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Alleged Pentagon leaks may be tied to Iran policy

Civilians in office of analyst lobbied for hawkish stance, U.S. officials say

By WARREN P. STROBE
Knight Ridder Tribune News

Sept. 3, 2004, 12:19AM

WASHINGTON - Pentagon civilians in the office in which analyst Larry A. Franklin lobbied for a hawkish policy toward Iran and tried to have those views inserted into a highly classified presidential document that's a focus of an FBI espionage investigation, current and former U.S. officials said.

Investigators are trying to determine whether Franklin shared the document with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in an attempt to enlist Israeli support for their proposals.

Policymakers in the office of Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, argued that the United States should explore ways to overthrow the Iranian regime and should contemplate military strikes on Tehran's nuclear program if it came close to producing a nuclear weapon, the officials said on condition of anonymity, because the matter is under investigation.

The Pentagon met fierce resistance from the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Those agencies opposed the Pentagon's willingness to cooperate with an Iraq-based Iranian opposition group that the State Department has designated a terrorist organization.

The Bush administration's bitter internal battle over how to deal with Iran — a country President Bush included in his "Axis of Evil" and that's thought to be edging closer to developing nuclear weapons — has been known for some time. But new light is being shed on it after the disclosure of the FBI investigation.

Israel sees Iran as its No. 1 adversary and might have been able to influence U.S. policy if it had access to confidential high-level planning documents.

The Israeli government and AIPAC have denied the allegations, and Franklin, an expert on Iran, hasn't been charged with wrongdoing.

FBI agents have briefed top officials in the White House, Pentagon and State Department on the investigation in recent days.

Based on those briefings, officials said, the bureau appears to be looking into other controversies that have roiled the Bush administration, some of which also touch Feith's office.

Copyright 2004 HoustonChronicle.com

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2775551