Key Dem (Harman) Urged NYT Reporter Against Running Warrantless Wiretapping Story

[mod mom]

Key Dem Urged NYT Reporter against Running Warrantless Wiretapping Story
By Paul Kiel - March 19, 2008, 4:58PM

Here's another nugget from Eric Lichtblau's new book.

It's well known that The New York Times held the story about the warrantless wiretapping program for more than a year. A concerted lobbying campaign by the administration at first convinced editors at the Times not to run the story in late 2004. But Lichtblau adds a new detail about how one of the few Democrats who had been briefed on the program seemed to take the administration's side of things.

The administration's main contention (beyond lying about there being no dissent about the legality of the program) was that reporting the existence of the program would compromise it and tip off the terrorists. In his book, Lichtblau tells how a few months after the story was held, he happened to be covering a House hearing where he heard Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) argue passionately for stronger civil liberties safeguards in the reauthorization of the Patriot Act.

Lichtblau saw this as an opportunity to question Harman about the warrantless wiretapping program, since Harman, as a member of the "gang of eight," was one of the four Democrats who'd been briefed on it. He writes:

I approached Harman with notepad in hand and told her that I’d been involved in our reporting the year before on the NSA eavesdropping program. “I’m trying to square what I heard in there,” I said, “with what we know about that program.” Harman’s golden California tan turned a brighter shade of red. She knew exactly what I was talking about. Shooing away her aides, she grabbed me by the arm and drew me a few feet away to a more remote section of the Capitol corridor.

-snip

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/key_dem_urged_nyt_reporter_aga.php

[mod mom]

1. "This is a valuable program, and it would be compromised,” she said.

WE NEED CHANGE!

[mod mom]

2. Wow-no comments? I thought this was a rather telling. tale of complicity-anyone?

[tavalon]

5. It reveals what I already knew

The only thing that makes sense is that the Dems have been complicit.

[L. Coyote]

7. WRONGO. What makes sense is the DEMs were lied to. That's a fact, if not a crime

depending on the specifics.

Lying to Congress is a very serious offense, and we will see where this ends.
We also will not be informed of many detals due to national security concerns.
That makes it particularly difficult to counter the lies, since silence is required.

[Truth2Tell]

10. Are you out of your mind?

The Dems who were briefed were given all the details of this program. No one, including them, has suggested otherwise. I suppose you could argue that the administration assertion that the activities were legal was a lie. But that was a characterization that could've been and should've been independently determined by the members (not to mention being obviously false on it's face). After all, it's their JOB to make those determinations.

Please explain in what way you believe the Dems who were briefed were lied to. Any lie at all. I can't wait to hear.

[mod mom]

8. Maybe that same NSA program she was protecting was used against her and helped bought

her silence:

Probe of Harman's AIPAC Ties Confirmed
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 25, 2006; Page A06


Federal law enforcement sources confirmed yesterday that the FBI opened an investigation in 2005 into whether Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) improperly enlisted the aid of a pro-Israel lobbying group, but they cautioned that no evidence of wrongdoing was found.

The inquiry focused on whether Harman had made promises to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in exchange for its support of her desire to become chairman of the House intelligence committee if Democrats take control of the House, several law enforcement sources said.Although the case is still considered open, officials said, the allegations have not been substantiated, and there has been no significant investigative activity on the issue in recent months. The inquiry was first reported by Time magazine.

Harman -- who has hired prominent GOP lawyer Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general -- told Time that the allegations were "irresponsible, laughable and scurrilous."

Sources said the Harman inquiry was an outgrowth of the ongoing criminal prosecution of two former AIPAC lobbyists who are charged with violating the Espionage Act in connection with receiving national defense information and transmitting it to journalists and employees of the Israeli Embassy who were not entitled to receive it. Lawrence Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst who pleaded guilty to passing government secrets to the two lobbyists, was sentenced this year to more than 12 years in prison.

-snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102401446.html

Exclusive: Feds Probe a Top Democrat's Relationship with AIPAC
Friday, Oct. 20, 2006By TIMOTHY J. BURGER/WASHINGTON

Did a Democratic member of Congress improperly enlist the support of a major pro-Israel lobbying group to try to win a top committee assignment? That's the question at the heart of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors, who are examining whether Rep. Jane Harman of California and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) may have violated the law in a scheme to get Harman reappointed as the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, according to knowledgeable sources in and out of the U.S. government.

-snip
Around mid-2005, the investigation expanded to cover aspects of Harman's quiet but aggressive campaign to persuade House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to reappoint her to the prestigious position on the House intel panel. The alleged campaign to support Harman for the leadership post came amid media reports that Pelosi had soured on her California colleague and might name Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, himself a major supporter of Israel, to succeed Harman.

The sources say the probe also involves whether, in exchange for the help from AIPAC, Harman agreed to help try to persuade the Administration to go lighter on the AIPAC officials caught up in the ongoing investigation. If that happened, it might be construed as an illegal quid pro quo, depending on the context of the situation. But the sources caution that there has been no decision to charge anyone and that it is unclear whether Harman and AIPAC acted on the idea.

-snip
HTTP://WWW.TIME.COM/TIME/NATION/ARTICLE/0,8599,1549069,00.HTML

[blm]

11. It proves the point some of us have been making about Dems' complicity to protect election for Bush

and there were so many levels to doing that starting at the top of the Dem powerbase then - the Clintons.

I don't believe ALL of this was mere 'coincidence' and don't see how anyone can anymore.
http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13354

Bill was naive when he repeatedly defended Bush in high profile media events?
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/19/clinton.iraq/

Who was Carville working for when he sabotaged Ohio Dem voters on election night?
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward


There was a Dem powerstructure working against Kerry and they are trying to do it again with Obama - but more of us now know what the score is, and we must work to defeat the traitor wing of the Dem party.

[Octafish]

3. Perhaps the DEMs felt if they support Monkey, he'll keep them on the helicopter.

Thanks for the heads-up on Harman, mod mom. Definite blurring of more than party lines -- the People's House is filled with people who have blurred the lines of the Constitution.

After 9-11, when Continuity Of Government kicked in, only Republicans were evacuated. Tom Daschle was surprised to discover the nation's Chimp Executive only took care of his friends.

Secret Government 60 Feet Under

New York Times – by Maureen Dowd – March 4, 2002

WASHINGTON — In a banner headline on Friday, The Washington Post blared: "Shadow Government Is at Work in Secret." The article said President Bush had assembled a cadre of officials to operate under the radar, out of the sunlight.

This is news?

The president did that on Jan. 20, 2001.

But it turns out that after Sept. 11, wanting to make sure that everything wouldn't collapse if there was a nuclear attack on Washington, he did it again. He formed a secret government within a secret government.

A shadow of a shadow.

It suits this administration to a T- ball, reflecting its twin obsessions with secrecy and self-perpetuation. The president realized that Dick Cheney couldn't govern all by himself after an Armageddon, so he set up a pre-post-apocalyptic staff, sending about 100 midlevel officials to two subterranean locations outside the capital.

SNIP...

The hidden administration is known as Continuity of Government, or C.O.G., while the one at 1600 Pennsylvania is known as C.O.D., or Continuity of Dynasty, a project designed to keep the Bushes in the White House until 2008 and beyond.

CONTINUED...

http://www.dukeemployees.com/washington16.shtml

No matter how deep the tan, complicity with the Bushies shines through.

[progressoid]

4. C.Y.A.

Covering her ass...
By then, Harman’s position had undergone a dramatic transformation. When the story broke publicly, she was among the first in line on Capitol Hill to denounce the administration’s handling of the wiretapping program, declaring that what the NSA was doing could have been done under the existing FISA law.

[cascadiance]

6. It's a shame that her district couldn't have picked Marcy Winograd...

to send her and her kind of Dem packin'! Had we had enough of of folks like Winograd come in instead, perhaps this war, this president and his bums, and many other egregious abuses of our constitution would be over instead of just watching a "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!" script.

[mod mom]

9. Blue Dogs, New Dems what ever you want to call them-they frequently side with the

GOP. Perhaps the common bond is $.

[Lance_Boyle]

12. The new Traitor Jane.

And this time, it's true. How sad.