Harman's Wiretap Woes and the AIPAC Cabal by Marcy Winograd How ironic that I made my decision to challenge Jane Harman in 2006 after watching her Meet the Press interview in which she lambasted the New York Times for breaking the story about the Bush administration's massive illegal wiretapping. "Oh my God," I told my husband, who was doing Sunday sit-ups in front of the television set, "this woman needs to be challenged -- on the wiretaps, on the war, and on her collusion with the Bush mob."
By the time I poured my coffee and grabbed my cell phone, I was off and running, campaigning as an insurgent Democratic Party peace candidate in the 36th congressional district. Now we see another page in the script, if we believe reporter Jeff Stein that Harman's sycophantic defense of the FISA violations was part of the deal: She, in return for then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' help in halting an FBI investigation, would do her best to defend and deflect attention from the illegal wiretaps. The fact that Harman, herself, was wiretapped, perhaps with good reason, is simply serendipitous poetry. And now it gets interesting. Will the Democratic Party establishment ignore this latest development in a longstanding corruption scandal? With Harman's next primary more than a year away, ignoring her quid-pro-quo may seem to be a viable strategy. But if ignoring it doesn't work, then the party establishment may need to distract people with something even more insidious than a Democratic Party congresswoman in bed with agents of a foreign power. Diverting attention elsewhere could make establishment Democrats do something they have been reluctant to do -- prosecute the Bush administration torturers, shine the spotlight on those who gave the orders and provided legal cover to waterboard and more. This is the kind of cover a progressive Democrat could relish. Since the Harman-AIPAC story broke - again -- friends and bloggers, including members of the Progressive Democrats of America have emailed me, asking, "Will you run again in 2010?" My response has been, "Or sooner?" (Politicians, even grassroots activists like myself, know how to answer a tough question with a question.) Whether Harman and the Democratic establishment can stand this heat, this pall, remains to be seen, though I wouldn't be surprised if a special election snuck up on us before 2010. The best part about this story is not what we know, but what we don't know, the questions that beg to be answered. Who was going to lobby House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make Harman the Chair of the Intelligence Committee? Maybe a moneyed bundler or perhaps even a congressperson connected to AIPAC, a true-believer in Israel, someone who would never raise a question about illegal Israeli settlements, home demolitions, 1948 massacres of Palestinian villages, or Israeli occupations of Lebanon. Right after the 2006 primary, Israel invaded Lebanon. As the Israeli bombs turned Lebanese neighborhoods into blood-filled craters, Harman went on television to justify the invasion. Never mind the carpet bombing. Days later, after I, together with LA Jews for Peace, organized demonstrations in front of the Israeli consulate, Harman invited me and a dozen others who worked on my campaign to meet with her in her office. I begged her, literally begged her, to call for a cease-fire in the middle east. She wouldn't hear of it and drew back when I suggested she at least talk to members of Americans for Peace Now, an American offshoot of an Israeli peace group. Was Harman a true believer in Israel and AIPAC or was she caught up in a script that had spun out of control? Hard to say -- given the fact that so many of our Los Angeles-area law makers, from Howard Berman, Chair of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, to Henry Waxman, Chair of the House Energy Committee, have yet to raise a critical question about Israel's use of white phosphorous and DIME explosives weapons in the open-air prison of Gaza. As much as this story is about Harman, about her collusion with a Bush administration bent on breaking the law, it is also about the pernicious influence wielded in Washington by lobbyists for a foreign government. Israel. Let us remind Harman and the rest of Congress that they represent the people of the United States of America. Marcy Winograd, Co-founder Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles LA Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America 4/21/09 ## ## The Harman-AIPAC Story: A Timeline (tpm) By <http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/zroth>Zachary Roth - April 20, 2009, 5:29PM CQ's <http://static.cqpolitics.com/harman-3098436-page3.html?docID=hsnews-000003098436&cpage=1>blockbuster story, about a wiretap that picked up Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) discussing the AIPAC spying case with a "suspected Israeli agent", picks up on a sequence of complex events from several years ago, and involves several moving pieces. So we thought it would be worthwhile to put together a timeline of events laying out the major reported developments in this sprawling story. Without further ado: * November 2004: The New York Times, after intense lobbying from the Bush administration, <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/opinion/13pubed.