April 24, 2008

Why is this man smiling—or, rather, smirking?

It took them some 23 years, but the FBI finally got around to arresting Ben-Ami Kadish, who stole US secrets for Israel—and reported to the same Israeli “controller” as Jonathan Pollard. Newsweek has some of the details—but Phil Giraldi, at The American Conservative, has the real scoop.

Israeli spies in the US? Who woulda thought?! Well, readers of TAC, for one. As I wrote back in 2005, in a piece on the AIPAC spy scandal:

“Like a dorsal fin poking just above the water, the Franklin spy trial promises us a glimpse of a creature much larger than appears at first sight. Whether the trial will draw it up to the surface remains to be seen. In any case, the magnitude of the problem posed by the covert activities of our ally”€”heretofore ignored or covered up”€”is all too clear.”

Well, it wasn’t the trial that brought the whale to the surface—but more than the dorsal fin is exposed, and, from the looks of it, it’s a big one ….

Speaking of Israeli spooks—The timing of the Ben-Ami Kadish arrest coincides with the start of closed door congressional hearings on the alleged “evidence” that North Korea is cooperating with Syria in setting up a nuclear facility, which reportedly will feature a video showing the North Koreans at work in Syria. You get just one guess as to which country is providing this “evidence.” Here’s a hint: it’s the same country whose intelligence agency sports this revealing motto: “By way of deception, thou shalt do war.”

A more credible explanation for that Israeli air strike over Syria is that the Israelis were practicing for a joint US-Israeli strike at Iran. The war drums have been beating loudly, in the White House, the neocon media, and amongst Israel’s amen corner in Congress, and the appointment of General Petraeus—America’s Caesar-in-waiting—as head of the Mideast command is just another indication that yet another war is on the horizon.

Leaking well is the best revenge—Speaking of the Israelis, it seems they’re always in the middle of things, and especially when it concerns the US. Having attached themselves to Washington like a leech, they’re drawing a lot of blood these days. This morning, we get news that the Israelis are revealing a secret pact between Bush and Tel Aviv that effectively scuttled the official US plan for an agreement with the Palestinians:

“A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president’s efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office.

“Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush’s letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush’s peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank. In an interview this week, Sharon’s chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed this understanding in a secret agreement reached between Israel and the United States in the spring of 2005, just before Israel withdrew from Gaza.”

This Washington Post story goes on to report that “U.S. officials say no such agreement exists, and in recent months Rice has publicly criticized even settlement expansion on the outskirts of Jerusalem, which Israel does not officially count as settlements,” but also points out that the Israelis have accelerated their settlement-building—and Washington has done nothing.

So why did the Israelis spill the beans? Looks like payback for the Kadish arrest—and whatever further arrests and indictments are on the way.

 

 

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