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TechnoratiSources: Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Promising to Intervene for AIPAC
Rep. Jane Harman, the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.
Harman was recorded saying she would "waddle into" the AIPAC case "if you think it'll make a difference," according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.
In exchange for Harman's help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.
Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, "This conversation doesn't exist."
Harman declined to discuss the wiretap allegations, instead issuing an angry denial through a spokesman.
"These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact," Harman said in a prepared statement. "I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves."
It's true that allegations of pro-Israel lobbyists trying to help Harman get the chairmanship of the intelligence panel by lobbying and raising money for Pelosi aren't new.
They were widely reported in 2006, along with allegations that the FBI launched an investigation of Harman that was eventually dropped for a "lack of evidence."
What is new is that Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.
And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for "lack of evidence," it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush's top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.
Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.
As for there being "no evidence" to support the FBI probe, a source with first-hand knowledge of the wiretaps called that "bull****."
"I read those transcripts," said the source, who like other former national security officials familiar with the transcript discussed it only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of domestic NSA eavesdropping.
"It's true," added another former national security official who was briefed on the NSA intercepts involving Harman. "She was on there."
Such accounts go a long way toward explaining not only why Harman was denied the gavel of the House Intelligence Committee, but failed to land a top job at the CIA or Homeland Security Department in the Obama administration.
Gonzales said through a spokesman that he would have no comment on the allegations in this story.
The identity of the "suspected Israeli agent" could not be determined with certainty, and officials were extremely skittish about going beyond Harman's involvement to discuss other aspects of the NSA eavesdropping operation against Israeli targets, which remain highly classified.
But according to the former officials familiar with the transcripts, the alleged Israeli agent asked Harman if she could use any influence she had with Gonzales, who became attorney general in 2005, to get the charges against the AIPAC officials reduced to lesser felonies.
Rosen had been charged with two counts of conspiring to communicate, and commnicating national defense information to people not entitled to receive it. Weissman was charged with conspiracy.
AIPAC dismissed the two in May 2005, about five months before the events here unfolded.
Harman responded that Gonzales would be a difficult task, because he "just follows White House orders," but that she might be able to influence lesser officials, according to an official who read the transcript.
Justice Department attorneys in the intelligence and public corruption units who read the transcripts decided that Harman had committed a "completed crime," a legal term meaning that there was evidence that she had attempted to complete it, three former officials said.
And they were prepared to open a case on her, which would include electronic surveillance approved by the so-called FISA Court, the secret panel established by the 1979 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to hear government wiretap requests.
First, however, they needed the certification of top intelligence officials that Harman's wiretapped conversations justified a national security investigation.
Then-CIA Director Porter J. Goss reviewed the Harman transcript and signed off on the Justice Department's FISA application. He also decided that, under a protocol involving the separation of powers, it was time to notify then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Minority Leader Pelosi, of the FBI's impending national security investigation of a member of Congress - to wit, Harman.
Goss, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, deemed the matter particularly urgent because of Harman's rank as the panel's top Democrat.
But that's when, according to knowledgeable officials, Attorney General Gonzales intervened.
According to two officials privy to the events, Gonzales said he "needed Jane" to help support the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which was about to be exposed by the New York Times.
Harman, he told Goss, had helped persuade the newspaper to hold the wiretap story before, on the eve of the 2004 elections. And although it was too late to stop the Times from publishing now, she could be counted on again to help defend the program
He was right.
On Dec. 21, 2005, in the midst of a firestorm of criticism about the wiretaps, Harman issued a statement defending the operation and slamming the Times, saying, "I believe it essential to U.S. national security, and that its disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities."
Pelosi and Hastert never did get the briefing.
And thanks to grateful Bush administration officials, the investigation of Harman was effectively dead.
Many people want to keep it that way.
Goss declined an interview request, and the CIA did not respond to a request to interview former Director Michael V. Hayden , who was informed of the Harman transcripts but chose to take no action, two knowledgeable former officials alleged.
Likewise, the first director of national intelligence, former ambassador John D. Negroponte, was opposed to an FBI investigation of Harman, according to officials familiar with his thinking, and let the matter die. (Negroponte was traveling last week and did not respond to questions relayed to him through an assistant.)
Harman dodged a bullet, say disgusted former officials who have pursued the AIPAC case for years. She was protected by an administration desperate for help.
"It's the deepest kind of corruption," said a recently retired longtime national security official who was closely involved in AIPAC investigation, "which was years in the making.
"It's a story about the corruption of government - not legal corruption necessarily, but ethical corruption."
Ironically, however, nothing much was gained by it.
The Justice Department did not back away from charging AIPAC officials Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman with espionage (for allegedly giving classified Pentagon documents to Israeli officials).
Gonzales was engulfed by the NSA warrantless wiretapping scandal.
And Jane Harman was relegated to chairing a House Homeland Security subcommittee.
44 Comments so far
Show AllI feel no sympathy for Harman, a war supporter who's voted against her home constituency every time. However, it's kind of difficult to get behind the idea that the NSA is playing the hero here.
The NSA taps our phone and Internet connections. If the NSA really were to play the hero, it would stop doing that and release the Bush and Dick Cheney war crimes tapes, assuming they exist.
