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www.haaretz.com
http://www.haaretz.comlhasenlobjectslI
Q INFORMATION CONTAINED
HEREIN IS TlNCLASSIFIED
DATE 07-29-2010 BY 60324 uc baw/sab/lsg
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Last update· 21:14 30/0812004
Shalom: Mol~ affair is
exaggerated 'media nonsense'
ByNathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz
Service and Agencies "
Officials confirmed Monday that a senior Israeli
diplomat in Washington met several times'with
Larry Franklin, a Pentagon analyst being
inv~tigated by the FBI on suspicion he passed
classified information on Iran to the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee.
However, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom·
4enying allegations of ~spionage• said such
meetings are commonplace and the two
governments routinely share secrets.
\
"Israel and the United SUites have intimate ties
... arid the infomiation Heing exchanged is milch
more classified than any conversation that may
have taken place," Shalom told a join~ news
conference with his German counterpart,
Joschka Fischer., •
.The Israeli diplomat was identified as Naor
Oilon, head ofthe political departm~t at
Israel's embassy in Was~ington, and a specialist
on n~clear weapons proliferatioll, ~rael says
I~ and its nuclear.~bitions pose the greatest
threat to the Jewish state.
Shalom did not mention GilOD by name, but
when asked about contacts between Oilon and
Franklin did not deny they had taken place.
A statement issued after the weekly cabinet
meeting said that tlin discussing the Larry
Franklin affair, he [Shalom] note4 that Foreign
Ministry checks have shown that the entire
Israeli Embassy acted accordin$ to procedures. tI
Shalom said Monday that Israel already
receives all'the classified information it needs
from the U.S. governnient through shared
intelligence. He called the Franklin affair
"media-nonsense" that has been taken out ofall
proportion, Army Radio reported.
"There is no troth whatsoever in the claims that
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