Spy Trade: How Israel's Lobby Undermines America's Economy [Paperback]

Grant F Smith (Author), Michael Scheuer (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2009

Israel and its American lobby have committed audacious but generally unknown crimes against the United States. The government has long kept files about Israeli espionage, weapons smuggling, and covert operations on American soil classified...until now. Spy Trade begins on the trail of a vast smuggler network funneling stolen and illegally purchased surplus WWII arms to Jewish fighters in Palestine. When the FBI threatened to crack down, a clandestine summit meeting yielded minor convictions for small-time operators, but not the financial masterminds behind the scheme. Spy Trade probes Israel lobby smuggling operations diverting uranium from the US to Israel's Dimona nuclear weapons facility. The Justice Department battled mightily to regulate two key enablers—the Jewish Agency and American Zionist Council—as Israeli foreign agents in the 1960s. But when the effort collapsed, it unleashed election law violations and escalating intimidation of American politicians by the Israel lobby. Spy Trade reveals the long-term impact of a newly declassified "third scandal" that began in the 1980s. In the midst of both the Iran-Contra affair and the Jonathan Pollard espionage incident, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Israeli embassy conducted a spectacular clandestine operation against American industries and workers; it has so far cost the US economy $71 billion and a hundred thousand jobs each year by shutting down or diverting US exports. More than a dissection of the tactics used by Israel and its lobby to evade justice, Spy Trade provides strategies for ending criminal immunity and restoring American governance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This terrific historical exposé ought to be required background reading for those FBI agents assigned to investigate foreign espionage and public corruption matters. For many reasons, such cases are amongst the most challenging to investigate and prosecute, but are made even harder when undue political pressures enter into the picture. FBI officials responsible for setting investigative priorities and allocating resources would also do well therefore to read Spy Trade so they are aware of the historical linkage between Israel's 'Uzi diplomacy' arms dealing, the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Jonathan Pollard spy incident with AIPAC's nefarious 'lobbying' activities." --Coleen Rowley, former FBI agent and 2002 Time Magazine Person of the Year.

"Grant F. Smith's excellent, deeply disturbing book..is a welcome addition to a growing scholarly literature." --Michael Scheuer, former senior CIA analyst and author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror"

"Like political parties, lobbies are groups of citizens with shared interests, an important part of a functioning democracy. When they have enormous power, however, and especially if their activities remain almost completely hidden, lobbies can be dangerous.

Meticulously detailed in this riveting addition to his earlier exposés, Grant Smith reveals yet another facet of the extent to which the pro-Israel Lobby is beyond dangerous, and has become a serious threat to a broad range of American ideals, objectives and interests abroad, as well as here at home. This book contains many highly disturbing, documented revelations. Read it." --Ambassador Edward L. Peck, former Chief of Mission in Iraq and Former Deputy Director, Cabinet Task Force on Terrorism, Reagan White House

"This book presents formidable and dangerous new evidence of spying by Israel and the corrosive long term influence of its lobby on US governance." --Paul Findley, member of Congress from 1961-1983 and author of three books on the US-Israeli relationship, including the Washington Post bestseller "They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israelʹs Lobby"

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Institute for Research (November 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976443716
• ISBN-13: 978-0976443711
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,695 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..."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smith Once Again Exposes Israel Lobby's Danger to America's Security and Economy, November 1, 2009

By 

Andrew Burroughs "andrew" (new jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spy Trade: How Israel's Lobby Undermines America's Economy (Paperback)

Spy Trade: How Israel's Lobby Undermines America's Economy by Grant F. Smith.

Smith Once Again Exposes Israel Lobby's Danger to America's Security and Economy

This is perhaps Smith's most important work exposing the deleterious and dangerous influences of the Israeli lobby on both U.S. economic and national security. Smith has devoted several years objectively and thoroughly examining the history of the Israel lobby. He earlier exposed how domestic political considerations undermined the Justice Department's valiant efforts to define the lobby as an agent of a foreign power (See Deadly Dogma, Foreign Agents and America's Defense Line). As is his practice, Smith is through in his research. This latest work is 178 pages, contains more than 300 footnotes, citing more than hundred specific sources including files the FBI only recently declassified. It is written in a commendably easy to read style, organized into short concise chapters that cover several critical topics including: Israeli arms smuggling; the history of the Israeli Lobby; how the Israeli lobby subverts the investigation of commercial espionage against American firms by Israeli agents; Jonathan Pollard's treason; the harmful role played by AIPAC in advancing Israeli interests at the expense of the United States. So important is this book that I plan on putting it my friends' and family's Christmas stockings.

