US Department
of State investigation files reveal the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee's (AIPAC) director received classified US national defense
information. In 1975 the Ford administration
tried to sell improved Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Jordan
and duly sent notification
containing classified Department of Defense data to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee. AIPAC's
Director Morris Amitay reviewed the classified
document after being informed "secretly by aides of Senator Clifford P.
Case, Republican of New Jersey, and Representative Jonathan B. Bingham,
Democrat of New York" according to the New York Times.
According to
criminal investigation files released on January 20, 2012, this
disclosure to AIPAC was "unauthorized" and included the dollar amounts
and quantitative configurations of the missile system. The State
Department considered "The specific details of Jordan's military
equipment needs are information provided us in confidence by that
government. The classification of the documents in question was, in our
view, substantively proper."