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp>decides to hold a planned report on the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. * A few months later: Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence committee, <http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/key_dem_urged_nyt_reporter_aga.php>tells Eric Lichtblau, one of the Times reporters on the as-yet-unpublished wiretap story: "The Times did the right thing by not publishing that story ... This is a valuable program, and it would be compromised." * May 2005 - Larry Franklin, a former employee of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, is <http://physics911.net/franklinindictment>indicted for passing to lobbyists for AIPAC information about US policy on Iran. * Around mid-2005: The Justice Department <http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1549069,00.html>expands its investigation into the AIPAC spying case to include whether Harman schemed with AIPAC to have wealthy supporters lobby House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to reappoint Harman as the top Democrat on the House intel committee. In return, it was alleged that Harman said she'll press DOJ to go easy on Steve Rosen and Ken Weissman, two former AIPAC staffers implicated in the Franklin indictment. * Aug 2005: Rosen and Weissman are <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Franklin_Rosen_Weissman_indictment.pdf>indicted (pdf) for their role in the AIPAC espionage. * Oct 2005 - Franklin <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100501608_pf.html>pleads guilty to unauthorized disclosure of classified information, and is later sentenced to almost 13 years in prison. * Around Oct 2005: An NSA wiretap <http://static.cqpolitics.com/harman-3098436-page3.html?docID=hsnews-000003098436&cpage=1>picks up a phone call between Harman and a "suspected Israeli agent," discussing the quid pro quo involving Rosen, Weissman, and the intel chair job. (A different report <http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/04/who_listened_to_harman_nsa_or_fbi.php>suggests that the wiretap was carried out not by the NSA, but by the FBI, as part of the Rosen-Weissman probe.) * Soon afterwards: Justice Department lawyers <http://static.cqpolitics.com/harman-3098436-page3.html?docID=hsnews-000003098436&cpage=1>read the transcripts of the call, and decide that Harman has committed a "completed crime," meaning they thought evidence existed that Harman had tried to put the scheme into motion. The government lawyers are prepared to open a case on Harman, involving FISA-approved wiretaps. * Soon after that: Then-CIA Director Porter Goss <http://static.cqpolitics.com/harman-3098436-page3.html?docID=hsnews-000003098436&cpage=1>reviews the transcript of the call and signs off on the Justice Department's FISA application. Goss also decides he's required to notify then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Pelosi, of the impending probe, since it involves a sitting House member. * Soon after that: Then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales <http://static.cqpolitics.com/harman-3098436-page3.html?docID=hsnews-000003098436&cpage=1>short-circuits the investigation, saying he "needed Jane" to publicly support the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which was now, finally, about to be exposed by the Times. Gonzales told Goss that Harman had helped persuade the Times to hold the earlier story on the program (a claim Times executive editor Bill Keller today <http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/new-york-times-denies-harman-helped-persuade-bill-keller-to-hold-wiretapping-story/>appeared to deny, though his statement was narrowly worded), and could serve as an important public defender of the program. * Dec 16, 2005: The Times <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html>breaks the warrantless wiretapping story. * Dec 21, 2005: Proving Gonzales right, Harman <http://static.cqpolitics.com/harman-3098436-page3.html?docID=hsnews-000003098436&cpage=1>issues a statement on the wiretapping program: "I believe it essential to U.S. national security, and that its disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities." * Several months before Oct 2006: Haim Saban, an AIPAC supporter and major Democratic fundraiser, <http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1549069,00.html>calls Pelosi, lobbying her to reappoint Harman as the top Dem on the intel committee. (By this time, the Democrats appear likely to retake the House, meaning the job at issue is chair of the intel committee.) * Oct 20, 2006: Harman <http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1549069,00.html>hires top Washington lawyer Ted Olson, in response to a report by Time magazine about the Justice Department probe of the alleged Harman-AIPAC quid pro quo, and about the Saban-Pelosi call. * The following week: Several major news outlets report that, according to DOJ sources, the Harman probe is dormant and didn't turn up evidence of wrongdoing. * Dec 2006: Pelosi <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/02/AR2006120200339.html>announces that Rep. Silvestre Reyes will chair the House Intel committee, disappointing Harman. * April 2009: In response to the CQ story, Harman <http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/harman_i_never_contacted_doj_on_aipac_case.php>denies contacting DOJ on the AIPAC case, but not that the conversation with the "suspected Israeli agent" occurred. Bombshell: Rep. Jane Harman Caught