Former pro-Israel lobbyists charged with classified leaks

Associated Press:

Two former employees of a pro-Israel lobbying organization were indicted Thursday on charges they conspired to obtain and disclose classified U.S. defense information over a five-year period.

An indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., names Steven Rosen, formerly the director of foreign policy issues for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Keith Weissman, the organization's former senior Iran analyst.

The five-count indictment also spells out in greater detail the government's case against Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, who already is facing charges he leaked classified military information to an Israeli official and the AIPAC employees.

Rosen and Weissman disclosed sensitive information as far back as 1999 on a variety of topics that included terrorist activities in Central Asia, the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda and U.S. policy in Iran, the indictment says. Among their contacts were foreign government officials and reporters, the indictment says.

Franklin's relationship with the men dates to 2003, the indictment said.

Plato Cacheris, Franklin's lawyer, said he had been expecting additional charges. He said Franklin cooperated with investigators for three months in 2004.

The FBI's long-running investigation has focused on whether Franklin, of Kearneysville, W.Va., passed classified U.S. material on Iran to AIPAC, the influential main Israeli lobbying organization in Washington, and whether that group in turn passed it on to Israel. Both AIPAC and Israel deny any wrongdoing. Franklin has pleaded innocent.

AIPAC fired Rosen and Weissman in April.

Paul McNulty, the U.S. Attorney in Alexandria, Va., planned a news conference Thursday afternoon to discuss developments in the case.

Rosen, quoted in The New Yorker magazine last month, denied knowingly receiving classified information. A spokesman for his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, declined comment Thursday. John Nassikas, Weissman's lawyer, did not immediately provide comment.

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