The Pentagon analyst at the center of an FBI investigation involving classified information being given to Israel is a career civil servant who specialized in Iranian affairs within the policy branch of the Office of the Secretary of Defense under Donald H. Rumsfeld. Lawrence A. Franklin, 57, is suspected of passing classified information about U.S. policy with Iran to a pro-Israel lobbying firm in the District, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which passed on the information to Israeli officials. Mr. Franklin began his Pentagon career as a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst specializing in Soviet affairs. Sometime after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, he turned his focus to the Middle East and learned Farsi, the predominant language of Iran.
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