I approached a realist oracle this morning to learn what to think about the Harman scandal. Quoth the oracle:
There does not seem to me to be anything new in Israel and the lobby trying to quash the indictment of Steve Rosen and his colleague. The word in
the Jewish community in D.C. is that "he was framed." (Whatever that
means.) This story will, however, remind many of the Pollard case and
the blatant efforts of Israeli politicians and the lobby to excuse Pollard's treasonous behavior.
What is new in Jeff Stein's report on CQ–to use the standard terminology in the
intelligence community–is the documentation of Israeli/lobby sources
and methods. These appear to suggest that Rep. Harman was so
responsive to an alleged agent of Israel as to be herself a de facto (and maybe de jure?) Israeli agent of influence. This is the
significance of the reported finding that Rep. Harman had accepted the
assignment she was given, in return for efforts by Israeli agents to
advance her status in the USG, and had thus committed a "completed
crime." It is also striking that Minority Leader Pelosi was openly portrayed
by the alleged agent of Israel with whom she was on the phone as similarly manipulable by
Israel/the lobby. Note the irony that, had Attorney General Gonzales not
intervened, Porter Goss would have had to report Rep. Harman's
involvement in foreign covert action to subvert the integrity of the US
political process to House Minority Leader Pelosi. Quis custodiet
custodies? [For non-realists: Who will guard the guards?]
The good news, speaking ironically, is that the Bush
Administration's illegal
wiretaps have finally turned up notable evidence of
foreign covert action that threatens US national security and the
integrity (such as it is) of our political process. Not for the first
time, this threat turns out not to be from al Qaeda
or an avowed foreign enemy of the United States but by alleged agents
of our self-described major ally in the Middle East, Israel. And the
reported covert action was attempted manipulation of the selection of
the chair of the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), i.e. to the control of congressional
oversight over the intelligence community and its activities. That
position is
by any measure an extremely sensitive one in our national security
apparatus. The attempted placement of someone seen by a foreign
country Israel as an
agent of influence in that position is — or should be — a big story.
So is the Obama Administration's apparent unwillingness to allow this
or to appoint Ms. Harman to a position in the intelligence community,
despite the well-documented effort she and the lobby made to advance her
candidacy.
In this context, the willingness of Attorney General Gonzales to
quash a national security investigation in order to retain Rep.
Harman's support for unconstitutional wiretapping is a telling
revelation of the corrupt nature of Washington politics and of the
double standard applied to incidents of covert action by Israel and its
agents vs. those of other countries. It is impossible to imagine that
an effort by any other country to manipulate the selection of an
intelligence official would be disregarded in this way. Here,
moreover, we have a case of the Attorney General assigning the
political defense of a controversial program a higher priority than
investigation of a specific threat to US national security–which the
program in question turned up.
The Harman-Pelosi story, reported by Stein, also seems to help explain why the HPSCI and its Senate
counterpart — as well as Pelosi — were so responsive to the campaign
the Likud-Lieberman lobby waged against Chas Freeman for the National Intelligence Council. In that case, the lobby
vetoed an appointment to the intelligence community. In Harman's case,
albeit ultimately unsuccessfully, it attempted to advance one.
All this would appear to provide nitty-gritty evidence to back the
longstanding charge that, even in intelligence matters, "Capitol Hill
is Israeli-occupied territory."
Coming at a time of increased tension between the US and Israel, this
could hardly be more injurious to US-Israel relations. Beyond this,
like the emergence of a government in Israel openly committed to values
and policies that are abhorrent to many Americans (not to mention a
strong global majority), the sort of manipulation of our politics and
national security interests this case appears to reveal runs a real
risk of fueling anti-Semitism among Americans. As such it is
sharp reminder of how very, very dangerous the game that the lobby and
related wingnuts have been playing is for the Jewish diaspora as well
as for Israel itself.
