The AIPAC Spy Case, RIP
Where do the accused go to get their reputations back? (Also read Ron Radosh: On Michael Oren and Roger L. Simon: Middle East Negotiations: This Isn't Hollywood, Rahm)
The source of the information about Harman is said by Stein to be:
Two former senior national security officials, one who has read a transcript of the wiretap and a second who was briefed on its contents.
This means only one of his sources even claims to have firsthand knowledge of the information. If the FBI was the agency tapping the conversation (as it now appears to have been), it is fair to assume the former security official who had firsthand knowledge of the case was Szady or someone working for him. Who the second man is or where he worked is less clear. But it is safe to say that there are at least two former national security officials who share Szady’s view of Israel and its supporters. One is Michael Scheuer, the man the CIA had watching Osama bin Laden.
Scheuer’s views on Israel are well-known. Here’s one of his on the record observations:
QUESTIONER: I’m curious — Gary Rosen from Commentary magazine. If you could just elaborate a little bit on the clandestine ways in which Israel and presumably Jews have managed to so control debate over this fundamental foreign policy question.
SCHEUER: Well, the clandestine aspect is that, clearly, the ability to influence the Congress — that’s a clandestine activity, a covert activity. You know to some extent, the idea that the Holocaust Museum here in our country is another great ability to somehow make people feel guilty about being the people who did the most to try to end the Holocaust. I find — I just find the whole debate in the United States unbearably restricted with the inability to factually discuss what goes on between our two countries.
A third former national security official who shares these views is Pat Lang, formerly of the DIA.
Here’s a sample of his thinking:
So that’s it folks. The American Sovereignty that Rush, O’Reilly and Hannity go on about really does not exist. AIPAC (the non-lobby that some have thought the agent of the Jewish Agency and Israel in Washington) evidently has enough clout with Congress and Obama that Ha’aretz believes it is doubtful that the United States would honor its undertaking to defend Iraqi airspace. Ha’aretz is apparently also assured that nothing Israel chooses to do would cause America’s grants of aid to Israel to come to an end or even a pause.
Well, why would the Israelis not think that? The Department of Justice has asked that espionage charges be dropped against two former AIPAC employees. AIPAC is now publicly and officially rejoicing in this outcome for its former employees. Bravo! Well done! Loyalty to former employees is admirable. A further confidence building development is the ease with which Representative Harman mastered the brouhaha over her intercepted conversation with a “suspected Israeli agent.” The American Main Stream Media (MSM) could not have been more helpful in dealing with that momentary embarrassment[sic]. And why not? How absurd that anyone could think that Israel spies on the United States government and that she would seek to influence a court case involving men accused of spying on her behalf. How absurd! Bibi is undoubtedly looking forward to his trip to Washington. He will have a chance for a friendly talk with the president and with his many friends in Congress
There is the suggestion that there is something illegal or unethical for a lobbyist to offer to support a congressional representative for a chairmanship. This stands the whole idea of legal lobbying on its head. Of course lobbyists want to place those who support them at the head of committees which oversee areas of common interest. This was the nonsensical idiocy first spread about Congresswoman Harman in 2006, when it appeared that the claim was being made to dash her shot at the chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee.
The 2006 version of the Harman story first floated by The Nation (origin of David Corn’s tale of Plame as a super secret agent outed by the Bush administration as revenge against her truth-telling husband) was sparer than the 2009 Congressional Quarterly report.
Did a Democratic member of Congress improperly enlist the support of a major pro-Israel lobbying group to try to win a top committee assignment? That’s the question at the heart of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors, who are examining whether Rep. Jane Harman of California and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) may have violated the law in a scheme to get Harman reappointed as the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, according to knowledgeable sources in and out of the U.S. government.
The sources tell TIME that the investigation by Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has simmered out of sight since about the middle of last year, is examining whether Harman and AIPAC arranged for wealthy supporters to lobby House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Harman’s behalf. Harman said Thursday in a voicemail message that any investigation of or allegation of improper conduct by her would be “irresponsible, laughable and scurrilous.” On Friday, Washington GOP super lawyer Ted Olson left voicemail messages underscoring that Harman has no knowledge of any investigation. “Congresswoman Harman has asked me to follow up on calls you’ve had,” Olson said. “She is not aware of any such investigation, does not believe that it is occurring, and wanted to make sure that you and your editors knew that as far as she knows, that’s not true. … No one from the Justice Department has contacted her.” It is not, however, a given that Harman would know that she is under investigation. In a follow-up phone call from California, Olson said Harman hired him this morning because she takes seriously the possibility of a media report about an investigation of her, even though she does not believe it herself.
Harman has been a longtime strong supporter of Israel and AIPAC. Are we to believe that AIPAC would prefer Rep. Sylvester Reyes (D-TX) and would only have supported Harman if she helped by interfering with the AIPAC criminal case?
