Grant Smith of IRMEP reports:
Steven J. Rosen’s defamation suit against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) had its first appearance at 9:30 AM on June 5 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Rosen and fellow employee Keith Weissman were criminally indicted under the 1917 Espionage Act in 2005 for allegedly obtaining classified US national defense information. The US Department of Justice dropped the espionage case in May of 2009, citing adverse pretrial rulings by presiding Judge T.S. Ellis. Rosen filed the civil lawsuit in March of 2009 alleging his former employer both libeled and slandered him in the news media.
AIPAC fired Rosen and Weissman in 2005. AIPAC’s spokesman told the New York Times in April of 2005 that Rosen’s actions differed from “the conduct that AIPAC expects from its employees.” On July 7, 2005 the spokesperson told the New Yorker that “Rosen [and his colleagues] were dismissed because they engaged in conduct that was not part of their jobs and because this conduct did not comport with the standards that AIPAC expects and requires of its employees.” Rosen’s lawsuit seeks $21 million in damages for such statements that were “knowingly false and defamatory and issued in reckless disregard for the harm to Mr. Rosen.”
Shortly before Friday’s hearing commenced, Rosen’s legal counsel David H. Shapiro gruffly advised AIPAC’s attorney Thomas L. McCally that he would be seeking “serious discovery” on Rosen’s behalf. McCally took it in stride, agreeing to work productively and only “fight about” core issues. McCally, a veteran of employee/employer litigation, had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on May 13, 2009. He asserted that Rosen failed to show how “factual allegations” could be considered in any way defamatory. McCally also took Rosen to task for filing his suit outside the one-year statute of limitations for defamation as well as suing AIPAC board members. Persons serving as voluntary nonprofit board members in the District of Columbia are immune from civil liability except in the case of “willful misconduct.”
Though Shapiro seemed eager to move to trial, presiding judge Jeanette J. Clark ordered a preliminary “Track 3 Mediation” process. Clark set a deadline for discovery by December 2, 2009. The first round of mediation attempts is due in February of 2010, the second in March. During the hearing, Shapiro verbally moved to dismiss Rosen’s complaint against AIPAC’s outside public relations firm, which the judge granted. It is unknown whether Rational, PR L.C. has now agreed to work with the plaintiff. Shapiro has until August 8 to reply to AIPAC’s motion to dismiss.
Observers of this vestigial legacy of the AIPAC criminal trial may hope that Rosen’s attempts at securing “major discovery” will shed additional light on AIPAC’s internal operations. Whether or not Rosen’s filing is several years too late to prevail, the many details contained in Rosen’s legal complaint about how AIPAC obtains and circulates classified information is of high public interest.
I can only hope that they don't settle, this is a huge bucket of worms as they say. Someone put a quote of G Washington in a comment on Tom Friedman's delusional post today. It seems appropriate: " A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification." ~George Washington Farewell Address
AIPAC will buy these people off. Don't air dirty laundry in front of the goys. It's irrelevant that 98% of the USA is goy, and that the real issue is how USA foreign policy is made, maintained, and how it affects USA prestige and security in the world. Can you imagine a reverse AIPAC in Israel? Of course not. What's good for the goy goose, is not good for the Likud nik gander.
Next headline will be that they settled out of court.
The USA is under the rule of law. The judiciary has dismissed the criminal case against the former AIPAC top members. The timing is not relevant. The civil suit now in progress will be decided according to the rule of law. Let's keep a far and balanced POV if we are serious about the issues. A settlement out of court will be normal, a good thing for all of us Americans.
far=fair Me & my son, Americans first.
That was a decent impression attempt, but it would be much closer to the mark if you could manage to add a few more paragraphs without saying anything else aside from possibly throwing in some misdirection.
Federal Bureau of Prisons, Inmate Locator http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html Another lose end is the absence of Larry Franklin from a federal prison cell three years and four months after pleading guilty to two counts of the AIPAC spy case indictment. Count 1: Conspiracy to communicate national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, 18 USC 793(d), (e), and (g) Count 5: Conspiracy to communicate classified information to agent of foreign government, 50 USC 783, 18 USC 371 Superseding Indictment, August 4, 2005 http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html USA v. Franklin: Plea Agreement, October 5, 2005 http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html United States Code: Main Page http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html
last count there are 437,000 members of aipac about several years ago, they need to be jailed along with the usa administration for the crimes against humanity of the Palestinians, IF this netanyahoo plan goes through it will be better for the Plaestinians because then the real stageshow will begin and the genocidal occupation will be put to rest and literally wiped off the map and existance, then we can sit back and watvh the show in the usa where the administrations of past and present are hung for their part in the genocide of the past 55+ years, then churches with the brainwashed evangelical patsys bring it all down and start from scratch even if it means living like in the past, the infiltration of the zews movement throughout the races will need be delt with, question is should they be jailed or executed.
The federal reserve and all industries & (media people like wolf blitzer) with controls held by these corporate genocidal supporters needs dealing with too, they have been doing what they do best….robbery, murder, and brainwashing the masses with BS, they have all passed up any oportunity to live among the civilizations that they have so much contempt for. Hate no more would be better for all concerned.
crazy talk
more crazy talk
Typical talk for this website. Grant Smith is a joke. He got everything exactly wrong on the Aipac case. You might as well quote that moron Richard Silverstein or Martillo.
