Full Release - IRmep

i"'!\t INFORHATION CONTAINED 0
~IN IS UNCLASSIFIED
DATE 07-29-2010 BY 60324 uc baw/sab/1s:g
Pentagon Analyst In Israel Spy Case Is
Call'ed a 'Patriot'
BY ELI LAKE - StaffReporter ofthe Sun
May 27, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/14523
WASHINGTON - A Pentagon analyst charged with mishandling classified information at
first cooperated·with an FBI probe oftwo lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee when he allowed the bureau to surveil a meeting with Aipac lobbyist Keith
Weissman in July 2004.
Plato Cacheris, the lawyer for the Pentagon Iran analyst Lawrence Franklin, ~old The
New York Sun yesterday that the FBI persuaded his clie~t to set up a meeting with Mr.
Weissman on July 9, 2004, before being threatened with jail time. "They appealed to his
sense ofpatriotism, and he cooperated,II Mr. Cacheris said 1n an interview.
The charges against the two lobbyists, Mr. Weissman and Steven Rosen, will hang on
their July 9, 2004, meeting with Mr. Franklin when he allegedly shared information
verbally with Mr. Weissman - while under FBI surveillance - that American soldiers and
Israeli agents in northern Iraq were under threat from Iranian Revolutionary Guard units.
Mr. Rosen, after receiving the information from his colleague, Mr. Weissman, then
allegedly shared it with the Israeli Embassy and the Washington Post. Sources familiar
with the FBI's case said that the Justice Department is prepared to charge that Mr. Rosen
passed the classified information on to the embassy and the newspaper.
Until August 2004, Mr..Franklin was unaware that the FBI was prepared to charge him
with a crime, Mr. Cacheris said. It was after he voluntarily told the bureau that he had
kept 83 classified documents at his home in West Virginia and had agreed to convey the
intelligence to Mr. Weissman that the FBI said that it would press charges and arranged
for a court-appointed attorney for Mr. Franklin. Originally, the bureau, according to Mr.
Cacheris, asked Mr. Franklin to plead guilty to espionage, specifically under section 794
ofthe U.S. Code forcriines of IIgathering or delivering defense information to aid a
foreign government. ,', Notorious Soviet spy Aldridge Ames was charge4 under this
section ofthe U.S. Code, which carries a maximum penalty ofexecution or life in prison.
Mr. Franklin sought Mr. Cacheris out, the lawyer said, after he was asked to admit that he
was a spy. Mr.. Cacheris, who represented Mr. Ames as well as Monica Lewinsky, agreed
to take the case free ofcharge. "I feel the government is overreaching in this case. I think
he's a patriot and a loyal American who intends no harm to this country," Mr. Cacheris
said.
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Following Mr. Cacheris's agreement to defend Mr. Franklin, the bureau offered a deal
whereby Mr. Franklin would plead guilty to the lesser charge ofmishandling classified
material, or section 793 oftlie U.S. Code. The lesser charge carries a maximum penalty ~ ~~
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