Smith systematically demonstrates how since before the establishment of the Israeli state, Zionists abroad and in the United States violated federal laws solely to the advantage of the nascent state regardless of the consequences to American interests. It is this profound contempt for American interest by Zionists in pursing their almost fanatical allegiance to a foreign power that most troubles this reader. Other writers such as Paul Findley and Mearsheimer have also discussed this danger to American strategic interests and how the "lobby" ensures that all those who challenge its stranglehold on Congress and the media are publicly attacked, denied employment and marginalized. However, Smith provides an unassailably researched work documenting actual criminal activity. In fact, to this reader's knowledge, neither Smith's credibility nor his work's research has ever been successfully challenged.

The America that Smith paints is a disturbing one. He presents a Congress motivated by lobby money, ignorance, indifference to the interests of the American people and influenced by an false image of Israel as a "David v. Goliath" justifying its systematic violations of U.S. law. Personally, I do not begrudge Israelis from engaging in activities to promote the interests of their home state. What I find disgusting and intolerable is when American citizens actively use political and economic leverage to subvert this country's own strategic interests solely to the advantage of a foreign power. In my book this is called "treason," "espionage," and "betrayal." The picture documented by Smith should disturb all patriotic Americans. One truly wonders if this is the America that Washington and Jefferson imagined when they fought our war for independence. Have we substituted one imperial master for another more insidious? Who can doubt that this country was manipulated into the invading Iraq solely to advance Israeli interests? Why did Ahmed Chalabi make a secret visit to Israel in 2002 where he declared that the "road to Baghdad lies through Jerusalem!" Was the war against al-Qaida effectively abandoned in Afghanistan to invade Iraq because the "lobby" took advantage of the 911 attack to push for the invasion of Iraq in order to advance Israeli regional interests? Is it only coincidental that al-Qaida has never attacked Israel? These questions remain to be answered. This reader hopes that Smith will soon apply his demonstrated research and writing abilities to answering these critical questions.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The hugely unsettling truth . . ., March 12, 2010

By 

Dennis R. Jugan (Johnstown, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Spy Trade: How Israel's Lobby Undermines America's Economy (Paperback)

. . . is that Israel's intelligence services have found a seemingly unending number of recruits who are not only willing to betray America, but do so without remuneration because they have decided that Israel's - not America's - advancement is paramount and justifies criminal and/or treasonous behavior." -- the Foreward to "Spy Trade" written by Michael F. Scheuer, former CIA Bin Laden station chief and author of Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq.
.
.
Grant Smith has again written a book in a gloves off, no-nonsense style reminiscent of the 1950's TV crime drama, "Dragnet." But the names HAVEN'T been changed to protect the perpetrators. He bases this book on past and recently declassified documents, the U.S. Defense Investigation Service, and 300 listed sources. Many are appended in this book, linking activities to specific individuals and organizations in Israel and in the Israel Lobby.

Smith details the Zionists' early engagements in arms smuggling following World War II, followed-up by more recent engagements with Iran in "arms for hostages"/Iran-Contra during the decade of the 1980's. He details the theft of classified U.S. military weapons technology and documents (nuclear included) as well as the theft of proprietary corporate intellectual property in pharmaceuticals, high tech, and weapons development/production acquired by infiltrating the military and U.S.corporate interests. Americans will be introduced to members and activities of the Sonneborn Institute and "the Kenya Group." Surprisingly, the latter plot IS NOT SEARCHABLE on Google to this day, much less made available to the American public by the mainstream media and perhaps even through your favorite conspiracy theory outlet.

The book visits the intrigue involved in the establishment of the U.S. free trade agreement with Israel, describes threats made to FBI Directors and U.S. intelligence agency heads as far back as J. Edgar Hoover, and catalogues numerous infiltrations of the White House since FDR's administration to the present day.

More troubling is the perpetrators' immunity from criticism, much less prosecution under clearly defined statutes, and the ineffectiveness and/or reluctance of the legislative and executive branches to declare the Israel lobby an agent of a foreign government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)* of 1938 - all thoroughly investigated in this book.

But most troubling is the perpetrators' insatiable appetite for intrigue coupled with a near total lack of cognition of the obvious harm it has done AND is doing to both the people of the United States AND ISRAEL by its actions. This is the prevailing theme of "Spy Trade."
.
.
REFERENCES: * Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) on Wikipedia

FURTHER READING: -- The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel -- The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy by Murray Friedman -- The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal & American Foreign Policy -- The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy -- "Israeli Surveillance of the Future Hijackers and FBI Suspects in the September 11 Attacks and Their Failure to Give Us Adequate Warning: The Need for a Public Inquiry" **a 166 PAGE REPORT** documenting foreign espionage activities surrounding 9-11, AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET (although rarely in COMPLETE UNEDITED FORM **WITH 5 EXHIBITS AND 4 MAPS**).

