Jane Harmon: NY Times Should be Prosecuted

NewsMax ^

[Sub-Driver]

Jane Harmon: NY Times Should be Prosecuted

In a stunning break with her party, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the New York Times should be prosecuted for damaging national security by revealing the National Security Agency's top secret terrorist surveillance program authorized by President Bush.

"If the press was part of the process of delivering classified information, there have to be some limits on press immunity," Harmon told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Moderator Tim Russert then pressed: "But if [the NSA leak] came from a whistleblower, should the New York Times reporter be prosecuted?"

Harmon countered: "Well, it's not clear it was a whistleblower. You have to prove that first."

"If it's protected by the whistleblower statute, then it's protected," she explained. Harmon then added, however, that CIA Director Porter Goss recently said that the Times' sources don't qualify under the whistleblower statute.

"By the way, I deplore that leak,"

[ncountylee]

Russert tried to cover for the NY Times as expected.

[rellimpank]

--sounds like a good counterpoint to Congressthing Heather Whatever , the dimwit Repub from Mew Mexico--

[hattend]

Is Harmon up for re-election?

[DarthVader]

Every two years.

[jazusamo]

This isn't the first time that Harman has broken with her Party. She has put our country ahead of the Dem party strategy in the past.

[sgtbono2002]

New York Times is the Al Jazeera subsidiary in New York.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

No, but she can read that 70 + percent of the American people support the president of this issue.

[Piranha]

I heard her speak last March in a panel discussion about foreign policy. I was surprised at how intelligent and fair she was. I regard her as a Lieberman-type Democrat.

[hattend]

Yep

[peyton randolph]

Harmon just lost her complimentary subscription to the NY Times. Guess she'll have to get the DNC talking points faxed directly to her instead of reading them in the paper.

[the rightgirl]

"Is Harmon up for re-election?"

Jane Harmon is a patriotic Democrat (I know, oxymoron, most of the time, but not in this case, I don't think). She was on the "Let's see if Bush was legal" kick for awhile (as is my own Republican nutcase, Lindsey Graham) but she is all for national security and is as fair as most politicians get, across the board.

She is a post 9/11 Democrat.

[Grampa Dave]

Positive news re Jane Harmon.

Russert continues to be an enemy of what is good in America while pretending to be a good guy.

[Just Lori]

In hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Vermont Sen. Pat Leahy praised the Times leak, saying it revealed an abuse of power by the Bush administration.

Are people in Vermont proud of this moron? I'm sorry, but we REALLY need a good house cleaning in the Senate. We should start by taking out the garbage!

[wardaddy]

hmmmm

[jazusamo]

As do I.

[carlr]

Funny how no one in the MSM seems to think that perhaps someone trying to end a shadow government coup being orchestrated by a CIA desk jockey and her mid level bureaucrat husband is a "whistleblower".

[muawiyah]

When it comes to time execute selected executives at the New York Times (for espionage and treason), I think we ought to let Rep. Harmon pull the names out of a hat.

So far she's today's big winner.

(NOTE: Although the Democrats thought the Enron trial would serve as a good example to business executives so they'd take care to be more responsible in the future, I think it would be a much better example to business executives if a few of them were hanged for such treachery, and here's our chance to do it right).

[noblejones]

It becomes more clear every day that the failure of Al Qaeda to strike the US again after 9/11 is driving the DNC and its media arm, the New York Times, insane. They want desperately for more of us to die on our own soil so they can attack Bush for it. Of this I have absolutely no doubt.

[BluH2o]

Russert tried to cover for the NY Times as expected.

The sound of Russert's voice turns me off. This AM I was watching Olympic coverage while working out ... it transitioned over to 'Meet the Press' with Russert doing a voice over intro to the show ... at which time I scrambled for the remote. The last time I watched 'Meet the Press' was some two years ago when he was interviewing Collin Powell ... what an arrogant buffoon (Russert).

[xcamel]

If there were any real vermonters left, they would have taken leahy and rammed him up the a$$ of an angry bull out in the back pasture long ago....

[bert]

Unlike the stretched face Pelosi, Harmon is the real California girl, real and unblemished by the curse of unremitting vanity.

[YaYa123]

Before I react too much to this newsmax article, I'd like to read the MTP transcript. Just to make sure we know exactly how Harman prefaced her remarks.

To answer your question: House members are always up for re-election, and believe me, if Harmon went to far astray from the party line, Nancy Pelosi will have Harmon recanting her remarks before the sun goes down today. It's happened before.

[Emmett McCarthy]

We could see more and more actual Democrats who do genuinely love their country take bold steps such as this. Later on, the opportunists will follow suit. I see the challenge to Joe Lieberman in the primary as a kind of belleweather. If - as I would hope - Lieberman continues to hold his Senate seat, whether by beating back a primary challenge or running (and winning)as either an Independent or perhaps even as a Republican, that may well usher in the end of the Democrats as we know them today. Yeah, yeah, I know that Lieberman is too liberal on many issues to suit me, but we can argue those after we've won this war. Besides, this is a Northeastern state where the Republican would probably be just as liberal anyway.

[Natural Law]

"press immunity"

WTF is that?

[trubluolyguy]

In a stunning break with her party, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the New York Times should be prosecuted

---

Well she'll be getting booted out by Stretch any day now.