The idea of selling influence to a foreign agent is bad enough, but what if a Congressmember sells his or her influence to a corporation? Doesn't that happen daily with the lot of them?
-TIA
Another Jewish Traitor For Israel,
Betraying the US to aid two
MORE Jewish Traitors for Israel......
-Today HAARETZ reports the US may attack Iran or okay Israel's attack
for settlement concessions in the West Bank made with the Palestinian Authority-
What world do their readers live in?
Ya know, for all the hype, the MOSSAD is a clown outfit. The Five Dancing Israeli's. Talking on the phone to Jane? Illiterate crack-dealers buy throw away cells, have someone else talk, then throw the cell away.
Pride cometh before the fall, and these arrogant jackasses just are not all that...."By way of deception," oooohhhhh scary, tremble tremble.
This would be Espionage for a civilian,
But for a politician it is not a crime
because the system supports America's betrayal
to Israel.
I agree with those who call this treason, but Harman will _never_ be prosecuted.
Harman has entered the ranks of our governing class. And she will faithfully represent its interests and continue in office, even if she has to fund her own campaign. And her peers would not have it any other way. But we all know about _Buckley v. Valeo_ so let's move on...
Go to opensecrets.org.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.php?CID=N00006750&year=2006
And prepare to be astonished even further. Ms. Harman has risen in the economic ranks (worth between a quarter billion and half a billion dollars) through _government work_ alone! How many bureaucrats and/or politicians can claim that? Unlike Bill Gates or Spielberg or Lucas or Buffet or Soros, Harman has generated nothing for civilization, the sciences or the arts. Unless she's an heiress or married a sugar daddy...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Harman
Why do we insist on electing these types? As another individual once wrote, "Elect millionaires and only millionaires will get representation..."
What a world, what a world.
It's never too late to ruin the career of an Israeli bootlicker.
Perhaps there is one usage to wiretapping after all: detecting corruption in politicians. I oppose wiretapping as it is an infringement of civil liberties, but on this one, I am forced to say, lets make an exception.
We should also add corrupt businesspeople as the conversations that need to be kept a record upon. The business community has shown itself to be too untrustworthy and needs to be kept an eye upon.
These records should be available in the public for analysis by independent groups.
It seems as though there are treacherous people everywhere. Maybe its past time to bear down and regulate these foreign lobby groups diligently to prevent them from buying and subverting members of Congress and spying on the country.
I am shocked, shocked to hear Jane Harman lobbying for AIPAC. Haven't I seen this movie already?
Can you spell T R E A S O N ?
Do we need illegal wiretaps to tell us that the US Congress is bought & paid for & subject to AIPAC's every whim, when we saw what was done to Chas Freeman, or what's done to any public official who begins to point out that Israel is not a state of noble sufferers but as racist and brutal a state as apartheid South Africa?
If any terrorist organization ever uses a nuclear device against a major city, it will be a Nizzi terrorist organization following the internal collapse of the Nizzi state.
"Harman, he told Goss, had helped persuade the newspaper to hold the wiretap story before, on the eve of the 2004 elections. "
That is the NYT i assume?
They deserve to be consigned to the dustbin of history along with all the outdated media clinging onto their control of the means of production and distribution.
"And they were prepared to open a case on her, which would include electronic surveillance approved by the so-called FISA Court, the secret panel established by the 1979 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to hear government wiretap requests."
If Obama had not approved FISA, this case would never have it's day in court. The guy is a chess playing martial artist.
Sounds to me like she was caught with a FISA warrant which was the same as the original FISA court warrant.
These warrants were available before Obama even thought about becoming a Senator.
What Obama voted for was to give immunity to the telecoms who knowingly broke the law and surveilled millions of USA citizens for Bush et.al. and thus provide legal cover for Bush's et.al. warrantless wire taps.
Obama could not have known that Harman was under surveillance at the time. His game is not chess but pinochle.
You think the spooks forgot to brief him on this?
I am completely ingrossed in the fact that the NSA is spying on Congressmen and women.
Good, let the right vs. left spying end with Bushs exit , and the left vs. right spying begin with Presidents Obamas entrance. We have 4 years to catch up, and 8 if we re-elect.
All dogs have thier day, and its time for the self righeous right to pay for 7 years of gang stalking warrant less surveillance torture.
By the way , will some one please investigate the AA organizations accross this country. Thats right, as if folks fighting for sobriety don't have enough issues, there immoral and unethical well to do elite old timers are recruiting and using AA members as gang stalking spys for the purpose of 24/7 torture surveillance.
How sick are these people in these organizations?????
Don't forget that Harman is the author of the Orwellian "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act", HR 1955. Under this bill, which passed Congress overwhelmingly, people like Martin Luther King and Ghandi might be labeled as terrorists. See a summary here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HR_1955.
it didn't pass overwhelmingly: The House passed it, but it was abandoned in the Senate because the public got wind of its content.
odoco:
The bill passed the in House 404 to 6, which is pretty overwhelming. I incorrectly said Congress.
