Full Release - IRmep

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Franklin was then dispatched to meet the two AIPAC officials and outline the alleged threat to Israelis in
northem Iraq, the Post has been,told.
Saying his access to the White House was limited, Fran,klin also expressed concern that the Bush
administration was underestimating the extent to which Iranian agents were operating in Iraq and asked the
AIPAC officials to stress this point in their meetings with US officials.
The agents' hope, plainly, was that the AIPAC pair would be so troubled by the apparent life-and-death
content of the information from Franklin as to risk a breach of US espionage statutes and transfer ~hat they
believed to be classified material to a foreign power" Israel.
And that, the Post has been told, Is precisely what happened.
Franklin, according to news reports, cooperated with the FBI until about two months ago. In early October,
he abruptly stopped working with authorities, dropped his court-appointed attorney and sought the legal
counsel of Plato Cacheris, a prominent Washington defense la~er who has represented numerous
accused spies.
Continued
"Obviously his was a bad deal," says one source familiar with Franklin's decision to stop cooperating with
the bureau.
News of the initial Franklin-AIPAC lunch broke last summer: CBS led its August 27 Nightly News broadcast
with a report of a "full-fledged espionage investigation underway," saying the FBI was about to "roll up" a
suspected Israeli "mole" in the office ofthe secretary of defense in the Pentagon.
CBS reported that, using wiretaps, undercover surveillance and photography, the FBI had documented the
passing of ~ classified presidential directive on Iran from the suspected mole to two people who work at
AIPAC. Sources familiar with the matter, however, said no documents exchanged hands.
CBS's sensational allegation immediately conjured up memories of the Pollard affair, the 1985 arrest and
SUbsequent conviction in 1987 and life imprisonment for espionage of US naval intelligence analyst
Jonathan Pollard for passing classified information to Israel.
The investigation into Franklin and the AIPAC officials continued qUietly, with IitUe subsequent media
coverage, i!" recent months. No indictments were issued and most reports scaled back the accusations
aJJainst Franklin from alleged espionage to mishandling of classified evidence.
But the"investigation burst back into prominence last Wednesday, when FBI agents made their first visit to
AIPAC's Capitol Hill offices since Augu~t. Armed with a warrant, the agents seized computer files relate