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NYT: Harman Said She'd Have More Pull With White House
The New York Times adds some details to yesterday's blockbuster CQ report about Rep. Jane Harman and AIPAC.
Here are the key nuggets from the Times story:
* The report confirms that the call on which Harman agreed to take action in the AIPAC case in return for helping her get the House intel chair job was indeed picked up by the NSA, as Stein reported, rather than the FBI or other agencies, as some reports yesterday had suggested.
* The report also confirms that Harman was not the target of the wiretap. Rather, she was "swept up" as part of a separate investigation.
* Harman told her interlocutor that she would have more pull on the AIPAC case with a White House official than with the Justice Department.
* In return, the caller said that Haim Saban, a major Democratic fundraiser and donor, would threaten to withhold campaign contributions from Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi, if Pelosi didn't give Harman the intel job. (In 2006, Time reported that Saban did indeed call Pelosi to lobby her about Harman getting the job.)
* New York Times executive editor Bill Keller says that in October or November of 2004, Harman called Philip Taubman, then the paper's Washington bureau chief, at the request of Michael V. Hayden, then the N.S.A. director -- to urge that the Times not publish the story it was preparing on warrantless wiretapping.
This raises a few more questions, which we'll get into shortly...

















I've seen ex CIA head, ex NSA Director, ex 4 Star Air Force General Michael Hayden testify before Congress and do interviews on TV, and everytime I saw him I thought I was watching 4 Star Air Force General James Mattoon Scott.
April 21, 2009 9:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and I never liked Harman, she was too Bush/Cheney gang friendly. Hopefully, this controversy will get her dumped in the next election in favor of a Liberal
April 21, 2009 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Jane you ignorant slut"
Let this be a lesson to other Israel Lobbyists and their targets on the Occupied Territory - Capitol Hill
April 21, 2009 9:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are you proposing a two-state solution, U. S. and Israel? It'll never fly.
April 21, 2009 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Boy, the Dick and Jane books of my childhood never ended with Jane being a terrorist sympathizer and Dick being, well,,,a Dick!
April 21, 2009 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thumbs up!
April 21, 2009 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jane has been caught red-handed. I hope she suffers consequences. But I am not holding my breath.
April 21, 2009 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Democratic leadership needs to request Harman step down from her position as chair of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee until this is fully investigated.
It's not surprising considering even at this late date when the neocons have been totally discredited as foreign policy failures that Congresswomen Harman would join forces with the likes of Kagan and Kristol to form FPI, the neocon organization that replaced Project for a New American Century.
April 21, 2009 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Haim Saban, effin' Power Rangers.
Saban is another one. AIPAC and the Israeli lobby is dug in deep.
This story needs to be fleshed out.
Interesting that major news outlets haven't jumped on this explosive story. Hmmm....AIPAC anyone?
April 21, 2009 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink