WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Newly released US Department of State investigation files reveal how the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) acquisition of classified US national defense information harmed national security. (Web documents) In 1976 the Ford administration proposed selling improved Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Jordan. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee received a classified Department of Defense notification of sale. AIPAC’s Director Morris Amitay reviewed the classified document after being informed “secretly by aides of Senator Clifford P. Case, Republican of New Jersey, and Representative Jonathan B. Bingham, Democrat of New York” according to the New York Times.
Criminal investigation files released on January 20, 2012 confirm the disclosure to AIPAC was “unauthorized” and included the dollar amounts and quantitative configurations of the missile system. The State Department found that “�specific details of Jordan’s military equipment needs are information provided us in confidence by that government. The classification of the documents in question was, in our view, substantively proper.” More