Washington Report, April 18, 1983, Page 5

Lobby Activities

For Arabs:

The National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA)—saying that it will "exhaust" all legal means, if necessary, to determine the truth—has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice for the release of information on the alleged passing of state secrets to Israel by a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff member in 1978. The action is the latest in a series of steps taken by NAAA, which has doggedly pursued the case for the last five years in an effort to reveal possible espionage violations by an official who now holds a sensitive position in the Defense Department.

The episode began in March of 1978 when the official, Stephen Bryen, was overheard by Michael Saba—a businessman and former NAAA director—to be offering classified Pentagon documents to Israeli officials, according to Mr. Saba's affidavit filed with the Justice Department. Mr. Bryen—who was then with the Foreign Relations Committee and is currently at the Pentagon overseeing technology transfers as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Economic, Trade and Security Policy—was subsequently investigated by the Department of Justice for over one year. When the Justice Department ruled in 1980 that its investigation was closed, NAAA filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all information relating to the Bryen case. Four months later, in August of 1980, the Justice Department informed NAAA that it had an estimated 600 pages of documents which "contain the records you seek."

Documents Misplaced

It was more than two years later before NAAA received any documents at all—and when it did, it turned out to be only 111 pages of what the Justice Department said was a "working file." All the documents in the original file containing some 600 pages of material "could not be located," according to the Department. It added that there was no way "to identify what records, if any, were missing."

The suit filed by NAAA on April 6 requested that an investigation be conducted to try to find the approximately 400 pages of "missing" documents and to determine how the papers were lost. NAAA is also asking the Justice Department to provide additional documents from its "working file"—documents which it says were also withheld.

Among the 111 pages released by the Department was a 1979 memorandum which NAAA believes adds much weight to its allegations of possible espionage violations. Written by John Davitt, the then-Chief of the Internal Security Division of the Justice Department's Criminal Division to Phillip Heymann, who at that time was Assistant Attorney General, the memo states: "We urge strongly ... an investigative grand jury. Some of the unresolved questions ... suggest that Bryen is a) gathering classified information for the Israelis, b) acting as their unregistered agent and c) lying about it..."

For Israel:

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) promptly responded to King Hussein's announced refusal on April 10 to enter Middle East peace negotiations by criticizing the Reagan Administration's Middle East diplomacy as "pro-Arab" and calling on it to "put U.S.-Israel relations back on a positive footing."

In a statement released April 11 titled "King Hussein's Rejection," AIPAC had very little to say specifically about Hussein's decision not to enter the talks, and instead used the occasion to publicize what it considers to be the flaws in President Reagan's policy toward the Middle East. "The Administration," according to the statement, "has tried to bring about progress in the Middle East by offering a steady stream of concessions to the Arab camp, working in close consultation with them, while employing a wide variety of threats and sanctions against Israel and refusing to deal with her as an ally." As examples, AIPAC said the Administration has "implied to the Arabs" that it stands ready to use foreign aid to pressure Israel "to accept Arab demands;" and that the Administration has "suspended most important" arms sales to Israel.

While AIPAC was criticizing the Administration's efforts to bring Hussein into negotiations, a retired Israeli general gave a different point of view on how to solve the West Bank problem. In a luncheon address to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Mattityahu Peled—who was sharply criticized by the Israeli government last January for meeting with Yasser Arafat—said the Palestinians should have their own state alongside Israel, which, he added, does not need the West Bank "for any reason, particularly security." In response to a question General Peled said that uncritical support for Israel by some Jewish Americans was a position "hard to defend." He recommended that they get involved in debating the issues, "as is going on in Israel." His visit to the U.S. was sponsored by the America-Israel Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace—an American organization modeled after a peace group in Israel founded in 1975 by General Peled.