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Thursday, August 10, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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AIPAC case judge denies dismissal
The U.S. judge in the classified information case against two former AIPAC analysts denied a motion to dismiss the case but narrowed the government’s ability to invoke the Espionage Act.
In a decision released Thursday, Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled that a never-used 1917 statute that criminalizes the receipt — not just the leaking — of classified information was not unconstitutional.
However, Ellis does not entirely reject the constitutional arguments of Steve Rosen, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s former foreign policy boss, and its Iran analyst, Keith Weissman.
Ellis argues that the statute is unconstitutional in applying penalties if information is leaked “to the advantage of any foreign nation” and cites precedent to suggest that the government must prove that the information was useful to an enemy of the United States.
This is significant because Rosen and Weissman are charged with relaying the information to Israel, an ally.
In the 68-page opinion, Ellis also dismisses the defense argument that orally transmitted information is not prosecutable, but notes that the oral transmission of the information “makes it more difficult” for the prosecution to prove the defendants knew they were transmitting classified information.
Poll: Jews backed Lieberman
Jews in Connecticut gave U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman more than 60 percent of their vote in his unsuccessful bid to gain the Democratic nomination.
A CBS/New York Times poll published Thursday showed Lieberman won 61 percent of the Jewish vote in Tuesday’s primary while his successful challenger, Ned Lamont, won 39 percent. Overall, Lamont bested Lieberman 52 percent to 48 percent. Lamont challenged Lieberman for supporting the Iraq war and for his closeness to President Bush.
Lieberman, a three-term senator and the Democrats’ vice-presidential candidate in 2000, is now running as an independent in November’s general election.
Anti-war protesters rally in Israel
Some 600 protesters rallied in Tel Aviv against Israel’s offensive in Lebanon.
Thursday’s rally was the largest in Israel since the war with Hezbollah began July 12. Meanwhile, three of Israel’s best-known authors spoke out against the Israeli Cabinet’s decision to widen the war. Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua and David Grossman voiced their opposition to the Cabinet decision at a news conference Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has not yet implemented the decision, preferring to give international diplomacy more time.
Russian Jewish group protests Muslim comments
Anti-Israel comments by some leaders of the Russian Muslim community are harming interfaith coexistence in Russia, the leading Russian Jewish group said.
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia leveled the criticism after Muhammad Karachai, deputy head of the Union of Muftis of Russia, earlier this week said Israel’s war on Hezbollah has revealed “the aggressive nature of the Zionist state that organized a real holocaust in Lebanon.”
A federation spokesman said his group was going to call on the Interfaith Council of Russia, which promotes interreligious dialogue, to call on the Muslim group to disown its leader’s statement, Interfax reported.
“Unbalanced statements undermine the Jewish-Muslim dialogue in Russia,” Boruch Gorin said Thursday.
Group wants U.N. council to probe Lebanon
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate Lebanon for war crimes.
The group said Lebanon deliberately failed to stop the transfer of Katyusha rockets to Hezbollah and failed to tell the U.N. Security Council about them, which the center calls a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559.
The call comes as the Human Rights Council is expected to discuss a resolution Friday condemning Israel for its actions in Lebanon.
Norwegian writer blasts Israel
A popular Norwegian novelist published a viciously anti-Israel broadside in one of Norway’s largest newspapers.
Jostein Gaarder, author of “Sophie’s World” and “The Solitaire Mystery,” wrote in Aftenposten that Israel is “history” and added that “We do not recognize the State of Israel. Not today, not as of this writing, not in the hour of grief and wrath. If the entire Israeli nation should fall to its own devices and parts of the population have to flee the occupied areas into another diaspora, then we say: May the surroundings stay calm and show them mercy.”
Norwegian journalist Mona Levin called Gaarder’s comments “the nastiest thing I have read since ‘Mein Kampf.’ ”
After the article proved controversial, Gaarder reportedly said that perhaps he could have expressed himself with more precision, but that it would be too much work to revise the piece.
http://jta.org
posted by Somebody @ 11:46 PM Permanent Link
 
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