We'd all like to know who was on the end of the phone. If it's ever disclosed, my money is on the, damage limitations unit, at the Israeli consulate and their homeboys, the Lobby, going into overdrive.
I think our whole political system is about broken, let's see if the msm has the independence, integrity and courage to do something about it. No one hold their breath.

With all due respect to Andrew Sullivan (whose talents as a blogger I envy), the Harman incident doesn’t need much comment from me....

Heh. Three posts of not much comment later...

I think what people aren't getting is that a member of Congress is allowed to lobby for/against a case they agree/disagree with. The only way to go after her is in the court of public opinion, and people are.

Robert Siegel from NPR interviewed Jane Harman and he caught her in a lie:

First Harman said:

I don't know that there was a phone conversation.

She had no recollection - couldn't remember.

Then later on in the interview, Harman forgets and says:

I mean, the person I was talking to was an American citizen. I know something about the law and wiretaps. There are two ways you do it. One is you get a FISA warrant, which has to start with a foreign suspected terrorist, a non-American foreigner. If this was FISA, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, that would have had to happen.

Robert Siegel catches this and says:

But you are saying that you know it was an American citizen. So that would suggest that you know that there was a —

She looks VERY GUILTY. The question is will Washington just sweep this under the rug the same way they're sweeping the AIPAC trial under the rug?

NPR Transcript and Radio Clip

1. If Mr X was an American citizen (Power Rangers mogul Haim Saban?), why was the NSA wiretapping this conversation? Or was it the FBI? If it was the FBI, did they have a warrant?

2. If an American citizen and campaign contributor calls up a congressman and asks them to lobby the Justice Dept to go easy on someone (an accused spy or otherwise), is this a crime?

3. If the congressman then calls up the Justice Dept and asks them to go easy on someone, is that a crime? People do this in court all the time.

4. If there was some something criminal in Harman's actions, isn't it also criminal that the Gonzo's Justice Dept decided not to prosecute -- for their own political advantage.

5. Finally, were our intelligence agencies and/or the Justice Department using this wiretap as way to coerce (blackmail) Harman into helping them with the gutting of FISA?

Seems like Harman's actions are just the tip of the old iceberg...

want to comment on avigdor's opinion that "Believe me, America accepts all our decisions."?

does that dovetail with sharon's assertion that "we control america"?

how can harman lose?

hack hack hack

you guys make a living hacking at the branches.

with any luck at all, i'll drink myself into a better frame of mind, or drink myself to death.

in the meantime, you guys gots to keep throwing underhand to maintain your dismal goddamned status.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Professor, I made a big mistake assuming Israel as a Client State to the US Mate! Now after all those Bloggings I think it is vice versa. That really paint the IR affairs vividly. I mean just look at the facts:

1. You have no saying in election candidates of Israel, while one cannot even be a US presidential candidate unless one promises 100% support to Israel;->>

2. You think you caught an Israeli Agent, then you find out that you have more agents who are US-citizens working for 100% support to Israel than Israelis. I mean maybe that Israeli Agent you caught was a trainer, an advisor to US Agents, advising them how to keep the US clientized;->>

Professor, if I were in your boots, I would switch sides Mate, that would really make your job easier, you are a realist more than a citizen of some state, aren't you? Why don't you join to the 100% Israel Supporters to consolidate your realism? Remember you are here to explain what is happening, not what should be happening. So what is happening is:

1. Your Presidential Canditates cannot be hopeful candidates unless they promise 100% support to Israel. Just imagine this as an extra article to your Constitution, although you can't imagine a similar article in the Constitution of Israel (something like "Israel supports the US 100%", with what?!).

2. Don't catch any Israeli Agent. It is not good to do so for your internal/external political balance. (I'm not kidding!).

So, kindly develop your explanations based on those realities. Don't come to us wailing "Oh! but it shouldn't be like that!, It wasn't intended by Our Founding Fathers to be like that!". Take it;-> Your Constitution is changed but the new article is not posted yet. Don't forget you are not a Constitution Maker, you are an IR scholar.

