Free Republic

In a move that bolsters her civil liberties bona fides, South Bay Rep. Jane Harman is trying to shut down a controversial office that would give local police officials access to information from spy satellites. The program, which was introduced under the Bush administration, is part of a broader effort to secure the United States by making it easier to share information between federal and local authorities. But civil liberties advocates say that giving police chiefs and county sheriffs access to sophisticated spy imagery takes it a step too far. Responding to critics, Congress last year restricted funding for the...

The infamously wiretapped Jane Harman wants to shut down the federal agency slated to oversee the use of satellites for spying on U.S. residents suspected of terrorism and other evildoing. The California Democrat, who was wiretapped talking about the fate of two Israel lobbyists suspected of espionage, has introduced two bills that would shutter the Department of Homeland Security's innocuously-named National Applications Office.

California Democrat Jane Harmon tried to sell her influence to end an espionage case against to spies in return for help becoming House Intelligence Committee chairwoman. In a newly released NSA wiretap report, Harmon has been exposed negotiating a quid pro quo deal with an official of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The agreement apparently called for Harmon to sell the influence of her Congressional office by lobbying the Justice Department to reduce espionage charges against two AIPC operatives. In return AIPAC would lobby then minority leader Democrat Nancy Pelosi to name Harmon as the Chair of the...

Despite the makings of a juicy political blow-up, official Washington stayed largely mum on the mess of allegations that erupted from the pages of the typically staid Congressional Quarterly yesterday. The allegations are explosive: in 2006, a senior Democratic lawmaker cut a secret deal with an alleged Israeli spy; the NSA recorded the conversation and gave it to the FBI; and the former Attorney General quashed the probe to protect the pol, a political ally. Was the Republican House leadership, dependably eager to make hay out of Democrats' misfortunes, willing to comment? Not today, thanks. What about House Speaker Nancy...

The U.S. government may abandon espionage-law charges against two former lobbyists for a pro-Israel advocacy group, officials said yesterday, as a prominent House lawmaker denied new allegations that she offered to use her influence on their behalf. SNIP With the trial set to begin June 2, the Justice Department is reviewing whether to proceed as planned or withdraw the indictments after a series of adverse court rulings, according to law enforcement sources and lawyers close to the case. Defense attorneys recently subpoenaed a number of senior Bush administration officials, including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, former national security adviser...

Major scandal erupts involving Rep. Jane Harman, Alberto Gonzales and AIPAC [updated below - Update II (Interview w/Jeff Stein)] Other obligations prevent me from writing until later today -- and I intend to focus on Rahm Emanuel's war-crimes-protecting proclamation that Obama's desire for immunity extends beyond CIA officers perpetrating torture to the "policy makers" who ordered it (watch today as the hardest-core Obama loyalists start explaining how the UN doesn't matter, international treaties are irrelevant, and war criminals need not be held accountable) -- but, until then, I wanted to highlight this extremely important and well-reported story from CQ's Jeff...

>Harman Vehemently Denies Bribery Allegations Allegedly Caught on NSA Tapes [California Democratic Congresswoman] Jane Harman says she never offered to help a "suspected Israeli agent" in exchange for the agent lobbying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a key chairmanship for Harman. [California Democratic Congresswoman] Jane Harman vehemently denied on Monday allegations published in a congressional magazine that she had offered to help a "suspected Israeli agent" seek reduced charges for two men accused of espionage in exchange for the agent lobbying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a key chairmanship for Harman. ,,, Harman, a California Democrat, was overlooked by Pelosi...

Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington. Harman was recorded saying she would "waddle into" the AIPAC case "if you think it'll make a difference," according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript. In exchange for Harman's help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy...

Congressional Quarterly just reported a highly secret National Security Agency wiretap report on Rep. Jane Harman. Wait. Before we get to the content of the wiretap, all you ACLU types should be hitting the ceiling in rage. Because NSA wiretaps are the most carefully protected, super-secret operations carried on by the Federal government. Even during the Bush Administration, when the CIA carried on an unconcealed war on the Bush policy in the War on Terror through selective and politically damaging leaks to the New York Times, no wiretap recordings were released. Wiretaps of Members of Congress are even more sensitive,...

Report: Jane Harman recorded vowing take action for AIPAC on wiretap @ 9:33 am by Jeremy P. Jacobs Congresswoman Jane Harman was recorded on a NSA wiretapped conversation agreeing to work to downgrade espionage charges against two officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in return for help securing the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee, according to Jeff Stein's anonymously sourced column in Congressional Quarterly. Harman, a California Democrat, was allegedly recorded in a conversation with a suspected Israeli agent. The conversation reportedly took place before the 2006 election, when Democrats seized control of the chamber and, therefore,...

