JTA:

Avigdor Lieberman asked an Israeli diplomat involved in a Pentagon classified leaks case to be his chief of staff.

Lieberman, the foreign minister in the new Benjamin Netanyahu government, has asked Naor Gilon to take the top career slot at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, JTA has learned, effectively making Gilon his right hand man.

Gilon must clear a Foreign Ministry admissions committee before the announcement is formal, a process that has been delayed by the Passover holiday.

Gilon, then the political officer at Israel's Washington embassy, allegedly met multiple times between 2002 and 2005 with Lawrence Franklin, a mid-level Iran analyst at the Pentagon who has since pleaded guilty in the case. The men allegedly discussed Iran's nuclear program and its disruptive role in Iraq.

Franklin's indictment alleges that Gilon did minor favors for Franklin and on at least one occasion the two men discussed classified information.

Posted by Laura at April 17, 2009 01:57 PM