Traitors In Pajamas

Here's a tale of treason, illegal leaks and lobbyists that you won't read at Depends Media.

Why? Because the spittle-flecked powers that be Depends Media don't honestly give a shit about national security, terrorism or the rule of law.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 - A federal judge sentenced a former Defense Department analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, to more than 12 years in prison today after Mr. Franklin admitted passing classified military information to two pro-Israel lobbyists and an Israeli diplomat....

Before his sentencing, Mr. Franklin pleaded guilty to three felony counts for improperly retaining and disclosing classified information in exchange for his cooperation and the government's willingness to drop three other charges against him. He will not have to begin serving his sentence until after the completion of legal proceedings against Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman, who are scheduled to go on trial in April. That could lead prosecutors to agree to seek a reduction in Mr. Franklin's sentence, government official said.

Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman were charged in an indictment in August 2005 with conspiring to gather and disclose classified national security information to journalists and an unnamed foreign power that government officials identified as Israel. Aipac dismissed the two men in April 2005.

The indictment said the two men had disclosed classified information about a number of subjects, including American policy in Iran, terrorism in central Asia, Al Qaeda and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment in Saudi Arabia, which killed 23 Americans, mainly members of the military.

....

Mr. Franklin worked at the Pentagon for a time under Douglas Feith, a former undersecretary at the agency. Mr. Franklin has said he developed a relationship with the two lobbyists in the belief that they had access to officials a the National Security Council and could communicate his views to senior officials there.

In addition to his meetings with the lobbyists, the government charged, Mr. Franklin also met with an Israeli embassy official and passed on secret military information about weapons tests in the Middle East and military activities in Iraq.

Tristam Shandy reminds us how the apologists in pajamas assured us that Franklin was a victim of a runaway prosecution. Here's Roger el-Simon, some fifteen months ago, slandering the team that brought a criminal to justice:

Franklin is evidently suspected of passing informaton on US deliberations about Iran to the Israelis. That's a bad thing, if true, although I would be surprised if the content of these pages differs radically from what you read on op-ed pages or Iran centered blogs. And making the case public before bringing the case to a conclusion seems almost to be an admission of failure on the part of the FBI. What appears to be going on is more of a political struggle than genuine information protection.

Hey, Rog. It's true! It's true!

We await your half-hearted, feeble condemnation of Franklin. If you can manage to write about Cyril Wecht taking the forceps home for the weekend, you could at least give us a peep on crimes against the nation.

And then there's Brother Ledeen (as el-Simon calls him), a dear, dear pal of Franklin. In a textbook case of projection, Ledeen claimed that the FBI's investigation of Franklin was either "incompetence or McCarthyism. In either case, it's disgusting."

I'm sure our neo-clown friend is at FBI H.Q. right now, begging for forgiveness.

I'll keep my eye on the Depends site, waiting for updates. But I expect Rog and Mikey won't be commenting any time soon.