Yeah, bummer that guy we released from Gitmo has become an al Qaeda biggie. Disappointing, really. But hey, let the Saudis worry about it. Nothing for us to fret about here in America. As we all know, al Qaeda terrorists based in the Middle East pose no threat to the United States! That, in a mind-numbing nutshell, was the reaction of Rep. Jane Harman to the New York Times report that Said Ali al-Shihri, released from Gitmo in 2007, has become the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen. Harman made her mind-boggling statement under questioning from CBS Early...

If U.S. lawmakers have their way, the lights may soon go out on Thomas Edison's greatest invention -- the incandescent light bulb. The 19th-century inventor brought illumination to the world's fingertips, but according to Congress, his invention isn't efficient enough for an age anxious about energy supplies. "Only 10% of the power used by today's incandescent bulbs is emitted as light, while the other 90% is released as heat," Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said when she introduced her legislation to ban standard light bulbs. To eliminate this waste, Harman has proposed legislation that would effectively eliminate incandescent light bulbs from...

Have you ever had a teacher in school who was just so flat out nuts that her/his decisions made no sense whatever? I know I did. In the ninth grade I had a wacko Spanish teacher who perceived all sorts of minor slights she was receiving from both the school and society in general. She never ceased blabbering about how horrible the USA was and how WONDERFUL Fidel's Cuba was in comparison. What made this especially NUttie is that the teacher was a Cuban-American. Anyway, we students kept telling her that if she thought things were so great in...

Pelosi, Hastings and the Future of House DemocratsNovember 17th, 2006 There have been but 17 federal officials impeached by the House of Representatives since 1787 when the framers included the process in the U.S Constitution.  Of these were two presidents, one cabinet member, one senator, and one Supreme Court Justice.  The remaining defendants were all federal judges, seven of whom were subsequently convicted by the Senate and removed from the bench.  Statistically, in a field of thousands of past and present federal judges, this represents quite the rare and dubious distinction, indeed.And yet, one of the mere 7 federal judges...

Today, press reports indicate that it is Larry Hanauer, Rep. Jane Harman’s staffer, that Chairman Hoekstra has barred from seeing classified materials because he is suspected of having leaked the classified National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times, in order to affect the election. This story is only beginning, and a fascinating backstory remains to be told about the Democrats in the House.

As reported Friday, a Democrat staffer was suspended last week over possibly being the source of the recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times. New reports from the Los Angeles Times and Fox News identified the name of the staffer in question, and that he has ties to Rep. Jane Harman (D-California) who expressed such outrage over the incident (hat tip to Michelle Malkin): The aide was identified by other congressional officials as Larry Hanauer. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation into the leak, said Hanauer had held positions with...

<p>The case is a spin-off of a probe that has already led to charges under the Espionage Act against two AIPAC lobbyists, whose case is still pending, and to a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence for former Defense Intelligence Agency official Lawrence A. Franklin. Franklin pleaded guilty a year ago to three felony counts involving improper disclosure and handling of classified information about the Middle East and terrorism to the two lobbyists, who in turn are accused of passing it on to a journalist and a foreign government, widely believed to be Israel. The two lobbyists, who have denied any wrongdoing but were dismissed by AIPAC in April of 2005, were indicted on felony counts of conspiring with government officials to receive classified information they were not authorized to have access to and providing national defense information to people not entitled to receive it.</p>

Has Rep. Jane Harmen, a member of the House Intelligence Committee been divulging information to the MSM? Yesterday we learned that an unnamed democratic staffer had been suspended by House Intel Committee Chairman, Rep. Pete Hoekstra for possibly leaking a National Intelligence Estimate to the Ny Times. Of course the first to complain was in fact Jane Harman, who just happens to have been the one who pushed for it’s release from John Negreponte, and is even now pushing for a second NIE. The fact is that the staffer had been asked by someone, most likely Harmen to request the...

WASHINGTON -- House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra has suspended a Democratic staff member because of concerns he may have leaked a high-level intelligence assessment to The New York Times last month. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press Thursday night, Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., a committee member, said that an unidentified staffer requested the document from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before the Sept. 23 story about its conclusions

WASHINGTON - Disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham parlayed his seat on the Intelligence Committee into winning at least $70 million in authorizations that benefited two contractors who — in turn — paid him millions in bribes. That was a key finding, released Tuesday, in a declassified summary of a report by the panel's independent investigator. It confirms what has long been suspected: The intelligence committee was one more venue that the California Republican exploited to help his associates. The report finds that Cunningham secured the cooperation — or at least the noninterference — of many people. That included Congress...

