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/
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