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Harman's Big Gambit
Rep. Jane Harman is fighting back with one helluva gambit.
Late Sunday CQ broke the story--subsequently confirmed by the New York Times--that Harman, a California Democrat, was caught by NSA eavesdroppers telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would do what she could to reduce espionage-related charges filed against AIPAC officials and that this suspected agent promised in return to help her become chair of the House intelligence committee. A Harman spokesperson told CQ, "These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact." Harman herself refused to say anything.
But on Tuesday afternoon, Harman went on the offensive. She sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking--make that, demanding--that the Justice Department "release all transcripts and other investigative material involving me in an unredacted form." She noted, "It is my intention to make this material available to the public."
In other words, let's have those NSA tapes, and let's play them for the world. (CQ and the Times both reported that after Harman's conversation was intercepted, the FBI began a preliminary investigation, but then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales shut it down because Harman could help the Bush administration defend its warantless wiretapping program.)
But there's more. Harman also wrote Holder:
I also urge you to take appropriate steps to investigate possible wiretapping of other Members of Congress and selective leaks of investigative material which can be used for political purposes. As you know, it is entirely appropriate to converse with advocacy organizations and constituent groups, and I am concerned about a chilling effect on other elected officials who may find themselves in my situation.
That is, she's requesting an investigation of all wiretapping that might have captured a conversation including a lawmaker. Harman wants to widen the circle of victims.
She must know that there is no way that Holder can release all the information she is seeking in unredacted form, for that would entail identifying the supposed Israeli agent with whom she talked. The Justice Department would at least have to blank out that person's name. But in general such wiretaps are not disclosed for they can reveal what's known in the intelligence world as "sources and methods." A longtime member of the intelligence committee, Harman, as a Democrat, is fully aware of this. After all, she was an ardent defender of the Bush administration's warantless wiretapping program and was one of several lawmakers who tried to persuade The New York Times not to reveal the existence of that program.
Now, she has become a transparency advocate. Does she believe that the full transcripts of these tapes would show she had said nothing improper? (What if the conversations match the descriptions reported by CQ and the Times?) Or is she counting on Holder to turn down her request, so she can then position herself as the wronged lawmaker who was the target of sneaky and inappropriate snooping and become a champion of openness and accountability?
In either case, this is a bold move. This scandal is significant--especially the portion involving Gonzales. And Harman is trying to up the ante.
UPDATE: Harman went on MSNBC on Tuesday afternoon. She noted she had been "wiretapped" and that this had been "a gross abuse of power." She reiterated her demand that the Justice Department release any secret recordings of her: "If there are tapes out there, bring it on." And, she added, "with nothing crossed out." The lawmaker who had supported the Bush administration's warantless wiretapping program declared that she now was "very disappointed my country could've permitted a gross abuse of power." She said she was worried that other "innocent" Americans had been eavesdropped upon, adding, "I have a bully pulpit, and I can fight back."
UPDATE II: As the daily White House press briefing was ending on Tuesday afternoon, I asked press secretary Robert Gibbs if he would take a question on the Harman-AIPAC-Gonzales story. "No, thank you," he replied."
UPDATE III: CQ's Tim Starks and Edward Epstein report that Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), who got the intelligence committee chairmanship Harman wanted, has asked the committee's staff to investigate the Harman incident.
In third last paragraph you
In third last paragraph you wrote that she tried to persuade the NY Times, but I think it should be dissuade..
After the entire story is
After the entire story is published and is heard by the public, may be just may be the people of this country wake up and realize what type of representatives they have been electing in the past 30 years! Do they really represent American Interests or are they foreign agents working under American tax payers payroll?
You mean ' foreign agents
You mean ' foreign agents and corporations " .
The worst aspect of this
The worst aspect of this story is that she supported Bush's illegal wiretapping program, and is now complaining that *she* was wiretapped. What's good for the rest of is especially appropriate for those who are *supposed* to be looking out for our interests.
Sure, release all the documents in their entirety, as well as any on other "lawmakers", and KEEP THEM COMING.
More evidence of the
More evidence of the apparatus of gov't being abused by the Bushies for partisan political purposes; not just DoJ, but also NSA. Rep. Harman was all for illegal wiretaps until it turned out it was her ox being gored. She laid down with dogs and woke up with fleas, who would have thought? Now she wants 100% disclosure of any wiretapped conversations involving her or other members of Congress. Shouldn't every American citizen who was similarly illegally spied on by NSA be afforded the same treatment, or is there a version of the Constitution that applies exclusively to members of Congress and another version for the rest of us commoners?
Yo! Jane! Three Questions
tagged as:- solution
1. Would you agree to have all your wiretap transcripts not just released privately to you, but made public?
2. Would you go on record supporting the right of every American to demand the release of any transcripts of their conversations or e-mails?
3. If the answer to either question is "No", why?
Rep. Jane Harman and current travails
The Honorable Jane Harman enjoys my continued support and sympathy during this ordeal. She is a patriotic American, has distinguished herself as the Representative of my district, and she is a conscientious public official of our Congress.
As another American citizen who was similarly subjected to warrantless surveillance -- including surreptitious video and physical coverage -- by U.S. Army security agents in 1991 on a vindictive and zealous witch-hunt to establish me as "another Jonathan Pollard case, but on behalf of 'the Arabs,'" I can well envision her shock and alarm, as well as her distress and concern.
