Full Release - IRmep

!teport On Iran Key To Spying Inquiry
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UNCLASSIFIED - fOUO
Los Angeles Times
Aug~st 29, 2004
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ALL
FBI INFORMATION CONTAINED
HEREIN IS UNCLASSIFIED
DATE
07-29-2010 BY 60324 uc baw/sab/lsg
Report On Iran KeY,To Spying Inquiry
Investigators are looking closely at Pentagon'policy analyst Larry Franklin's
relations/lips Wi~/l
advocl;ltes for IsraeL
By Mark Mazzetti and Richard B. Schmitt, Times StaffWriters
·WASHINGTON -
The man at the center ofan FBI investigation into possible Israeli espionage in
Washington is a career Pentagon employee, a colonel in the Air Force reserves and a national security
~nalyst who at the end ofthe Cold War taught himself Fa~si' and refashio't:led himselfas a!1 expert on Iran,
officials said Saturday.
T!le FBI is trying to detennine whether he is also aspy.
U.S. officials ~onfinned Saturday that the target ofthe investig~tion was Larry'Franklint the Pentagon's
top Iran policy analyst and a confidant ofDeputy.Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and Douglas J.
Feith, whot as undersecretary for policy, was t~e Pentagon's t~ird-r~n.king
official.
The FBI is trying to ascertain whether Franklin turned' over a draft presidential direc~ive
Qn policy toward
Iran last year to two people affiliated with·the Washington..bas~d American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, which may have given the information to Israel.
Officials are concerned because the-directive was still being debated by U;S.· policymakers at the time,
possibly putting the ISll\eli government in a position to influence the final document, officials said. U.S.
policy toward Iran is vital to I~~ael, which is gravely concerned' about the expandi~g nu~lear capability of
th~ country run by Shiit~
MuslJm clerics.
Tne probe, which is being handled by the FBI's counter- espioQage ~ivisiont
.espiopage charges against Franklin.
might not result in
Instead, the Pentagon analyst could be charged with lesser offenses such as i,mproper discl9sure or
mishandling ofclassified information. Or he could be exonerated.
A U.S. official with knowledge ofthe case expressed doubts Saturday that Franklin's alleged actions rose
to the level ofespionage. Insteadt he said it was more .likely that Franklin, who maintaiI].S close ties with
Israeli officials, passe~ documents to Israel without knowing the seriousness of.his actions.
"Frqm everything I've seen, the guy's not a sPY,"·the official said. liThe guy's an idiot"
Acc9rding to the official, th~ closeness ofthe U.S. relationship with Israel means that top officials ofthe
two nations often share sensitive infonnation. Nevertheless, Fratiklin should have knoWn what
'i~fonnation was and,was.no~ p.~~i~~ib.1e t(J ~e_shared, he said. .
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