Inside scoop on the Rumsfeld/Feith/Israel spy scandal

The Agonist | thoughtful, global, timely

For months, I have been working with my colleagues Paul Glastris and Josh Marshall on a story for the Washington Monthly about US policy towards Iran. In particular, it involves a particular series of meetings involving officials from the office of the undersecretary of defense for Policy Doug Feith and Iranian dissidents. To that end, we have pursued and cultivated numerous sources with knowledge of those officials, those meetings, and more broadly, Feith's office's seeming attempts to forge a rogue US foreign policy to Iran out of the Pentagon.

As part of our reporting, I have come into possession of information that points to an official who is the most likely target of the FBI investigation into who allegedly passed intelligence on deliberations on US foreign policy to Iran to officials with the pro-Israeli lobby group, AIPAC, and to the Israelis, as alleged by the CBS report. That individual is Larry Franklin, a veteran DIA Iran analyst seconded to Feith's office.

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First, this is an amazing story. The reason it's so interesting is because Feith/Wolfowitz/Rumsfeld led a rogue intelligence op prior to the Iraq invasion. Lately, they've seemed to be doing the same with respect to Iran.

Now we discover that one of the actors deeply involved in that effort may be spy for Israel. (Or a double-triple-quardruple agent -- or nothing -- these spy guys seem to love bizarre games.)

I wonder how this will play in the middle east. Probably pretty much what they'd expect.

In terms of Israel, they're just doing their job. Congratulations are deserved. The Israelis and Iranians are two of the best intel orgs in the business. Maybe we could outsource our Intel to Israel and Iran.

Hmmm.

On second thought, maybe we did outsource our decision making to Israel and Iran. Both Israel and Iran wanted the US to conquer Iraq -- each for their own reasons. Both appear to have substantially penetrated the Pentagon and Rumsfeld's organization; Iran via Chalabi and, if one believes the FBI, Israel via ? Franklin.

Rumsfeld shouldn't resign. He should remain in office forever, as a living reminder of the risks of arrogance, ignorance, and the perils of a Bush presidency.