New Accusations Of Systemic Anti-Semitism At FBI

In the aftermath of the false charges of espionage against two AIPAC employees which were dropped for lack of evidence this past May, two of the people involved in the trial (one Jewish, one not) blamed systemic Anti-Semitism within the FBI for the charges. Now a new charge has arisen as a Jewish FBI agent is suing the agency saying he was fired because he was Jewish. The agent is bring up the charges made in the past, that the FBI sees a Jewish spy under every bed.

 In suing over his termination, the John Doe plaintiff says he believes the accusation came because he faxed unclassified documents to "colleagues at AIPAC," the  American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. He accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of allowing "ill-informed biases regarding the country of Israel and the loyalty of Jewish Americans to improperly and illegally color their personnel decisions."

I spoke to Bill Carter FBI Spokesman, who could not directly comment on a case presently in litigation but he said, "The FBI does not discriminate on the basis of religion or ethnic background."

The Plaintiff of the lawsuit, a former FBI intelligence specialist says he was wrongfully tied to the 2004 case in which two AIPAC employees, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, as well as  Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin were indicted on espionage charges.

In his complaint, Doe says he worked for the State Department as an analyst "assigned to primarily cover issues relating to Palestinian terrorism and the Jewish extremist account within the Bureau of Intelligence and Research" before joining the FBI's Counterterrorism Division in 2004.

He says the FBI began investigating him in regard to AIPAC in October 2005, then revoked his security clearance and placed him on administrative leave without pay. He says he was never told of what charges, if any, were filed against him, only that he was "under investigation for espionage."

Doe says he was subjected to a 15-hour interrogation and two polygraph exams. The results were never revealed to him.

In June 2008, nearly three years after learning of the investigation, Doe says the FBI handed him his walking papers after refusing to let him appeal the revocation of his security clearance.

Doe says the Bureau gave him a letter citing an executive order that bars an appeal "if the Deputy Attorney General or Attorney General personally certifies that damage to the national security interests of the United States would result from those procedures by revealing classified information."
That was the only reason he ever received for his firing, he says.

But he believes that during the 2004 FBI search of AIPAC offices, agents "retrieved unclassified FBIS [Foreign Broadcast Information Service] articles that [he] had faxed to colleagues at AIPAC, as well as at least one other unclassified document he had provided while an employee of the State Department." But he says, "These documents were directly related to matters on which John Doe worked as an Intelligence Research Specialist and his contacts with AIPAC officials were neither inappropriate nor outside the scope of his employment with the federal government.

He says his Jewish faith played a role in the investigation.

"In or around April 2006, John Doe filed a complaint with the DOJ Office of Inspector General and complained about the length of the investigation, the fact that he was being denied any procedural information or rights, and to allege that he was being targeted based on his Jewish religion," the lawsuit states.  (Source: Courthouse News Service)

Last May after the charges were dropped former AIPAC foreign policy chief Steve Rosen, predicted more false charges being brought against Jews.

"They have materials against other people at AIPAC," he continued. "They have material about people at other Jewish organizations. These guys are still there in the bureaucracy. They still believe that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America. They still believe that there are Jewish spies under every bed. And they may find another opportunity to bring another case against someone, and that's the problem."

He also said:

“One of the things that our case revealed is the very extreme views that are held by some in counterintelligence agencies of the CIA and FBI about Israel,” Rosen said. “They believe that the Mossad spied on the US on a huge scale and they believe that the Pollard case was the tip of some sort of iceberg. . . .

Larry Franklin the Irish Catholic defense department analyst who was pushed into pleading guilty in the AIPAC case also felt that anti-Semitism was behind the case:

"One agent said to me, 'How can an Irish Catholic from the Bronx get mixed up with all these ...,' and I finished the sentence for him: 'Jews?' And I proceeded to tell him that Christ and all the Apostles and even his mom were Jewish," Franklin said in the interview.

"So it was that sort of thing. And just sarcastic turns of the phrase from time to time. You know, I felt dirty sometimes," he said...

..."But that [anti-Semitism] dimension was part of this investigation and may have been an initial incitement of this investigation," he said.

During the AIPAC probe, Franklin said, FBI agents whom he declined to identify by name "asked me about every Jew I knew in [the office of the secretary of defense]. There was an element of that."

The AIPAC probe is not the time in the recent past where the FBI has been accused of targeting Jews because of a false belief of dual loyalty. Just four months ago, in October headlines blared "Man Arrested Attempting to Spy For Israel." The small print continued to explain that Israel was no way involved in the sting.  The FBI has long believed the accused spy Stewart David Nozette,was up to no good so it created this sting to nab him. Because the FBI has a strong belief that American Jews have a dual loyalty between Israel and the US, the chose to build the sting around Israel. The evidence showed that Nozette did not grab the bait because of any love toward the Jewish State, but because of his love of cold hard cash. These cases involving FBI stings aimed at Jews and Israel raises questions about the agency's bias.

“What I find troubling and perplexing is that our government seems only interested in investigating people who are connected to Israel,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

“It plays into the hands of those who say Jews or those connected to Israel are disloyal.” Foxman said he doesn’t see similar attention being paid to “commercial espionage” by individuals working for Chinese, Russian, French or other concerns.

The Justice Department, another analyst said, is “always looking for the ‘next Pollard’” — a reference to Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for spying for Israel.

Unlike in the Pollard case, the Nozette case does not involve allegations of Israeli government involvement. Source

While Mr. Carter of the FBI honestly believes his statement about the lack of discrimination within its ranks, but based on the evidence of the past seven months, perhaps an investigation is warranted.

The court filing of the new wrongful termination lawsuit follows: