Friday, November 2, 2007

Not spies, usual AIPAC "back-channelers"!

Rice, Hadley to be subpoenaed in Israel lobby spy case

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US judge ruled Friday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, White House National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and other top officials can be subpoenaed to testify in a spying case against lobbyists for Israel.

Federal court judge T.S. Ellis ruled to allow the request by lawyers for Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to subpoena Rice, Hadley and 13 other current and former top government officials to testify in the case, according to court documents.

Rosen and Weissman, accused of passing secret US defense information to unauthorized people while they worked for AIPAC, hope the testimony of the government officials will support their defense that they were not engaged in spying.

"The defendants claim that testimony from these current and former officials will tend to show that the overt acts reflect nothing more than the
well-established official Washington practice of engaging in 'back-channel' communication," according to Friday's opinion issued in Alexandria, Virginia

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