Lawmaker Is Said to Have Agreed to Aid Lobbyists

[Joanne98]

By NEIL A. LEWIS and MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON — One of the leading House Democrats on intelligence matters was overheard on telephone calls intercepted by the National Security Agency agreeing to seek lenient treatment from the Bush administration for two pro-Israel lobbyists who were under investigation for espionage, current and former government officials say.

The lawmaker, Representative Jane Harman of California, became the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee after the 2002 election and had ambitions to be its chairwoman when the party gained control of the House in 2006. One official who has seen transcripts of several wiretapped calls said she appeared to agree to intercede in exchange for help in persuading party leaders to give her the powerful post.

One of the very few members of Congress with broad access to the most sensitive intelligence information, including aspects of the Bush administration’s wiretapping that were disclosed in December 2005, Ms. Harman was inadvertently swept up by N.S.A. eavesdroppers who were listening in on conversations during an investigation, three current or former senior officials said. It is not clear exactly when the wiretaps occurred; they were first reported by Congressional Quarterly on its Web site.

The official with access to the transcripts said someone seeking help for the employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, was recorded asking Ms. Harman, a longtime supporter of its efforts, to intervene with the Justice Department. She responded, the official recounted, by saying she would have more influence with a White House official she did not identify.

In return, the caller promised her that a wealthy California donor — the media mogul Haim Saban — would threaten to withhold campaign contributions to Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who was expected to become House speaker after the 2006 election, if she did not select Ms. Harman for the intelligence post.

Ms. Harman denied Monday having ever spoken to anyone in the Justice Department about Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, the two former analysts for Aipac. Her office issued a statement saying, “Congresswoman Harman has never contacted the Justice Department about its prosecution of present or former Aipac employees.”

The statement did not, however, address whether Ms. Harman had contacted anyone at the White House or had participated in phone calls in which she was asked to intervene in exchange for help in being named chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/us/politics/21harman.html?_r=1&hp

Did Jane Harman help throw the 2004 election to Bush?
by John Aravosis (DC) on 4/20/2009 12:10:00 PM
Alberto Gonzales reportedly said that it was Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman who convinced the NYT to kill its domestic spying story on the eve of the 2004 presidential election. Many on the left think that the publication of that story, and its allegations that the Bush administration was illegally spying on American citizens, could have helped swing the election to John Kerry's favor.

The story, however, is far bigger than that.

CQ reports that Harman was under investigating by the FBI after having been heard on an NSA electronic intercept discussing a quid pro quo deal with an Israeli spy.
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.

(Join Jeff Stein for a live online chat at 3 p.m. today about his story, or submit a question for Jeff.)

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.
I'm a friend of Israel. But I'm a bigger friend of America. And this story stinks to the heavens. Harman could have ended up chairing the Intel committee in the House. All the while that she, allegedly, was co-opted by not just Gonzales - she would have owed him for dropping the investigation - but she would have also been in constant fear that some day someone might leak the news that she had, allegedly, agreed to a personal quid pro quo on behalf of a foreign government. And one of the people who could have leaked that info - one of the people who Harman would allegedly be co-opted by - would be a foreign government.

If this news is true, then Harman was a walking security risk. A security risk who was the top Democrat on the House intel committee. A Democrat who is still chairing a subcommittee on the Homeland Security committee.

These are the kind of allegations that would likely stop you, or me, from even getting a security clearance. And Harman didn't just get one, by virtue of her being a member of Congress, she was, and still is, one of the top Democrats on intelligence issues overall.

Perhaps this is all just a pack of lies. But the information is now public. Harman needs to come clean, publicly, now.

http://www.americablog.com/2009/04/did-jane-harman-help-throw-2004.html