Juan Cole: Harman Scandal: All about War on Iran

[laststeamtrain]

Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Harman Scandal: All about War on Iran

<snip>


Two things here. It should be remembered that this whole affair has been about getting up a war on Iran. That was the point of Franklin leaking to Rosen and Weissman in the first place. Someone should go back through Harman's statements on Iran.

Second, the transcript should be released and if it is as alleged, Harman must resign. Congress declares wars or implicitly authorizes them. American soldiers have a right to know that the representatives who send them to war are doing so on behalf of US interests. And that congressional intelligence reports are not plants by a foreign intelligence service.

Let us just stop and review what is being alleged, and to underline what it means for US security and policy.

The US is spied on, and a classified Pentagon document is passed to the Israeli embassy by AIPAC officials. They are caught because the FBI had them under surveillance. Apparently the FBI is one of the few US government institutions that is not corrupt on the issue of foreign influence on US institutions and policy. Then when the two AIPAC spies are indicted, a Mossad agent attempts to derail the prosecution by suborning a member of Congress and promising her the chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee.

Harman is denying it all, of course. But then so did Rosen and Weissman deny it all (or allege that the lack of a US official secrets act means that their passing of a classified Pentagon document to a Mossad agent was not in fact treason or illegal). Harman's denial is clever, since the NSA wiretap is presumably classified, and so she can't be contradicted until the document is released. ... http://www.juancole.com/2009/04/harman-scandal-all-about-war-on-iran.html

[annabanana]

1. VERY troubling.. especially with all the

"Israel gearing up to attack Iran" buzz out there...

[harun]

2. I agree with Cole, nice to hear we have at least one institution not corrupted by

foreign influence, the FBI.

[izzybeans]

3. That a Mossad agent can claim to be able to give her a the intelligence chair

in our government is a big pile of wtf? how can this be?

[Skidmore]

4. I hope Keith, Rachel, or Ed go down that rabbit hole and

see what they can find on influence peddling and AIPAC. AIPAC is absolutely loathsome as are the benighted RW Endtimer Christians who hug them close while they wait for the Rapture.

[alsame]

5. And there is a very unholy alliance between AIPAC and

some segments of out government. I hope this story exposes everything.