Sentence reduced for Pentagon analyst who leaked to AIPAC officials

WASHINGTON June 12, 2009 (JTA) -- A former Pentagon analyst who pled guilty to passing secret information to two former AIPAC staffers had his sentence drastically reduced.

Larry Franklin was sentenced to probation and 10 months of "community confinement," or a halfway house, along with 100 hours of community service. In 2005, he had received a sentence of 12 and 1/2 years in prison but was free pending his cooperation with prosecutors in the case against the two formers AIPAC staffers, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman.

The charges against those two men for passing classified information were dropped by federal prosecutors last month who said that restrictions the judge had placed on the case made the government unlikely to prevail.

In a Thursday afternoon hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., prosecutors asked Judge T.S. Ellis to reduce Franklin's sentence to eight years, saying he played an important role in the case but was "not what you'd call an ideal cooperator." Franklin attorney Plato Cacheris said Franklin had "paid his penalty and suffered greatly," and should not have to serve any time in prison.

Ellis said he didn't have an opinion on the dismissal of the case against Rosen and Weissman, but the fact that the case was dropped was a "significant" factor in the sentencing of Franklin. Ellis also noted in Franklin's defense that other leakers of government secrets in recent years have not been prosecuted. On the other hand, he noted that "this case is different from Rosen and Weissman because Mr. Franklin is a goverment official." For that reason, Ellis said Franklin's community service should consist of speaking to young people about the importance of public officials obeying the law, he said.

Franklin has said he leaked information to the former AIPAC staffers, as well as an Israeli diplomat, because of "frustration with policy" on Iran at the Pentagon. He believed that they would be able to relay that information on Iran to friends on the U.S. National Security Council.

Why stop there? Let's completely expunge Franklin's record, give him a very generous cash award for his spying and have the "first Jewish President," Obama, issue an apology.

BTW, I've been trying to find the names of some Muslims that have been caught here in the States spying, but can't come up with any names.
Ellis is the same judge that threw out the spy case against Rosen and Weissman, then used that ruling to free convicted spy Franklin.

I imagine some lucky DC judge has a very large bank account in Switzerland that has grown immensely in the past few months.

The same judge who got his J.D. from "Tel Aviv University of Harvard," who likes to dismiss torture cases brought by Muslims.

Smooth move to dismiss this case when all the TV talking heads are blubbering on about some 89 yo neo-Nazi.

Another Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard, must be very happy, knowing his "aliyah" ticket is being processed.