Israeli Spy Scandal: Bloggers in the Dock?

Here it’s been close to a week since Israeli spy and former Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin was nabbed by the feds, and still not a peep out of the right-wing of the blogosphere. And these are the same people who want to set up their own news service? Well, I’ve got a catchy slogan for them: All the news that fits our agenda.

Oh sure, Michelle Malkin had a couple of posts up about it, as I noted earlier, but, aside from her, the silence is positively eerie. I mean, all the Usual Suspects haven’t even bothered to denounce the arrest as based on a “sheer fabrication,” as Powerline did when the story first broke. Odd. Or, maybe, not so odd, if Newsweek is right:

“It could easily turn into the new version of ‘Leak-gate’—a confrontation between journalistic ethics and prosecutorial zeal. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia last week charged Larry Franklin, one of the Pentagon’s top Iran experts, with unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to threats against U.S. forces in Iraq. Court documents omitted the names of the recipients of Franklin’s alleged leaks, but prosecutors claimed that Franklin revealed ‘top secret’ info to two unauthorized people at a lunch in June 2003. Sources identified them as two senior officials of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, who were dismissed by the organization last month. Court documents allege that Franklin, who worked in the office of Defense Under Secretary Douglas Feith, also may have leaked secrets to a ‘foreign official’—believed to be an Israeli—and to ‘members of the media.’

“As a result, Newsweek has learned, journalists and bloggers may face questioning by FBI agents in the case. Though reporters are not “targets” of the investigation, they could get subpoenas if they refuse to cooperate.”

Journalists — and bloggers? Waaaaay cool! Finally, the puffed-up bloggers are receiving the notice — and equal treatment — that is their due!

Even cooler is the prospect of finding out which bloggers are going to be subpoenaed. Imagine Charles Johnson, the fanatically pro-Israel blogger who once gloated that the whole Franklin affair would “slip off the media radar as quickly as it appeared,” sitting in the hot seat, refusing to give up his sources. Oh boy! Can I watch?

On second thought, it probably isn’t Johnson who’s aroused the interest of the feds. His “blog” consists mostly of cut-and-paste selections from previously published articles, interspersed with brief-but-hateful comments. No wonder Google won’t carry his garbage.

No, it must be somebody more … substantial. Someone who’s been covering the Franklin affair — or, more likely, someone who has been blogging about the alleged threat posed to American troops in Iraq by pro-Iranian groups, like the Dawa party and SCIRI. That, after all, was the subject of the top secret material Franklin was handing over to AIPAC, which acted as a conduit passing stolen secrets on to Israel.

Oh, this is going to be good. Here we have people who hate the ACLU, who denounce their political opponents as “traitors” and “fifth columnists,” and lustily invoke “patriotism” (i.e. state worship) while wrapping themselves in the flag, suddenly in the dock for … aiding and abetting espionage.

There is a God.