Congressional leaders inadvertently expose Israeli lobbyists behind letter to Obama

Source: Raw Story

Congressional leaders inadvertently expose Israeli lobbyists behind letter to Obama
By John Byrne

Published: May 15, 2009

GOP House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) circulated a letter to colleagues this week urging President Obama to support Israel when moving forward with any Israeli peace process.

Trouble is, they forgot to delete the name of the lobbying group involved in the letter from the document.

Attached to the email message they circulated when seeking signatures from other members of Congress was the document, titled, “AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf.”
http://rawstory.com/images/other/AIPAC%20Letter%20Hoyer%20Cantor%20May%202009.pdf

AIPAC stands for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, a powerful bipartisan pro-Israel lobbying group. Recently, the group found itself in the news over allegations that two former staff members were involved in espionage — though the Justice Department recently dropped the case against them and no wrongdoing was alleged against the group itself.

The file name flub was discovered by The Washington Post’s Al Kamen in his “In the Loop” Column Friday.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/15/gop-democratic-leader-inadvertently-expose-israeli-lobbyists-behind-their-letter-to-obama/

... but watch what you say about it. Remarks like that can get you into trouble!

Thank god.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/may/13/aipac-iran-us-obama

<snip>

Israel is in the midst of a massive diplomatic, political and intelligence campaign, both public and covert, that could lead – if those officials behind it have their way – towards a military strike on Iran. It is a war for the hearts and minds of Americans. Or you might call it the war before the war. In intelligence circles, this Israeli project is known as perception management and defined by the department of defence as:

Actions to convey and/or deny information … to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders … ultimately resulting in foreign behaviours and official actions favourable to objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception and psychological operations.

"Israel is in the midst of a massive diplomatic, political and intelligence campaign, both public and covert..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing">Brainwashing

of the hundreds in DC.

It's an anti-Semitic thing, isn't it? (sarcasm)

nt

That's where their stenographers reside.

one in the senate building, another in congress.

This is gonna hurt.

AIPAC is one of the most powerful groups in Washington. They control the policy in Washington with regard to Israel. And AIPAC stands firmly against a separate Palestinian state. Which is why there is no separate Palestinian state.

and an interest in people here not posting information that is not factual.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710853298&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

It throws a different light on this discussion.

THE DLC and all Republicans.

AIPAC - true to Israeli values, not American values for 80% of this country - the 20% per cent who supported Cheney and Rumsfeld and their owners don't even know what is going on and would stick by Cheney if they did.

AIPAC is about sending our kids to war. AIPAC is about making financial and political deals for Israel. AIPAC is about partnering in spying- part of the deal making. What happened to the latest spies - the case was dismissed?

How do we believe anyting the DLC loyalists have to say?

to start pushing back on Israel or AIPAC?

And in this case, it's AIPAC leaving the $5 under the pillow. And much, much more...

I'll find it and add it to this thread. It lists the critter recipients by name, party, and size of bribe.

The practice of outside groups drafting dear collegue letters that are then circulated by members is an old one and is practiced by those on all parts of the political spectrum, including labor and other progressive causes. I've writeen a few myself.

Of course, you try to be smart enough not to show who drafted it.

...except the getting caught at it part.

I wonder how much campaign $$ these guys get from a foreign source.

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It's a rumour which originally came from the Islamic Association for Palestine; hardly an unbiased source - or, perhaps more importantly, a source to which Sharon or other Israeli government members are likely to give interviews. It has since been taken up by such stellar organizations as David Duke's site, Stormfront, and WakeUpFromYourSlumber.

So, likely to be about as accurate as the rumours about Saddam's WMD.

And even if Sharon *had* said it, it would only demonstrate the megalomania of an individual known to be about as reliable as Bush.

Doesn't make it any less true, why else would this country's government bend over again & again for that troublesome little theocracy.
Fuck israel!
If they attack iran I say let them wallow in the sty they create.

Israel is much smaller.

America has a lot more weapons.

Israel is financially dependent on America, not the other way about.

No - if the American government collaborates with the Israeli one, it's because it chooses to, not because of some sinister control.

'Doesn't make it any less true' - and that's EXACTLY the sort of argument that Freepers use about WMD in Iraq and Saddam's alleged links to 9-11. If you don't like a country/leader, anything bad that's said about it must be true. And we have already seen the appalling dangers of such 'guilty till proved innocent' attitudes to disliked bogeynations. If America DOES attack Iran, it is much more likely to be due to this 'bogeynation' mentality than to anything connected to Israel.

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anti-semitic canards, here at a progressive website. take it back to stormfront or wherever it is that you post.

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the US has spent an average of $5 million per day on israel since 1947. its hard to argue that they control us.

Just because sites like Rense say that he said it, doesn't mean that he did.

Sharon in the last three years has been in no state to deny anything.

I am NO fan of Sharon (I am an active supporter of Peace Now and the Alliance for Middle East Peace); but I am also no fan of the creation of bogeynations, and spreading allegations against any country one doesn't like and their supporters. That's the sort of thing that has contributed to MANY disasters, from McCarthyism to the current unending war in Iraq.

That is a BS argument. The statement by Sharon is common knowledge. If you need proof google it. To my knowledge it has never been denied by Sharon. For an idea just how much influence Israel has over this country read Wikipedia on the subject which is a fact sheet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_lobby_in_the_United.

The origin was Kol Yisrael, an Israeli radio station.

I'll bet these Republics are terrified of removing mattress tags too. Luddite Idiots.

Bill Kristol..Richard Perle..Norman Podhoretz..any of those ring a bell? PNAC members who wanted us to bomb Iran. I love the jewish people but their government and their lobbyists are a bit nuts and have way too much influence on our foreign policy.

It is a Jewish state and its government is the government of the Jewish and non-jewish citizens in the state of Israel. LIkewise, "Bill Kristol..Richard Perle..Norman Podhoretz.." though Jewish do not speak for the Jewish people and are not representative of the Jewish people.

Making such claims is as distasteful as claiming that the Klu Klux Klan speaks for all Christian White Men.

is around 7,000,000..according to the Bureau of Statistics population report for 24th April 2007, there are 5,415,000 Jews in Israel.
I would say it's their government. As for the other there is a percentage of the Jewish people they do speak for..there's 6 million here. I'm sure they don't for you but that doesn't discount it.

As a group the vote about 80% for Obama and Democrats.
They are American citizens who do no vote nor participate in the government of Israel, so it is not the government of the Jews.

Even those that support the existence of Israel, manyh don't necessarily support the settlement policies of Israel. But that can be said of any foreign government.

I don't support Russia's policy in Georgia, or Georgia's foreign policy. Being interestedin what happens there doesn't mean that Russia is my government or Georgia is my government.

Your comment is not rational.

uh, no. Israelis have a gov't. see the difference?

Wait a minute... what exactly is the problem here? I thought we were aiming for more transparency and accountability in government?

As long as they are able to exert undue influence on our Middle East politics, the region will never see an honest and fair solution.

AIPAC is a symptom.

Republican Party. He was the only one of the new guard I thought might have some appeal to sane people. I am therefore tickled to see him involved in this.

Hoyer on the other hand is not touted as the future of the Democratic Party, so I think this is worse for them than for us.

Waterboard 'em! :P

Props to Al Kamen for finding "the smoking gun".

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in congress. they've never asked congress to never increase the minimum wage. they are not trying to derail universal health care. so let's not forget who we need to fight above all: greedy corporations whose interest is increasing profits each year, greedy corporations who own congress.

:kick: