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The Mobsters who Funded AIPAC

Disclosure forms and subpoenaed documents filed by AIPAC and its predecessor organizations (the AZC and AZCPA) reveal organized crime figures such as "Jake the Barber," "Meyer Lansky's right-hand-man" Aaron Weisberg, arms smuggler associate Zimel Resnick, and Israeli nuclear bomb funding coordinator Abraham Feinberg all provided critical and timely start-up funding to AIPAC as it morphed through shell corporations. 

Alleged Spy Nozette stung by the FBI

The FBI arrested Stewart Nozette on October 19, 2009 and charged him with attempted espionage.  Case files reveal Nozette's close relationship with Israeli Aerospace Industries, impersonation of a colleague's email account to gain access to classified information and transport of USB thumb drives overseas.
 

GAO Finds Investigations of Israeli Weapons Grade Uranium Diversions "Inadequate"

In 1977 chair of the House of Representatives subcommittee on Energy and Power John D. Dingell requested an investigation to determine whether weapons grade uranium had been illegally diverted from the US into a clandestine Israeli nuclear weapons program.

In the early 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) began documenting suspicious lapses in security at the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) in Pennsylvania. In 1965 an Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) audit found that NUMEC could no longer account for 220 pounds of highly enriched uranium. The amount of missing uranium could “make at least four or five nuclear weapons” according to the report. In 1966 the FBI opened an investigation code-named DIVERT and began monitoring NUMEC’s management and large numbers of Israeli visitors. On Sept. 10, 1968, four Israelis visited NUMEC’s president to "discuss thermoelectric devices with [Zalman] Shapiro," according to correspondence from NUMEC’s security manager seeking official AEC consent for an Israeli visit. Among the approved visitors was Rafael Eitan. After Eitan’s visit, 587 pounds of highly enriched uranium was classified as missing.

The GAO investigation was chartered to discover whether:

1. “The material was illegally diverted to Israel by NUMEC management for use in nuclear weapons.”

2. “The material was diverted to Israel by NUMEC management with the assistance of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).”

3. “The material was diverted to Israel with the acquiescence of the United States Government.”

4. GAO inquired whether “there has been a cover-up of the NUMEC incident by the United States Government.” Report

FBI Investigates the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for espionage and theft of government property.

AIPAC Employee Indicted for Espionage Sues Former Employer

April 8, 2009

On March 2, 2009 former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) foreign policy chief Steve Rosen filed a civil lawsuit in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Rosen accuses his former employer, directors, and outside public relations firm of libel and slander.

In August 2005, Steve Rosen, fellow AIPAC employee Keith Weissman, and the Pentagon’s Col. Lawrence Franklin were indicted under the Espionage Act for allegedly trafficking classified U.S. national defense information in the interest of provoking a stronger U.S. posture toward Israel’s arch nemesis, Iran.

The Rosen lawsuit, published here for the first time on the Internet, provides key insights into AIPAC's acquisition and handling of classified US national defense information.

Israeli Nukes, US Foreign Aid and the Symington Amendment

March 31, 2009

In 2008 the US Army and former president Jimmy Carter both confirmed what the world has long suspected: The State of Israel has secretly financed, built and deployed an arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The Congress and US presidents have long operated under a policy of "strategic ambiguity", publicly denying the existence of nuclear weapons.  But can this policy hold, in light of new evidence?   

The Jewish Agency and US Foreign Agents

New! January 29, 2009

After years of Senate and law enforcement investigations the Department of Justice ordered the Jewish Agency to file its secret 1953 Covenant Agreement with the Israeli government in 1969.  The Covenant agreement reveals the Jewish Agency's ongoing receipt of Israeli government funds for operations and powers such as executive review of legislative matters before they go to the Knesset. The Jewish Agency New York office, like AIPAC's predecessor the AZC, quickly shut down only to reorganize under a new US shell corporation in 1971.   

In 2009 the Jewish Agency foreign agent question again looms large as Dennis Ross attempts to secure a critical position as US envoy to Iran.
 

AIPAC Founder's Newly Declassified Foreign Agent File Reveals Shift to Stealth Lobbying

November 24, 2008

Six decades ago Americans working as registered Israeli foreign agents launched New York, Washington and Los Angeles "Israel Office of Information (IOI)" branches. Newly declassified records document IOI actions that forever changed foreign government lobbying on Capitol Hill as IOI director Isaiah L. Kenen shifted Israel lobbying away from FARA oversight into stealth foreign lobbying from the American Zionist Council.

October 27, 2008

Secret DOJ Battle with AIPAC's Parent Organization

Presenting the internal file archive of the 1962-1965 DOJ attempt to register the American Zionist Council as agents of a foreign government.  The chronology provides perspective about how delays, leadership changes, and lobby requests for secrecy resulted in America's first nonpublic Foreign Agents Registration Act declaration: declassified in June of 2008. 

October 17, 2008

Israel Lobby's Secret US Public Relations Plan

In the early 1960's, Israel funneled more than $5 million into US propaganda and lobbying operations.  The funding, equivalent to more than $35 million in today's dollars, was laundered from the quasi governmental Jewish Agency into an Israel lobby umbrella group, the American Zionist Council.  The two page master plan was subpoenaed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and entered into hearing records on the activities of foreign agents in the United States.

