Possible scandal involving Rep. Jane Harman, Alberto Gonzales and AIPAC

[wquay]

I've seen this story on a few sites, but it's not getting much traction with the MSM. Hopefully we'll see an investigation, if not charges against Harman. And if Gonzales really pulled the investigation so that Harman could shill for the administration, then he deserves prosecution as well.

Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

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.”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/20/harman/

[RevDisk]

I've seen this story on a few sites, but it's not getting much traction with the MSM. Hopefully we'll see an investigation, if not charges against Harman. And if Gonzales really pulled the investigation so that Harman could shill for the administration, then he deserves prosecution as well.

Harman was recorded using dubious NSA wiretapping, but was let go so she could continue to argue for more dubious NSA wiretapping.  The irony, oh Gods, the irony.

[agricola]

A foriegn government suborns a member of the House of Representatives in order to influence criminal investigation into its espionage operations by trying to get her promoted to some kind of oversight role?  One wonders why that isnt the leading item on every news network... oh wait, now I see who the foriegn government was, carry on.

[roo_ster]

Pretty damned disgusting.

[Sergeant Bob]

I am of the opinion that most all politicians are dirty, from the smallest town all the way to the top.
That is the reason most of them aren't rotting in a prison cell.

[Balog]

A foriegn government suborns a member of the House of Representatives in order to influence criminal investigation into its espionage operations by trying to get her promoted to some kind of oversight role?  One wonders why that isnt the leading item on every news network... oh wait, now I see who the foriegn government was, carry on.

You really don't like Jews, do you Agricola?


In any case, does the NSA spend a lot of time wire-tapping poli-critters?

[agricola]

You really don't like Jews, do you Agricola?

Sorry, what? 

This is an allegation that a foriegn government, via a lobby group, tried to (and may well have obtained) influence one of your elected representatives in order to get them to interfere with a criminal investigation into espionage carried out by that foriegn government.  If this was any other foriegn government there would be jail time and severe consequences for the individual concerned at the very least. 

Of course, to point this out means that I am an anti-semite.  Hurrah for logic!

In any case, does the NSA spend a lot of time wire-tapping poli-critters?

That remains to be seen, but one imagines that they do wiretap foriegn intelligence agents.  That could well be how they got the recording.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

we jail em when we catch em
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes/story?id=4701450
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard

[agricola]

we jail em when we catch em
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes/story?id=4701450
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard

Which is what should happen - those people are traitors, after all.

[Balog]

I was basing it on your pattern of behaviour from several threads about Palestine.

[agricola]

I was basing it on your pattern of behaviour from several threads about Palestine.

I think you need to note the difference between "Jews" and "the actions of the state of Israel".   

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Which is what should happen - those people are traitors, after all.

my dad summed it up best about pollard and john walker
a walk and a bullet in the back of the head

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

oh and especially hansen the fbi agent  he earned a death sentence more than anyone

[agricola]

oh and especially hansen the fbi agent  he earned a death sentence more than anyone

Well exactly.  Imagine the uproar if Putin or Medvedev turned up in Washington and seriously agitated for Hansen's release, comparing him to Russian soldiers kidnapped by terrorist groups. 

[Waitone]

Lemme see if I got this right.  NSA intercepts a foreign national (legit) talking to a US legislator in which the legislator is asked to intervene in the ongoing legal woes of two Israeli advocates (nationality not disclosed).  In exchange said legislator is asking the foreign national to intercede with the House Speaker so the legislator can get an important committee assignment.  That about right?

Yeah, Harmon is flirting with being dirty.  But one question just screams to be asked.  What makes the foreign national think he or she has enough clout to influence the House Speaker 's decision on legislative appointments.   Seems to me NSA should be wiggling its ears in the direction of the House Speaker.  Seems to me Harmon is in a pretty weak position while the House Speaker has just about all the cards in her hand.

Just thinkin'.

[roo_ster]

my dad summed it up best about pollard and john walker
a walk and a bullet in the back of the head

That works for me.  Might even piss on their corpses.  Hansesn's, too.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

hansens more than the others