(Jerusalem Post) David Horovitz - The Israeli government Thursday issued a firm denial that it was recalling a diplomat linked to Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, who has been charged with illegally passing "top-secret" U.S. defense information to AIPAC officials. However the diplomat in question, Naor Gilon, is understood to be finishing his three-year stint in Washington shortly. Gilon, the minister-counselor for political affairs at the embassy, is known to have met with Franklin, a specialist in Iranian and Middle Eastern affairs, in the routine course of his duties. The fact that two longtime AIPAC officials to whom Franklin allegedly passed his classified information are not named in the affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint against Franklin, and the fact that it specifies that the exchange of information was "verbal" - no documents are alleged to have changed hands - is said to be a source of relief to the pair themselves and to AIPAC, which is not mentioned in the affidavit.
2005-05-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive