CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– INTELLIGENCE
April 22, 2009 – 8:22 p.m.
House Intelligence Chairman Orders Staff to Investigate Harman Wiretaps
By Tim Starks and Edward Epstein, CQ Staff
House Select Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes has told the panel’s staff to begin investigating an incident in which Rep. Jane Harman was recorded on a wiretap talking with a suspected Israeli agent.
Harman, D-Calif., was overheard on a 2005 National Security Agency (NSA) or FBI wiretap saying she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Congressional Quarterly reported this week.
In return, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby for Harman to become chairwoman of the House Select Intelligence Committee, according to the report.
“In the context of the Harman incident, the committee is looking into the issue, including NSA involvement, as well as any other matter directly related to the committee’s jurisdiction over the intelligence community,” committee spokeswoman Courtney Littig said.
Pelosi Knew of Wiretap
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said Wednesday that she was first informed in a confidential briefing a few years ago that Harman had been recorded by spy agencies but that she couldn’t tell Harman or anyone else about it.
Pelosi said the briefing from intelligence agencies was usual practice in the Capitol, where top congressional leaders are always told when a member of Congress pops up during the course of secret investigations.
Pelosi wouldn’t comment on the substance of the briefing about Harman.
“I was not in a position to raise it with Jane Harman . All they said was that she was wiretapped,” said Pelosi, who said she couldn’t remember if the secret briefing took place in 2005 or 2006.
“When you are briefed on something, it isn’t your role to share it with anybody else,” said Pelosi, who served on the Intelligence Committee for a decade until she entered the House Democratic leadership about six years ago.
“Even if I wanted to share it with her, I would not have had the liberty to share it with her,” Pelosi added at a round table sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.
Pelosi named Reyes, a Texas Democrat, as Intelligence chairman after Democrats took back the House in 2006.
Littig said the panel had also begun an inquiry into another news report from last week involving surveillance of a lawmaker.
The report quoted an intelligence official who said the NSA had aborted a plan to conduct surveillance of an unnamed lawmaker on a trip to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006 who had been in communication with an “extremist” already under surveillance.
Littig said the two inquiries were being “treated separately.”
Comments
Sounds like Harman was horse trading money for position, like former governor Blagovitch. At a minimum she should quit the congress or get indicted and serve some time behind the bar. She is in a mess as more and more info trickles down.
Ms Harman is a traitor to here country. She will do anything for moeny and power. No wonder she is a strong Isreal Supporter. How many more like here in Congress who have more loyalty to Isreal then to America the great. . Shame on you Ms. Harman and she should resign.
Its about time for people like Ms Hareman to know that loyalty is not something you can trade with nor used to promote self interest.No woder why America's image is so low among nations.
Nothing will happen! AIPC will send its pitbulls to attack anyone they perceive dangerous to Israel. They know how to make cogress obedient!!!
Notice her father's name is Adolf and Lakes is not a Jewish name-Smells fishie :^( Jane Frank Harman (b. 1945) -- also known as Jane F. Harman; Jane Lakes; Jane Frank -- of Venice, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Calif. Born in New York, New York County, N.Y., June 28, 1945. Daughter of Adolf Lakes and Lucille (Geier) Lakes; married 1969 to Richard Frank (divorced 1978); married 1980 to Sidney Harman. Democrat. Lawyer; legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. John V. Tunney, 1972; counsel for congressional subcommittees; deputy secretary to the Cabinet in the Jimmy Carter White House, 1977-78; U.S. Representative from California 36th District, 1993-99, 2001-; candidate in primary for Governor of California, 1998; delegate to Democratic National Convention from California, 2004, 2008. Female. Jewish. Polish and Russian ancestry. Member, Council on Foreign Relations. Still living as of 2009.
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: