Via bdu:

"[T]he FBI has a full-fledged espionage investigation under way and is about to -- in FBI terminology -- "roll up" someone agents believe has been spying not for an enemy, but for Israel from within the office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon." [CBS News]

The history of Israeli / American military and intelligence relations is well documented. The U.S. spied on Israel, Israel spied on the U.S. The two countries ostensibly cooperate, but only as much as benefits one another.

In 1967, during the six-day Arab Israeli war, the USS Liberty was anchored in international waters off the Sinai Peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea. The Liberty was collecting signals intelligence: monitoring the radio traffic on both sides during the war. It is believed that the Liberty intercepted radio conversations that supported claims of Israeli war crimes.

Israeli reconnaissance aircraft examined The Liberty, identifying her as a U.S. flagged ship. The Israeli army then attacked The Liberty for two hours, first with attack jets, then a second round of jets dropped napalm on the ship. Torpedo boats then attacked The Liberty. As the crew abandoned ship, Israeli soldiers attempted to sink The Liberty's life rafts with machine gun fire.

34 American soldiers were killed that day, 172 were injured.

The same people who attacked The Liberty, radical israelis, those driven to win at all costs, believing the ends justify any means, are those advising the Bush administration on Middle East policy. The radical neoconservative extremists in the Pentagon, State Department, and the Republican party are very closely tied with radical elements of the Israeli government. AIPAC, a pro-Israel special interest group, was the source of a great deal of U.S. policy on Iraq, believing that war in Iraq would change the balance of power in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, it is not a surprise that Israeli interests have the ear of Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, and Paul Wolfowitz. The connections are clear and documented. Perle was caught on tape discussing classified information with members of the Israeli embassy. Perle accepted a $50,000 payment from an Israeli arms manufacturer. The incestuous links go on and on.

Radical Israeli interests are intertwined within the Bush administration. We've seen the disasterous results, alienating the U.S. from the rest of the world, starting a war based on lies. These irrational interests had been kept in check until the September 11th attacks provided ammunition for radical hawks within the U.S. government to push ahead with policies like "preemption" and total surveillance of its own citizens.

I find the whole situation rather depressing. My only hope is that the peaceful revolution guaranteed every four years by the Constitution does its job, putting rational leaders in the place of the ideologues appointed by the Bush administration.