Israel denies activating US defense expert to pass classified data

A senior Israeli official said on Thursday that Israel did not activate a US Defense Department employee to pass classified information to Israel, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported on its online edition.

The US defense analyst Lawrence A. Franklin, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for passing classified information to Israel, admitted discussing with an Israeli embassy official and two members of an Israeli lobbying group top secret data, including details about potential attacks on US troops in Iraq.

Israeli Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Yuval Steinitz said on Thursday that Israel had not known about Franklin 's actions.

"I say very clearly that Israel is not spying in the United States or against the United States," Steinitz told Israeli Army Radio. "The conviction doesn't accuse Israel of activating Franklin."

Steinitz said he had just returned from "very friendly" meetings with senior defense officials in the United States, including a deputy to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The case did not come up in the meetings, Steinitz said.

Franklin, 58, has pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and a charge of unlawful retention of national defense information.

US District Judge T.S. Ellis III set sentencing for Franlin's case for Jan. 20.

Franklin, who was one of the Pentagon's policy experts on Iran and the Middle East, was indicted in June on five charges.

The two American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) officials who allegedly received the information also have been charged with conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US defense information.

Franklin also admitted giving classified information to a political official at the Israeli embassy, but said the information he received from the official was far more valuable than what he gave.

Over the past two years, the FBI has focused on whether Franklin passed classified US material on Iran and other matters to AIPAC, and whether the group, in turn, passed it on to Israel. Both AIPAC and Israel deny any wrongdoing.

Source: Xinhua