According to the Wikipedia article, however, "Reports that the Senate bill is ... dead are unsubstantiated."
In my estimation this story is not really about a prostitute of a congressional representative whoring for the highest bidder. This story is about the intel establishment seeking justification for their assault on the personal privacy of all Americans. This story is also about the Intel establishment beginning to try and rein in the outrageous activities of Israel and its fifth column front group, the AIPAC.
Today, thanks to illegal intrusions on the privacy of a congerssional representative, we have documented proof that not only is a congressional representative masquerading as an agent for a foreign government, we also should be aware that others in the Congress and the Senate are almost certainly doing the same thing.
So, freedom and privacy loving and Zionist excess-hating progressives, do you want this abuse to go on or are you willing to give up something as abstract and vague as "privacy" and "due process" in order to allow our beloved and dear fascist leaders to stop such outrageous conduct? After all, as Big Brother never tires of reminding us. "only the guilty have something to hide". Don't answer too quickly now because whatever you say is fraught with all manner of unforseen consequences.
Poet
I believe this was a legal original Fisa Court wire tap warrant which is acceptable to many people, it is the Bush era laws and crimes that most progressives refuse to accept.
This is an agent of a foreign government masquerading as a congresswoman, not a congresswoman masquerading as a foreign agent.
Poet, unless I read the article wrong, Harman was nailed during a court approved fisa phone tap. Not one of the illegal ones done at bush's request.
That being said, I'm surprised at the lack of outrage over the issue. Any foreign agent trying to influence the gov't of a country is not to be trusted, usually those people are members of the diplomatic service (the polite way of getting your way in the world), from what the article implies the 'Israeli agents' were not in the diplomatic service...
"Poet, unless I read the article wrong, Harman was nailed during a court approved fisa phone tap. Not one of the illegal ones done at bush's request."
Isn't the (formerly secret) FISA court supposed to approve/disapprove tapping ONLY calls between numbers inside the United States and numbers outside the country? I'm not sure of this, but if thats the case then FISA had no authority over this particular issue because the calls were conducted entirely inside the U.S. Secrets courts inside the U.S. Oh, I'm certain the founders would have no problem with this.
Ekaton, I had almost dispaired that anybody would raise the issue of FISA--thank you for not disappointing. FISA, while it is a good idea in principle, has over the past 30 years been nothing more than a rubber stamp for the intel community. It is only one election from being rendered completely irrelevent as the controversy over reforms in 2008 proved.
This is a controversy with no easy solutions--technology always is ahead of legislation intended to keep its use within the bounds of due process.
Poet
'What is new is that Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.'
From the article, it seems that she was nailed by a court approved tap. I suppose that would imply that the phone call was coming from outside of the usa at the time...
Yes and the Irony of it all.. she gets caught by a phone tap that she was working to authorize and did.
Actually, that is quite delicous is it not?
It just gets dirtier and dirtier doesn't it? Is it any wonder The Democrats complied with every request from the Bush White House and why the new administration rushes to shield those war criminals from prosecution?
They are all in it . They all drink from the same cup of corruption.
If people think this the worst of it they should think again. Generally when information such as this becames public knowledge, it because it deemed the LEAST harmful.
It tends to be used to distract attention from even more crimes.
Needless to say none of this really matters in Obama's America. One cant look back can they...? Ultimately who did what to whom, whether torture or murder or treason is NOT THAT important. Its in the past.
So give your spirit wings to soar... Now is everywhere. Forward is Now.
Palace intrigue.
Just move along, commoner, nothing to see here.
Business as usual -- you pay.
with a sucker born.... It is time to take back the USA for us USA'ns.
geez - the american government is full of liars and jewish collaborators
i had no idea
wait til god hears about this
we're supposed to be kissing his ass - not israel's
Call Pelosi's office and demand that Harman be taken off every House Committee and her intelligence rating be downgraded to zero. Also begin movement in her district to replace her in the upcoming primaries / election. Every American should demand this woman's removal from any position of power within our government.
Something's goin on.... Love the Revolution.
If this ain't treason, I don't know what is.
You are exactly right Jim - this is treason, by any definition.
It makes you wonder who the US govt is serving...The US or Israel? Might as well rename the US of A to the US of I.
Cruelty and Greed have turned our Republic into a Fascist Dictatorship. Is it not time to secede and start all over?
DUMP DUMP HARMAN
This just proves once again that members of our Congress are bought and controlled by AIPAC.
Video shown of Bush making Vampire out of young boy, Obama says Look Straight Ahead and keep walking.
Actually it is simply one more affirmation that "your* members of congress" are prostitutes.
Like all prostitutes, they will "do" for the highest bidder whatever the "bidder" wants.
So, the most likely answer here is not to "kick the whores out"---but to "out bid" the other "bidders"...........or here's a "fresh idea"---take the "money guys" out of the scene----------then the bidding stops, and your "true love" will be "true to you".........It IS something that has never been tried before; it might even work.
* It's your country America, stop complaining about the mess you have made of it and clean it up.
Good Luck America, you really need it.
I have to agree with you. Many congresspeople amount to political prostitutes.
well, ya know, there are some things even a prostitute won't do for money...