WASHINGTON BRIEFING : FORMER EDITOR DOUG FRANTZ PROBING NUCLEAR SMUGGLING FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
by Emil Sanamyan

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Friday August 28, 2009

Washington – The former Los Angeles Times editor who stirred up
controversy in the Armenian community is now working for the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee led by Senator John Kerry
(D.-Mass.) According to the committee website, Douglas Frantz was
hired by the committee early this year as chief investigator to probe
financing of nuclear smuggling and other illegal activities.

Mr. Frantz caused controversy in April 2007 after he reassigned a major
story on the Armenian Genocide resolution, initially assigned to Times
journalist Mark Arax, to another writer. In an e-mail that was later
made public, Mr. Frantz alleged that Mr. Arax had a "position on this
issue" that caused a "conflict of interests." (Mr. Frantz’s new boss,
Senator Kerry, is a strong supporter of Armenian Genocide affirmation.)

Mr. Arax had in turn alleged that Mr. Frantz himself may have had
a bias on the issue, having spent years working as a reporter in
Turkey and that he was "heavily involved and invested in defending
the policies of Turkey."

In subsequent months, a number of Armenian-Americans, including
the Armenian Reporter’s editorial page, called on the Times to take
"decisive action" in the case. Mr. Frantz resigned in June 2007.

Mr. Frantz was initially expected to become the Istanbul-based Middle
East bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. But he instead joined
the then newly launched (and since closed) Conde Nast Portfolio
magazine as senior writer and authored a book on the black market in
nuclear technology.

For his part, Mr. Arax also left the Times in June 2007. Last April
he published his third book, this one about life in California.