NYT: Bush Admin Prepped Talking Points For Harman On Wiretap Scoop

[babylonsister]

Gonzales Said to Have Intervened on Wiretap

By MARK MAZZETTI and NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: April 23, 2009


WASHINGTON — The director of the Central Intelligence Agency concluded in late 2005 that a conversation picked up on a government wiretap was serious enough to require notifying Congressional leaders that Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California, could become enmeshed in an investigation into Israeli influence in Washington, former government officials said Thursday.

But Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the director of the agency, Porter J. Goss, to hold off on briefing lawmakers about the conversation, between Ms. Harman and an Israeli intelligence operative, despite a longstanding government policy to inform Congressional leaders quickly whenever a member of Congress could be a target of a national security investigation.

One reason Mr. Gonzales intervened, the former officials said, was to protect Ms. Harman because they saw her as a valuable administration ally in urging The New York Times not to publish an article about the National Security Agency’s program of wiretapping without warrants.

The accounts provided new details about tension between senior C.I.A. officials and the attorney general over what to make of the wiretapped conversations involving Ms. Harman, which the former government officials said first occurred in spring 2005. The involvement of both Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Goss in the case involving Ms. Harman was first reported by CQ, formerly known as Congressional Quarterly, but the former officials provided new details.

A person who is familiar with Mr. Gonzales’s account of the events said that the former attorney general had acknowledged having raised with Mr. Goss the idea that Ms. Harman was playing a helpful role in dealing with The Times.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/us/politics/24harman.html?_r=1&ref=fp4

[Old and In the Way]

1. Sure smells like blackmail to me.

I'm betting there are other informal chats the WH had with other members of Congress to discuss quid pro quos garnered from warrentless wiretaps.

[annm4peace]

2. I hope this blows open the door on all Democrat and Republicans

So many could be voting a certain way because they are basically bribed for getting a better position or campaign funds.. or maybe they are being blackmailed from the info on them from the wire-tapping.

I hope this really blows the doors open and maybe enough to get us to a whole lot of truth.

[Spazito]

3. Ms. Harmon would have done well to keep quiet, at least for a time,...

instead of coming out, immediately, on multiple media outlets expressing 'outrage' about being wiretapped when, in fact, she was NOT being wiretapped, she was caught on a LEGAL wiretap on "an Israeli intelligence operative".

If one is going to attempt to protect one's own ass, it is best to ensure anything you say can NOT come back and bite you in that same ass. A lesson Ms. Harmon is about to learn, imo.