An extraordinary scoop exposes Democrat Jane Harman and the murky inner workings of Washington politics
guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 April 2009 14.00 BST
Jeff Stein, a reporter for Congressional Quarterly, has broken an amazing scoop revealing that Democratic member of congress Jane Harman was caught red-handed on a National Security Agency wiretap colluding with an Israeli "agent" to get a reprieve for two alleged spies working for Aipac, the American-Israel public affairs committee. The quid pro quo for Harman - according to the CQ revelations - was that the agent would arrange for wealthy Democratic party donor Haim Saban to threaten the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, with withdrawing funding unless Pelosi made Harman the chair of the House's powerful intelligence committee.
Harman vehemently denies the story - telling CQ that its claims "have no basis in fact" - and says she never contacted the Justice Department on the Aipac Two's behalf. (There are other agencies within the executive branch, I note.) But she does not deny the conversation took place with the Israeli "agent," who she has inferred was affiliated with Aipac. In 2006, I reported that Saban did threaten Pelosi, precisely as Harman had requested. No wonder Pelosi didn't take kindly to being swatted around. She was so ticked off by the assault that it backfired, and she put Harman in a deep freeze. The latter never got the gold ring she'd sought.
In addition, the CIA director informed Pelosi of the wiretap and its contents, so the Speaker already knew about Harman's collusion (though the former denies it had anything to do with her decision not to promote Harman).
When the NSA presented the evidence to Justice, there was a debate about whether to pursue an investigation against Harman. CIA director Porter Goss approved it. But ultimately, the then attorney general Alberto Gonzales decided to abort it. The reason he demurred is tantalizing. The New York Times NSA warrantless wiretapping story - which in 2006 won a Pulitzer prize - was about to break, and the Bushites needed every political hand on deck. Harman could be counted on since she was the most security-hawkish Democrat in Congress. On a related note, Helena Cobban obeserves that Harman was captured by the very same NSA which she defended so vociferously on behalf of the Bushites. Ah, delicious irony!
Did Gonzales, or anyone associated with the administration, contact Harman directly and ask for the NSA support in return for dropping the Aipac investigation?
The CQ story provides another bombshell that reflects poorly on Bill Keller, the New York Times managing editor. The NYT originally planned to publish the NSA wiretap story not long before the 2004 election. Guess which senior House Democrat lobbied it not to publish the story? Why did the Times sit on this story for well over a year at least partially on the word of a compromised Aipac stooge like Harman? Bill Keller has said that she wasn't a factor in his decision to delay publication. Yet the fact that he did exactly as she urged might lead one to naturally suspect otherwise.
The ironies of this story are beyond measure. Though the NSA claims the wiretap was authorised and not warrantless - assuming we can believe anything they tell us? - isn't it an irony that the Patriot Act may have made a victim of a powerful member of the House intelligence establishment? For a minute there, I thought the NSA's mission was to go after al-Qaida and Islamic terrorists. Though it was the Israeli agent and not Harman who was the target of the NSA investigation, isn't it also ironic that an intelligence maven would get caught like this? Shouldn't someone like Harman have known better than to consort with Israeli agents of influence?
Let's not forget that Harman is one the greatest beneficiaries of the largess distributed by Aipac's donor community, receiving more funding than almost any other House member from pro-Israel public action committees. Indeed, in the midst of her denials she proudly proclaims the deep pride she maintains in her relationship with Aipac (and you can be damn sure the phone lines are burning up between Aipac and its Congressional allies begging them to remain mum and let this die). In effect, she implies that her offer to go to bat for the Aipac Two was due to her close relationship with the organisation, rather than because of any help it might provide in getting her the intelligence committee job.
Spencer Ackerman reports that Harman is due to speak at the Aipac national policy conference next month. Ackerman speculates that either Harman or Aipac might be too embarrassed for her to show up at the conference. But this is unlikely to be the case. Harman has become the biggest hero the lobby has. She will speak to the conference and she will receive a thunderous standing ovation. Count on it.
The Washington Post is reporting that the Justice Department is contemplating dropping charges against the Aipac Two. In fact, some journalists speculate that various government officials involved in the Aipac investigation, knowing the case will be dropped, are sick at heart at the prospect of it going no further. Hence their motivation to leak the story. In fact, one of the most powerful statements in Stein's original article is this quote from one of his sources denouncing Harman's behavior:
"It's the deepest kind of corruption," said one of the sources, recently retired law enforcement official who was involved in the Aipac investigation. "It's a story about the corruption of government - not legal corruption necessarily, but ethical corruption."
Dropping the case would be most unfortunate. Those of us who know Aipac and what it's capable of, understand that Rosen and Weissman were gaming the system.
The follow-up media coverage notes the absolute silence in both Democratic and Republican quarters about this scandal. Since both sides have a great deal to lose, they face mutually-assured destruction if either side tries to make hay out of it. The only one complaining loudly is Harman herself, who called for the Obama administration to release the entire wiretap transcript. Conveniently for her, this is not likely to happen.
Perhaps the final and ultimate irony will be that just as Harman was locked in a tight embrace with the Bush administration when the NSA story broke, now Harman and Gonzales are once again paired off. Each benefits from fear of the damage that this affair could do to their respective parties.
The shame is that because no one wants to touch this, Harman, Gonzales, Aipac and the alleged spies are not likely to face further investigation. In fact, announcing the end of the Aipac Two trial will be the best gift the Justice Department could offer Aipac on the eve of its national policy conference. The lobby and all its flacks and operatives will take this as a vindication of their tactics and mission. And a major opportunity to examine the inner workings of the Israel lobby's political machine will have been lost.
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