SPY FOR ISRAEL WORKING AT DoD FOR WOLFOWITZ AND FEITH?

Government officials are reporting that a key member of the DoD team, some say the third most powerful member of Rumsfeld's staff, may have been giving classified documents to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC--a pro-Israel lobbying group in DC) relating to government policy on Iran. The AIPAC allegedly passed these key documents in turn to Israel. Of course, both Israel and the AIPAC deny any knowledge or involvement in spying against the U.S.

The CIA official in question, Larry Franklin, is a "midlevel analyst who works in the policy office of the Defense Department" in what has been reported as an influential analyst position with regards to policy toward Iraq and Iran, working closely with Douglas Feith, himself the most influential Undersecretary to Deputy SecDef Paul Wolfowitz. Apparently, the investigation by the FBI has been ongoing for more than a year!

Of course, the interesting thing to me in all of this lies in the fact that both Feith and Wolfowitz are key members of the Project for the New American Century. Neo-conservatism was founded in the 1950s with a strong pro-Israel position in mind for the U.S., and the PNAC represents the most recent continuation of that strong pro-Israel neocon position. Much of the justification for the PNAC's plan for invading Iraq centered on creating a stronger U.S. support system in the Middle East region for Israel. And now we have the suggestion that a key member of the Wolfowitz-Feith team has passed classified information to Israel. Personally, this possibility does not seem that far-fetched to me, nor does it seem far removed from the previous neo-conservative positions of supporting Israel. I am not suggesting any sort of conspiracy or any direct connection between Wolfowitz-Feith and Israel; however, I believe that it is important to understand the significant position in which the neo-conservative movement places Israel and its role in the Middle East.

I think in many ways the neocons have made the struggle in the Middle East even more apparently about religion than we tend to realize. It would not surprise me to learn that Mr. Franklin (if indeed guilty of passing classified documents to the AIPAC) is also part of the neocon mindset, or even to learn that Mr. Franklin is an evangelical Christian who places fundamental importance on American assistance to Israel as part of his faith. Does this seem cynical? I just want to make people aware of the feelings of many conservative evangelical Christians in this country who believe that if America abandons Israel, then America abandons God! I think this religious belief is the most important factor driving the neocon movement--it is essentially a Zionist-Christian position that goes back to the post-WW2 1940s. For most neocons, the theology has transformed itself into political ideology to the point that the leadership of the movement today would probably not hold strictly to the theology itself, but hold onto the ideology for foreign policy guidance in all decisions made by the government. Beyond the leadership, however, I would maintain that the fundamentalist religious interpretation of scripture plays a vital role in the force of that ideology--I know many of the everyday average Americans who strongly believe America must support Israel to maintain a national identification with God's wishes.

For more information, see various NYTimes and WashPost articles here, here, or here (Mr. Franklin served in Israel with the Air Force Reserve).