Grand Sen~or.

note: Professor! this Blog is so fun to attend, where were you before Mate. It is like reading Les Pardaillan — by Michel Zévaco, after I had finished 10 volumes, I was really feeling sad that he didn't wrote another 10 volumes, maybe you should add Les Pardaillan and your Blog at the top of your list of books as well;->>

note: Professor, I think you should be using Internet - the communication tool of our times more efficiently creating a team of interactors with your friends to ingage more interactions with the Bloggers. For example it was quite interesting when Mearsheimer posted a few messages here in your absence. But the problem with you Guys you don't interact with your Bloggers enough, maybe because you don't have much time. With such a team you could function like peripatetic of Aristotle not restricted to your own Blog but hanging around other choice Bloggs and discussion groups together to create a movement to be more influential. I am sure several bloggers here would follow you in your strolling. Publising books is quite an old practice, in fact by the time you finish writing a book it is already out-of-date.

Someone had a grudge likely.

That, and the earlier comment by Mr Walt, that the whole "walls have ears" culture gives him and me the willies.

What is the current status of the patriot act?

David Frum has an interseting bit here:

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/95670/The_real_Jane_Harman_scandal

Ahhh but an even more interesting observation about all this as is shown in Bamford's book, is the walls have ears, and "The State"(AIPAC et. all) hears every single conversation you make or conversation you do inside the embassies and Washington parties on Capital Hill.

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary

Gives you a rare glimpse of how Washington's power lobbies really work and who keeps all the ducks in a row.

http://afterdowningstreet.org

Makes you wonder to begin with, how "The Octopus" ever allowed the AIPAC investigation to even get off the ground - given that they control everything that is seen or heard in Washington D.C.

I have another deeper inquiry however.....Could it be someone from the inside, simply wanted their competition in the Lobby/AIPAC machine out of the way?

Could it be their competition was Harmon? Thus Harmon was perfect for the neocon spies in the NSA to use as what I would term as a "blackmail conduit" to dispose of in typical fall guy fashion.

Sure there's probably some "good guys" in the FBI & elsewhere who were trying to end the merry go round, but my bet is their investigation got scuttled, and used by the real power brokers to take down their competition in where else but the Lobby.

http://whatreallyhappened.com

After all Pelosi did tell them she wouldn't go along with the hardliner agenda....Even though most of Congress was in the lobbyists pockets.

This resistance is unacceptable to AIPAC & Lockheed, therefore what better way to clean their hands of it, than to try taking down Pelosi & Harmon as limited fall guys for the greater cause.

Everybody else like 60% of Congress is wiretapped anyway, and "The State" knows exactly who they are, so the sky's the limit with what Netanyahu's boys can make them do. They could even make them stand on their heads and recite alphabet soup, if it served the interests of state.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com

Sadly, nobody would even know it or have any sort of courage to be able to stop them from doing it too.

Wiretap irony: Rep. Harman's husband makes the best audio recording equipment in the world.

See

http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/audio-irony/

I think the Lady Hartman doth protest to much. This brings up another more fundamental question, If Israel is our close ally why were they spying on us?

MDrew:
1. FISA authorizes the FBI to perform the surveillance with US Borders. So the NSA shouldn't have been involved in the wiretap. Maybe they weren't though -- there seems to be some confusion about this. And FBI or NSA, was a FISA warrant ever obtained? This was before the Patriot Act took this out of the hands of the FISA Court (I believe).

2. Giving a recommendation of leniency and, in return, getting a recommendation for position, are things of "value".

3. This is the way politics works every day. Politicians do each other favors, and dispense favors, in return for favors. Nothing illegal about that. Blago didn't get in trouble for the exchange of political favors or positions, but for attempting a shake-down of fundraising monies from potential candidates for Obama's Senate vacancy.

Finally, who leaked this information? Are our intelligence agencies selectively leaking this for their own purposes? Or is it the Israeli's?

Oops. should have previewed before I posted...

2. Giving a recommendation of leniency and, in return, getting a recommendation for position, are NOT things of "value".

Did the lobby deliver kibosh to Gen. Anthony Zinni?
CNN's political ticker says the withdrawal of post in Iraq is a mystery.
Gen. Zinni has spoken up that we need a more evenhanded American policy in Israel/Palestine, he's also been breave enough to back suggestions that Israel-firsters pushed the Iraq war. Anyone who speaks up for our country and our interests, not Israels, but American interests are automatically being destroyed or shelved with only oblique reference to what is going on.
How many more American lives before we put the brakes on and tackle this thing.