Jimmy Carter Has Also Accused AIPAC of Putting Enormous Pressure On Politicians Running for Office Who Do Not Share AIPAC Goals!!!

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The Justice Department was in 2006 investigating whether Harman was working with AIPAC in a scheme to get her reappointed as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

The influential Israeli lobby group AIPAC has been named in a case dealing with Tel Aviv’s “covert action operations in Washington”.

A wiretapped telephone conversation between California representative Jane Harman and a suspected Israeli agent reportedly indicates that she had promised to lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

The former AIPAC members, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, were in 2005 indicted for passing along secret US documents to Israel in violation of the 1917 Espionage Act.

In late 2004, the New York Times reported that Weissman along with fellow AIPAC employee Rosen had been questioned regarding their involvement in an espionage case.

Larry Franklin, a Middle East analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency, was also driven into the case for allegedly passing classified information about Iran to the AIPAC members who had relayed the sensitive information to the government of Israel.

During the wiretapped telephone conversation, the Israeli agent promised to facilitate the appointment of Harman as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The mentioned committee is responsible for overseeing the US intelligence community, consisting of 16 agencies whose main objective is to collect and produce foreign and domestic intelligence, contribute to military planning, and perform espionage.

Harman had told the caller she would “waddle in” to the espionage case “if you think it would make a difference,” the Congressional Quarterly reported. She also said, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”

Harman has labeled the talk about her working for the Israeli lobby as “outrageous” and has urged the State Department to release the tapes

“It is my intention to make this material available to the public,” Harman wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder, expressing outrage that she had been wiretapped.

AIPAC, considered the most powerful and connected lobbying group in Washington, has been subject to controversy in the past.

In 1992, the group’s then president David Steiner was forced to resign after he was recorded boasting about his political influence in obtaining aid for Israel.

Steiner claimed to be “negotiating” with the then incoming Clinton administration over who Clinton would appoint as secretary of state and director of the National Security Agency.

The scope of AIPAC influence has been defined in the book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from the Harvard University.

AIPAC is a “de facto agent for a foreign government” whose “success is due to its ability to reward legislators and congressional candidates who support its agenda, and to punish those who challenge it”, the book reads.

Former US president Jimmy Carter has also accused AIPAC of putting enormous pressure on politicians running for office who do not share AIPAC goals.
Source: PRESSTV

April 22, 2009 - Posted by Elias