Three From Clinton Administration Urge Disney to Cancel or Revise Sept. 11 MiniseriesBy JESSE McKINLEY Published: September 7, 2006 Three members of the Clinton administration have written the chairman of the Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent, to complain that the network’s coming two-part miniseries “The Path to 9/11” is fraught with factual errors and fabrications. The letters ask that the five-hour movie, scheduled for broadcast Sunday and Monday, be either edited for accuracy or canceled, and ABC gave a small indication yesterday that some changes might be made. One of the officials, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said in...

Weekend Talk Show Preview - Analysis for August 12th and 13th, 2006On the shows this weekend I'm most interested by Vali Nasr, on CNN, and Ken Mehlman, on Meet The Press.  I think we'll learn more about the events in the Middle East from Nasr and more about the coming campaign from Mehlman than all of the other guests, combined.  Nasr is an expert, from Iran, on the issues of conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.  I actually view this as our best hope of winning the coming world war.  Just as Communists and Nazis joined forces to start World...

House and Senate Democratic leaders have joined together to urge President Bush to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq this year. The move is part of an effort to shake the notion that Democrats are split on the Iraq war and keep the focus on what they see as a winning issue against Republicans. Twelve Democrats, including the Senate and House minority leaders and ranking members of key committees, wrote President Bush on Sunday about the matter. "In the interests of American national security, our troops and our taxpayers, the open-ended commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot...

I'm once again breaking out the shows into their own separate posts and including the background/info links with the guests' listing in those posts.  I will not be posting an entry for ABC This Week because:ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) 'This Week' will not air on Sunday, July 23, due to ABC's coverage of the British Open; we will return with all the latest in politics on Sunday, July 30.ABC This Week comment web page John Bolton does a twofer this week, covering both FNS and CNN.  Coming just after news that Voinovich will now vote for confirmation followed by...

I'm trying yet another format change this week.  I have left the background links on the entry for each guest for each show, like last week, but I've broken the Sunday shows out into separate posts to try to make each one more easy to read and discuss.  The Saturday shows will still be posted as one message, then I'll do the ping.  Please me know if this works.And I've put my (expanded) witty commentary here instead of in the ping...The most interesting guest this week should be Secretary Rice, who is on Fox, CBS and ABC, but she probably...

Euan Blair quit his job in Washington after a row over a request for him to write a report on the British intelligence service MI5, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The Prime Minister's eldest son had been expected to remain on Capitol Hill for a further two months to complete an internship with Democrat Jane Harman when he abruptly walked out last month. The official reason given at the time - and maintained by Downing Street since - was that 22-year-old Euan had just learned he had been offered a place at Yale University and needed to attend a...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for Saturday, June 10th and Sunday, June 11th, 2006 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows on 6/11/006.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: Yeah, yeah, a minor annoyance was murdered by the ruthless US military and Bushitler.  So what?Did you get a look at the hunk, Al Gore, with Steponallofus last week?  Talk about Presidential! Topics: Amb. L. Paul Bremer on al-Zarqawi's death and the fight for IraqRep. Reynolds vs....

The Talk Shows Sunday, May 14th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Laura Bush; author Mary Cheney; columnist Art Buchwald.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former House speaker Newt Gingrich. FACE THE NATION (CBS): White House national-security adviser Stephen Hadley; Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. THIS WEEK (ABC): First lady Laura Bush; Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Joe Biden, D-Del.; actress Reese Witherspoon. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Hadley; former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski; Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; Abdul-Illah al-Khatib, Jordanian foreign minister.

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for 5/13 - 5/14 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: It's Mother's Day - they want the day off to be with Mom.Put Biden and Hagel on... it's autopilot time... we can phone this one in!We say that the NSA programs are all bad, therefore they're bad.  Don't listen to anyone else.See?  We're not being mean to (Laura) Bush, which means we're fair and...

The Talk Shows Sunday, May 7th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich.; Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; Washington Nationals co-owner Mark Lerner. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Bush impersonator Steve Bridges. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas; Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean; outgoing White House press secretary Scott McClellan. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt;...

The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: The battle is joined!  Place your bets!  How badly will the GOP lose? Topics: Power Politics: Two Sunday exclusives as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and DNC Chairman Howard Dean join me to discuss gas prices, the 2006 elections and the war in Iraq. Will record low approval ratings for President Bush and rising gas prices fuel a Democratic takeover of Congress in...

If John Kerry becomes President he will find himself on the horns of a dilemma - which close friend to ditch when he chooses a new Secretary of State. According to today's Washington Post, Kerry would pick his national security team within a few weeks after winning the White House and two of his closest friends, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Richard Holbrooke reportedly want the job of running the State Department.

