Full Release - IRmep

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Palestinianleader' his first audience with the new,US President at an upcoming UN
General Assembly gathering in Ne~ York IIifprogress, were made. irihigh-ievel talks
between ~he Palestinians.and the Israelis. 1t
That meeting between -Busli and Arafat never happened.'Two ,days after the Times story
appeared, Al Qaeda terrorists c~hed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon
and a field in Pennsylvania,·killing"ahnost' 3,'000 people. In,the aft~.l'!lla~ ofthose attacks~
few people recalled tqat for a briefmoment in the late'summer of2001, the Bush
Administration had considered meeting with Ara~at and deepening its poUtic~1
involv~ment in the Israeli..Palestinian co~ict.
Everyone forgot, except the FBI. According to a recent report by the Jewish,Telegraphic'
Agency, it w~ that September 2001 hew~ article; based on leaks ofsensitive
A4ministration deliberatiQns, that prompted then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice to. demand'~ FBI leak inves_tigatio~ that has since taken on.a dramatic life ofits
~wn. Mo~t recently, the i~vestigation has led to the federal grand jury indi~tment,
unsealed last ~onth' ofPentag9~Iran desk officer Larry Franklin op charges involving
conspiracy to disclose classified national defense infonnation ~o unauthorized recipients!
It is expected to lead to indictments, under the.Espionage Act, oftwo recently dismissed
employees 9fthe American Israel Pu1?lic Affairs Committee for engaging in a conspiracy
to receive and-pass on to other unauthorized-recIpients what they knew to be classified
information. They are AIPAC's former director offoreign pol~cy research, ,Steve Rosen,
:and his deputy, Iran specialist I{eith WeissIl:l~. Among .those the FBI reportedly wants to
interview as a potential witness in its'investigation is a"Washington Postjoumalis~ who
was allegedly briefed on some of.the classifie