Additionally, Harman denied — and Department of Justice officials including Szady himself confirmed — that she never made any effort to aid the AIPAC defendants. The very notion that there would have to have been a quid pro quo of any kind with AIPAC is idiotic.
A perfect prosecutorial storm was created involving supporters of AIPAC and Harman and the idea that DOJ had gone too far in an effort to criminalize political conduct. It only subsided when Holder had cover to do what the Department should have done at the outset: exercise some adult supervision.
The only mystery to me about the case and the efforts to keep it going when it was obviously going to lose is what took everybody so long to wise up?
<- Prev Page 2 of 2
Clarice Feldman is a retired litigation lawyer who lives in D.C. She's a news junkie addicted to the internet.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
8 Comments
1. BPT (Australia):And, sadly, some things are going to get worse for pro-Zionists before they get better. Boy, I’m just glad that the majority of Jews voted for McCain. Oh, they didn’t?
May 5, 2009 - 5:08 am 2. David Thomson:This case is similar to that of Scooter Libby. He was convicted only because the trial was held in the very left-wing area of Washington. DC. Libby’s real crime in the eyes of that particular jury was likely the fact that he is a Jewish Republican. The politically correct George W. Bush is responsible for letting things get out control.
May 5, 2009 - 6:56 am 3. Adina Kutnicki,Israel:When one understands the main impetus behind these scurrilous charges, one then begins to see a pattern emerging.
To be sure, the gov’t understands that these men were merely conducting business as usual per lobbyists ALL over Washington. However, the ever present anti-Israel forces in Washington seeks myriad ways to weaken Israel, thereby leading them to its most powerful lobbying group.
In this regard, one of the ways to weaken supporters of Israel is to put out before the world media charges of dual loyalty. In other words, anti-semitism has many shapes and forms, one of which is painting Jews incapable of being loyal to their countries of residence.
So, by tarring the two AIPAC officials with charges of espionage etc, they have accomplished their dual goals-weakening Israel through their outspoken supporters, AND laying the foundation for a fresh round of anti-semitic libels.
The nexus between anti-Israel and anti-semitic behavior is absolutely apparent for those willing to see it, courtesy of these seriously specious charges.
May 5, 2009 - 7:44 am 4. Spindok:This is all smoke and mirrors.
That is why we hear so little about it anymore. The government keeps getting closed out in what was a politically driven sting operation which has long outgrown its press time and legitimacy.
They cant make the charges stick, so now the lawyers earn their pay.
Spindok
May 5, 2009 - 10:00 am 5. David Levavi:If the FBI and its institutional siblings in the counterintelligence community are singling out Jews for investigation maybe it’s time to investigate the ethnicity and loyalties of the investigators.
Over a century ago, in a world less politically correct, a newly appointed New York police commissioner named Theodore Roosevelt made no bones about the fact that the New York police force was too Irish and too Catholic. Hence, inevitably, corrupt.
Roosevelt came to be appointed after the Lexow hearings into Police corruption in 1895. The results of the hearings were shocking even to the most cynical and callous New Yorkers. Every policeman on the force from the commissioner to the lowest foot patrolman was implicated. There was not a criminal activity the police were not directly involved in. Gambling, drugs and prostitution were police-run enterprises. So rich were the pickings that candidates for the force paid multiples of their annual salaries to be hired and larger multiples still to be promoted.
Tammany was swept out in the next election and the Dutch and English Protestant elites retook control of the city. Roosevelt was appointed commissioner with a mandate to clean up the police force. He immediately began recruiting Jewish cops. “Strong young Jews of the Macabee type” is what TR said he was looking for.
Papism and Popery are forgotten expressions today but they were common in TR’s time. The Draft Riots of the Civil War, when treasonous Irish Catholics, 70,000 strong, raised Confederate flags over New York and beat, raped, tortured, lynched, burned and mutilated black people in the single worst racial outrage in the nation’s history were still fresh. TR’s prejudices were well founded.
In WWI German Americans, especially German Catholics, sided with the Kaiser, fulminated against the British and did everything they could to keep America out of the war. In WWII, German Americans, almost exclusively Catholic, formed Bunds and wrapped themselves patriotically in the American flag while supporting Hitler and the Nazis. After Pearl Harbor, their leaders were arrested and charged with treason. But the rank and file, alas, weren’t rounded up and put into internment camps like the Japanese. That’s racism.
Search American history and you will not find any record of organized Jewish treason against the United States. Jews don’t belong to secret societies with foreign allegiances like Opus Dai as Robert Hanssen did. They don’t hold Church-based knighthoods like Pat Lang.
I have two suggestions for the counterintelligence community: First, open a dictionary and look up the word “intelligence.” Michael Scheuer doesn’t have any. You don’t have to hear or read Scheuer to know he’s stupid. His crew-cut head, bovine expression and tweedy jacket should be enough. I’ve only seen him on television so I haven’t seen his pipe but I’m sure he smokes one. He’s a textbook behema. A beeve on the hoof.