August 1, 2007

AIPAC Directs Political Action Committee Candidate Donations

In 1988, internal memos reveal AIPAC directing Political Action Committee donations to preferred candidates in violation of its tax-exempt nonprofit status.

Print Publication

AIPAC's Battle with the DOJ - DECLASSIFIED

Documents the transition of a public relations employee of the Israeli Foreign Ministry to founder of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC.  Provides analysis and all key documents of how the DOJ ordered the American Zionist Council to register as Israel's foreign agent in 1962, and the subsequent transfer of AZC operations to AIPAC.

Title Page, Table of Contents, Exhibits

Declassified Senate Investigation Files Reveal Clandestine Israeli PR Campaign in America

Declassified files from a Senate investigation into Israeli-funded covert public relations and lobbying activity in the United States were released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on July 23rd, 2010.  The subpoenaed documents reveal Israel's clandestine programs for "cultivation of editors," the "stimulation and placement of suitable articles in the major consumer magazines" as well as U.S. reporting about sensitive subjects such as the Dimona nuclear weapons facility.

Senator Pressures NRC to Clear NUMEC President of Illegal Uranium Diversions to Israel

The office of Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania attempted to obtain a statement from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission according to documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act. On August 27, 2009, Arlen Specter wrote to Rebecca Schmidt asking that the NRC "issue a formal public statement confirming that he [constituent Zalman Shapiro] was not involved in any activities related to the diversion of uranium to Israel."

AIPAC Incorporates while Parent Under DOJ Order to Register as a Foreign Agent

AIPAC is incorporated 6 weeks after its parent organization, the American Zionist Council, is ordered to register as a foreign agent of the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency.  AIPAC then applies for—and receives—a backdated federal exemption from taxes from the US Treasury Department.

Print Publication

Spy Trade: How Israel's Lobby Undermines America's Economy

Israel and its American lobby have committed audacious but generally unknown crimes against the United States. Government secrecy across the CIA, FBI, Department of Justice and Pentagon long kept files about Israeli espionage, weapons smuggling and covert operations on American soil classified...until now   Spy Trade is much more than a groundbreaking dissection of the tactics Israel and its American lobby repeatedly use to evade justice. The book also provides stunningly simple strategies for ending criminal immunity and subversion of law enforcement that may someday restore American governance.

Prosecution Seeks Dismissal of Rosen and Weissman

May 1, 2009

Citing the "unexpectedly higher evidentiary threshold in order to prevail at trial" the prosecution asks ruling judge T.S. Ellis to drop the Espionage Act prosecution of Keith Weissman and Steve Rosen. 

AIPAC, Espionage and the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement

February 23, 2009

In 1983 the Israeli Prime Minister and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbied the Reagan administration for preferential access to the US market.  The US Trade Representative (USTR) commissioned the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to conduct an investigation to advise the President about the probable economic effect of providing duty free entry of Israeli imports on January 31, 1984.

The ITC compiled "business confidential" information and intellectual property solicited from US corporations and industry associations into a classified report for the negotiations.  But on August 3, 1984 the Washington Post broke the news that the FBI was investigating how AIPAC obtained one of the fifteen numbered and tightly controlled copies of the classified report.  The ITC later confirmed it was also obtained by the Israeli government. Since the agreement was signed in 1985, US trade with Israel shifted from surplus to a cumulative $71 billion deficit (adjusted for inflation).  The 2008 $7.8 billion deficit with Israel was equivalent to 126,000 US manufacturing related jobs.  It is the only bilateral FTA producing multi-billion dollar deficits to the US every year for the last decade but total losses are still unknown. 

DOJ and Treasury Refuse to Investigate $60 Billion US-Israel Money Laundering Ring

December 22, 2008

Almost four years have passed since former prosecutor Talia Sasson released an Israeli government commissioned report detailing a massive money laundering scheme to finance and build illegal settlements in the West Bank.   

But leadership of the US Treasury Department and Department of Justice have refused to show investigatory interest in publicly substantiated money laundering that originates in the US while actively blocking FOIA requests into agency regulatory activity.

November 12, 2008

Cartoons about Arabs and Islam from AIPAC's "Near East Report"

Presenting cartoons appearing in Isaiah Kenen's "Near East Report" newsletter, financed by the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem.

October 17, 2008
AIPAC Founder Ordered to Re-register as a Foreign Agent

DOJ asks AIPAC founder Isaiah L. Kenen to re-register as a foreign agent of the Israeli government if he leaves the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs  - Declassified and released under FOIA on March 13, 2008.

September 1, 2007

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Investigates Israel's Foreign Agents

In 1962 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigated the Jewish Agency and the American Zionist Council.  Their funding flows from Israel as well as lobbying and public relations campaigns in the United States were explored during sworn testimony on May 23, and August 1, 1963.

August 20, 2008

DOJ Orders Israel Lobby Umbrella Group to Register as a Foreign Agent

In 1962 the US Department of Justice ordered the American Zionist Council to register as a foreign agent.  This umbrella organization to Hadassah and the Zionist Organization of America was receiving laundered funds from the Jewish Agency for public relations and lobbying in the United States.