The Larry Franklin story

Remember Larry Franklin, the former FBI official indicted for passing on state secrets to AIPAC members (he went to jail, they got off, then his sentence was reduced.) Well he's been giving a bunch of interviews lately:

• Once Labeled An AIPAC Spy, Larry Franklin Tells His Story – Forward.com


• Leniency for AIPAC leaker - Josh Gerstein - POLITICO.com


• Twist: Govt. planned not to call Franklin at AIPAC trial - Josh Gerstein - POLITICO.com


• CQ Politics | SpyTalk - AIPAC Spy Figure Larry Franklin Describes Mafia-Style Murder Threat


• CQ Politics | ‘Secret’ Rome Meeting Recounted by AIPAC Spy Case Figure


• DOJ: AIPAC case witness was asked to 'fake...suicide' - Josh Gerstein - POLITICO.com

From that last link, the astonishing story of how Franklin and his lawyer Plato Cacheris were approached by someone who urged him to fake a suicide and disappear:

In an interview on Tuesday, June 20, Franklin described the incident for the first time.

He was prohibited from naming the man who approached him.

"It was in West Virginia. I was parking cars at the time. He came to see me at the Charles Town Race Track. He said, 'Let's go to lunch and talk about raising money for my defense.'

"And we talked about all these rich people," Franklin continued. "But first I had to agree to a scheme...

"I was going to go somewhere, and it was going to be arranged that I could occasionally meet my wife. It was supposed to be on a bridge."

In Israel?

"No," he said. "Florida."

Who was the man who approached him?

"Well, the guy was definitely a Zionist," Franklin said. "And he was a true believer. And like a lot of true believers, he's beyond good and evil. They're not subject to the laws the rest of us are."

Like laws against murder.

"I felt this isn't real. This is a set-up," Franklin said.

"As I was saying to someone recently, I grew up on the streets of New York, and when you fake a suicide -- Well, if you're dead to everyone else, it's a lot easier to get rid of you."

"He wouldn't be a witness," Cacheris said.

"Did I let him know I took it that way?" Franklin added. "No. Did I take it that way? Internally, yes."

That's not lobbying. That's a criminal conspiracy.