Conflicting Versions Of Gore's Role In The Ciralsky Case
Yated Ne'eman - February 18, 2000
[Excerpted from GORE HOLDS SECRET MEETING WITH
SHARPTON
Yated Ne'eman February 18, 2000]
[SEE Justice4JP Notes following this article.]
...[Vice President Al]Gore, has also been paying attention to his base among Jewish voters as well. Last week, how ever, his name became involved inthe controversy over accusations made by Adam Ciralsky that he was the subject of anti-Semitic discrimination and accusations while he worked as a first year lawyer for the CIA. Ciralsky's charges were the subject of a national news broadcast during which an unidentified and disguised CIA official accused the Israeli government of seeking to recruit religious American Jews to spy on the United States.
That accusation prompted a letter of protest by Agudas Yisroel to CIA Director George Tenet protesting the CIA's revival of the "canard of 'dual loyalty" and stereotype of Jew as the "untrustworthy outsider," and it demanded that the CIA stop engaging in "offensive religious stereotyping."
Tenet did not respond directly to the Agudas Yisroel letter, but he has vehemently denied that the CIA tolerates anti-Semitism.Ciralsky's accusations and the CIA's response has caused deep concern within the American Jewish community, and prompted two respected leaders to approach Vice President Gore to intervene, apparently with markedly different results.
The Forward newspaper reports that Ciralsky's lawyer Neal Sher, claims that a high official within the Gore campaign simply ignored his urgent request for the Vice President to intervene in the case on behalf of his client. Sher is best know for his work as a Nazi hunter for the U.S. Justice Department, and he has remained active in Jewish affairs since leaving governtment service.
However the Executive Vice Chairman of the Presidents Conference, Malcolm Hoenlein, tells a markedly different story.
Hoenlein says that when he raised Ciralsky's case with the vice president directly, "he was very concerned about it. He did follow it up." Hoenlein said that Gore's involvement was "probably one of the factors" that led to the appointment of a panel of private citizens to review materials from the case for indications of anti-Semitism.
Given Hoenlein's testimony of Gore's direct involvement in the case, it seems likely that Sher's unsatisfactory experience was likely the fault of the campaign subordinate he consulted, rather than any insensitivity on the part of the Vice President to Jewish issues.
Justice4JP Note
: VP Al Gore's "involvement" as described by Malcolm Hoenlien - handing the matter over to a panel of private citizens to review - is what is known as a "lateral pass". In this way the Vice President ducked responsiblity for the entire matter. Here is what Lesley Stahl had to say about this panel in her 60 Minutes interview of Ciralsky:"Lesley Stahl: ...
The CIA appointed a panel of prominent citizens,
including American Jews to review the case. The panel concluded that anti-Semitism
played no role, though Ciralsky says the group only saw what the CIA
wanted it to see.
And he points out that CIA Director George Tenet sent a letter to the Anti-Defamation League describing the language used in CIA memos about the case as "insensitive, unprofessional and highly inappropriate," and as a result, the CIA hired the Anti-Defamation League to provide sensitivity training [for a fee] to the mole hunters."
Justice4JP reminds readers that at the inception of the Pollard case, similar "panels" of prominent persons - largely consisting of establishment/organizational Jews - were formed to "investigate" the affair. These prominent Jews bent over backwards to deny any semblance of anti-Semitism in the case. They turned a blind eye to blatant judicial irregularities and completely ignored the lack of due process. They are still careful, 15 years later, to continue to "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil".
No matter how blatantly discriminatory the treatment of Jonathan Pollard continues to be, they will not openly acknowledge it, nor protest his being singled out in any meaningful way. Also, to this very day Abe Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) - still busy selling their services to the CIA - remain a part of the problem in the Pollard Case and not a part of the solution. Ditto, Malcolm Hoenlien and the Conference of Presidents, who in 15 years have never once included the issue of Jonathan Pollard on the agenda of any official meeting with the White House.
See Also: