Steve Rosen, the former foreign policy chief for AIPAC who was charged with illegally disclosing classified information, spoke out for the first time since his case was dismissed last week, blasting those who tried to prosecute him as having ulterior motives against “Jews, Israel and AIPAC.”
“It’s been nearly five years since they came to my door, out of the blue, and turned my life upside-down,” Rosen said in an interview, which was filmed only hours after the dismissal of the case on May 1 and aired May 6 on Israel’s Channel 10.
“It’s been a horrible experience. It’s over, but it will take awhile to rebuild.”
Rosen and co-defendant Keith Weissman, AIPAC’s former Iran analyst, allegedly received classified information concerning Iran and its backing for terrorism. The case came to light following an FBI raid on AIPAC’s offices in August 2004. Seven months later, in March 2005, he and Weissman were fired by the lobby group, and in August of that year, indicted by the United States.
From the outset, the case became caught in a quagmire of pretrial court rulings — until last week, when the prosecution filed a motion of dismissal.
In a statement May 1, Dana Boente, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern district of Virginia, said, “Given the diminished likelihood the government will prevail at trial under the additional intent requirements imposed by the court and the inevitable disclosure of classified information that would occur at any trial in this matter, we have asked the court to dismiss the indictment.”
Baruch Weiss, Weissman’s attorney, said the move by the government to drop the case represented a “great victory for the First Amendment and for the pro-Israel community.”
But Boente made it clear that while Rosen and Weissman are free, the government likes the tool it unearthed in an obscure section of the 1917 Espionage Act — the ability to charge civilians with dealing in classified information — and is going to keep it.
Rosen maintained that his actions were not illegal.
“I was a person who worked with government officials everyday for 23 years,” Rosen said in the interview. “Every week I would meet with people in the State Department, the National Security Council, the Defense Department, other agencies in the government. They were my friends, they knew very well that I spoke to the embassy of Israel.
“But these people we’re talking about viewed it as if we were a nest of spies, as if we were doing something against America,” he continued.
The problem in the government’s case came in a pretrial ruling in August 2006, when trial judge T.S. Ellis III interpreted the Espionage Act statute to mean prosecutors had to show U.S. interests were harmed, and not just that Rosen and Weissman relayed secrets to a foreign power.
Relaying secrets to friends of the United States, Ellis suggested, was not in and of itself criminal. For a crime to be committed, he said, the accused must have sought both benefit to another nation as well as harm to the United States.
While Rosen expressed relief that the saga had ended, he speculated about the benefits of having gone to trial.
“In some ways it’s too bad we didn’t [have a trial], because all the facts would’ve come out, and what it would’ve shown is that I did nothing wrong,” he said. “Those that did something wrong were the people that brought this case — not just that they were incorrect, but that the attitude they had about Jews, Israel, AIPAC, was completely false.”
The entire ordeal took place during the presidency of George Bush, whom many believed to be a ardent supporter of Israel and the American Jewish community. Rosen seemed to share that view, expressing his belief that Bush was not at all responsible for the case.
“I do not believe that it was what the president thought, or what the attorney general thought. I think it’s a faction in the bureaucracy who had this belief,” he said.
Rosen warned that those who brought the case against him and Weissman may bring other prosecutions against AIPAC staffers.
“They have materials against other people at AIPAC,” Rosen said. “They still believe that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America. They still believe that there are Jewish spies under every bed. And they may find another opportunity to bring another case against someone.”
Ron Kampeas of JTA contributed to this report.