Full Release - IRmep

Report On Iran Key To Spying Inquiry
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Michael Ledeen t a, scholar at,the American-Enterprise I~s~i~te
in Wasllington Who specializes in Mideast
,affairs, arranged the contacts betw~en the Pentagon' officials and the Irariian dissidents, wh~ch he said led
to American lives being saved in Afghanistan~
Asked' Saturda~
for ~omment on th~ investigation, Ledeen ~aid he expected the FBI probe to yield
nothing incriminating abqu~ Franklin, whom Ledee'n has known for years.
"1 don'fbelieveLarry Franklin would ever do anythiIJg improper with class.ified'inf0l'll':ation," said
Leqeen, who worked as a consultant to the Nation~l
Security Council and the State and Defense
• depart~ents during the adritinistrati~n ofRo~ald Reag~. -.
L~deen ~aid the information Franklin was suspected oftransferring was well knowniamong foreign
policy observers. 'f!1e U.S= h~d not developed a co4erent Iran policy, he said, and th~divergent
views of
various administration officials were publi~ly
known and available.
"There is no Americ~n policy on Iran," L~deen s~id.
"What is,he telling them? What can there possibly
be that is classified about-American po~icy on Iran that.we do not know about from the publ~c
debate?"
Franklin and Rl!ode also have clos'e ties with Iraqi politic!an Ahmad Chalabi, whose Iraqi National
Congress was the dissident org~nization
most favored by Pentagon officials during atisseiI)'s rule.
Chalabi met ofteri.with top.officials at the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office to a4vocate
regime change in ~raq'.
Chalabi himself has been investigated by American officials in connection with the transmission ofU.S.
secrets to Iran. It is unclear whether the investigations into Franklin and Chalabi ~re connected.
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