News, February 2012

IRMEP, Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, February 6, 2012
 

Washington-- A brief filed in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on January 13 claims the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a foreign agent of the Israeli government with no legitimate charitable purpose.  The brief and other filings may be viewed online at: http://www.IRmep.org/ila/rosen
 
The brief was filed in response to AIPAC's court claims that it had been "cleared of wrongdoing" after secretly receiving stolen classified US industry information from an Israeli embassy official in 1984.  AIPAC used the still-classified confidential business information to obtain trade preferences now worth nearly $10 billion per year.
 
The brief, filed by IRmep Director Grant F. Smith, claims there is growing public interest in AIPAC's clandestine operations.  The current case before the DC Appeals Court seeks a ruling on whether former executive Steven J. Rosen may proceed to trial against AIPAC and its board of directors.  Rosen claims it was defamatory for AIPAC to tell the New York Times his activities "did not comport with standards that AIPAC expects of its employees." In 2004 Rosen and fellow employee Keith Weissman were wiretapped telling a Washington Post reporter Iran was waging "total war" against the US.  The pair channeled classified national defense information to bolster their credibility.  The two were fired and later indicted under the Espionage Act.  Shortly before the Obama administration dropped the espionage charges in 2009, Rosen sued AIPAC and its board for $20 million.
 
During his 2010-2011 defamation lawsuit Rosen filed evidence in Superior Court that AIPAC officials routinely trafficked in classified information such as national security directives, overseas intelligence about Israel's rivals and annual reports of secret U.S. arms sales. Rosen's lengthiest filing examined why AIPAC secretly obtained a 300 page classified U.S. government document from Israeli Minister of Economics Dan Halpern titled "Probable Economic Effect of Providing Duty-Free Treatment for Imports from Israel."  AIPAC characterized these incidents as "ancient" and occurring when it was a "different organization" in its 2011 court filings.
 
According to ongoing IRmep Center for Policy and Law Enforcement filings with the Department of Justice, such clandestine activities provide documentary evidence AIPAC operates as a stealth foreign agent of the Israeli government.  IRmep has also challenged AIPAC's tax exempt status by substantiating to the IRS that such activities fall far outside any IRS recognizable "charitable purpose."
 
News release:
 
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dc-appeals-court-brief-claims-aipac-is-an-israeli-foreign-agent-in-violation-of-irs-regulations---irmep-137565008.html
 
Israel Lobby Archive:  http://irmep.org/ILA/rosen  (IRmep brief and exhibits marked "new").
 
Analysis: http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2012/01/10/aipac-tries-to-bamboozle-dc-appeals-court/

http://news.yahoo.com/dc-appeals-court-brief-claims-aipac-israeli-foreign-145609638.html

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