A former Defense Department analyst was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison yesterday for passing government secrets to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group and to an Israeli government official in Washington.
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When he pleaded guilty, Franklin, an Iran specialist, said he was frustrated with the direction of U.S. policy and thought he could influence it through "back channels."
"I believe, I accept, your explanation that you didn’t want to hurt the United States, that you are a loyal American," said Ellis, who added that Franklin was "concerned about certain threats to the United States" and thought he had to hand information about the threats to others to bring it to the attention of the National Security Council.
But Franklin still must be punished, Ellis said, because he violated important laws governing the non-disclosure of secret information.
"It doesn’t matter that you think you were really helping," Ellis said as he sentenced Franklin to 151 months — 12 1/2 years — in prison. "That arrogates to yourself the decision whether to adhere to a statute passed by Congress, and we can’t have that in this country."
This is a big deal, this case. Larry Franklin is a neoconservative idealogogue. He worked with the the dark side [Douglas Feith] and he was with Michael Ledeen in Italy on a trip that many believe had something to do with the Niger Forgeries. But I post this for other reasons.
The judge in this case doesn’t seem to have any problem knowing what to do here. He says something like, ‘I don’t question that you thought what you were doing was right. But your ideas about that don’t matter. You broke the law.’
I’m hoping that Mr. Bush gets U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III when he goes to trial for his N.S.A. Wiretapping. Ellis would be a pretty good choice for Karl and Scooter in the Plame Affair Trial too.
As Al Gore said very clearly, it’s about the rule of law.
Well that is a good sign. In a country where A.L.F. and E.L.F. are seen as bigger threats to the republic than say, the next generation of Tim McVeigh’s and Eric Rudolph’s it is good to see right wing idealogues that work outside the legal restaints get some justice.