Fox News Sunday (Chris Wallace) Memes: As usual it looks like Fox is reversing the main meme of the other shows: the usual suspects (Dems/MSM) are trying to blame the grown ups for a natural disasterThe MSM are out of their tiny minds, particularly CNN for lashing out at Brit Hume and Fox for the Cheney interviewThey are giving Evan Bayh a platform for trying to run right of George Bush on IRANThey are giving Lindsey Graham a platform to auditioning as John McCain's VP candidate, therefore he will take the Democrat talking points on NSA and repeat them, ad...

In what can only be called a major reversal, two Democratic leaders, Rep. Jane Harman and former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, admitted the controversial NSA surveillance program was necessary for fighting terrorism. But necessary or not, they strongly question whether the president has the authority to conduct the warrantless searches without congressional authority. Please don't miss the significance of this turnaround. It is reminiscent of the many flip-flops the Democrats made over the U.S. invasion of Iraq. One month they approved, the next they were appalled at the thought, the next they were on board again. What changed their...

Two key Democrats yesterday called the NSA domestic surveillance program necessary for fighting terrorism but questioned whether President Bush had the legal authority to order it done without getting congressional approval. Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.) said Republicans are trying to create a political issue over Democrats' concern on the constitutional questions raised by the spying program. At the same time, the Republican chairmen of the Senate and House intelligence committees -- Sen. Pat Roberts (Kan.) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), who...

The Talk Shows Sunday, February 12th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. George Allen, R-Va.; Rev. Joseph Lowery; author Ron Christie; National Air and Space Museum geologist John Grant. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; Reps. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., Jane Harman, D-Calif. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. THIS WEEK (ABC): Rice; Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; Lynn Swann, former pro football player and Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate; actress Sigourney Weaver. LATE EDITION (CNN) :...

The Talk Shows Sunday, January 22nd, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill.; University of Maryland's men's basketball coach Gary Williams. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. THIS WEEK (ABC): John Kerry, D-Mass.; Reps. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Jane Harman, D-Calif., chairman and ranking Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee; actor Gary Sinise. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Sens. George Allen, R-Va., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat...

WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told President Bush Wednesday that the White House broke the law by withholding information from the full congressional oversight committees about a new domestic surveillance program. In a letter to Bush, Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., said the National Security Act requires the heads of the various intelligence agencies to keep the entire House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States." Only in the case of a highly classified covert action can the president choose to inform a...

In more evidence that the effort to blame Karl Rove for "outing an undercover CIA agent" was coming unraveled, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee retracted her claim on Sunday that she knew Rove obtained the agent's name from government sources. Asked about a letter she sent the White House demanding that Rove's security clearance be suspended, Rep. Jane Harman first insisted she was certain that the top Bush's aide's source was someone in the administration. "There's no other way that he would know [Plame's name]," Harman argued to "Fox News Sunday's" Brit Hume. The California Democrat theorized...

Can it possibly be true? Is Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., really under consideration by the White House as the first director of national intelligence? That's one of the ideas being floated by the administration right now. This would be the most powerful intelligence position ever created in the United States – more powerful that the director of the National Security Agency, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And who is Jane Harman? She votes with the American Civil Liberties Union 73 percent of the time. She is in favor of federal...

WASHINGTON (AP) - California Rep. Jane Harman's 1994 campaign for Congress benefited from $21,000 illegally funneled from a Hughes Aircraft Co. fund-raising event, newly released documents show. The records were made public by the Federal Election Commission this week after being discovered during a review of closed enforcement cases, a commission spokesman said.Harman, now the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was never punished because a federal judge said her campaign didn't commit deliberate or serious violations.At issue was an Oct. 29, 1993, fund-raiser Hughes held for Harman at its El Segundo, Calif., headquarters. Corporations are prohibited from donating...

WASHINGTON (AP) - California Rep. Jane Harman's 1994 campaign for Congress benefited from $21,000 illegally funneled from a Hughes Aircraft Co. fund-raising event, newly released documents show. The records were made public by the Federal Election Commission this week after being discovered during a review of closed enforcement cases, a commission spokesman said. Harman, now the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was never punished because a federal judge said her campaign didn't commit deliberate or serious violations. At issue was an Oct. 29, 1993, fund-raiser Hughes held for Harman at its El Segundo, Calif., headquarters. Corporations are prohibited...

<p>The following is a transcribed excerpt from Fox News Sunday, June 15, 2003.</p> <p>TONY SNOW, FOX NEWS: Some Democrats on Capitol Hill want to organize hearings around a provocative premise: that President Bush's team might have doctored evidence alleging that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons.</p>