In September of 1991, I was in Baghdad with David Kay's UNSCOM 16 team as an arms control compliance inspector of declared facilities of Saddam's clandestine nuclear weapons R&D program. All of us knew that our team's ubiquitous Iraqi "minders" were predatory, suspicious, and dangerous; I never expected to encounter the same attitude and treatment by the American side after I returned to the Defense Intelligence Agency.
DOJ documents released under FOIA request showed that the Army's security authorities did not bother with such matters as submitting affidavits to the regional Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and obtaining a proper warrant for launching surveillance and seizing personal property without consent.
Rep. Harman's circumstances since this alleged event in 2006 also help me better understand the apparent lack of interest and distracted attention she evidenced when I requested her constituent services to have my security file opened and some method of official appeal provided so I could challenge and refute the file's spurious contents, deliberate inaccuracies, and unsupported allegations.
One would hope that Rep. Harman can find and exercise what is supposed to be each citizen's right to due process in our country. For that, she has my best wishes for prompt discovery, relief and recourse.
S. H. Franke
San Pedro, California
You have to be kidding. She
You have to be kidding. She should take them to court over the issue and allow all to be televised so we can see just how corrupt she really is. If in fact she really does not remember what she says she does not, that alone should get her out of office. It really is time to sweep out the crap in government.
Oh come on!
Puh-LEASE! That comment qualifies as Harman SPAM.
Look out the window and tell me; is it raining in Tel Aviv right now??
Harman was wiretapped under
Harman was wiretapped under the supervision of a legal warrant. Nobody has complained about wiretapping. People have complained about illegal i.e. warrentless, wiretapping. Harman abandoned the USA by arguing against our constitution when she advocated for illegal wiretapping. She deserves to be hung by her own petard but she isn't being so treated. Her conversation was legally wiretapped.
NPR covered up Saban's media connetion by revising past articles
tagged as:- result
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3519/3465819875_82e64ec883_o.jpg
She one of many
Harman is just another of AIPACs reach into this once republic with shills in the house and senate. The continuation of the socialist objectives of the axis of evil. City of London, DC and Israel and the IBC Cartel pulling their strings.
This trial has been stalled for years and these spies and the Pentagon eneblers need to be looking through bars. Unlikely Obama and Holder will follow this trail when they can't get out of the box on Bush & Co.
The two party system in America, Liars and Crooks
Harman's Big Gambit
It's time to acknowledge that AIPAC and its support for any Israeli government - regardless of how right-wing or obstructionist it is - is bad public policy and will prevent a real and lasting peace from becoming a possibility in the Mideast.
Harman taped during an investigation of AIPAC staff accused of espionage should resign her seat and volunteer for AIPAC.
They've already paid her dearly for her services.
The Obama administration should not cave to the right-wing Israeli lobby.
That MS Jane Harman is a Jew is not mentioned is interesting as it may be grounds for antisemitism
Harman's Big Gambit
*giggles*
ain't KARMA a "B_T_H"
....what goes around ...comes around...... to bite you in the arse!
i love it
Being opposed to the illegal
Being opposed to the illegal wiretapping program, myself, I can't help but feel that the surveillance of any legislator who is working on the behalf of foreign agents is wholly justified and completely warranted. It undermines our sovereignty at least, and may even be considered treason, particularly when it involves a case of espionage against the U.S. As for the lobbying group, I'm not sure why we do not have some kind of law that limits the advocacy for foreign nations within the U.S. to that nation's consulate and its representatives. And these foreign lobbying groups certainly have no right to be involved in our electoral process...
Is it possible Harmon was
Is it possible Harmon was "blackmailed" by the Bush administration into supporting warrantless wiretapping, and now she is trying to recoup her "ransom" by playing the victim?
'Methods and Sources' my ASS!
The Intelligence Communities (not including Mossad; who I own my Thanks to) 'sources ans methods' got a Jewish Friend of mine, as well as an Innocent Mentally Retarded Black Gilr KILLED in 2003; and OH MAN! how I'd like a little 'unredacted truth' to become 'Court Admissible' regarding THAT one!
What would YOU DO, if you knew that some Security Guard CREEP - with White Supremacists Tendencies - and TWO L.A. Cops Sons were responsible; and you knew that The (not a) Patriot (in sight) Act, and the 'methods'it placed at their disposal, were to BLAME FOR IT ALL?
I'd settle for a 'Secret Court' - but not being Fucked With. via the THING they 'did' to me, every night and all night long!
Arrrgh! You know how to contact me, Spooks!
Harmon
Seems to me MOJO and the preponderance of letter writers have made an assumption that Harmon has either violated the law or some code of ethics and that the request to release a transcript is a meaningless gesture. I would suggest that you could just as easily be wrong as right. Without actually seeing what was said, we are depending on hearsay evidence. It could be that the conversation was, in fact, appropriate and harmless especially since there is no evidence she actually did what was supposedly asked of her.
And just so you know, I am inalterably against the wiretapping program in question and appalled by the the whole range of unconstitutional actions of the Bush administration, not some right wing apologist.