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Rep. Jane Harman Focus In Yet Another Warrantless Wiretap Scandal
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Apr 20, 2009 01:12 PM
from the irony-makes-head-asplode dept.
from the irony-makes-head-asplode dept.
Many different sources are talking about the latest scandal surrounding the warrantless wiretapping program. Incriminating evidence against California rep. Jane Harman was apparently captured some time ago on a legal NSA wiretap. However, Attorney General Gonzales supposedly intervened to drop the case against her because (and this is where the irony meter explodes) Bush officials wanted her to be able to publicly defend the warrantless wiretap program. "Jane Harman, in the wake of the NSA scandal, became probably the most crucial defender of the Bush warrantless eavesdropping program, using her status as 'the ranking Democratic on the House intelligence committee' to repeatedly praise the NSA program as 'essential to US national security' and 'both necessary and legal.'"
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Stop communicating (Score:5, Funny)
Good idea! (Score:5, Funny)
I'll tell everyone I know!
Parent
Treason (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Treason (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Treason (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Parent is NOT trolling..... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Treason (Score:5, Informative)
From the US Constitution Article III Section 3: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."
Parent
beat me to it (Score:5, Informative)
Thank you. I'm getting sick and tired of hearing people drop the 'T' word without any idea of what it actually means. It's this kind of stupidity that makes me think the Framers were correct to define Treason within the Constitution so it couldn't be used for political purposes.....
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Re:beat me to it (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe some people consider those that threaten our liberties to be our enemies... Seems reasonable to me.
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Re:Treason (Score:5, Insightful)
You're spot on target. This wasn't treason, it was standard political quid pro quo. Admittedly, it's sometimes hard to tell the two apart....
Dems may call it treason because she turned her back on the party line. But that's personal. IANAL, but to me, this looks like obstruction, maybe tampering with evidence. Not treason.
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Re:Treason (Score:5, Informative)
I don't remember very many prominent Democrats opposing the NSA's illegal spying program. In fact many prominent Democrats were in favor. I remember a lengthy and uncompromising campaign against these kind of things by Chris Dodd (D-CT), but I also remember that Harry Reid (D-NV) decided to ignore the hold that Dodd placed on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Ignoring holds placed by Senators is not generally done. And then a lot of Democrats voted to end debate on the amendments to the act. I think you're giving the Democratic party too much credit for opposing the lawlessness of the Bush administration. They don't oppose lawlessness per se.
Parent
They are not allies in reality (Score:5, Insightful)
Since when has false flag specialist Israel really been the US ally, as opposed to treating the US as her bitch, because of traitors like this cretin in the article and other traitors in big business, big media, and big finance and big government? They sure as hell ARE traitors. Just because they claim they aren't doesn't make it so once you look at the real data.
Why the hell should we be supporting a racist apartheid nation? I never supported racist south africa, and nor do I support Israel, they have been a plague and have put the world at peril for nuclear confrontation for decades now, all so that some European settlers can claim land that isn't theirs. If they had a beef with Germany over their particular holocaust, which is just ONE OF MANY that happened during the war, why the hell didn't we demand Germany give up some territory for some new zionist nation? The Germans are the biggest hypocrites out there now about this. Their old biblical claim to "greater zion" is pure hogwash, freaking fantasy land and I can't believe anyone on this forum falls for it.
Here's just a few references to get you started on some sorely neglected education that you need about those false "allies" who are really the biggest threat to the security of the US, USS Liberty attack [gtr5.com]-this is called levying war, get it? and don't believe the official dual nation coverup story, listen to the actual survivors and dudes who lived through it. And go ahead and google "9-11, dancing Israelis"-for more levying war, and "khazars" for a little more in depth historical background of what lying toads they are. Shrewd yes, technologically capable, yes, smart yes, but also lying sneaky deceitful skunks and jerks.
People who put the interests of some other nation over their own ARE traitors, fullstop. If they claim to be US citizens but work for another nation-traitors. That includes Israel-firsters, including those loony brainwashed flat earth snake handling Xians who are dreaming of Armageddon and some huge conflagration to bring about the Rapture, and just the normal economic traitors, then those jerk off big businessmen who are China-firsters, and so on.
Traitors. You can't have it both ways, either loyal to your own nation first, or you are a traitor and a liar and a hypocrite.
Israel, history of false flag operations [google.com]
Parent
Re:Treason (Score:5, Informative)
http://static.cqpolitics.com/harman-3098436-page1.html [cqpolitics.com]
Parent
A Setback for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts (Score:5, Interesting)
If nothing else, this Jane Harmon scandal is going to continue to undermine the USA's credibility as an "impartial" mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Regardless of what Jane Harmon may have done, it's rather shocking that AIPAC has enough pull in congress to be able to hold out committee chairmanships as bribes.
Re:A Setback for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts (Score:5, Insightful)
Only to those of you recently clued in on Israel's stranglehold over US politics.
Parent
Re:A Setback for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts (Score:5, Funny)
The only one I can think of off the top of my head is "Cold Cash" Jefferson from New Orleans.
I object to this scurrilous and unfounded attack on the good name of a fine representative from a great city and a great state. They called him William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson.
Parent
THIS is the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Long, Proud Tradition (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder how well Robert Mueller pulls off a sun dress...
Not warrantless. (Score:5, Insightful)
DoJ had a warrant, apparently it was part of the AIPAC investigation.
No, the fishy part is that the Bush admin apparently blackmailed her into supporting the warrantless program.
Also, you have the Executive branch doing that ot a member of the Legislative.
This could get really interesting...
Re:Couldn't prosecute. (Score:5, Informative)
The point is that this was NOT illegal. Agents were investigating foreign operatives using warrentless wiretapping. They caught the foreign operatives bribing a congresswoman. The Bush administration declined to press charges because said congresswoman supported warrantless wiretapping.
Parent
retroactive FISA (Score:5, Informative)
As I understand it they went to FISA to get a retroactive warrant. A nice little provision of the law.
Parent
Re:Couldn't prosecute. (Score:5, Informative)
Who says it was illegal? We may WISH it were illegal, we may get it declared illegal, it may in fact be unconstitutional, but the fact is, the agents performed what was at the time a LEGAL warrantless wiretap against foreign agents and happened to catch them bribing a congresswoman. They tapped FOREIGN AGENTS IN ISRAEL. There is no US law against tapping foreign phone lines.
Parent
The wiretap was COURT APPROVED (Score:5, Informative)
In this case, the underlying article reports that: "What is new is that Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington." Key words are "court-approved."
The Fourth Amendment states that:
Once the executive branch has convinced a judge that probably cause exists, and the judge has issued the warrant, there is nothing preventing the executive branch from using that information in court.
Now there is a real question as to whether wire tapping a member of congress (who herself was not under investigation) is a good idea, but that's not really the issue. I'm actually somewhat sad to hear about this as Jane Harmon is/was a very competent and thoughtful member of congress -- particularly on port security issues.
Parent
Re:So what's the crime here? (Score:5, Informative)
no, in fact TFA says that's not the implication at all. Harman has been a long-time supporter of the warrantless wiretapping program.
The (newly revealed) crime is Antonio Gonzalez using his authority to halt a criminal investigation into a key political ally of the Bush administration.
The original crime is Harman offering a quid-pro-quo with a foreign agent. Which, by the way, was captured on a legally requested wiretap.
Parent
Re:Jane Harman (D - CA) (Score:5, Insightful)
How hard is it to put the D after her name?
Why would you want to do that? You'll just perpetuate the myth that it actually matters.
Parent