Pentagon official was cooperating with FBI on Israel spy inquiry
Israel-USA, Politics, 8/31/2004

The Pentagon official under suspicion of turning over classified information to Israel began cooperating with federal agents several weeks ago and was preparing to lead the authorities to contacts inside the Israeli government when the case became publicly known last week, according to government officials.

The disclosure of the inquiry late this week by CBS News revealed what had been for nearly a year a covert national security investigation conducted by the FBI, according to the officials who said that news reports about the inquiry had compromised important investigative steps, like the effort to follow the trail back to the Israelis.

As a result, several areas of the case remain murky, the officials said.

One main uncertainty is the legal status of Lawrence Franklin, the lower-level Pentagon policy directive related to Iran.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom tried Monday to contain the diplomatic damage caused by the new scandal of an Israeli mole in the US Department of Defence.

He asserted that Israel already receives all the classified information it needs from the US government through shared intelligence, reported Haaretz.

Shalom claimed the espionage affair was only a "made-nonsense" that has been taken out of all proportion.

Larry Franklin, a Pentagon analyst, is being investigated by the FBI on suspicion he passed classified information on Iran to Israel via the pro-Israel American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

Israeli officials confirmed Monday that a senior Israeli diplomat in Washington met several times with Franklin.

The Israeli diplomat was identified as Naor Gilon, head of the political department at Israel's embassy in Washington, and a specialist on unclear weapons proliferation.

Shalom did not mention Gilon by name, but when asked contacts between Gilon and Franklin did not deny they had place.

He claimed such meetings are commonplace and the tw governments routinely share secrets.

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