One of the Pentagon’s top analysts working on Iran — Larry Franklin — has been arrested for passing top secret information to employees of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The highly classified information was then passed on to Israeli officials. Franklin turned himself in on Wednesday and denied any wrongdoing. He has been under investigation for a year. He faces up to 10 years in prison. AIPAC is not named in the criminal complaint but government officials had previously said Franklin met with two officials from the organization at a restaurant in June 2003. Two weeks ago, those two men — AIPAC’s policy director Steve Rosen and Iran specialist Keith Weissman — left the organization. Franklin has been accused of providing AIPAC with a draft presidential directive that proposed a tougher policy on Iran, which included consideration of covert action towards regime change. The Guardian of London described the arrest as a serious blow to neoconservatives in the Pentagon. Franklin was a close associate of outgoing under-secretary of defence and chief neoconservative Douglas Feith.