A NEW BOOK AND THE USUAL SUSPECTS ENDORSE THE USUAL CRAP ABOUT THE ISRAEL LOBBY
SPY TRADE: How Israel’s Lobby Undermines America’s Economy
by Grant F. Smith
Foreword by Michael Scheuer, former chief, CIA Bin Laden unit
“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.â€
“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 Hubrisâ€
“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 Israel’s Lobby
“Grant F. Smith is without peer as an archival scholar of the history of the Zionist power configuration operating in tandem inside and outside of the US government. His meticulous research on the long-term operations of AIPAC in shaping US Middle East policy provides the best contemporary framework for understanding our involvement in Middle East wars. He shows how American foreign policy in the Middle East follows Israel’s agenda and documents the enormous cost to our Treasury and economy as well as the loss of American lives. This is a book that should be read by all citizens who are concerned about the aggressive manipulation of our media and political institutions to enhance Israel’s power and further its privileged position in the Middle East.” James Petras, Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York
About the Book
Israel and its American lobby have committed audacious but generally unknown crimes against the United States. Government secrecy across the CIA, FBI, Department of Justice and Pentagon 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. This germ of immunity soon flowered into a full scale assault on American industry, the electoral system, national defense secrets and rule of law itself.
Spy Trade probes Israel lobby smuggling operations diverting uranium from the US to Israel’s Dimona nuclear weapons facility. The US Department Justice 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 failed it generated a massive counterstrike.
Israel lobby campaign finance violations unleashed a network of coordinated stealth political action committees that intimidated American politicians and made a “pro-Israel” outlook and voting record requirements for staying in government. A new legal battle to regulate the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as a political action committee—this time launched by concerned citizens—began two decades ago but has not yet been resolved.
Spy Trade also 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 Jonathan Pollard espionage incident 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. Trade privileges obtained by Israel under the treaty not only permit financing illegal settlement construction with proceeds from diamonds sold in the US. The US pharmaceutical industry faces an unrelenting onslaught against its capacity to innovate and protect its intellectual property.
Spy Trade is much more than a groundbreaking dissection of the tactics Israel and its American lobby repeatedly use to evade justice. The book also provides stunningly simple strategies for ending criminal immunity and subversion of law enforcement that may someday restore American governance.
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