De Pro Israel Lobby 119

Mohamed Khodr - AIPAC is not above the law.

Posted: 23 Apr 2009 12:10 AM PDT

Sir;

A story in today's Washington Post (April 22, 2009) suggests DOJ may drop its espionage case against AIPAC. I find this incredulous, outrageous, and a blatant application of double standards. The timing of this story after the revelation that Rep. Jane Harman was recorded speaking to an "agent" regarding a quid pro quo interference in this case in exchange for AIPAC's support to become Chairwoman of the House's Intel Committee is certainly troubling and smells of a deal to prevent further embarrassing revelations. This may explain why Rep. Nancy Pelosi blocked her chairmanship of the committee.

In the AIPAC espionage case the deliverer of the espionage material, Larry Franklin was found guilty and sentenced to twelve years, but the recipients of this material, two ex AIPAC employees may have their cases dropped. This maybe unconformable to fathom but it seems that when dealing with potential allegations of impropriety or investigations of Israel, AIPAC, or government officials involved with these entities our government seems to bury the story, our media ignores it, until the story dies under the power and influence of political and media lobbying of its own lobbying volition.

In unprecedented fashion, the Washington Post in its zeal to defend all things Israel even wrote an editorial on March 11, 2009 entitled; "Time to Call It Quits: The Justice Department should drop its misguided prosecution of two former AIPAC officials".

With twisted logic the editorial says: "The government has the right to demand strict confidentiality from government officials and others who swear to protect its secrets….The Justice Department errs egregiously and risks profound damage to the First Amendment, however, when it insists that private citizens — academics, journalists, think tank analysts, lobbyists and the like — also are legally bound to keep the nation's secrets. The prosecution in effect criminalizes the exchange of information."

Is the DOJ responding to such political and media influence?

Defense Lawyers for the two AIPAC suspects have successfully postponed the trial nine times thereby frustrating the prosecutors. The main strategy for the defense lawyers seems to be that the disclosure of such classified information is not illegal but is of the kind usually obtained by AIPAC freely from governmental officials given the "special relationship" we have with Israel. Sir, if such free flow of information exists, it is a national security nightmare.

That the AIPAC espionage case deals with sensitive information on Iran one can't help but come to the conclusion that dropping this case will further Israel's powerful pressure on the U.S. for an attack on Iran, something the Pentagon and JCS have publicly stated would be a disaster for this nation. However we did follow Israel's push into Iraq, will we do the same with Iran.

This is a travesty of our system. Muslims and their organizations are being hounded daily by the FBI and the Treasury Department's Stuart Levey, Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, for the slimmest of reasons under the Israeli inspired guise of "war on terror"; but it seems that Israel and its lobbyists are above our national laws, as they've been above international laws for decades even when it comes to murdering our citizens, USS LIBERTY AND RACHEL CORRIE, or spying on our national and industrial security apparatus. Israel kills with our tax dollars and our weapons yet we refuse to hold it accountable to our Arms Export Act which prohibits use of our weapons in offensive operations, especially their decades' long use against helpless Palestinian civilians.

David Ignatius, in a column in the Washington Post (A Tax Break Fuels Middle East Friction, March 26), highlighted the hypocrisy and double standards of our government's inaction against Jewish American organizations that illegally raise funds, tax exempt, to build illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

He wrote: "For many years, the United States has had a policy against spending aid money to fund Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which successive administrations have regarded as an obstacle to peace. Yet private organizations in the United States continue to raise tax-exempt contributions for the very activities that the government opposes."

General Holder, it seems there are two legal systems in our country. One for Israel and its supporters and one for Gentiles, like Muslims, fearful of even sending money to the most desperate Muslims back home.

I pledged my allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to obey and uphold its laws; yet simply because my name is Mohamed, I have an FBI file; but for Israel's Lobbyists our laws and legal system are ignored, lest there be a political media backlash.

Dr. Sami Al Aryani has been held for years without any specific charges simply because he's a Palestinian who opposes Israel's brutal and illegal occupation; but AIPAC employees can spy on our nation and may walk away. He deserves his day in court or to be freed.

Sir, I strongly urge you to pursue the case against AIPAC and consider requiring it to register as an agent of a foreign government, something it has eluded successfully with help from powerful friends in Congress and the Supreme Court.

No one is above our laws, no one, not even Israel. Please don't surrender our justice system to lobbyists. It's enough that our Congress is beholden to AIPAC and not our national interests.

Thus far, Justice is not blind in our nation, it's simply Kosher.

Respectfully

Mohamed Khodr

P.S. I refer you to the website below, especially to the comment included from a person who claims to have been the initial person to notify officials on this case.

Lees verder: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/community/groups/index.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3Aa70e3396-6663-4a8d-ba19-e44939d3c44fForum%3Aff69aa89-8e4e-40d1-bb35-f6d467b1e068Discussion%3A6ff299b7-a885-4253-9cbb-622e3aa43eb2