Slick Trickby Ellen W. HorowitzAug 31, '04 / 14 Elul 5764 The...

Slick Trick
by Ellen W. Horowitz
Aug 31, '04 / 14 Elul 5764

The recent red herring that the FBI and American media lobbed at Israel and the American Jewish community is exceptionally hard to handle because it's been coated with crude oil. So let's not waste our time trying to pick it up. We may, however, want to consider kicking the stinking item back where it came from - as this fish story was simmering long before the FBI or CBS hooked it, and its origins are rotten.

As much as the rumored accusations may shake-up the American Jewish community, it behooves AIPAC and all American-Israel advocacy groups to remain undeterred, and to focus on the far more real and pressing concerns at hand.

Rather than scrambling to control the damage, assuming a defensive posture, or even feigning a business-as-usual attitude, the American Jewish community may want to consider taking an offensive strategy, or at least demanding an apology. After all, the FBI was "tailing" an ally, managed to leak dubious details, and the American intelligence community continues to suppress information essential to Israel's security.

Someone should have the chutzpah to ask, "Why are you withholding security data which has a direct bearing on your ally and friend, Israel?" In addition, the United States intelligence agencies are in the throes of their own security crisis and there is evidence of far more serious breaches of trust and breakdown within the system involving countries hostile to America and that have sponsored and/or participated in terrorist activities.

The current pseudo-scandal is bound to bring up the dreaded dual loyalty issue and some of the allegations may even contain some threads of truth, but the timing of this investigation and its disclosures indicate that the AIPAC/Franklin affair is clearly a calculated diversion aimed at covering-up something far more sinister than simply embarrassing President Bush during the week of the Republican National Convention.

So let's begin by taking a brief look from where all this came...

Anti-Israel academics like Ian Lustick developed the "Neoconservative Cabal" theory prior to the Iraqi War. The Jewish professor is actually proud of this accomplishment. I received an email from him on June 24th in response to an article I wrote, "The Lustick Files", which addresses his pro-Palestinian/anti-Zionist activities. The highly acclaimed scholar, who has served as an advisor to several presidential administrations (H. W. Bush included) and the CIA, was kind enough to make some minor corrections to my piece, as well as to validate my complaints against him.

I wrote: "Ever wonder where those accusations about Jews, like Wolfowitz, Abrams and Perle, being the cause of America's involvement in Iraq come from?"

He responded: "As a matter of fact I think I was the first person to refer to the 'neoconservative cabal' and blame them (before the war started) for the catastrophe that was about to unfold. I can provide the references if you want."

Professor Lustick's opinions feature prominently on pro-Palestinian propaganda sites and he remains the darling of the Jewish liberal and Arab intellectual elite.

And speaking of Arab intellectuals, Dr. James J. Zogby, President of the American Arab Institute has an article featured under the heading of "Washington Watch" and posted at Saudi-online, in which he attempts to weave a tale of intrigue involving "neo-conservative" Douglas Feith, an Iraqi opposition leader and an Israeli settler. But all he really ends up doing is exposing the obvious policy discrepancies between the president, State Department, Pentagon and CIA. Zogby, the intellectual, also lets us in on how General Tommy Franks has been quoted calling Feith "the stupidest guy on the face of the earth."

Ralph Nader won't be left out of the election feeding frenzy. A few weeks ago, he publicly accused President George W. Bush and Congress of being "puppets" of the Israeli government and the pro-Israeli lobby. Once you watch the clip here, you'll have a full understanding of how a little clown like Hitler rose to power. If you can't view the actual file, here's an excerpt - compliments of Al-Jazeera:

"The Israeli puppeteer travels to Washington. The Israeli puppeteer meets with the puppet in the White House, and then moves down Pennsylvania Avenue, and meets with the puppets in Congress. And then takes back billions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for the Washington puppet show to be replaced by the Washington peace show."

Last, but not least, a variety of anti-Semitic sites like ReportersNotebook.com provide the online public with a full "profile" of every Jew working for the current administration and which "think tank" and lobby they hatched from.

One has to wonder how much of American taxpayers' dollars the FBI doled-out on this project, and what kind of funding went into the CBS production in order to garner the type of "accusations" and "information" that have been posted and freely accessible on every half-assed, anti-Israel Internet site for over the past two years.

60 Minutes would do better to dedicate their time and efforts to following this whale of a very true tale, which has far more damaging implications for America:

What were the Chairman of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, and the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee doing on the morning of 9/11 before that first plane hit?

Senator Bob Graham, Senator Robert Kyle and Congressman Porter Goss were having breakfast with the Mahmud Ahmad, the then-chief of intelligence for Pakistan, the same man who ordered $100,000 to be wired into hijacker Mohammed Atta's bank account.

Somebody call the FBI! Oh, I forgot, they're too busy tailing Israel. Somebody call the Department of Justice! Oops, but they're occupied with slapping gag orders on FBI whistleblowers.

[By the way, my sources are the Washington Post, New York Times, PBS, the Guardian, the French news agency and the Times of India - that's as good as anything Leslie Stahl can come up with.]

I guess those three lawmakers were clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person, but that didn't stop Goss and Graham from chairing the original 9/11 bipartisan commission. And Goss is the soon-to-be appointed CIA Director. Under the circumstances, I guess there will be no untainted legislator left who would dare to question the flaws and corruption in America's intelligence apparatus. But we should note that current Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts did make an admirable attempt at reform by submitting a proposal recommending a break-up of the CIA. Meanwhile, George Bush recently expanded the CIA Director's powers.

It's ironic and highly suspect that post-9/11, the CIA continues to maintain and nurture a close working relationship and alliance with the likes of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, while they clearly avoid fostering a relationship with Israel.

Zeev Schiff of Haaretz writes that, "The CIA sees Israel as disruptive in American efforts to improve its relations with the Arabs. The CIA also argues that Israel is a bad influence on improving relations between Washington and Damascus. It's not surprising the CIA was the first to charge that Israel has an agent in the Pentagon - an accusation Israel says is entirely baseless."

In spite of the mistakes which led up to 9/11, the CIA continues to actively promote relationships with the Arab tyrannies, which brought them disaster, while they actively pursue relationships with members of the "axis of evil" (to an Israeli, this self-destructive course sounds terribly familiar).

It appears that the democratic system of checks and balances has succumbed to an Orwellian sort of death. American justice has been relegated to the dust bin of history. Some frustrated, responsible and naive individuals may try to retrieve and reinstate justice to its former glory. A word of advice: while you're sifting through the trash, be smart enough to ignore those rotting red herrings, and you may be lucky enough to find a real smoking gun. But do it before September 8th, when congressional hearings on the approval of CIA Director nominee Porter Goss begin.

AIPAC and those American individuals and groups affiliated with the US government, but who claim to care about the future of Israel and the America-Israel relationship, should be asking themselves and the powers-that-be some very difficult questions.

The CIA is a very well-oiled machine - they possess paper shredders far bigger and better than those of Enron Corporation. And America's intelligence community seems to have a well-budgeted staff ready and willing to rearrange and glue certain choice shreds together in such a way that will cover their backsides, while making Israel and her supporters among the American Jewish community look bad.