on Tape Agreeing to Lobby for Alleged AIPAC/Israel Spies? By Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports Posted on April 20, 2009, Printed on April 21, 2009 http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://rebelreports.com//137494/ This is a huge story: Representative Jane Harman, a hawkish, influential "Blue Dog" Democrat "was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington," according to a <http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=hsnews-000003098436>report from CQ Politics: 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." The case, known as the AIPAC espionage scandal centers around allegations that at least two AIPAC staff members passed sensitive US intelligence on Iran, provided by Pentagon official Lawrence Franklin, to Israel. In early 2006, Franklin pled guilty to espionage-related charges and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The case against two indicted AIPAC staffers, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, is ongoing. Allegations that Harman intervened in this case in an effort to win the spot as chair of the Intelligence Committee have been widespread <http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1549069,00.html>since 2006, but an FBI investigation into Harman was dropped for "lack of evidence." As CQ Politics reports: 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. When Justice Department officials reviewed the transcript of the wiretaps on Rep. Harman, its attorneys determined she had committed a "completed crime," which, according to CQ Politics is "a legal term meaning that there was evidence that she had attempted to complete it." The Justice Department attorneys wanted to open a case on her, but they needed the green light from top intel officials to confirm it rightly constituted a national security investigation. Porter Goss, who was then the CIA director reportedly approved the investigation and was preparing to notify then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and House Speaker Dennis Hastert and, through them, Harman herself: 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. On his Salon <http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/20/harman/>blog today Glenn Greenwald points out: Jane Harman, in the wake of the NSA scandal, became probably the <http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/harman-its-not.html>most crucial defender of the Bush warrantless eavesdropping program, using her status as "the ranking Democratic on the House intelligence committee" to <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1145222,00.html?promoid=rss_nation>repeatedly praise the NSA program as "essential to U.S. national security" and "both necessary and legal." She even went on Meet the Press to defend the program along with GOP Sen. Pat Roberts and Rep. Pete Hoekstra, and she even <http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/2/12/122953.shtml?s=ic>strongly suggested that the whistleblowers who exposed the lawbreaking and perhaps even the New York Times (but not Bush officials) should be criminally investigated, <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11272634/page/2/>saying she "deplored the leak," that "it is tragic that a lot of our capability is now across the pages of the newspapers," and <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11272634/page/6/>that the whistleblowers were "despicable." And Eric Lichtblau himself described how Harman, in 2004, <http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/key_dem_urged_nyt_reporter_aga.php>attempted very aggressively to convince him not to write about the NSA program. There may be some who attempt to portray Harman as a victim of blackmail by Gonzales (and the wiretapping of members of Congress-and other Americans- should be thoroughly investigated) but Harman is a right wing Democrat who was often in sync with the heinous policies of the Bush administration. Over at TalkingPointsMemo, Josh Marshall raises some interesting <http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/04/must_read_5.php>issues on this story, particularly relating to the wiretap itself: Among the many questions the story raises are some that Harman should probably answer, but not all. High on my list would be finding out more about the circumstances under which a member of Congress ended up having her phone conversations recorded by the NSA. The article suggests it was a by-the-books wiretap - part of a highly-classified probe of Israeli agents in the US, which led to the indictments of two AIPAC employees - and not one of the 'warrantless' ones. But we've seen so much funny business on that front that I'm not sure that's enough information. In a prepared statement, Harman said: "These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in factŠ I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves." Jeremy Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. © 2009 Rebel Reports All rights reserved. View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://rebelreports.com//137494/ A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. <http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221621490x1201450102/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID%3D62%26bcd%3DAprilfooter421NO62>See yours in just 2 easy steps! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. 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