When someone makes as many mistakes and damages American security as much as David Szady, fire him. The Robert Hanssen mess clearly demonstrated that intelligence isn’t Szady’s strong suit. The Leung mess confirmed it. Give him a medal and show him the door.
Does anybody at the CIA imagine that Americans sleep better at night knowing that the Plames are manning the ramparts? I can see these two fashion plates riding to hounds in the Virginia hunt country. But intelligence? Station chief and ambassador? Ya gotta be kidding.
Hence, my second suggestion: Borrow a page from Teddy Roosevelt’s book. Clean up your ranks. Medieval Knights and members of secret orders beholden to foreign powers can’t be trusted with national secrets.
There is no shortage of American Jews among the CIA’s intelligence analysts. The NSA is the largest employer of mathematicians in the nation, a significant number of them Hebrews. Switch some of these folks into counterintelligence.
Give the American taxpayer some bang for his defense intelligence dollar for a change.
May 5, 2009 - 5:23 pm 6. Ratatosk:BPT,
Boy, I’m just glad that the majority of Jews voted for McCain. Oh, they didn’t?
But… but…
It was a Republican’s DOJ that went after these guys. It was a Democrat’s DOJ that dropped the case. It was a Republican’s DOJ that was involved in prosecutorial misconduct regarding Senator Stevens. It was a Democrat’s DOJ that dropped the case and is pointing to the misconduct.
There are lots of good reasons not to vote for Obama… this particular issue doesn’t seem to be one of them.
May 6, 2009 - 1:30 pm 7. Linda Rivera:Because the U.S. does not want a strong, defensible Israel, Jonathan Pollard was punished to the max for seeking to protect Israel. Pollard was given a life sentence, the first seven years spent underground destroying his health. Free Pollard now!
POLLARD’S “SIN”: HE PERMITTED ISRAEL TO ACT IN ITS DEFENSE
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24659
September 26, 2001
Terror in the U.S. and the Jonathan Pollard case
By Larry Dub
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
“… thanks to Jonathan Pollard, Israel was ready with gas masks and sealed rooms when Iraq attacked her during the Gulf War…
The usual sentence for spying for an ally is 2-4 years…
Indeed, the Government’s own Victim Impact Statement (VIS), which was submitted to the court prior to sentencing indicated that Pollard’s greatest “sin” was that by giving Israel vital security information which permitted the Jewish state to act in its own defense, he had made Israel “too strong” and thus angered America’s “moderate” Arab allies…”
May 7, 2009 - 7:26 am 8. Linda Rivera:THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION ON JONATHAN POLLARD 1993
The European Parliament Resolution on Jonathan Pollard
September 16, 1993
The European Parliament,
1. noting that Jonathan Pollard, then of the US Navy, was convicted in 1985 of passing classified information to Israel concerning the military activities of Iraq, Syria and other Middle Eastern nations,
2. noting also that the information dealt with the chemical, biological and nuclear arms build- up in these countries and that Pollard considered he had a moral duty to warn Israel of the developing massive threat to its security and to the lives of its people,
3. whereas Pollard has expressed remorse for his action,
4. whereas Pollard, who was not accused of treason, or of intending to harm the US, pleaded guilty under a plea bargain, and was thus convicted and sentenced, without a full trial, to life imprisonment, despite the Government’s promise not to seek such a penalty,
5. noting that the sentence imposed on Pollard was grossly disproportionate to those imposed on others by US courts for supplying information to a friendly power (normally from two to four years),
6. shocked that most of Pollard’s eight years in prison should have been spent in solitary confinement and underground,
7. astonished that Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, described by one of his Under-Secretaries for Defense as having had ‘an almost visceral dislike of Israel’, should have sent a message to the trial judge, one hour before the sentencing hearing, asking for the stiffest possible sentence commensurate with Pollard’s ‘treasonous’ (sic) behavior,
8. noting however that Mr. Weinberger stated recently that he thought it was time that Mr. Pollard should be released; aware that Christian and Jewish organizations throughout the world have pleaded for the harsh sentence of life imprisonment to be commuted and that Judge Steve Williams wrote, in a dissenting opinion to an appellate court finding, that ‘the government’s conduct in this case resulted in a ‘complete miscarriage of justice’,
1. Urges the US Administration to commute Pollard’s sentence to one of time served and to release him immediately;
2. Calls on EPC to intercede with the US government with this end in view;
3. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, EPC and the Government of the United States.
Voted almost unanimously on 16th September 1993.
See Also:
* Euro-Parliament Adopts British MEP’s Motion Urging Pollard Release
* U.S. City and State Resolutions
* The Calls for Pollard’s Release Page
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1993/091693.htm
May 7, 2009 - 7:27 am