Outraged Harman Wants Full Disclosure From Justice

[jefferson_dem]

:popcorn:

Outraged Harman Wants Full Disclosure From Justice

Rep. Jane Harman, caught on a government wiretap doing something or other, writes to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to release the full details of her appearance on a wiretap -- my sources say it was an FBI wire, others say it was an NSA wire.


The Honorable Eric Holder

Attorney General

Department of Justice

Washington, DC 20530

Dear General Holder:

I am outraged to learn from reports leaked to the media over the last several days that the FBI or NSA secretly wiretapped my conversations in 2005 or 2006 while I was Ranking Member on the House Intelligence Committee.

This abuse of power is outrageous and I call on your Department to release all transcripts and other investigative material involving me in an unredacted form. It is my intention to make this material available to the public.

I also urge you to take appropriate steps to investigate possible wiretapping of other Members of Congress and selective leaks of investigative material which can be used for political purposes. As you know, it is entirely appropriate to converse with advocacy organizations and constituent groups, and I am concerned about a chilling effect on other elected officials who may find themselves in my situation.

Let me be absolutely clear: I never contacted the Department of Justice, the White House or anyone else to seek favorable treatment regarding the national security cases on which I was briefed, or any other cases. You may be aware that David Szady, the FBI's former top counterintelligence official, is quoted in the media saying of me "...in all my dealings with her, she was always professional and never tried to intervene or get in the way of any investigation."

Sincerely,

JANE HARMAN

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/04/outraged_harman_wants_full_disclosure_from_justice.php

[DrDan]

1. good for her - meet it head on

[Adelante]

2. Pretty smooth nt

[hobbit709]

3. Be Careful of what you wish for.

[brentspeak]

4. Ironic. Harman goes to bat for warrantless wiretapping, then gets wiretapped herself. n/t

[Egnever]

16. Do you ever know what you are talking about?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/02/MNGKFMO5VU1.DTL

(12-02) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told a gathering of the American Bar Association on Friday that the Bush administration's secret wiretapping program for suspected terrorists is illegal.

Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County), who has become increasingly critical of President Bush's policies in recent months after her initial support for the Iraq war and her defense of the Patriot Act, also blasted the administration for refusing to provide legal opinions and authorizations for its wiretap program, interrogations policy and detentions of accused terrorists.

"The administration has too often operated under vague legal guidelines, pursuant to secret legal opinions generated by few and vetted by almost none," she said Friday.

[PBS Poll-435]

20. :-)

Nice

[Egnever]

21. Thanks

The make things up as you go along schtick is getting old.

[brentspeak]

24. Uh, duh...

And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for "lack of evidence," it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush's top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.

Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.

[Egnever]

so your position is that despite publicly speaking out against wiretapping

numerous times she was a big supporter because she tried to help keep a story out of the paper before the election. Allegedly.

I think you are being played for a fool by bush administration officials. Duh indeed.

[Supersedeas]

28. and then she went to the NY Times and requested that they withhold the story

[xxqqqzme]

5. welcome to the outrage -

better late than never, I guess. Wonder where she's been these last 8 years?

[vaberella]

7. supporting the very wiretaps she's calling outrageous.

It's funny how that works.

[Hutzpa]

14. .

:rofl:

[Egnever]

17. She has been Speaking out against it for a long time. Get your facts straight.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/200...

(12-02) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told a gathering of the American Bar Association on Friday that the Bush administration's secret wiretapping program for suspected terrorists is illegal.

Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County), who has become increasingly critical of President Bush's policies in recent months after her initial support for the Iraq war and her defense of the Patriot Act, also blasted the administration for refusing to provide legal opinions and authorizations for its wiretap program, interrogations policy and detentions of accused terrorists.

"The administration has too often operated under vague legal guidelines, pursuant to secret legal opinions generated by few and vetted by almost none," she said Friday.

[brentspeak]

23. Uh, brain-stem: Harman was recorded in this wiretap offering to HELP Bush push his wiretapping plan

Holy cow :eyes:

And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for "lack of evidence," it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush's top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.

Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.

[Egnever]

26. right so now we just buy anything that former bush officials say and ignore

all the times the woman is on record speaking out against it. Holy cow indeed.

