government terminated all espionage activities in the United States after the Pollard affair. Some believe that Israel's credibility with regard to Franklin is tainted by their insistence in the Pollard case that he likewise was not a spy, a position they maintained for 13 years before admitting, in 1998, that Pollard indeed had been a spy for Israel. Others think the damage that Israel sustained over the Pollard affair makes it unlikely that the country would again jeopardize its relationship with the United States through espionage, and note that the U.S. government has neither registered a protest with the Israelis nor accused its officials of wrongdoing in the AIPAC affair. Pentagon statement: Franklin did not influence policy According to a Pentagon statement, "the investigation involves a single individual at D.O.D. at the desk officer level, who was not in a position to have significant influence over U.S. policy." Context for the investigation Concern about uncontrolled military technology transfers Journalist Jim Lobe suggests that the Franklin story is part of a larger investigation into transfer of sensitive military and dual-use technologies to Israel, including powerful case-management software. A concern is that Israeli companies have then re-sold sensitive U.S.-derived technology to potential U.S. strategic rivals such as Russia and China, and possibly on the black market where it can potentially be obtained by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. Media reaction The Los Angeles Times felt that the government was right to drop its espionage case against Rosen and Weissman, arguing that this was the first time that non-government employees were being prosecuted under the Espionage Act, which they argued was meant to prevent government employees from leaking classified information. The Times argued that prosecuting private civilians would set a president for prosecuting journalists and others who publish leaked information, which "sounds more like Britain's Official Secrets Act than an American law consonant with the 1st Amendment", pointing out that "when Congress passed the Espionage Act, it explicitly rejected a version that would have punished newspapers for printing information "useful to the enemy"." Rosen interview In a television interview broadcast in Israel, Rosen said, "What it would have shown is that I did nothing wrong," he said. "Who did something wrong is the people who brought this case, not just that they were incorrect, but that the attitude they had about Jews, Israel, AIPAC, was completely false, and unfortunately, a lot of that