Unpacking The AIPAC Story

Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein has a wild story about wiretaps, spies, blackmailed Congressfolks and a sinister Attorney General.  Even the CIA gets involved, which seems odd for what looks like a domestic counterintelligence/corruption case that ought to be handled by the FBI [Days later, the Times confirms the CIA role / Weeks later, CQ reporter Jeff Stein admits his phrasing was poor - see AT LAST, below].  Here we go:

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.

So where are the criminal charges?  Ahhh...

...it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush’s top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.

Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.

Well, well.  Here is the TIME piece from Oct 20 2006 which first aired the allegations.  Let's cut to the JTA  ("The global news service of the Jewish people") for some vigorous pushback. 

Now, the first question on people's minds seems to be, was this wiretap legal?  Folks with basic reading skills will notice this, from the CQ story:

What is new is that Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.

Josh Marshall notes that passage but is not inclined to believe everything he reads, so let's use our imaginations.  How exactly would this story have unfolded if the wiretap on which Harman was picked up was not legal?  Would Gonzales have needed to quash this?  Would the Justice Department have needed a reminder that maybe they can't go to trial against a US Congressman when the primary evidence is not admissible? 

If there was a legal case to be made against Harman which relied on the wiretap, then the tap must have been legal.  Or, if Evil BushCo simply wanted to threaten Harman with an embarrassing leak (as apparently happened in Oct 2006), then the part of the CQ story that has Gonzales quashing the case is false.

Just checking some blogs, Marcy Wheeler and Matt Yglesias figure the tap was legal; at Corrente the author knows the tap was illegal; DougJ is looking for someone to lead him by the hand, and eventually finds Marcy to help him across the street.  Whew!

As to the allegations - why are we hearing this now?  Clarice Feldman thinks we are being set up for the upcoming AIPAC trial.  The government has had some recent setbacks in court but maybe these leaks are intended  as a spine-stiffener to assure us all that the case is not the utter waste of time we know it to be.

And do reflect on the timeline problem noted by Ron Kasmpeas of the JTA blog:

-Why would Harman risk her career and her freedom for a lost cause?  The federal government does not mysteriously reverse an indictment within months of winning it. This is where the timeline matters; if Time is right and this occurred in mid-2005, it's conceivable Harman had the conversation before Aug. 4 of that year, when the indictment came down; she might have had time to influence an outcome. If CQ is right, and it happens a few months later, Harman was either humoring a stunningly gullible interlocutor, or she understood the request as "do what you can, even though we both know its hopeless" - and windmill-tilting doesn't usually achieve the level of "conspiracy."

I don't know.  This is from CQ:

But according to the former officials familiar with the transcripts, the alleged Israeli agent asked Harman if she could use any influence she had with Gonzales, who became attorney general in 2005, to get the charges against the AIPAC officials reduced to lesser felonies.

That clearly follows the indictment but it seems awfully early to be plea-bargaining (we are talking about a case that has yet to go to trial almost four years later).

I do love this spin from Mr. Kampeas:

According to the narrative peddled by the former national security officials, it had been agreed that this would be in exchange for the Israeli agent lobbying Pelosi. She hangs up abruptly saying, "This conversation doesn't exist," "seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to." But had she agreed to a deal? What if her interlocutor suggested a quid pro quo after she agreed to look into the case? Harman realizes the "agent" is crossing over into illegal territory and hangs up, and says something - "This conversation doesn't exist" - that could just as easily be understood as "all bets are off m-----f------, and don't call back."

What quotes are missing? Could they be vindicative?

Fascinating.

A DETAIL I CAN'T RUN DOWN:  From CQ, this puzzle:

Justice Department attorneys in the intelligence and public corruption units who read the transcripts decided that Harman had committed a “completed crime,” a legal term meaning that there was evidence that she had attempted to complete it, three former officials said.

And they were prepared to open a case on her, which would include electronic surveillance approved by the so-called FISA Court, the secret panel established by the 1979 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to hear government wiretap requests.

First, however, they needed the certification of top intelligence officials that Harman’s wiretapped conversations justified a national security investigation.

Then-CIA Director Porter J. Goss reviewed the Harman transcript and signed off on the Justice Department’s FISA application. He also decided that, under a protocol involving the separation of powers, it was time to notify then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Minority Leader Pelosi, of the FBI’s impending national security investigation of a member of Congress — to wit, Harman.

The CIA signs off on domestic criminal investigations?  Seeing as how their charter forbids them to be involved in that sort of thing I am surprised.  The 9/11 Commission described the FISA application process prior to 9/11 in detail and, unsurprisingly, the CIA is absent.  So we are supposed to imagine that Bush added a new level of bureaucratic sign-off  in order to speed things up?

Time does not permit, and the FISA process has been modified so I may be barking up the wrong tree, but I do wonder about the CIA role in this.  As an example, in the Plame case the CIA involvement was to file a criminal referral stating that the Plame leak had national security implications, but of course Ms. Plame was one of their agents; hard to see why the CIA would be involved in the Harman case as described.

AT LAST:  This come from Zachary Roth, a TPMuckraker:

But, as we noted in an update this morning, Stein told us that he had worded that passage poorly. He said that Goss did not in fact sign off on a Justice Department application for a FISA warrant to wiretap Harman herself. Rather, his sources tell him that Goss signed off on DOJ's application to renew its tap on the suspected Israeli agent, merely certifying that, from CIA's viewpoint, it was a legitimate national security tap.

Stein added:

I could have been more precise on this point. I did not mean to imply that Goss had approved of a Justice Department investigation of Harman. He would have no role to play in that. At this point I do not know for sure what DOJ did specifically about Harman, beyond the fact that the FBI wanted to question her about her conversation with the wiretap target. The main point, which I could have made clearer, is that Goss was obligated to notify Hastert and Pelosi that the FBI intended to question her about the conversation.

Comments

[clarice]

John Marshall is sceptical and AT's James Lewis thinks it's a Rahm Bomb--set to demonstrate that no way can stand in Obama's way now that he's set to force Israel to capitulate ...

Surely some Dems are determined to get her off that committee--was it because they wanted the slot for Alcee Hastings and are angry he didn't get it? Remember Maxine Waters took the unprecedented step in 2008 of going into Harman's district and campaigning against her.

Jane Harman is scheduled to address the AIPAC Opening Plenary on May 3..

[clarice]

On another thread TS notes the article refers to DoJ intel and public corruption lawyers deciding that the law had been broken by Harman (not exact words but close). That means Brenda Morris and I take it the dopes who okayed the AIPAC case. Doesn't it?

Bad actors keep showing up like bad pennies over at DoJ, don't they?

[clarice]

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/04/a_rahm_bomb_for_jane_harman.html>James Lewis says Obama Has to Have Approved this Leak

[Old Lurker]

Chicago comes to D.C., Clarice.

[Topsecretk9]

Well isn't equally as troubling that the foreign spy said he COULD lobby the sitting speaker with no qualms knowing he'd achieve what he was after?

IE Nancy Pelosi is equally ethically compromised in this-- how many times has Pelosi been lobbied by foriegn nationals and bowed to their demands?

[gus]

Harman and Pelosi are both D's right?

Nothing to see here, move along.

[Topsecretk9]

Major hole blown in the story:

New York Times editor Bill Keller is denying that Dem Rep Jane Harman had any role in persuading him to hold its big warrantless wiretapping expose until after the 2004 elections, a controversial decision that may have altered the election’s outcome and changed history.

The claim that Harman worked behind the scenes to persuade the paper not to run the story was one of many startling revelations in the big CQ Politics piece that is being talked and blogged about today.

...I asked Times spokesperson Catherine Mathis for a response to the claim. She emailed me a quote from Keller:

“”Ms. Harman did not influence my decision. I don’t recall that she even spoke to me.”

Pelosi playing games?

[Topsecretk9]

OOps. LUN to above.

[Jane]

Boy I missed this story completely. What a win for the Pelosi arm of the party. They seem to be getting stronger by the minute.

Is this the kind of thing Harmen and GOnzoles can go to jail for?

[matt]

gee, another influence peddling scandal with the Democrats? What a surprise......I believe the founders of the modern Democratic party are named Joe Kennedy, Lucky Luciano, and Boss Tweed.

[Danube of Thought]

Cherchez le reptile. It's Rahm.

[clarice]

It's a preposterous story, Jane. Rick Moran thinks NSA will track down the leaker(s). Who knows? I know that this story smelled to high heaven in 2006 and hasn't gotten any sweeter smelling in three more years.

Enemies in the party (CBC and the other lefties) are trying to destroy Harman and bums in DoJ are trying to keep the Dept from dropping the case against AIPAC employees which has never been strong and which has now been so circumscribed by the courts as to be unwinnable.

[clarice]

TS--"The foreign spy" is a Hollywood biggie and a major contributor to the Dem party.

[clarice]

From Ed Lasky at AT:
"
Ed Lasky:

This is a bit of an old story-first emerged in '06. Now that the Justice Department's case against Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman seems to be on the verge of being dropped for lack of a legal case and evidentiary issues, someone is choosing to leak elaborate stories about NSA tapes and Harman-hoping to keep the trial and the issue alive.

I am also wondering if this is retribution for Rosen's effectiveness in derailing the Chas Freeman nomination. By keeping the "scandal" alive, perhaps the leakers want to keep the trial and the pressure (and misery, and legal fees) on Rosen.

I have been routinely ignoring all stories that don't name sources. I have been burned before about the veracity of their tales."

[anduril]

...hard to see why the CIA would be involved in the Harman case as described.

Possibly because you have no experience in this field.

[Jane]

Amazing

[matt]

speaking of the CIA, Obama is meeting with senior agents today to smooth over his release of the torture memos.....the man is an all time world record schmuck.

[MayBee]

You know who we haven't heard from in a while? Sybil Edmonds.

[clarice]

I can't imagine why he did this, matt. I cannot imagine what benefit outweighed the loss in it.

[clarice]

Not a peep out of the lefties who screamed about the great loss to national defense with the make believe outing of the non-covert super duper agent Plame though, is there?

[Lesley]

To me, this is Plame in reverse: the WH exerting pressure (intimidation?) on the intelligence agencies and congress critters. Then Obama goes to CIA to try to "play nice" perhaps having second thoughts that there are more of them to wreak havoc upon his administration than he has the power to play whack-a-mole.

[clarice]

Stein admitted in an interview today that he got some of the details wrong..and he calims this is not a recent leak ..it's something he had for a while but just got around to.

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/04/is-haim-saban-the-israeli-agent-scheming-with-jane-harman.html>Coincidence

[MayBee]

Obama today said the information in the memos had already been compromised.
I didn't not hear him thank the people who had done all the leaking that made it possible for him to become President, but I'm sure he wanted to. Now let's see if leakers start coming after him.

[anduril]

clarice, that link doesn't lead to what you advertised. I did some checking around and came up with this interview with Stein, which must be what you had in mind: Wiretapping Rep Harman with Jeff Stein, CQ Columnist & National Security Editor

The title seems wrong. I mean, surely Jeff Stein didn't really wiretap Harman?

[anduril]

Here's the snippet that was semi-quoted:

# Claire from Washington DC: Why are your sources coming forward now? There must be some reason why they have waited almost three years.

# Jeff Stein: Thanks. I've seen a lot of speculation about that online.

The fact is, there is no "timing" to any "leak."

No sources "came forward," so to speak.

I learned about this quite a while ago and was just recently able to turn my full attention to it. Total coincidence.

Stein makes some statements that suggest he's no more up on national security law than is the average person who posts things on the internet.

[matt]

Cheney is now calling for the release of the memos outlining the successes achieved using waterboarding to obtain information.An interesting twist.

I wonder how Obama will argue that point, and then, how the public will react. The only problem I see is that now that the cat is out of the bag, the left will distort the facts further. They get first peek at the memos and can have their 8:45 call so they're all singing from the same hymnal.

[clarice]

Curious, anduril. I am quite sure that mondoweiss pointed to the article you cited, but in any event thanks for retrieving and posting it.

I find it hard to believe that Stein just sat on this for an undetermined amount of time before popping it out just weeks before Harman is set to address AIPAC and little over a month before that loser of a case is finally set to go to trial.

[clarice]

Ah, anduril, I cited to the wrong post at mondoweiss.I meant this one:
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/04/latest-on-harman-scandal-there-was-no-timely-leak-and-harman-was-not-the-object-of-the-tap.html>Stein sat on it?

[clarice]

matt, I think that's a great move by Cheney. If that info is not released no one can cling to that nonsense about enhanced interrogation being ineffective, suggesting the past administration just broke some moral code for no good reason and if they do release the information, Cheney proves the point. It was never something we WANTED to do. It was something we NEEDED to do to save lives and balancing that need with the minimal harm to the suspects seems to all rational people to make sense.

[narciso]

However, you slice it, the Wahhabi Ilkwan support network won a huge victory, just by circulating the rumor. Maybe some of Charles
Freeman's friends in the intelligence
community provided the extra bit of
plausibility, or maybe it's the FBI's Inspector Girard, Mr. Szady.

[Dennis D]

Seems like a double edged sword to me. If this was part of the NSA Warrantless wiretap program for terrorists why are they wiretapping Harman and an Israeli? I have no love for Harman but this could backfire as Libertarians and others may have been right about the wiretaps being abused for other reasons than terrorism.

[anduril]

Hmmmmm. That post contains a fair amount of flailing around, but why should mondoweiss, stein and armbinder be different than all the others? The simple fact is, no one's in any position to judge this given the current revelations. We simply need more facts. There are plausible scenarios in several directions, even without garbling of facts.

[bear1909]

can we put cheney in the oval office with lil bHo for 15 minutes and get a few things straightened out?

this punk Soetoro is beyond belief the biggest serpent ever to grace the hallowed hals.

and Rahm....did we elect that p*ssy? they both have to go.

[centralcal]

Way, way O/T, but I was out cutting Japanese beetles in half with some super duper scizzors and I thought, "hhmm, Anduril would be so proud!" Although, you use pliers don't you?

Anyway, I was surprised after a long weekend of gardening to see Anduril had returned to JOM comments. Is it just a seasonal thing, Anduril (like the beetles)? Just joking with ya!

[larwyn]

Clarice & ALL-

Remembering M.O.M!!

O! got lots of loud applause in front of PATRIOTS' WALL at the CIA today.

Immediately thought must be the M.O.M brigade, hand selected/screened, with the WH making certain that mikes were placed just so, if in fact they allowed any NON M.O.M BRIGADE in(formerly in GW admin "moles")

In trouble with the Big G mail service presently

One of Dan Riehl's posts on M.O.M. from long ago
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2006/04/mary_o_mccarthy.html

Know you have plenty, plenty also on this crowd.

No question that that crowd full of ARABISTS - ANTI-ISRAEL scum.

Miss Curt Weldon & ABLE DANGER too!! Replaced by "Adm" Joe Sestak.

DOTS! DOTS! DOTS! CONNECT THEM!!

fyi, JUST SAW THIS AT GATEWAY:

Cheney Calls For Legal Memos to be Declassified to Confirm Success of Bush Interrogation Tactics

[clarice]

Yes, MOM and the Plamettes were on my mind, too. Any agent with brains headed for the hills a couple of years ago.

[clarice]

LARWYN!! Hi--Missed the tag line for a few minutes...

[glenda]

Leave it to Dick Cheney to bring Larwyn back! Hello, lady! Is he not wonderful now that he's free to be, well, Cheney!
There have got to be more Cheney fans in intelligence circles than Bambi's! I wish he would smush Armitage!

[anduril]

Way too early for beetles in my neck of the woods, centralcal. Yes, just seasonal.

[clarice]

Japanese beetles are pretty though--kind of look like Egyptian scarabs with prettier coats.

[anduril]

Very handsome insects, but nasty.

[clarice]

Very.
Niters.

[Daddy]

If its Clarice's bedtime then hopefully its Okay to start going OT.

Yea! Spring has arrived in Alaska. Gorgeous sun-shiny sweatshirt day, blue skies, and the ">http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webcam/Redoubt_-_DFR.php"> volcano is brilliantly visible at 100 miles distant with a big white plume. The kids in the neighborhood were out in force, skateboarding around the piles of tire-traction pebbles washed into the gutters, and I was pumping up the bike tires for whoever brought over their bikes. Next door neighbor was hosing ash residue off his driveway and windows, and walked over to show us a nice photo on his cellphone of a medium size young black bear he had taken just this morning behind his house. We followed him back to look and beneath the last of the melting snow the large round piles of hundreds of peanut sized moose poop pellets were just breaking up through the snow.

The girls started collecting garbage in the snowmelt, and it included 2 ADN newspapers, still wrapped and dry in their distinctive orange plastic wrappers, which obviously, like time-capsules, had been buried under the snow-mountains our snowplows had created a few months back. The one I took out of the wrapper was from Feburary 16th, with the full page headline "Key Players Contest FBI Whistle-Blower Allegations: Ted Stevens Trial." Think I'll keep it.

Came inside to show it to the wife, and she was on the computer wistfully gazing at this ">http://media.hgtv.com/HGTV/newsletter/GreenHome/GH09/PC1/index.html?nl=HGTV-GH09-PC1_view"> webpage ad of a beautiful hacienda with palm trees and a brand new GMC Truck in the driveway, with the headline, "You Could Live In SUNNY FLORIDA" Enter for a chance to win this luxuriously furnished 2009 HGTV Green Home and a new GMC Hybrid!!! Grand Prize Package worth $750,000!"

Yes, Springtime in Alaska has arrived, and not a moment too soon!

[rhymin' simon]

Clarice, any connection between the re-hash of the Jane Harman AIPAC NSA wiretap and Bibi Netanyahu backing out of AIPAC Dinner because of White House snub.

Next DVD package should be Peter Sellers anthology - Being Ther, The Pink Panther series (We investigated and found no inappropiate contacts or sending the FBI to the Somali Pirates, and the Mouse that Roared. I think somehow the Dr. Strangeglove was missing from the set.

[rhymin' simon]

Clarice, any connection between the re-hash of the Jane Harman AIPAC NSA wiretap and Bibi Netanyahu backing out of AIPAC Dinner because of White House snub.

Next DVD package should be Peter Sellers anthology - Being Ther, The Pink Panther series (We investigated and found no inappropiate contacts or sending the FBI to the Somali Pirates, and the Mouse that Roared. I think somehow the Dr. Strangeglove was missing from the set.

[Teh Sadly]

hard to see why the CIA would be involved in the Harman case as described.

This isn't widely known, but Israel is outsourcing some of its operations to an office in Tel Aviv.

[Topsecretk9]

Uh oh...another democrat corruption scandal that looks like there is Grand Jury testimony -- Isn't this like the 20th dem under corruption-bribery etc investigation? Man, those democrats have taken the culture of Corruption mantle and like majorly run with it. No wonder GOP are creeping equal on generic polls...

That line was crossed in one case, according to a defense contractor who spoke to us on condition of anonymity for fear of losing government contracts.

The contractor was set to receive $1 million tax dollars. He said the military told him the money would come through a company called Commonwealth Research Institute, whose parent company, Concurrent Technologies, ranked among the largest earmark recipients. Both were set up with Murtha's help in his own hometown. The defense contractor said Commonwealth officials told him to get the money, he should "consider opening an office" in Johnstown, Murtha's hometown, and chided his company for not giving "enough campaign contributions to Murtha," and not making "a showing at Murtha's annual defense contractor fair."

The contractor told CBS News: "I wouldn't do it. We're just not going to play." He didn't get the funds....Commonwealth, subpoenaed in a separate federal probe, would only say it's always encouraged companies to relocate to Johnstown, and attend Murtha's fair to promote growth - but does "not encourage anyone to make campaign contributions."

Murtha wouldn't comment for our report. He did recently tell a home state newspaper that he's only trying to bring home the bacon.

"If I'm corrupt," said the congressman, "It's because I take care of my district."

democrat PAY TO PLAY Politics in action -- From Blago to Murtha to Jefferson to Moran to Rattner to Kwame Kilpatrick to Monica Conyers to Jesse Jackson Jr. to Buris to Moyihan to I am too tired

LUN

[Topsecretk9]

Oh, and it appears the Botox Ganny isn't all that fly with tranparency and ethics afterall

House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), have ratcheted up the pressure on their rank-and-file members to oppose a resolution calling for an ethics committee investigation into the ties between key Democrats and a controversial defense-lobbying firm.

Democratic leaders have told their members they should let the ethics panel do its work and stop supporting a measure sponsored by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that calls for an ethics probe into political donations from the now-defunct PMA Group lobbying firm and earmarks its clients received.

this is SUPERB timing for the democrats seeing as all their ethically challenge crooks are lawyering up

Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) is seeking permission from the Federal Election Commission to spend campaign money on legal fees that may arise from the FBI investigation of the PMA Group lobbying firm, though his request letter claims no independent knowledge of the investigation.

PMA Group imploded after news broke in February that federal agents had raided its offices last fall, reportedly as part of an investigation of potentially improper campaign contributions.

The firm’s employees and clients have provided millions of dollars worth of campaign donations to top Members of Congress, including several Appropriations Committee members. Many of these members — particularly Reps. John Murtha (D-Pa.), Jim Moran (D-Va.) and Visclosky — have provided millions of dollars worth of earmarks for PMA clients.

[JM Hanes]

Tops:

I sure hope Republicans start tagging Dems as The. Most. Corrupt. Congress. Evah. before it's too late to make a dent in 2010!

Maybe they should call it the most corrupt Washington ever, so they stir the pot with Obama's appointments too.

Every time I think that maybe they're finally beginning to eke out a little traction, it's like they disappear in a puff of smoke.

The idea that the FEC would grant Visclosky permission to spend campaign money for lawyering up in advance of a potential criminal prosecution is so off the wall that it'll probably happen. What gets me is how blatant the corruption is.

[clarice]

simon:"Clarice, any connection between the re-hash of the Jane Harman AIPAC NSA wiretap and Bibi Netanyahu backing out of AIPAC Dinner because of White House snub."

I don't see a direct one.

Yesterday someone asked why Goss would have been asked to approve the wiretap that apparently snagged Harman's conversation with Saban. Stories today--I forget now if it was in the NYT or CQ--indicate Mueller was unavailable and so Gross was asked to. Apparently the tap required approval at the highest level and the procedure was that if the head of the FBI was unavailable the head of the CIA had to approve it.

CQ's Stein adamantly denies that there is anything in the timing , claiming again he had all this stuff but was too busy to attend to it until now.

He doesn't say how long he had it and I still believe that the folks pushing the idiotic AIPAC case are afraid that the new afministration will kill it now that the DoJ has lost every major court battle about the case and are so circumscribed in what they can do the case seems a sure loser.

[clarice]

It seems rather clear that the govt--was it NSA?--was wiretapping Saban, whom they suspected was spying for Israel.

[mark]

per clarice: ...the wiretap that apparently snagged Harman's conversation with Saban.

It seems rather clear that the govt--was it NSA?--was wiretapping Saban, whom they suspected was spying for Israel.

per the NYT:

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.

So, if we're to believe the NYT's "three current or former senior officials," the wiretap did NOT pick up Harman speaking to Saban. Which is utterly unsurprising.

[anduril]

heh, sorry for getting my name wrong.

[clarice]

.

Thank you, Mark, that contradicts a couple of other stories. A good reminder why I shoulc also do what you did, cite the article with the factoid I'm thinking of so I can track down who is saying what.

Here's Jonathan Turley who also read the stories as indicating it was Saban on the tape. (I think he's wet on his take on the entire story as well.)

http://jonathanturley.org/2009/04/21/waddling-into-controversy-harman-reportedly-intercepted-in-quid-pro-quo-deal-with-aipac-for-the-chairmanship-of-the-house-intelligence-committee/>Turley

[anduril]

the name is spelled with small initial letter, please. :-)

the point is one i made yesterday: the details of this story are not forthcoming to the degree that is needed to reconstruct them, and the people that i've seen commenting on this business lack the necessary background to offer truly informed...speculation. since the nyt and other "major" outlets are picking up on this, maybe those details will be forthcoming at some point, although all these leaks would appear to be violations of one sort or another--whether of laws or of internal regulations, etc.

[maverick muse]

Feds disregard legal boundaries and spy on young girls trying on prom dresses.

At a mall, two FBI agents (MSM did not specify agents, instead writing "workers" and "employees") direct their surveillance camera on unclothed teenage girls in the dressing room for 90 minutes.

The article states that the two FBI men will be charged with a misdemeanor and possibly face 1 year sentences.

No mention was made of these FBI employees being fired or repudiated by the FBI.

[maverick muse]

"Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap ..."

Exactly what wire was tapped? Harman's own phone; why else would she have ventured to have allegedly been so bold as to make such arrangements? So where is the previous evidence proving that Harman's phone should have been tapped?

Also, what of the NSA ability to fabricate electronic records?

[Topsecretk9]

Yesterday someone asked why Goss would have been asked to approve the wiretap that apparently snagged Harman's conversation with Saban.

I 'm not sure the person she was on the phone with was Saban -- I believe the person she was on the phone with said they would get Saban to lobby the Botox Granny -- which he did I believe.

[clarice]

anduril, I've posited my guess that this is being leaked now to make a review of the AIPAC case by the new guys at DoJ harderm supposing that they'd want to drop the case in view of the court rulings.

Don't you suppose that this increases the pressure to keep the case going?

One outlying theory I read somewhere is that this was leaked to counter another leak that another Congressperson was caught on tape sopealing to a foreign terrorist.

But who knows? As you correctly observe whosever is leaking this--unless it's the WH--is violating laws and regulations and people who do are not necessarily worth crediting, are they?

[clarice]

**SPEAKING to a foreign terrorist**

(Sorry--it's a busy morning and I'm distracted)

[clarice]

ts, yes mark aka anduril just posted that..some of the early stories said it was Saban but you two are right..the more detailed info says it was someone else.

[narciso]

This story makes less and less sense, So they tapped her phone, because she was talking to some who referenced Saban about the AIPAC case with Rosen; did I get that right. This is sounding like "Enemy of the State" here, to my jaundiced eye

[anduril]

clarice, it appears that the prosecutors at DoJ have been confident all along that they have a case. I believe you're well aware of my views in that regard--the prosecutors fought hard for their positions on appeal and haven't come away empty or slapped down, IMO. At this point I believe they have a credible case, and since they've been pushing all along to go to trial (the delays have been occasioned largely or even entirely by AIPAC defendant motions and appeals), it appears that they still believe they do, too.

Whether the WH wants to drop it or not, I only know what I read on the internet and I have nothing to say about that. OTOH, this publicity certainly does, objectively speaking (the only way I speak, btw), focus attention on AIPAC and to that extent would work to make anyone wishing to drop the case (again, supposing that such persons exist within the USG) consider their position carefully from the standpoint of possible negative publicity. However, to repeat myself, it seems clear that any such persons within the USG do not include members of the prosecution team and, IMCO, for good reason. As for the WH, any WH desire to drop the case would undoubtedly be political in nature--interest in justice on the part of this WH can, again IMO, be steeply discounted, but this WH also appears ready to brazen its way through to get the result it wants, confident in a compliant MSM. (I base my opinion on this WH's track record so far.) We shall see.

[clarice]

It appears that OPI played a not insignificant role in the bringing of this case, too. which should be of some concern to Holder as he weighs his options.

You and I do disagree on the strength of the remaining case, I grant you that.

[clarice]

narciso, we do not know why her phone was taped. It could be the tap was on someone overseas who made the call. It could be on a program not the one covered by FISA..for example a straight up espionage matter--there were substantial leaks about the FISA program and perhaps someone believed they were coming from members of the Intel committee or someone on their satffs.

[anduril]

You and I do disagree on the strength of the remaining case, I grant you that.

Oh, thanks! :-)

1. I happen to agree with Josh Gerstein's view that the pretrial maneuverings have by far not been an unrelieved series of defeats for the prosecution. For example, Gerstein's Feb. 16, 2007 article was captioned: Defendants Are Dealt a Blow In Aipac Case, and the blow (a twofold blow--see the article) was, IMCO, a significant one. The prosecution will be allowed to introduce evidence of "AIPAC" (shorthand for the defendants) coordination with Israeli Government Officials, and the defense demands to compel testimony from those IGO's was rejected. IOW, the prosecution will introduce evidence that the defendants coordinated their activities with IGO's, and the defense will have very little to say substantively to rebut that damaging impression. A jury may well be impressed by that.

2. To be precise, there is NO suggestion whatsoever that Harman's phone was ever tapped. ("Taped" it may have been, as in scotch, masking, duct...). Little joke.

[anduril]

Correction:

the defense demands to compel testimony from those IGO's was rejected.

should read either:

the defense demand to compel testimony from those IGO's was rejected.

or

the defense demands to compel testimony from those IGO's were rejected.

[narciso]

True but why not wiretap Leahy, or Pelosi or Rockefeller, people who have beeninvolved
with 'insecure' classified information in the past. Well that's because there would be consequences, to such an action

[bad]

O/T Jennifer Loven, AP and Jake Tapper pwned Gibbs yesterday at the WH briefing. LUN

O just told Jennifer at his presser that she gets no question today.

KEEPIN" SCORE...

[anduril]

I've been away, narciso--what's with this terseness on your part?

If I had my druthers, our "representatives" in the Legislative Branch would operate on a much shorter leash than they currently do.

[bad]

Sorry for previous post, wrong thread.

[narciso]

I don't know how to take that, but I've been anything but terse on the path this
administration, the legal and propaganda
steps they took to secure their influence; unless you're being ironic

[cathyf]

True but why not wiretap Leahy, or Pelosi or Rockefeller

We don't know that they didn't. There were reports earlier in the week of the NSA following some congresscritter to the middle east where said critter had contact with known terrorists. That could easily have been Rockefeller or Pelosi.

[anduril]

Ironic? Moi?

[bad]

Rockefeller has claimed he was tapped.

[anduril]

Before I go be productive for a while, here's a blog that should prove interesting to most readers: 5 Reasons House Prices May Never Recover

Ever conscious of the virtue of brevity, I'll paste in the first and last paragraphs. Those who are interested can follow the link for the reasoning, which is very succinct:

House prices will eventually stop falling, probably in about two years. But will they ever recover to the levels we saw during the heights of boom? In some areas, prices might climb that high again. But for most markets, such a recovery will probably never happen, and would take decades it were to occur.

In an essay published today, Charles Hugh Smith explains that the bubble vaulations are probably never coming back.

...

This has important policy implications. It means that policies built around the confidence that house prices will recover are bound to be costly failures. Money spent to re-inflate the bubble will be lost. And until we become adjusted to permanently lower house prices, the broader economy will continue to suffer. For one thing, we're going to have to go back to creating wealth in ways other than selling our homes.

[Ignatz]

IMCO?

In my confident opinion?
Cocky opinion?
Cloistered?
Cranky?
Cool?

[anduril]

Considered?