Foreign Agents: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal [Paperback]

Grant F. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

FOREIGN AGENTS analyzes the history and activities of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. FOREIGN AGENTS begins with testimony and subpoenaed documents from the 1963 Senate investigation into the activities of the agents of foreign principals. Senator J.W. Fulbright's discovery of "conduit" money-laundering operations in the US financed by Israeli principals touched off deep and important questions about US lobbying on behalf of the fledgling nation and the applicability of laws such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Logan Act. The book then uncovers AIPAC election law skirmishes in the 1980s-1990s, analyzing the lobby's role in establishing and coordinating political action committees and AIPAC's role in alleged election law violations. FOREIGN AGENTS then turns to the question of espionage. In 2005, two AIPAC executives, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, were criminally indicted for violating the 1917 Espionage Act. FOREIGN AGENTS reviews behind-the-scenes defense team motions and judicial decisions affecting First Amendment freedom of speech issues and questions about "inside the Beltway" trafficking in classified US defense information by lobbies. FOREIGN AGENTS evaluates Rosen and Weissman's assertions that the conduct alleged in the indictment was within the scope of their employment with AIPAC and was undertaken for AIPAC's benefit. FOREIGN AGENTS then makes comprehensive recommendations for legal oversight in the context of AIPAC's history as a powerful and secretive foreign agent for Israel.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Grant Smith has produced a momentous scholarly work that reveals an eye-opening picture of the carefully guarded operations of the Israeli lobby and its unparalleled influence over US policy in the Middle East. What makes this daringly debunking research work convincing and its arguments irrefutable is the fact that it steers past the dangers of the conspiracy theories surrounding the Israeli lobby by drawing exclusively on official government and/or public sources of information. Foreign Agents is a must read primer for anyone interested in making sense of our government's policy in the Middle East and its implications for our domestic politics and priorities." -- Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Ph.D. is Professor of Economics at Drake University and Author of the book "The Political Economy of US Militarism"

"AIPAC has proved itself to be a danger to our democracy by using money and political power to benefit a foreign government, all at the expense of the American taxpayer. Grant Smith has done a great deal of powerful research to bring facts that will benefit us all when making decisions as to who we vote for." -- Senator James G. Abourezk

"For those who want to understand how AIPAC and the Israel lobby have hijacked the American political process, Grant Smith's Foreign Agents is required reading." -- Jeffrey Blankfort hosts the international affairs program "Takes on the World" on KZYX Pacifica Radio in Mendocino, California.

"Grant F. Smith's book provides a superb review of the efforts that have been made to expose the Israel lobby from 1963 to 2005. Smith's work is extremely well researched. He gathers together documents, testimony from closed-door hearings, and news articles that most Americans have totally forgotten... His work is monumental." -- Richard Curtiss executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

"In this book, Grant Smith renders a vital public service by providing chapter-and-verse evidence that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee--Israel's U.S. lobby--is the agent of a foreign government and has violated public law for years in ways that seriously harm U.S. national interests." -- Paul Findley, former US Congressman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Institute for Research (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976443775
• ISBN-13: 978-0976443773
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,306,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Grant F. Smith is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington DC. He is author of the books Spy Trade, America's Defense Line, Foreign Agents, Deadly Dogma, and Neocon Middle East Policy. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post calls Smith "a Washington, D.C. author who has made a career out of writing critical books on Israeli spying and lobbying." Mondoweiss.com blogger Philip Weiss says "the best investigative work is being done by Grant Smith at IRmep..."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 74 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AIPAC Exposed August 24, 2007

By Andrew Burroughs

Format:Hardcover

Grant Smith's book traces the secret history of the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC). AIPAC is an organization little known or understood outside of the Washington Beltway and those who follow American Middle East policy. However, its relative obscurity in the Heartland should not fool the public. AIPAC has evolved into one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in the United States. Politicians, regardless of political stripe, play homage to AIPAC. Indeed, critical pieces of legislation regarding US policies towards Israel and the Middle East are drafted in AIPAC's downtown Washington offices. While most lobby organizations represent genuine American commercial or social interests, Smith makes a compelling case that AIPAC is a functional extension of the Israeli government. The recent espionage case involving two AIPAC officials is a striking example of AIPAC's highly conflicted agenda (fully documented in Smith's book). It would be more accurate for AIPAC to rename itself the "Israeli Political Action Committee" to better disclose the efforts it makes to sway elections in virtually every US congressional district. This book shows how AIPAC, a nonprofit corporation prohibited from supporting political candidates, does just that in clandestine and illegal ways. It also shows the strategic revolution led by founder Si Kenen and why neutral sounding organization names, especially for political action committees, has been so important to AIPAC's stealth operations.

Smith details AIPAC's involvement as one of the main cheerleaders for the invasion of Iraq through quantitative analysis. Anecdotally Smith notes that Democratic Speaker of the House Pelosi was roundly booed when she spoke before a recent AIPAC conference and called for the Congress to be consulted before any Bush administration strike on Iran. AIPAC's operatives in the White House such as Elliot Abrams would view that as an infringement on their prerogative. The Pelosi incident should be no surprise to the informed. Shortly before, the Prime Minister of Israel publicly condemned calls in the United States for military withdrawal from Iraq as "not in Israel's interest." Pelosi bent to the demands of the Lobby and at AIPCA's urging dropped her pledge to pass legislation for the common good of the American people.

