THE LARGER SCANDAL BEHIND WIRETAPGATE: Israeli Spying in the U.S.

leveymg

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Tue Apr-21-09 09:07 AM
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THE LARGER SCANDAL BEHIND WIRETAPGATE: Israeli Spying in the U.S.

Edited on Tue Apr-21-09 09:59 AM by leveymg

Harman-AIPAC-Gonzalez is really several scandals - Harman is actually the least of it.

One thing I couldn�t quite figure out is why Jane Harman, an old Washington hand in the spy game, would talk on the phone about doing favors for AIPAC with a known Israeli espionage figure, reportedly Naor Gilon, who was �FO-3�, the foreign intelligence officer in the Larry Franklin case. She must have known such a chat would be intercepted by the NSA, particularly as the phone call reportedly occurred only a few months after Larry Franklin had been arrested for sharing classified information with two AIPAC employees.

Several reports identify the foreign intelligence figure Harman talked with as Naor Gilon, former Mossad Chief of Station in Washington. Didn't Jane know that the FBI has been legally wiretapping the Israeli Embassy, out of which Mr. Gion worked, for more than 30 years? Or, did she think that the taped conversation couldn�t be used against her? It's not like the FBI had never seen AIPAC-related espionage out of the Embassy before. Jim Lobe, a reporter who has a long memory, recalls, http://www.newsfollowup.com/docs/aipac/shalom_center_aipac.doc

In 1970, one year after he was hired by Senator Henry �Scoop� Jackson, an FBI wiretap authorized for the Israeli Embassy picked up Mr. Perle discussing classified information with an embassy official, while Mr. Wolfowitz was investigated in 1978 for providing a classified document on the proposed sale of a U.S. weapons system to an Arab government to an Israeli official via an AIPAC staffer.

Yes, that Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.

It's widely known that NSA and FBI have been legally surveiling the Mossad Office in the Israeli Embassy for years. Decades. If Harman was overheard as part of that tap, she should have known better. If Harman indeed had this conversation with the Mossad Chief in DC, it's no surprise she was kicked off the House Intel Committee. That would have been a brazen and stupid thing to do.

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Naor Gilon was the Mossad Chief of Station in DC implicated in the Indictment of Col. Larry Franklin, the DIA Iran analyst at Doug Feith's OSP who shared classified materials with AIPAC's Rosen and Weissman. He was also pal with New York Times reporter Judy Miller, who is believed to be referenced in the same indictment. See, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/2/14024/94613

Galon fled the country shortly after the FBI espionage investigation into Frankin and AIPAC was leaked in May, 2005. That operation involved salting Pentagon files with Israeli-suggested materials about Iran's nuclear program was a catastrophe for Mossad, AIPAC, OSP, and the neocons. But, that wasn�t the end of Naor's career. He's recently been appointed Chief of Staff to hard-line Israeli Foreign Minister Avignor Lieberman.

But, here�s the thing: that conversation reportedly occurred five months after the lid blew off the Franklin case. Either Gilon (assuming it was Gilon) had snuck back into the country, or else he was abroad when the call occurred.

If Gilon made that call from Israel, under the FISA law as it was being interpreted at the time, Harman may have believed the tape should have been �minimized�, in other words, destroyed. You heard me right. See, Jane Harman is not only a Member of Congress, she�s a U.S. Citizen. Before the 2008 FISA Amendment, which Obama voted to pass, the NSA was ordinarily required to minimize intercepts of international communications involving U.S. persons obtained without a specific warrant.

Harman may have believed, mistakenly, that calls from overseas couldn�t be used against her on that account, and, secondly, because the NSA�s own rules said that warrantless intercepts of the communications of federal officials are supposed to be minimized. Jane may have also believed, mistakenly, that then Attorney General Gonzalez wouldn�t dare try to blackmail her with such a tape -- for any purpose -- given her, and the Bush Administration�s, close relationship with AIPAC.

What Jane may have confused, however, was the difference between actual practice and black-letter of the law during the Bush years. In fact, NSA has apparently been retaining and analyzing a great amount of warrantless domestic data since 2001. Plus, there�s the fact that Naor Gilon is also a known foreign intelligence officer. Harman may have forgotten that FISA law had been previously amended by the USA-PATRIOT Act so that authorized taps follow the suspected person, and do not just apply to any particular land-line telephone number, as they did in the dark ages when FBI agents had to climb telephone poles to affix taps to specific lines.

The same warrant that has been authorized over and over again for Gilon as a Mossad Station Chief, most likely was still valid in November 2005, even though he had left the country. Besides, there was nothing illegal about tapping Gilon in Israel, even without a warrant, because he is not a U.S. person and he is overseas. Finally, there�s always been an exception about the sharing of intercepts between NSA and law enforcement where a serious crime, such as espionage, is reasonably indicated.

Very confusing, yes.

So confusing in fact that Jane Harman may have been caught in a trap of her own making. See, Jane had been one of the most effective advocates in Congress for expanding NSA domestic wiretapping. That is, until it was used against her. There�s gotta be some kind of Genie who dispenses such rough payback.

But, there's a larger issue here than Harman and Gilon - something more to this that many people haven't talked about yet.

Here's the question that isn't being asked: Why is Harman and AIPAC, itself, such an advocate of expanded warrantless wiretapping? Along with Jane, AIPAC and its beneficiaries in Congress have been a constant force against accountability for warrantless wiretapping programs.

There is a reasonable explanation for Israeli support for expanded wiretapping inside the U.S.: Narus/Verint/NICE (surveillance) systems

The NSA has long relied on Israeli produced wiretapping systems for much of its domestic telephone/e-mail intercepts that are gathered through CALEA-mandated diverters put in place by the phone companies beginning in the 1990s. Much of this equipment is manufactured by NARUS, VERINT, and NICE, companies founded and still operated by retired Israeli signals intelligence officers. See, www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1290021

The US has a number of information-sharing arrangements with foreign countries. The ECHELON program run jointly with the UK is most widely known. Under the USA-UK system, the US and British Commonwealth countries reads and shares each others intercepts, in order to evade laws limiting domestic wiretapping.

Israel also has an interest in maintaining its commercial and intelligence-gathering interests in the United States. The potential downsides of such an arrangement are obvious - it's appalling that this issue hasn't been openly addressed until now except by James Bamford and a few retired intelligence officers.

Maybe, the Harman-AIPAC-Gonzo scandal will finally open this unmentionable topic for public discussion.

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