Posted on 04/20/2009 6:57:25 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Report: Jane Harman recorded vowing take action for AIPAC on wiretap @ 9:33 am by Jeremy P. Jacobs
Congresswoman Jane Harman was recorded on a NSA wiretapped conversation agreeing to work to downgrade espionage charges against two officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in return for help securing the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee, according to Jeff Stein's anonymously sourced column in Congressional Quarterly.
Harman, a California Democrat, was allegedly recorded in a conversation with a suspected Israeli agent. The conversation reportedly took place before the 2006 election, when Democrats seized control of the chamber and, therefore, the committee chairmanships.
It was widely reported at the time that Harman wanted to chair the Intelligence Committee but was passed over by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat. An FBI investigation was launched at the time into pro-Israel lobbyists seeking to influence Pelosi to give Harman the chairmanship.
The story alleges that then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales compelled the FBI to end the investigation in return for Harman defending the administration's wiretapping program.
Harman wholeheartedly denied wrong doing in a statement to the publication. "These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact," she said. "I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves."
It is unclear from the story whether Harman knew she was talking to a "suspected Israeli agent."
In addition to these developments, the story touches upon the implied power of the Israel lobby, which, if this is all true, Harman believed could effectively lobby Pelosi for the chairmanship.
It does not appear that Harman was the member of Congress that the New York Times reported last week that the NSA attempted to wiretap.
Two more points of interest: That the NSA was listening to a member of Congress on its wiretaps is, by itself, newsworthy enough. But now, the fact that they are leaking the transcripts is mind boggling.
Very interesting. Thanks for posting.
Harmon, guilty or not has been played.
To my knowlege, the NSA does not monitor domestic communications, the FBI does and they need a warrant. In most countries the security officials don’t even need a warrant to monitor domestic communications.
I suspect that the surveillance target was the Israeli agent, not the Congress member. When a Congress member directly contacts the agent of a foreign government, especially one who has been identified as a “risk”, I don’t particularly care if intelligence agencies listen in.
hmmmmm interesting....
The problem is complicated by modern technology.
If you use a VoIP phone, you could possibly make calls using a US issued phone number from anywhere in the world via the internet, and that call would be routed by communications equipment within the USA if the calling subscriber used a US based VoIP service.
Therefore a terrorist in Pakistan can talk to another one in Afghanistan and both numbers could, for example, have a Washington DC area code.
So what would appear to be a domestic call between two American endpoints could, in fact be between two terrorists any place in the world.
Yep! They is really cleanin up that swamp, ain’t they? Hahahahaha!
No, I caught that.
I just didnt think that under the Patriot Act (at least in 2006) Israel was considered a terrorist or terrorist-sponsoring where calls to and by US citizens were to be taped. I also didnt see the part where this was an overseas call- ?
Frankly any diplomatic contingent in the US is an agent, open or undercover, for that govt. Did NSA also record conversations Congress had with Irish lobbyists?
Say WHAT?!
Would that then make it OK?
Isn’t it interesting! I can’t wuite make out what they are up to here. Simple Pelosi (who hates Harmon) revenge? An attempt to eliminate anyone who is pro-Israel?
There aren’t enough facts in the story to get a clear picture. Like the date of the call, or the location of the alleged Israeli agent at the time, or why it was an NSA grab and not an FBI wiretap. Too much left unsaid.
In some people's minds, yes. The underlying issue is the left's increasingly irrational view of Israel.
In Harman's case, just being Jewish is grounds for suspicion that she's a supporter of Israel; and of course, she is. But in this particular instance, she's not just a "supporter," but apparently an actual partisan for Israel.
It's enough to unhinge a certain segment of the Democrat party. And, unfortunately, that segment of the party is currently in the driver's seat.
Fascinating. Harmon, while a lib, is occasionally quite reasonable.
So much available for speculation- but we do know that Pelosi can’t stand Harmon. Whether the leak here is a result of that is hard to know- but one thing’s clear- there’s WAY too much classified info finding its way into the public.
I know that doing something like this ahead of time is mostly trying to get a jump on the competition. But, at the same time, how could the Dems know before the elections that they would have control of the House? I don't remember what the poll numbers were for each party going into that election, but it seems a bit fishy to me that anyone from that party would be acting as if it were a sure thing when they were the minority party in the House.
Just what did President Bush do with this information? Don’t believe he blackmailed Jane as you suggest may have happened.
Interesting.
Still, how do we KNOW that
1) such a conversation took place
2) that it was monitored by NSA???
But I think the real point is to replace Harman with an 0bama stooge as the Chair of the Intel committee.
Not a bad move, politically: they can use the noise about Harman to mask the fact that they're getting ready to implement a sea-change in US foreign policy.
It was abundantly clear that they were going to make big gains in '06. There was a good possibility that they would gain control of both houses.
In such cases, prudent politicians would be working to position themselves for a positive (from their perspective) election outcome.
A couple points. One being that the NSA is an information provider that can (and does) provide call recordings to the FBI on request of the FBI. Oftentimes the calls have been obtained and stored on a bulk/indiscriminate basis. This is held, under law, to not constitute a "search" or "seizure."
The other point being that Harman may have been recorded on account of the FBI having suspicion of AILPC. Given suspicion and a warrant, the government is in full satisfaction of the Constitution.
If it wasn't clear from the above, the NSA routinely provides information in response to court-approved search warrants.
Is it not obvious this is another shot over the bow of American Jews. Our Jewish friends need to wake up because it is about to happen all over again.
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