'CIA, FBI paranoid about Israel's Mossad' and Jews

Jerusalem, Oct.21 : A former US official has said that both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are extremely paranoid about the Israeli secret service Mossad and Jews, and adds that the charges of espionage against US Defense Department scientist Stewart Nozette reflect this fear and 'extreme view'.

These fears against Israel, former AIPAC staffer Steve Rosen tells The Jerusalem Post, could harm US-Israel relations.

"One of the things that our case revealed is the very extreme views that are held by some in counter-intelligence agencies of the CIA and FBI about Israel," Rosen said.

"They believe that the Mossad spied on the US on a huge scale and they believe that the Pollard case was the tip of some sort of iceberg,” he added.

"When you keep repeating that the Mossad is spying on America, Israel is harming the United States, of course it harms the alliance between Israel and the US," he continued.

"The current case is even more peculiar because the government of Israel did nothing. It''s revealing that they used Israel for the sting. They could have used China, or others. But they chose Israel," he says.

Describing an "obsession" with Israel within certain parts of the CIA and FBI, Rosen said if his own case had gone to trial, details reflecting the extreme views of his investigators would have come out.

"There was no wrongdoing," he said, reflecting on the case against him and Weissman.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the Nozette case is part of a "troubling" pattern of targeting Israel and Jews as potential spies against the United States.

The US Defense Department has repeatedly singled out Jewish employees for possible disloyalty, Foxman said.

The situation has escalated, with increasing cases of Jews having difficulty obtaining security clearance. If you have relatives in Israel, speak Hebrew, or practice Orthodox Judaism, he said, "changes are, you won''t get clearance. That's the mindset out there."