Portions of Smith's book read like a criminal indictment. It is filled with compelling and fully sourced facts and figures. He makes a strong case that AIPAC is indeed an organization that deserves far greater legal oversight and accountability than it has received thus far. Moreover the mainstream media now ignores AIPAC's alleged criminal activities and destructive political influence on our democratic process. This is appalling, but was not always the case. The mainstream corporate media's evolution from dogged investigators to AIPAC lap dogs is documented in the book, along with a stunning confession from the Washington Post's former Middle East Bureau Chief.

No doubt Smith will receive the usual bludgeoning from the lobby. This is now par for the course. Whenever an American criticizes Israeli policy or that country's illicit influence over US political affairs, the predictable "Israel First" hacks make their way to the front of the line to smear and instill fear. We have seen this happen to Professors Walt and Mearsheimer, Norman Finkelstein, James Petras, President Jimmy Carter and of course Congressman Paul Findley who first dared to speak out. Mr. Smith has joined a group of dedicated, patriotic Americans whose sole interests continue to be the advancement of more rational US strategic objectives that are truly in the interest of all Americans. Kudos to Mr. Smith!

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Israel: America's puppet master. September 19, 2007

By Tim Johnson

Format:Paperback

I just finished this ground breaking work--not ground breaking because of new, long hidden material but because the material has not been examined because of fear. Smith has probed subjects that have rarely, if ever, been brought to light. These subjects have remained in the shadows because the Israeli government and its lobby do not want its relationship with its cash cow, America, to be spotlighted for fear that the spiggot will be turned off and the estimated 1.8 trillion in support for Israel will be lessened. This figure is quoted by Smith in chapter five and sourced from Harvard economist Thomas Stauffer and although Smith's thesis is more tightly formulated, the bigger picture inarguably materializes; that picture is of huge import for America and by extension people like myself living far away from this centre of such great international interest.

Smith's book painted a conclusive, at least for me, picture of the terrible puppet lines that make it all but impossible for American government to function as it is constitutionally suppossed to operate. As he writes in chapter three, American democracy cannot act when lobbyists can exercise overwhelming influence on sigle-issue legislation under consideration. As Smith points out in chater one, J William Fulbright was the last major American politician to challenge the Israeli Lobby and that was nearly forty years ago.

I found Smith's book hard going for a intellectual lightweight like myself because he peppers his work with many excerpts from legal writings of one kind or another. This comment is not to dissuade any potential reader, it is meant only as a caution regarding the nature of the writing to be faced. The legal material is there to provide hard evidence for virtually all of Smith's statements. He has sown the seeds of his ideas carefully and provided ample fertilizer in the form of documented evidence to insure a good crop; it is certainly evidence strong enough for this reader.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AIPCA Exposed September 3, 2007

By Andrew Burroughs

Format:Paperback

Grant Smith's book traces the history of the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC). AIPAC is a little known and understood organization outside of the Washington Beltway and those that follow American Middle East policy. However, its relative obscurity in the Heartland should not fool the public. AIPAC has evolved into one of the most powerful lobby organizations in the United States. Politicians, regardless of political stripe, play homage to AIPAC. Indeed, entire pieces of legislation regarding US policies towards Israel and the Middle East have been drafted in AIPAC's downtown Washington offices. While most lobby organization represent genuine American commercial and social interests, Smith makes a compelling case that AIPAC is in fact a functional extension of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The recent espionage case involving AIPAC officials is a striking example of AIPAC's conflicted agenda (fully documented in Smith's book). I would rather AIPAC rename itself the "Israeli Political Action Committee"- a more honest nomenclature.

Smith details AIPAC's involvement as one of the main cheerleaders for the invasion of Iraq. As Smith notes, Speaker Pelosi was roundly booed when she spoke before a recent AIPAC conference when she called for an end to US military occupation of Iraq. This should be no surprise to the informed. Shortly before, the Prime Minister of Israel publicly condemned calls in the United States for withdrawal as "not in Israel's interest." Pelosi understanding her subservient role to the Lobby and at AIPCA's urging soon dropped her pledge to pass legislation requiring President Bush to first obtain Congressional approval before attacking Iran.

Smith's book reads like a criminal indictment. It is filled with compelling, sourced facts and figures. He makes a strong case that AIPAC is indeed an organization that deserves far greater legal scrutiny and accountable that it has received thus far. Moreover, that the mainstream media ignore AIPAC's alleged criminal activities and destructive political influence on our democratic process is appalling.

No doubt that Smith will get the usual claims of anti-Semitism. This appears par for the course. When ever an American criticizes Israeli policy or that country's influence over US political affairs, the predictable Israel First hacks make their way to the front of the line. We have seen this happen to Professors Walt, Miershiemer, Finkelstein, Petras, President Jimmy Carter and Congressman Findley, among others. Mr. Smith can be comforted that he has joined a group of dedicated, patriotic Americans whose sole interests continue to be the advancement of US strategic objectives and who have resisted prostituting themselves for foreign powers. Kudos to Mr. Smith!