Citizen is right! It's a shakedown. I think what has Rosen's knickers in a twist is that while AIPAC cut him loose for the "greater good" they raised tens of millions for Rosen's "defense." Then they left him twisting in the wind and kept the contributions. He wants a taste of it. The terms of the settlement won't be disclosed, but Rosen is probably looking at $10 to $15 million.
How do we know this isn't thedhimmi spooging out some false flag operation here to suggest that it's "typical talk" for the website? PS — The youtube version of Max and joseph's "Hate in Jerusalem" is approaching 200,000 hits in just a few days. Supposedly, almost 30,000 hits were directed to Mondoweiss. Could very well be that a new element of "crazy talkers" are about to infest the http://www.philipweiss.org community. Be on alert.
No kidding. Crazy guy said there would be escalations that would knock the criminal trial off the rails: http://www.antiwar.com/orig/gsmith.php?articleid=... Also compared the DOJ's inability to prosecute the Israel lobby to its dropping the ball on the AZC foreign agent registration four decades earlier. http://www.antiwar.com/orig/gsmith.php?articleid=... Listen to Smith at your peril.
"Tom Friedman's delusional post" is so apt.
And it will be accomplished with a decree from AIPAC that it is not admitting to any wrong-doing, but in the interest of moving forward and continuing its important work on behalf of the American people, it is settling the case, blah-blah-blah. Kabuki theatre. And a necessity on both sides to seal the records.
Sounds like another volunteer hasbara rabble-rouser complete with the apparent inability to spell — just so we know it's an anti-semitic crazy! — or recognize that those little red lines under incorrectly spelled words is the spell-checker. Either that or the IDF is participating here again under their propaganda program. http://giyus.org/ http://giyus.org/ for MEGAPHONE, the IDF/Israeli Foreign Ministry program to track anti-Israel sites and disrupt them.
Good for you. You can add your story to a list of people who have gone and lived with the Palestinians and have had their stories ignored and shut down by the NYT and other MSM outlets. This ability to shut down these stories is why the American people have been blinded by the I lobby. How many times in the MSM do we hear "all Americans support Israel" no matter what they do. Completed hogwash. Juan Cole on the Harman 'waddle" http://www.juancole.com/2009/04/harman-scandal-al...
I would not be surprised if able Tuno was someone's false flag persona.The notion that all members of AIPAC are actually guilty of crimes against humanity and the scenario he outlines are preposterous. I would not be surprised if a thorough (unachievable) mapping of the activities of AIPAC's leadership via wiretapping and other techniques of observation could legally convict many of them of numerous violations of American law, but AIPAC rank and file are not some strictly homogeneous entity acting in conspiratorial lockstep. His comment that [The Jews] should be jailed and executed is not even remotely typical of this site. New readers should be aware that one-time posters who say crazy things may be trying to influence your opinion of the discourse on this site to discourage you from exploring the issues.
I really am not antisemetic that would be self hatred, My spelling isn't great either however what I rant about is the very tactics used by the occupation and the administration of the usa in which complete abandon of common sense has prevailed and the very rockets and other means the natives use are not a terrorisy act nor unexceptible they are dumb in hindsight because they do not achieve anything. When lies are spread from the media for so many years that anyone on the streets who does not know better thinks the occupation is a good thing and g-d gave the jews only the land with the right rights to murder inhabitants is just plain insane and not a g-d for which I want any part of and do not believe it anyhow.
The other idiologies that have been brainwashed evangelicals seem not to really invest any time in factual data when it comes to whom was in the entire area everyone calls israel and how that came to be. Sure a bit of cray talk sometimes persist from me but it is only for the very same tactics in which the occupation and media have contributed to for so very long.
I find it hard to believe the moraless aptitude of the three branches of the governments that fail or are afraid of saying the truths about who and why this genocidal occupation still exisist today when I see signs of the holocaust "never again" maybe a note below that reads unless we are the people doing the bad deeds. I am not a member of aipac nor would I ever be a party to such insulting and imoral ideas which stand for the very death of a once peacefull farming community. Even though Britian who is to blame for the majority of the beginings it is the very three branches of the usa adiministrations past and present which are also to blame for not understanding people will not just leave or lay down and die because a bible which happens to be written by the very people in which are perpetrating the acts as well and that is counter productive to the idea "never again". Just cause someones roots had begain in one place thousands of years ago does not justify the facts and the evil doings of an entire population onto another especially calling them terrorist for rockets and destitution acts which are just meaningless but show how a people can become after shell shocked for so long and even labled.
I read a bunch of the european history of the olden days of when intentional crop failer to starve a population and ohers, and the media is to be blamed as a catalyst of lies and whom are they lying for ….aipac and the occupation or even the protocols, it may be propaganda but it is also a mirror image of exactly what has be taking place. A daily cable tv program is needed to debrief the world on the lies and opression that seem to be legitimized by our government and media outlets. I will refrain from any nastyness and try to correct spelling, however the facts are infuriating.