Franklin & Rhode speak Farsi

* Larisa is interested in the Rome meeting with Ledeen, Ghorbanifar, Franklin, Rhode and SCIRI, and she notes that Hadley (and Rice) authorised it. Larisa also notes that both Rhode and Franklin are in trouble for passing secrets to both Israel and Iran.

Re-reading Laura's story about Ledeen and Ghorbanifar from last May and i stumble across this: "

How the Bush administration came to authorize the initial December 2001 meeting in Rome is a curious tale that suggests how far Ghorbanifar can reach. The meeting included two Farsi-speaking Pentagon of?cials, Defense Intelligence Agency Iran expert Larry Franklin and Harold Rhode, a polyglot Middle East specialist, both then working for Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith."

It's not a surprise that these people speak Farsi, given their roles, but we know that Sibel hates Feith, and she translates Farsi. We know that Rhode has been investigated before, and we know the broader investigation that snared Franklin has been going on since at least 1999. Is it possible that some of the stuff she talks about is straight outta the mouths of Rhode and Franklin? That would be an interesting turn of events, wouldnt it?

I can't find the quote at the moment, but Sibel specifically makes the point somewhere that it's possible to work out who she is talking about by looking at the languages they speak, and their career trajectory in and out of different countries and such

Also, we know that Sibel is familiar with the AIPAC case, and much more. She says

"the AIPAC spy scandal, as far as I'm reading today, is just touching the surface of it. It's going only to a certain degree. It doesn't go high enough, in what it involves and how far it goes, and that's... as far as I can explain."

Incidentally, remember this conversation with scott horton which got some tongues wagging:

"SH: Okay, I'm going to go ahead and name some people whom I suspect inside the State Department and the Pentagon, and I suppose you won't be able to answer affirmative or negative on any of these, but I'm very curious when I read about this kind of corruption going on in the State Department, I immediately think of John Bolton and David Wurmser. Do those names mean anything to you?

SE: Well, first of all, I'm not going to answer that question at all, but also you should pay attention to the fact that some of these people have been there for a while, and some of these people had their roots in there even in the mid-1990s.

SH: So more career officials rather than political appointees.

SE: Or maybe a mixture of both."

Kenneth Pollack, identified in the Franklin case as USGO-1 seems to meet that criteria:

Previous Position(s): Director for National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations (2001-2002); Director for Persian Gulf Affairs, National Security Council (1999-2001); Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs, National Security Council (1995-1996); Senior Research Professor, National Defense University (1998-99, 2001); Iran-Iraq Military Analyst, Central Intelligence Agency (1988-1995)

I wonder what Sibel knows...

update: this from Sibel's interview with Chris Deliso, discussing the Franklin case:

SE: But it will be interesting to see how far they pursue it – whether they will be satisfied just to make an example out of the fairly low-level guys they're looking at now, or want to keep going higher.

CD: When you were at the FBI, did you have any colleagues who were working on this case, investigating the Israelis?

SE: Look, I think that that [the AIPAC investigation] ultimately involves more than just Israelis – I am talking about countries, not a single country here. Because despite however it may appear, this is not just a simple matter of state espionage. If Fitzgerald and his team keep pulling, really pulling, they are going to reel in much more than just a few guys spying for Israel.

She didn't answer Deliso's question about whether any of her colleagues were working on the case, but in answer to the question, she indicated that she knows some inside information. My hunch that she listened to some taps of Franklin and Rhode is getting stronger...