(Washington Times) Eli Lake - FBI agents thought they were hunting a spy for Israel in 2004 when they sought to raid the offices of a top lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by The Washington Times. The document provides an extraordinary look at a five-year counterintelligence probe of Steven J. Rosen, then-director of foreign-policy issues for AIPAC. However, Rosen, who pioneered AIPAC's practice of lobbying the executive branch in the early 1980s, was never charged with being a spy. Oliver "Buck" Revell, a former associate director of the FBI who oversaw counterintelligence investigations at the bureau, said the U.S. government had a "rather vigorous discussion with the Israelis" after the arrest of Jonathan Pollard. He said he considers the Pollard affair to be a "one-off" event and not part of a pattern of Israelis recruiting Americans. He also said there were no ties that turned up connecting Pollard to pro-Israel groups such as AIPAC. "We do not consider the Israelis a national security threat to the United States," Revell said.
2011-01-20 11:07:21Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive