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.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.
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.
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.
