Don't Forget About the "Othergate"

In the bow wave of the Fitzgerald Plame/Rove/Niger/Traitorgate investigation, the FBI's investigation of the pro Israel lobbying group AIPAC has fallen off the radarscope. An article from last summer at The Nation reminds me that Judith Miller and other key Fitz case luminaries are also likely involved in that controversy too.

The AIPAC affair involved classified Middle East policy information leaked to someone in AIPAC that eventually wound up with Israeli intelligence. The grand jury investigation led to the indictment last June of Larry Franklin, a Pentagon Iraq desk officer on charges of conspiracy to disclose classified national defense information to unauthorized recipients.

More charges are expected from the AIPAC investigation. Justin Raimando wrote a pretty good piece last Thursday describing how the AIPAC and Fitzgerald investigations intersect.

Amid all the speculation about who outed Plame, and who was in a position to know what she was up to, it is odd that no one has mentioned the possibility of a foreign intelligence agency being involved. Yet this would explain the nature of the conspiracy that Fitzgerald is said to be pursuing, going far beyond a possible violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act – and crossing the line into espionage.

In another article, Justin suggests that Fitz is sharing evidence on the Niger yellowcake forgeries with AIPAC prosecutor Paul McNulty.

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I have no way of knowing how reliable Justin's sources are, but my instincts tell me Justin's conclusions are on target.

So keep in mind that whatever Fitz comes out with next week, there's more to come from a different direction.

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Have a great weekend.