Likud's Allies In The Pentagon

According to The New York Times and The Washington Post, the FBI is presently investigating Larry Franklin, a Pentagon official in the office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Douglas Feith. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, "the FBI suspects Franklin passed secret information from high-level discussions in the administration about Iran and Iraq to two members of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), who then passed the information to Israeli government officials."

Haaretz goes on to say that "The affair touches a particularly sensitive nerve because critics in the U.S. have charged more than once in the past two years that a small group of Jewish officials in the Pentagon were behind the decision to go to war in Iraq, among them Feith and deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz."

If anyone wonders why anybody would spy for America's closest ally, the government of Israel, one only needs to look into the ideological and political background of Mr. Franklin's boss, Douglas Feith. He co-authored the 1996 neoconservative policy papers trying to persuade Israel to abandon the Oslo agreement on the peace process that was ultimately to end the Israeli occupation and lead to an independent Palestinian state.

In the late 1970s, Feith disparaged President Carter's efforts at Camp David to achieve a "just, enduring, and comprehensive peace." In line with Israel's intransigent rightwing Likudniks, Feith insisted that Palestinians are not a "national group as such" and therefore have no legal claim to Samaria and Judea, i.e., the West Bank, in Likud terminology. Because Feith considers Jordan the appropriate homeland of all Palestinians, he views Israelis as legally entitled to build settlements on the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, and wants the U. S. government to respect that right. He argues that only Arab acceptance of, and submission to, Israel can end the conflict.

In 1991 he suggested to the first Bush administration to "drop the slogan of 'land for peace'" because its implementation could only weaken Israel. In 1996 he and fellow neoconservative ideologue Richard Perle wrote an advisory paper for Prime Minister Netanyahu entitled "A Clean Break: a New Strategy for Securing the Realm." They urged Likud leader Netanyahu "to make a clean break from the peace process." Feith called for a war of liberation to eject the Syrian armed forces from Lebanon. He also strongly promoted the Iraq Liberation Act.

Feith's law firm is known to devote much of its casework to the representation of hard-line Israeli interests. He repeatedly advocated closer military and strategic cooperation between the United States and Israel. James Zogby quotes Feith as urging that "It is in the interest of the U.S. and Israel to remove needless impediments to technological cooperation between them."

Now, however, the FBI charges that the cooperation between Larry Franklin and his AIPAC contacts transgressed what is legally permissible for a Pentagon employee.

As a private citizen, Douglas Feith is certainly entitled to his neoconservative views. He has written numerous anti-Arab tracts in which he asserts Israeli "moral superiority" over Arabs. Nevertheless, during the Reagan administration he served on the staff of the National Security Council and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy. He also held the position of Special Counsel to his friend Richard Perle when he was Assistant Secretary of Defense.

In spite of Feith's pronounced and widely publicized ideological and ethnic biases, President George W. Bush promoted him to one of the most sensitive positions in the Pentagon. His job description says that "Under direction of the Secretary of Defense, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy is the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for all matters concerning the formation of national security and defense policy and the integration and oversight of Department of Defense policy and plans to achieve national security objectives."

Would it be fair to ask if Pentagon officials such as Douglas Feith and Larry Franklin really have America's interest uppermost in mind?

Wolf D. Fuhrig	Home	09-05-04
Likud's Allies In The Pentagon
According to The New York Times and The Washington Post, the FBI is presently investigating Larry Franklin, a Pentagon official in the office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Douglas Feith. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, "the FBI suspects Franklin passed secret information from high-level discussions in the administration about Iran and Iraq to two members of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), who then passed the information to Israeli government officials." Haaretz goes on to say that "The affair touches a particularly sensitive nerve because critics in the U.S. have charged more than once in the past two years that a small group of Jewish officials in the Pentagon were behind the decision to go to war in Iraq, among them Feith and deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz." If anyone wonders why anybody would spy for America's closest ally, the government of Israel, one only needs to look into the ideological and political background of Mr. Franklin's boss, Douglas Feith. He co-authored the 1996 neoconservative policy papers trying to persuade Israel to abandon the Oslo agreement on the peace process that was ultimately to end the Israeli occupation and lead to an independent Palestinian state. In the late 1970s, Feith disparaged President Carter's efforts at Camp David to achieve a "just, enduring, and comprehensive peace." In line with Israel's intransigent rightwing Likudniks, Feith insisted that Palestinians are not a "national group as such" and therefore have no legal claim to Samaria and Judea, i.e., the West Bank, in Likud terminology. Because Feith considers Jordan the appropriate homeland of all Palestinians, he views Israelis as legally entitled to build settlements on the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, and wants the U. S. government to respect that right. He argues that only Arab acceptance of, and submission to, Israel can end the conflict. In 1991 he suggested to the first Bush administration to "drop the slogan of 'land for peace'" because its implementation could only weaken Israel. In 1996 he and fellow neoconservative ideologue Richard Perle wrote an advisory paper for Prime Minister Netanyahu entitled "A Clean Break: a New Strategy for Securing the Realm." They urged Likud leader Netanyahu "to make a clean break from the peace process." Feith called for a war of liberation to eject the Syrian armed forces from Lebanon. He also strongly promoted the Iraq Liberation Act. Feith's law firm is known to devote much of its casework to the representation of hard-line Israeli interests. He repeatedly advocated closer military and strategic cooperation between the United States and Israel. James Zogby quotes Feith as urging that "It is in the interest of the U.S. and Israel to remove needless impediments to technological cooperation between them." Now, however, the FBI charges that the cooperation between Larry Franklin and his AIPAC contacts transgressed what is legally permissible for a Pentagon employee. As a private citizen, Douglas Feith is certainly entitled to his neoconservative views. He has written numerous anti-Arab tracts in which he asserts Israeli "moral superiority" over Arabs. Nevertheless, during the Reagan administration he served on the staff of the National Security Council and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy. He also held the position of Special Counsel to his friend Richard Perle when he was Assistant Secretary of Defense. In spite of Feith's pronounced and widely publicized ideological and ethnic biases, President George W. Bush promoted him to one of the most sensitive positions in the Pentagon. His job description says that "Under direction of the Secretary of Defense, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy is the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for all matters concerning the formation of national security and defense policy and the integration and oversight of Department of Defense policy and plans to achieve national security objectives." Would it be fair to ask if Pentagon officials such as Douglas Feith and Larry Franklin really have America's interest uppermost in mind?

Wolf D. Fuhrig

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09-05-04

Likud's Allies In The Pentagon