19 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Real Problem is not Israel per se, but lack of Integrity in the American Political system, November 22, 2009

By 

Herbert L Calhoun "paulocal" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spy Trade: How Israel's Lobby Undermines America's Economy (Paperback)

This is a carefully documented account of how Israel, since its inception, has used to its advantage (and often the U.S. disadvantage) its American assets to exploit weaknesses in the U.S. political system. And especially how it has used and misused the U.S. election finance laws, how it has exploited easy exposure and access to spying (for both business and security purposes), engaged in illicit trade in and smuggling of arms, and how it has constantly exploited the corrupting influences of lobbying, and other aspects of corruption that seem all but endemic to the American political system.

While this author makes a strong case that Israel's actions have undermined both the U.S. economy and its national security, I believe an even stronger case should have been made that Israel historically, has simply been picking the low hanging fruit of the systemic corruption of the American political system. It is this corrupt system that is being exploited, not just by Israel, but also by other nations. It is just that Israel and its number one surrogate, AIPAC, have a sizable head start in its ability to "game the corruption" extant in the U.S. system. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has also been "gaming" it with proficiency almost equal to that of Israel's.

From its inception (1945-48), and then as an existential matter, Israeli assets were skilful deployed so as to establish a pattern of borderline criminal exploitation of the U.S. political system. As the U.S. was winding down from WW-II, trading surplus arms for much needed cash while assisting an evolving Middle Eastern ally, was a "no brainer." Among many other reasons, giving Israel large caches of surplus weapons relieved the U.S. of the burden of having to dispose of them itself. For Israel, cutting deals that were "borderline" illegal" was a minor moral inconvenience, gladly overcome in the interest of survival. And given the circumstances of the times, our authorities too did little more than wink as this unwritten quid pro quo unfolded and continues to play itself out even today.

For U.S. national security, many have treated Israeli spying, theft of U.S. secrets, its attack on the USS Liberty, etc. as cases of "no harm no foul." It is argued that after all, Israel is our only reliable ally in the Middle East. But more importantly, since 1948, they also have carefully oiled the greasy palms of our greedy politicians and decision makers through our corrupt lobbying system with tons of money. Even today, to a casual observer - and judging solely by how U.S. Congressmen of all political persuasions and across all ideological divisions, obsequiously genuflect in unison and snap to attention to vote for any issues affecting Israeli interests (sometimes even at the detriment of U.S. own interests) -- it would seem that Israel has a very much "protected status" not enjoyed by any other U.S. domestic political groups or other foreign groups of influence.

It is simply incomprehensible that even when the health of our economy and our national security are at stake, our Congressmen (and even some of our Presidents, including the present one) have not been able to find the strength to close the loopholes that leave our political system wide open and our national jugular exposed to the corrupting influence of outsiders. Does anyone other than me still remember the BCCI bank scandal involving the Saudis during the Carter administration? Or, the Bush I and Bill Clinton flirtation with Chinese influence peddling? Or, Reagan's attempt to set up a Contra "arms-for drugs pipeline" that went through Mena, Arkansas? Or his even worse bungled arms for hostage trade with Iran that went through Tel Aviv to Tehran?

While the author has made a well-documented case against Israel, that includes bullying our weak kneed and corrupt Congressmen, a more general case should have been made to the effect that even when Israel occasional goes over the line into criminality, it is not Israel per se that is the problem as much as it is an increasing lack of integrity in the American political system and process itself. It is corruption as far as the eye can see, and not Israel per se, that is the root cause of the problem.

As other nations have been discovering more recently (the Saudis and the Chinese in particular, but also even indirectly, Osama bin Laden's 911 crew) spreading money around in Washington DC equals a lot more than just political access. Often it means you literally get the keys to the U.S. kingdom: everything is allowed, spying, the selling of business and national security secrets, most favorite nation status, trafficking in guns and drugs, high level access: and most of all, unwarranted influence, which includes the ability to bully our weak kneed Congressmen and politicians into "putting their votes wherever the money is."

We have yet to see an Israeli issue that the pre-paid U.S. Congress did not like and could not resist supporting, unless (as the Saudis did in the F-17 purchase) the Israelis are out gunned with dollars by another nation with more money and thus more corrupt influence?

For sure, this kind of corrupt influence peddling comes at a very high cost to the American people and to the integrity of our political system and our democratic process. But who cares about that?

Thus it is true that a thinly argued case is made well here that Israel's shenanigans have affected both the U.S. economy and U.S. national security. However, this case (which perhaps unavoidably seems to have a anti-Semitic edge to it) pales in comparison to the larger issue left untouched by this author: That it is the overall weaknesses in the integrity of the U.S. political structure itself that allows Israeli exploitation. It is this lack of integrity that leaves us vulnerable to being "gamed" by outsiders, including (but not exclusively) by Israel.

As it stands now, our Congress is an open door "co-prosperity sphere" for anyone (or any group or nation) that comes knocking at our politician's doors with bags full of money. Four stars