- THE HARMAN-AIPAC SCANDAL
-
- There is a lot more to the ongoing story about the NSA
wiretapping the phones of Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harmon that I don't
have time to cover--It is spooky stuff and we may never know all the secret
motives involved. At it's core is the charge that Harmon was caught on
tape speaking to a thus far unidentified Israeli agent dubbed "Bob,"
agreeing to try and influence then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and
others to quash the FBI probe into the espionage between a US intel official
and the controversial Israeli lobby AIPAC. Gonzales himself agreed to quash
any probe of Harmon for attempts to obstruct justice on behalf of AIPAC.
Harmon was a key Democrat who supported President Bush's illegal surveillance
of all communications. According to Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein,
who first broke the Harman-AIPAC story, "intelligence officials, angry
about Gonzo's move, told Nancy Pelosi about the wiretap that had picked
up Harman talking to a suspected Israeli agent -- defying the AG's order
that Pelosi not be informed. That was how Pelosi learned about the wiretap
-- not through an official briefing, as she implied yesterday in comments
to reporters.
-
- Zachary Roth of Talking Points Memo continues the narrative:
"It's unclear how informing Pelosi -- then the House minority leader
-- would have served the interests of the intel officials who wanted to
investigate Harman. Perhaps they felt that, if they couldn't continue the
probe, they could at least make sure Harman paid a political price. They
may have been successful in that regard. Pelosi didn't appoint Harman to
the job she was seeking -- House Intelligence chair -- and there have been
suggestions that this was in part because Pelosi knew about the wiretap
issue."
-
- As for Gonzales' role in protecting Harman, there may
have been a little quid pro quo according to Scott Horton: "Gonzales
appears to have personally intervened to shut down an FBI probe into Harman's
potential wrongdoing--which was reportedly recorded on several wiretapped
phone calls--because he viewed her as a key Democratic ally in Congress
who could help him fend off accusations about warrantless domestic wiretapping."
-
- However, as Glen Greenwald put it, "Harman is getting
a taste of her own medicine. When the U.S. Government eavesdropped for
years on American citizens with no warrants and in violation of the law,
that was 'both legal and necessary' as well as 'essential to U.S. national
security,' (according to Harmon)... But when the U.S. Government legally
and with warrants eavesdrops on Jane Harman, that is an outrageous invasion
of privacy and a violent assault on her rights as an American citizen,
and full-scale investigations must be commenced immediately to get to the
bottom of this abuse of power. Behold Jane Harman's overnight transformation
from Very Serious Champion of the Lawless Surveillance State to shrill
civil liberties extremist."
-
- On an even deeper level, virtually every Congressman
of any import is surveiled by the dark side of government. They use the
dirt they find on politicians to control them. When a tap like this becomes
visible, there is either someone in power out to get Harman, or she did
something wrong, or failed to do something demanded of her, and is getting
a little warning from the PTB. It gets more murky when you consider that
it was Porter Goss, the establishment fixer sent in with his minions to
root out the remaining whistleblowers at the CIA, who initiated this attack
on Harmon.
-
- As John Kampeas wrote, "Goss had reason to resent
Harman: As ranking member on the committee, she aggressively pursued her
own investigation of the case that felled U.S. Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.)
in a cash for contracts scandal - one that also brought down Goss buddy
("Gossling") Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, Goss' number 3 at
the CIA. And they weren't exactly best buds before that; Goss and Harman
had clashed, for instance, on waterboarding; she went over his head and
formally registered her opposition to the torture practice with the CIA."
--Lots of motives are possible. This gives you some idea of how convoluted
and hidden things are in Washington. There is a dark side of government
out there that the public has no idea about--and it's been around for decades.
-
-
- World Affairs Brief Commentary and Insights
on a Troubled World.
-
- Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution
permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief
- http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com
-
-
- World Affairs Brief, 290 West 580 South, Orem, Ut 84058,
USA
|