DECATHECT
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A Pentagon official associated with a controversial Pentagon unit run by foreign policy hawks has been stripped of his security clearance after the FBI linked him to a Lebanese-American businessman under federal weapons investigation. The official, F Michael Maloof, came to the attention of the FBI and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a .45-caliber handgun was seized from the businessman, Imad el Hage, at Washington's Dulles International Airport in January. It was the handgun that led the FBI to Maloof, the sources said ...

 
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Maloof, 60, is a veteran Pentagon aide who had been working in the Office of Special Plans[OSP], a controversial unit run by neoconservatives who critics say manipulated intelligence to press for war against Iraq and who prepared administration plans for running Iraq after the war ... el Hage is known to be an ardent anti-Syrian and backer of the hard-line Lebanese Christian faction led by Michel Aoun.'
 
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