by BannedfromDU » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:53 pm
<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A Beautiful Friendship?<br>In search of the truth about the Israel lobby's influence on Washington</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>By Glenn Frankel<br>Sunday, July 16, 2006; Page W13<br>Washington Post -<br><br>A Beautiful Friendship?<br>In search of the truth about the Israel lobby's influence on Washington<br><br>...AIPAC in recent years has parted with some of the staff members who gave it a harder edge, foremost among them Steve Rosen, its former director of foreign policy issues. Rosen and a fellow staff member, Keith Weissman, were fired last year after they were indicted under the 1917 Espionage Act for allegedly receiving classified information about administration strategy on Iran from Lawrence Franklin, the Pentagon's Iran desk officer. Their trial is scheduled for later this summer.<br><br>...There's nothing to hide. AIPAC's size, strength and agenda are all public information, much of it displayed on its Web site: the staff of 200 lobbyists, researchers and organizers; the $47 million annual budget; the 100,000 grass-roots members, almost double the number of five years ago; and the recruitment drive on 300 college campuses.<br><br>...IT'S A TUESDAY IN EARLY MARCH, and there are 5,000 people jammed at dining tables in the Washington Convention Center for AIPAC's annual gathering, including more than 50 senators and 100 House members and dozens of administration officials. Vice President Cheney gives a keynote address, as does John Bolton, the administration's fire-breathing ambassador to the United Nations. The Israeli election is coming up in a few days, and the leaders of the three major parties all appear via satellite hookup, including Ehud Olmert, who begins with a politician's prayer of thanksgiving: "Thank God we have you; thank God we have AIPAC."<br><br>FULL-<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201627.html">www.washingtonpost.com/wp...01627.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=bannedfromdu>BannedfromDU</A> at: 7/26/06 10:54 am<br></i>