Mall rats: the FBI's favorite place to snag targets is the Pentagon City Mall.

• Author: Sullivan, Amy

One of the many mini-scandals burbling around Washington these days involves two former officials for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), who were recently indicted on charges that they conspired to pass along national defense intelligence to Israel. Reading up on the scandal in order to pass muster at the various summer pundit picnics around town, I noticed that the breakthrough in the FBI's investigation took place when a Pentagon analyst who had been flipped by the Bureau arranged to wear a wire and meet one of the men in front of Nordstrom's at the Pentagon City Mall.

Suddenly, a light bulb went on over my head. Isn't that the same mall where Linda Tripp lured Monica Lewinsky into an FBI trap and started the ball rolling on impeachment? Maybe it was just a coincidence. Or maybe not. I did a little research, and it turns out that the mall has been the location of choice for a number of federal stings and investigations.

What is it about this shopping mall that makes it such an appealing spot for our nation's top law enforcement squads? I called the FBI to find out, but a taciturn press officer declined to comment. So, I decided to take a trip across the river to check it out myself (and maybe covet a pastel-colored Kitchen Aid mixer as long as I was already there).

The glass-topped shopping center (official name: "The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City") is in the heart of the capitol's military industrial complex. Just a few lanes of traffic and an overpass away--less than half a mile--is the Pentagon, home to thousands of military and civilian employees. Men and women in uniform can be spotted every day at the mall, browsing through stores after work or snacking in the food court on their lunch hour. It would have been just a hop, stick, and jump, then, for Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, who walked over from his office last July to meet up with AIPAC official Keith Weissman.

The two men chatted, surrounded by the potted plants that flank the entrance to Nordstrom's department store, and possibly--if they're anything like me--slightly nauseated by the variety of scents mingling in the air around the nearby perfume counters. The conversation was brief but allegedly incriminating. Franklin had been confronted a month earlier by investigators, and agreed to help sting Weissman by wearing a wire and passing along information that he portrayed as government intelligence about potential threats to American and Israeli...