That was Jane Harman of Newsweek trying to quash Medea Benjamin’s stellar soliloquy against drones

Last week Medea Benjamin wrote about confronting John Brennan on drones at the Wilson Center. I only watched the video today, and was awed by Benjamin’s bravery. Watch her being frogmarched from the hall and with perfect timing proclaiming exit lines that would make Shakespeare proud:

I love the rule of law. I love my country. You are making us less safe by killing so many innocent people around the world. Shame on you. [Door slams]

No one pointed out that the person on the dais at the Wilson Center next to Obama drone boss John Brennan is the head of the Wilson Center, Jane Harman. You can see Harman in red flitting angrily to the microphone to try and shut Benjamin up. She fails.

Harman is a great partisan of the war on terror. As she said in introducing Brennan:

This afternoon’s conversation is, as I see it, a great tribute to the kind of work we do here.  We care intensely about having our most important policymakers here, and in getting objective accounts of what the United States government and other governments around the world are doing. … [Brennan has] a broad portfolio to manage counterterrorism strategy in far-flung places like Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.  Activities in this space, as I mentioned, at the Wilson Center are ongoing, as are terror threats against our country.

The former congresswoman from California is a fierce supporter of Israel right or wrong and is also on the board of Newsweek/the Daily Beast— which runs Peter Beinart’s liberal Zionist website:

After 92-year-old Newsweek/DailyBeast co-owner Sidney Harman died [in spring 2011], the future of the money-losing media company seemed potentially up in the air. Harman’s co-owner Barry Diller assumed Harman’s position as chairman of the board, but a spot was still reserved on the panel for a representative of the Harman family. Sidney’s son Daniel was considered a possibility, as the 29-year-old was the only member of the family who’d actually been to visit the Newsbeast offices. But the company announced today that, in fact, Sidney’s widow, Jane Harman, would take the board seat. Until February, Harman was a Democratic U.S. representative for California.

It’s sad to see the liberal media establishment so aligned with the militant powers that be. But that reminds me of a big reason I started blogging. In 2004 I was at the Republican convention in New York when Jodie Evans, who along with Benjamin is a leader of Code Pink, stood up during George W. Bush’s speech and ripped off her coat to expose a pink slip with the words You have blood on your hands. She started speaking and was dragged from the hall. I will never forget the sight of Evans being brutally dragged up the concrete steps of Madison Square Garden right past me, her shoes flying off. She came out of jail a day later barefoot.

And the reason I’ll never forget is that I was sitting in a giant pecking order of establishment media, and they were indifferent. They were too busy noting who was getting close to the big stars in the media, they were bent over their notebooks recording George Bush the warmonger’s words. Because almost all of them were in on that war themselves.

These women have put their bodies on the line, and been great leaders. Salute them.

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I agree,and yes salute their courage.
I must have missed that Harman resignation thing.Their has to be a reason she would give up the power of her office for Israel,or is that the reason,her constituents saw it too?
Another harpy of hate,death and war,in a nation filled with their brainwashed sheeple.
Check out the comments on the WAPO story about the new assassination of an alleged Cole conspirator.What a bunch of devil worshipping martial scum draft dodging warriors there,except for a very few who were castigated for their humanity.
I see some more blowback in our future.

A reminder that Israeli born Shamai Lewbowitz is serving a 20 month term in Federal Prison for going public that Harman was sharing classified information with Israel. Leibowitz was working as a translator for the FBI which refused to follow up on his information when he reported it. Harman is free, but she is what passes for a liberal Democrat these days , traitor that she is.

As a one-time Wilson-scholarship awardee, my sense is heightened that Harmon (if not others, earlier) have rather tarnished the Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s reputation as promoters of teaching and learning. Now it seems to fancy itself as part of the anti-terrorism branch of fortress-Amerika.

RE: “These women have put their bodies on the line, and been great leaders. Salute them.” ~ Weiss

MY COMMENT: They never cease to amaze me. I wish I had as much as 1/10 of their commitment.

I like the use of the word soliloquy, but only up to a point. Up to this point the dialog has been just each side talking to itself. On the administration’s side you have Koh’s and Brennan’s empty speeches. On the peace activists’ side, you have the recent Washington D.C. drone summit. Benjamin was actually trying to take her side of the dialog over to the other side. But like the ACLU case, the other side’s not talking. There will be a dialog — the next generation of autonomous drones will be perceived by the public as almost Frankensteinian, because they will kill without human intervention. That alone will be able to force a public discussion.