Earlier this week, I was cited at Justin Raimondo's Anti-War blog for my conclusion that the identity of the "Israeli intelligence agent" in the Harman-AIPAC case is Naor Gilon*, former Mossad Chief of Station in Washington, the figure referenced in the Larry Franklin indictment.
It’s been a busy week, and I am only now following up on this story. There have been inquiries about how I reached this conclusion. Thought that question is a very good one, and it deserves a careful response.
MORE below . . .
Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam reached the same conclusion about Gilon and Harman.
Actually, there is a third blogger out there, emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler), who (if I'm reading her correctly) identified Rep. Harman’s interlocutor as Mr. Gilon. mcjoan read it that way. See for yourself:
Emptywheel » Jane Harman: Stupid and Reckless, Not the Victim of ... By: emptywheel Monday April 20, 2009 6:40 am ... And it has been reported that the original focus of the investigation was Naor Gilon, an Israeli widely ... http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/...
Naor Gilon’s professional identity in Washington has long been an open secret, as is usually the case with heads of station here. When the Franklin-OSP-AIPAC case first broke in May 2005, I did some research on FO-3 and concluded, after theFranklin indictment was published, that it was, indeed, Gilon. As far as I know, I was the first to do so in the Franklin case. There were a couple other FOs in the indictment, and they have been identified by others as Israeli military intelligence officers.
http://info.jpost.com/...
Uzi Arad - "retired" Mossad chief
Another Israeli intelligence figure whose name has emerged in the Franklin-AIPAC case is Uzi Arad, who also left the U.S. shortly after the FBI investigation was leaked. Arad's visa was revoked, and efforts to get him back into the U.S. were recently successful after Arad, who has been appointed head of PM Netanyahu's national security council, met earlier this month with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. http://intelligencenews.wordpress.co... http://www.haaretz.com/...
It may be significant that Haaretz reported that Gilon was actually able to return in late November or early December, 2005, which places him in Washington proximate to the time that the reported tap at the Embassy caught Harman speaking with the alleged "Israeli intelligence agent." Note that I allowed for that possibility in my original diary, but this raises yet another question. I am now perplexed why Gilon should have been let back in while Arad was still on the State Dept. watch list? My immediate gut reaction is that the FBI wanted to get more on Gilon’s American contacts, so he was lured back. Looks like Harman walked right into the middle of that spider web.
My conclusion that Gilon was Franklin’s contact at the Embassy is backed up by multiple major media sources, beginning with CBS on August 27, 2004.
Judy Miller also appears to have had a relationship with Gilon, and she appears to be the female figure referenced in the Frankin indictment as sharing an interest in Israeli antiquities with FO-3. Indeed, Miller and Gilon are both involved with a museum foundation in Jerusalem.
This story just gets more and more pungent as time goes on.
All for now.
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*P.S. - Philip Giraldi reaches a similar conclusion. He posits there was a "cut-out" between Harman and Mossad in the communication the FBI intercepted. Giraldi, a retired CIA Counter-terrorism specialist, writes, "The Israeli citizen appears to have been on the receiving end of an FBI wiretap because he was an associate of a known Israeli intelligence officer based in Israel’s Washington embassy, possibly station chief Naor Gilon, who was responsible for running influence operations in the United States, or Uzi Arad."