In a stunning development, powerful Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman has been busted via wiretap for promising the AIPAC lobbying group that she would get a couple of spies off the hook.
As Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein, Glenn Greenwald, Raw Story and others point out, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales blackmailed Harman into support warrantless spying on Americans by threatening to prosecute her for her little AIPAC episode if she didn't play ball.
As dramatic as that is, that's not Harman's only scandal.
For example, Harman was briefed on the use of waterboarding in 2002, and yet did nothing to stop it.
Moreover, she knew by 2003 that the CIA had videotapes of the torture of alleged 9/11 plotters, and yet covered up that fact as well. She not only failed to tell the public, but she also hid the existence of the videotapes from the 9/11 Commission.
In other words, the official investigative body - which would have liked to have judge for itself what the detainees said and judged their credibility as witnesses for itself - was denied that opportunity by Harman and others. Because the Commission did not know about - let alone have access to - the videotapes, the 9/11 Commission Report was based almost entirely on a third-hand account of what tortured detainees said, with two of the three parties in the communication being government employees.
Finally, Harman chaired the hearing of the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security which pushing for the labeling any website which questioned the official version of 9/11 truth as terrorist incubators.
This is a little over-the-top, given that the senior counsel to the Commission says:
At some level of the government, at some point in time...there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened.And the rest of the Commission doesn't have much faith in the government's story either.
Harman is a poster child for what has been wrong with Congress for the last 8 years.
The interesting question here is, why are we just learning about this now? The wiretap took place in October 2005.
ReplyDeleteThe reply to this question from Jeff Stein (who broke the story last night) is absurd. He said in his online Q&A:
"The fact is, there is no "timing" to any "leak." No sources "came forward," so to speak. I learned about this quite a while ago and was just recently able to turn my full attention to it. Total coincidence."
Does anyone really believe this? He sat on the Harman story so he could write these instead:
# When Lie Detectors Lie: The CIA and John Sullivan
Apr. 10, 2009
# National Geographic TV Gives Guantanamo the Full Treatment
Apr. 03, 2009
# Time to Talk of CIA Regime Change in Sudan?
Mar. 28, 2009
# Iranian Phantoms Still Animate Nicaragua
Mar. 20, 2009
# If You Sail in Troubled Waters, You Better Have a Plan
Mar. 15, 2009
# Wiretaps Mess Will Foul Courts and Congress for a Long Time
Mar. 06, 2009
# CIA Unlikely to Reveal Much More About Missing Interrogation Tapes
Mar. 04, 2009
# Foggo Saga Doesn’t Reflect Well on Much of Anybody
Feb. 27, 2009
# Lack of Cohesive CI Strategy ‘a Serious Problem’
Feb. 20, 2009
# On Rendition, Looks Like More of the Same
Feb. 13, 2009
# The Man Who Knew So Much
Feb. 06, 2009
# Iran’s Murderous Valentine’s Day Card
Feb. 01, 2009
# Obama Terminates Bush Anti-Terror Policies With Extreme Prejudice
Jan. 23, 2009
# Obama Should Heed Kennedy’s Cuba Lessons When Thinking About Iran
http://www.sheilacasey.com/2009/04/who-sat-on-harmans-wiretap-for-three-years-and-why-is-it-just-now-being-exposed.html
Under US Code, the punishment for treason is death.
ReplyDelete18 US Code § 2381. Treason.
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
Jane Harman is a CRIMINAL and a TRAITOR. This bloated museum of treachery and treason, Harman, should not only be thrown out of office immediately, but also imprisoned and possibly executed for aiding and abetting a foreign espionage network and for subversion.
ReplyDeleteWiretap irony: Rep. Harman's husband makes the best audio recording equipment in the world.
ReplyDeleteSee
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/audio-irony/