Pro-Israel Group Reportedly Fires Pair

A powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization has dismissed its long-time policy director and a top analyst, signaling that prosecutors may be close to resolving a probe into whether the group obtained and shared classified U.S. information with Israel, people familiar with the case said Thursday.

Lawyers for the two men denied that their clients had broken any laws or engaged in any improper behavior. But the lobbying organization, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said the dismissals were justified because of “recently learned information.”

AIPAC previously maintained that neither it nor any of its employees had done anything wrong. But in January, it placed policy director Steve Rosen and senior Iran analyst Keith Weissman on administrative leave, and in recent days fired them, a person close to the organization said.

The former employees have been a focus of an FBI investigation that surfaced last summer into whether Israel obtained secret information about Bush administration initiatives involving Iran.

The two have been linked to a Pentagon analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, who is suspected of sharing the contents of a draft presidential directive on Iran with the men at a 2003 lunch that was monitored by federal agents. Pressured to cooperate with the FBI, Franklin subsequently set up another meeting with the men last year where he purported to give them classified information.

Franklin, who is still employed at the Defense Department but without his previous security clearance, recently stopped cooperating with federal authorities.

“Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman have not violated any U.S. law or AIPAC policy,” the men’s lawyers said in a statement. “Contrary to press accounts, they have never solicited, received or passed on any classified documents. They carried out their job responsibilities solely to serve AIPAC’s goal of strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

AIPAC appeared to dispute those assertions.

“The statement made by Rosen and Weissman represents solely their view of the facts,” spokesman Patrick Dorton said. “The action that AIPAC has taken was done in consultation with counsel after careful consideration of recently learned information and the conduct AIPAC expects of its employees.” Dorton declined to elaborate.

FBI agents searched the organization’s offices in Washington twice last year, copying the hard drive to the computer that Rosen used. Four senior executives of the organization were also subpoenaed late last year to testify before a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va.

Nobody has been charged in the case, and it is unclear what, if any, charges would ultimately be brought. Franklin rejected a plea bargain last year in which the government reportedly sought to have him plead guilty to espionage-related charges. His defenders, as well as supporters of Rosen and Weissman, say that the information about Iran they discussed was widely known.

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington said officials there “have never been approached by any official regarding this investigation.”

Some observers said the organization’s personnel move seemed to be an effort by the politically well-connected organization to limit its possible legal exposure in the case, although a person close to the matter said the group was told long ago that it was not a target of the FBI probe.

The organization’s access to policy makers -- facilitated by campaign contributions and tours of Israel for members of Congress and their staffs -- have sparked concern in the past that it was essentially acting as an agent of Israel without complying with stringent federal disclosure laws covering foreign agents.