Congressional Quarterly (CQ) features a major scoop today about California Rep. Jane Harman that is sending shock waves through Washington, DC. CQ reporter Jeff Stein says that several former top national security officials told him that in 2005 Harman offered to lean on the Bush Justice Department in return for the help of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) help to become chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Either Harman is being viciously smeared or she has been functioning as a stooge for pro-Israel interests.
The real bombshell is that Harman was apparently caught on a National Security Agency wiretap declaring to what Stein deems a "suspected Israeli agent" that she would "waddle into" the controversy surrounding two AIPAC officials, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, who are being prosecuted under the obscure provisions of the Espionage Act, if necessary. The phone call ended with Harman apparently admonishing, "This conversation doesn't exist."
Did it? Harman says it ain't so. The controversy, she says, is a "recycled canard," old news that doesn't deserve a scintilla of attention. But Steve Clemons of the always valuable Washington Note says, like a number of other bloggers, that it does. He says Harman is having a "bad day" and needs to make a fuller explanation of what did or did not happen. The allegation that Harman was doing the bidding of AIPAC initially surfaced in 2006, but Stein is the first to report that Harman was caught red handed on wiretap. Furthermore, he airs the contention that then-Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales quashed an investigation into Harman in exchange for her support for the administration's warrantless wiretap program.
It's hard, at this point, to know what to make of the allegations. That Harman, who did not become intelligence committee chair, would risk her reputation and career seems implausible. But wackier things have happened in Washington.
Still, it could be that the "former national security officials" that Stein relies upon for his information are simply disgruntled FBI sources who are irked that the case against Rosen and Weissman hasn't gotten much traction. Either way, it's a big story, one that's already attracting attention abroad. As I try to show in in today's National Interest, the bottom line is that the Harman affair indicates that the battles over Israel's role in American foreign policy are not going away. Instead, as President Obama tries to restart the peace process, they're acquiring a new virulence.
Report: Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman Cut Deal With Israeli ...
We're in deep *hit and if anyone still has their heads in Disneyland it's time to get real. Our nation's blind, uncritical support of Israel must end. The manipulation of our foreign policy (i.e. like going to war in Iraq or the lobbying pressure to go to war with Iran) for the benefit of Israel must be stopped.
We have to wash our hands of this. Don't vote for Zionist extremist.
The issue of Israel turns Dem doves into warmongers kowtowing to the worst elements of Israeli society. It's a sad thing to watch the most liberal Dems go to right of the Likud party. People unafraid to criticize the actions of their own govt cower in fear before a foreign govt that gets billions in aid and unquestioned support for everything they do. We have allowed them to thumb their nose at Int'l law and demand a president get on the phone and told to change their vote on a bill the US co-sponsored.
While Howard Dean can have his reputation savaged because of his call for even-handedness (during his run), nothing will happen to Tel Aviv Jane. Nothing. It'll go away very quickly. We know that because none of the three, big networks has even touched the story. Quelle surprise.
She is a security risk, and shouldn't be permitted to see or serve on any committees where she learns anything. It is ironic that some of us discussed the possibility that the Bush adminsistration was wiretapping political opponents, with little doubt that they were, and that at times some of the Dems seemed to give off that they were actually frightened of the administration, politically or even physically. I wonder how many have been blackmailed with things such as this, or who were truly afraid of actions from what we know about enforcement teams reporting to Cheney?
Let me help you :
1.) What is the single source element needed to win war ?
2.) Oil. Where is the oil ?
3.) What does the average American look like ? An Arab ? No. A white dude from Arkansas.
4.) Where is our foreign intelligence gathered and why ? Middle East. Where all the Arabs are.
5.) Who is going to conduct intelligence for the west ? the white dude from Arkansas ? No.
Israel.
They don't work for free.
Any questions ?
Don't like the game ? Change the source material needed. The players will change but not the game. Nobody who really understands national security and energy will allow our relationship with Israel to deteriorate. Its the security issues that aren't discussed on daytime talk shows. It's the stuff that makes you sleep well at night.
Complain all you want but know that this effort has some brutish friends, the war industry, oil and gas, and christian power brokers not to mention a large selection of British and Jewish power players.
She's a stooge yes but you change her and you'll get another and another and another. It's not personal she's been a puppet since Harvard.
"Jane Harman was criticized by the ACLU for submitting US House Resolution 1955, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, which passed in the House 404-6. The ACLU claims the bill includes unconstitutional limitations on free speech and beliefs. A related piece of legislation in the US Senate, S. 1959, has been submitted by Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins."
I remember this crap from the quoted timeframe, and I believe that any action on this bill in the future needs to be closely monitored [which I'm sure the ACLU will pursue]. Harman is a real piece of work, and I do hope she is discredited and bounced out of office over this revivied scandal; anyone pushing a modernized version of McCarthyism has no business holding office, IMO.
Of course the fact that this despicable POS bill passed by 404 to 6 is disturbing in its own right.
Maybe the times they are changin.
AIPAC is becoming less and less representative of American Jews, Especially younger Jews.
The recruitment of the neocons and democrats such as Hillary Clinton, (coached by Neocon antichrist Bill Kristol, etc), Jane Harmon, Joe Lieberman, etc, etc constitute the full penetration and manipulation of our congress to further Israeli 'Clean Break' objectives which was the entire thrust of the Bush Neocon years.
Now is the time to trace all of these - the AIPAC/Steve Rosen trial in May, Jane Harmon's obvious treason ( life imprisonment or capital punishment), Rahm Emmanuel and Schumer's destruction of the Charles Freeman appt, Israel's current and ongoing datamining of ALL American e-traffic, neocon manipulation of our foreign policy - - see I just traced them all out for you over coffee
It seems that in all of these backroom deals, Ms. Harmon was "leveraged"
by Gonzales to use her position to get the New York Times to put a hold
on the Bush wiretapping story they had until AFTER the 2004 elections!!
So, consider where the US might have been now had Bush not been
re-elected, and that possibly Ms. Harmon had a direct influence on that
outcome by having helped quash the biggest story set to come out
prior to that election.. If that isn't the most blatant example of ultimate
corruption of the "system", I don't what is... All for the career advancement
of one lone congress woman.. Yes, there should be an Independent
Council investigating this story!!
lb