "Plan B" at the Pentagon? WTF! Why is the GOP so sneaky and secretive about foreign policy? All this secrecy is nothing but F-trouble. It misleads administration policy because it ends up enacted without considering important imformation that could not be obtained because the plan was secret. It ends up with a policy that the American people do not support. By misleading Americans about Iraq, Bush has set us up for political failure. If Americans would not support the policy based on the truth, then lying in order to win initial support is a pyrrhic victory. Once the truth outs, the shit hits the fan and support for the policy collapses. Americans are ready to toss Bush out on his F-ear over Iraq. The only question is whether Kerry can step in and right the ship.

WTF. OK, Bush controls the FBI. The FBI is investigating the Bush administration. Who called the dogs?

I have seen suggestions that the probe was leaked to warn everyone that it was coming and to shred any evidence of complicity. WTF How can Bush govern if his administration is a house divided? What a mess.

All the talk of CIA reform is misplaced. We need a competent NSC.

uggabugga has a useful chart.

http://www.threetwoone.org/uggabugga/2004/pentagon-spy02.gif

Is this linked to Wilson/Plame? The cloak and dagger crowd cannot be allowed to run our foreign policy (Iran/Contra II). WTF This administration is pathetic.