[tertiary01]

It's Jane HARMAN as in Harman-Kardon audio products.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My dad was a Harry Truman Democrat...
too bad there aren't a few more around.

[Eastbound]

" . . . should be prosecuted for damaging national security by revealing the National Security Agency's top secret terrorist surveillance program authorized by President Bush."

For the same reason they would've been shot if they published the plans for the D-Day invasion. Is there any difference?

[edcoil]

You'd be wrong. She represents the area my office is located and is as far left and wacko as everyone on the left.

The difference here is that she is one of the one briefed on this program since 2003 and knew full well of it and what it was doing. She is not a idiot and knows what the NYT and the media did were totally illegal in revealing hte program and, how much it has hurt this country.

No one can hide from this crime and she knows it.

[MiHeat]

What I found discomforting about Harmon was that after stating she was an attorney, when questioned as to why she did not being up the legality of the terrorist information monitoring program, she said she could not because she would have to discuss it with her staff about its legality and that would be a secrecy violation.

Why would an attorney (no matter her area of practice) have to ask her staff if it was illegal or questionable?

Sounded like a cover her ass statement for not having questioned it originally.

[the rightgirl]

You got that right! The Socialist wing of the Democrat party is the one in charge - and hard as it may be to listen to and watch, it can't last. Socialism, I feel, can never win in this great country, maybe we're seeing that last gasp, that final push, before expiration.

At least I hope so.

George W. Bush is a great deal like Harry Truman, and maligned in his time. He'll go down as one of the greats, if history has any bearing on the truth.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Its called "self-dealing" amongst lawyers.

[bray]

Mark down the date: A Democrat siding with America! Can I sit on the jury or be part of the Firing Squad?

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[wildcatf4f3]

Come on over to the lightside Jane

[Howlin]

She was on the "Let's see if Bush was legal" kick for awhile

She sure was, but she back right off, didn't she? Which leaves me thinking she has been shown something that we haven't seen that changed her mind.

[Piranha]

I can name about 10 Democratic Senators whose defeat or retirement would improve this country by orders of magnitude. This is just one man's opinion:

Biden
Boxer
Durbin
Feingold
Kennedy
Kerry
Leahy
Reid
Rockefeller
Schumer

There are others, but these 10 seem to me to be the key motivators of Democratic obstructionism and anger.

[Beckwith]

It is my understanding that the intelligence community is exempt from the whistleblower protection laws.

[gondramB]

""press immunity"

WTF is that?

---

I don't know the technical definition but practically, it makes a difference whether or not the press is exposing wrongdoing.

As long as the NSA was only intercepting incoming calls from foreign terrorists then the leak is persuable against the press - they will have simply outed a legal classified program.

It's only if something really unfortunate came out - like if it turned out they were intercepting outgoing calls from u.S citizens without a warrant that press immunity starts to come in. If they were exposing serious criminal wrongdoing by the government then the public would likely feel they were justified.

So I think the administration is safe to pursue the leak assuming they know that they didn't do anything wrong.

[ClaireSolt]

Agree. Previously, she just said she wished the whole intel committee could be briefed, indicating she was getting some heat. I applaud her statment. The NYT overrode the judgement for secrecy of all elected leaders, dem and republican seemingly to make money. They should be prosecuted.

[Piranha]

Make that Feinstein, not Feingold.

[Bullish]

The pinko commies at the NY Slimes will be exempted from any prosecution as usual.

[Crawdad]

I saw her on TV earlier this week. That's the first I've seen of her in a while.

[JRios1968]

In a stunning break with her party, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the New York Times should be prosecuted for damaging national security by revealing the National Security Agency's top secret terrorist surveillance program authorized by President Bush.

Well, now Congresscritter Harmon will find herself in the crosshairs of MorOn.org.

[Skip Ripley]

How refreshing...loyal opposition that's actually loyal...

[edcoil]

When the story was released, it was noted that the President had asked the editor not to publish it. Is this still true? I briefed over the NYT article and they did not mention it.

[the rightgirl]

"She sure was, but she back right off, didn't she? Which leaves me thinking she has been shown something that we haven't seen that changed her mind."

She just may have. Also, I think she wanted to be sure of the legality, not because of being against George Bush particularly, but because she really does care if it's right or wrong. I have much more respect for her than I do some of my own Republicans running around up there.

But I do think you can tell who is serious, by how they react when shown the materials involved. They will close ranks and defend W if they have to, if it a matter of national security. Sadly, not enough in Congress have that sense of duty and patriotism.

[ANGGAPO]

It makes little difference now that the terrorists know that we were listening in. Another classified program compromised because of a newspaper with a ax to grind. It's Treason and those involved should be prosecuted for it.

[Cicero]

I have heard it before on this forum that Jane Harman is a decent, patriotic woman. She deserves to be credited for that.

Most likely, although she is herself an attorney, she may not have specialized in the particular field that is involved. Since the matter is so important, it would be natural for an attorney to consult with other attorneys and with experts in the field whom she trusted before opening her mouth and putting her foot in it the way most of the Democrats do.

In other words, more power to her for wanting to do what is legal and best for the country, instead of rushing to do whatever undermines the opposing party and pleases her colleagues and the press.