[wvns] Secret Briefing Key to AIPAC Trial
SECRET BRIEFING BY ZINNI SEEN AS KEY IN AIPAC DUO TRIAL
Nathan Guttman
Forward
http://www.forward.com/articles/secret-briefing-by-zinni-seen-as-key-
in-aipac-duo/
Washington - New details are emerging about a secret 2003 briefing
that could play a key role in the defense of two pro-Israel
advocates charged with passing classified information.
Until now, the identities of the participants were not publicly
known, except for one of the defendants, Steve Rosen, then policy
director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In recent
weeks, however, the Forward has confirmed that the meeting featured
a briefing delivered by top Middle East peace envoy Anthony Zinni
and was attended by Jess Hordes, head of the Washington office of
the Anti-Defamation League, and Dan Mariaschin, executive vice
president of B'nai B'rith International.
Defense lawyers have sought the testimony of those in attendance to
demonstrate to the jury that meetings between administration
officials and Jewish representatives were common practice, and that
intelligence was frequently shared during these powwows without the
participants knowing the information was classified. But, as first
reported in the Forward last month, the Jewish representatives who
attended the meeting are refusing to cooperate with the defense team.
Hordes and Mariaschin refused to comment for this story, and the
identity of the third Jewish representative who is refusing to
testify could not be confirmed.
In Zinni, the defense team would be turning to a harsh critic of
both the Iraq War and neoconservatives at the Pentagon, who
according to Zinni thought the invasion would stabilize American
interests in the Middle East and strengthen Israel's position.
"I think it's the worst-kept secret in Washington. That everybody —
everybody I talk to in Washington — has known and fully knows what
their agenda was and what they were trying to do," said Zinni in a
May 2004 interview with the CBS News program "60 Minutes."
At the meeting with the Jewish representatives, Zinni discussed the
situation in the Middle East and attempts by the Bush administration
to promote the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, according to
sources familiar with the prosecution's account of the meeting. The
sources said that Zinni "spoke very freely" and that he revealed
information that was not available to the general public.
The next day, Rosen, who had represented Aipac at the meeting,
informed his superiors at the pro-Israel lobby about the information
supplied by Zinni.
At the time, Rosen was already under FBI surveillance and his
conversations about the meeting with Zinni were monitored. They
later appeared in documents presented by the prosecution once Rosen
and the other defendant in the case, Aipac's Iran specialist, Keith
Weissman, were indicted.
According to sources close to the case, the Jewish participants in
the meeting are refusing to cooperate on the advice of their
organizations' respective legal advisers, who recommend steering
clear of the proceedings.
Sources close to the defense expressed disappointment over the
reluctance of the Jewish groups to testify. These sources describe
it as another sign of the decision by Jewish organizations to
distance themselves from the case. One source close to the defense
described the response of the Jewish community to the prosecution of
the two former senior Aipac staffers as "abandonment," and said that
many Jewish officials and organizations cut off all ties to the
defendants after the case was made public.
The U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., will make a decision
later this month regarding the government's request to keep the
trial closed and not to allow the public or press to see the
evidence or to listen to wiretapping recordings that will be the
central pieces of evidence in the case. In a hearing last month,
Judge T.S. Ellis III said that no precedent exists for such a
request. The judge ordered both sides to prepare arguments for a
pretrial hearing on the issue, which is scheduled for mid-April.
If the prosecution's request for a closed trial is denied, the
government will be asked to prepare redacted versions of the
evidence to be presented in the courtroom.
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