[vaberella]

34. Dunno this was stated on KO's show but your statement is valid.

We've been lied to before...so you might be right.

[leftynyc]

30. Unnamed people from

the prior (read criminal) administration? That's who you're basing your outrage on? Have you heard the tape? Has anyone? I'm not saying it's not true - just that there isn't one spec of evidence at this point and I'm watching this whole board call for this woman's head on a pike based on NO EVIDENCE.

[Egnever]

31. Thank god !

some sanity.

[Spazito]

25. It seems her speaking out is more a question of timing rather than that of principle...

I found this tidbit from 2008, which quotes from a book by Eric Lichtblau. I think the book is Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justice but can't be absolutely sure about that.



"Lichtblau saw this as an opportunity to question Harman about the warrantless wiretapping program, since Harman, as a member of the "gang of eight," was one of the four Democrats who'd been briefed on it. He writes:

I approached Harman with notepad in hand and told her that I’d been involved in our reporting the year before on the NSA eavesdropping program. “I’m trying to square what I heard in there,” I said, “with what we know about that program.” Harman’s golden California tan turned a brighter shade of red. She knew exactly what I was talking about. Shooing away her aides, she grabbed me by the arm and drew me a few feet away to a more remote section of the Capitol corridor.
“You should not be talking about that here,” she scolded me in a whisper. “They don’t even know about that,” she said, gesturing to her aides, who were now looking on at the conversation with obvious befuddlement. “The Times did the right thing by not publishing that story,” she continued. I wanted to understand her position. What intelligence capabilities would be lost by informing the public about something the terrorists already knew – namely, that the government was listening to them? I asked her. Harman wouldn’t bite. “This is a valuable program, and it would be compromised,” she said. I tried to get into some of the details of the program and get a better understanding of why the administration asserted that it couldn’t be operated within the confines of the courts. Harman wouldn’t go there either. “This is a valuable program,” she repeated. This was clearly as far as she was willing to take the conversation, and we didn’t speak again until months later, after the NSA story had already run. By then, Harman’s position had undergone a dramatic transformation. When the story broke publicly, she was among the first in line on Capitol Hill to denounce the administration’s handling of the wiretapping program, declaring that what the NSA was doing could have been done under the existing FISA law."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/key_dem_urged_nyt_reporter_aga.php

[Egnever]

27. that would work for me but the article I linked to of her saying it was ilegal was from 2002

Hardly late to the party considering that the instance of her trying to get the NYT not to publish is in 2004.

I watched a lot of the pannels she was on during shrubs admin and never once did she strike me as someone trying to prop up bush. Course I loved Biden throughout as well and lots here dont.

[Spazito]

32. I watched her as well and have to say my perspective on her was, it seems, quite different...

from yours, I found her to be unduly supportive of the Bush Administration in the areas of National Security beyond what, we now know, was necessary.

[Egnever]

33. Fair enough

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. She forgets about contacting the New York Times though. nt.

[Egnever]

8. I thought this one smelled

I hope holder does it. Now that I think about it perhaps this is more of the great chess game. Perhaps this story was ginned up to get the public outraged about the wiretapping.

[brentspeak]

13. Uh, no

[Inuca]

9. Hmmm... I wonder what's going on...

Say what you will about Harman but she is not a stupid woman. It does not make sense for her to behave in such a way if she knows that there is incriminating evidence. I do not know what to make of this...

[Egnever]

29. She pissed someone off is my guess

this story from what i see of it seems to revolve arround a lot of he said she said.

[wisteria]

10. She supported wiretapping and apparently helped the Bush Admin.

when they attempted to squash an article on wiretapping in the NYT.
This sounds like a smoke screen to me- to protect herself from further scrutiny.

[Hutzpa]

12. Ain't Karma a bitch

now look whats happen, its about to bite her in the gulah.

[Egnever]

18. Have you been paying attention for the last 8 years?

She was hardly a bush supporter.

[Hutzpa]

11. I can see a Blago moment coming n/t

[PBS Poll-435]

22. ...

:spray:

Sadly, I think you are on to something.

[AtomicKitten]

15. The line is forming behind Shooter who is also demanding DOJ disclosure!

AG Holder is one busy mofo.

[ProSense]

19. Frankly, this is great news

Harman: "Bring It On"