IRmep Center for Policy and Law Enforcement
On April 23, 2007, IRmep filed a formal submission urging that evidence presented by the US Attorney’s Office in the AIPAC espionage case not be undermined or dismissed on public disclosure technicalities or behind-the-scenes pressure applied by big media companies. IRmep also sent a copy of the article titled “Is the Media Sabotaging the AIPAC Spy Trial” to Judge T.S. Ellis III and the prosecution team, Kevin DiGregory and William N. Hammerstrom.
On March 13, 2007 major corporate media companies filed an “emergency motion for leave to intervene” in the trial. The corporate media giants demanded that the prosecution not be allowed to use any wire intercepts and other classified material in their prosecution under coded reference, unless it was declassified and made available to all members of the public, including the press. The prosecution wanted to established CIPA procedures to avoid disclosing sources and methods the US utilizes to protect America against Israeli espionage. These CIPA procedures would have allowed defendants and the defense team access to all classified information.
It is IRmep’s conclusion that the corporate media outlets involved in the motion are not intervening in good faith. Several have been the recipients of classified information allegedly purloined by AIPAC, including the Washington Post and Reuters. Their filing confirms their belief that newspapers must be free to publish stolen classified information selectively released by a foreign lobby. But their belief is highly suspect. A review of recent past cases involving demands to disclose classified information as well as sources and methods in espionage trials reveals that the press normally *universally condemns* this defense tactic as a type of “blackmail” (more precisely referred to as “graymail”.)
IRmep’s filing simply states the obvious: Allowing a foreign lobby like AIPAC to systematically scour the US government for classified information, then divulging or trafficking it to further the interests of Israel is not in America’s best interest. The corporate media has shown time after time its willingness to be manipulated by selectively released classified information, pushed by both lobbies and government actors. Mainstream media’s highly compromised press coverage of the buildup to the Iraq invasion is only the most recent tragic case in point.
In a positive development, Judge Ellis ordered that copies of the April 23, 2007 IRmep filing and copies of “Is the Media Sabotaging the AIPAC Spy Trial” be delivered by the clerk to all “counsel of record.” However, he also indicated that in the weeks before the trial begins (June 4, 2007), subsequent ex parte submissions from IRmep will not be accepted by the court.