First, TPM just posted a useful timeline of "The Harman-AIPAC Story" going back to November 2004. Great summary.
Earlier this afternoon Jeff Stein held a live discussion on the CQ website about his article "Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Promising to Intervene for AIPAC." There wasn't a lot of new information, but here are two nuggets:
Claire from Washington DC: Why are your sources coming forward now? There must be some reason why they have waited almost three years.
Jeff Stein: Thanks. I've seen a lot of speculation about that online. The fact is, there is no "timing" to any "leak." No sources "came forward," so to speak. I learned about this quite a while ago and was just recently able to turn my full attention to it. Total coincidence.
and
Mark Regan from Fairbanks: If it's a gross invasion of privacy for the Government to wiretap Rep. Harman, isn't it an even grosser invasion of privacy for you to publicize the results, even if the results have news value?
Jeff Stein: She was not the object of the tap.
These speak to two of the questions that have been floating around today. There were also questions regarding whether this was an NSA or FBI wiretap. I have to admit I don't understand the implications of each but Stein said, "I'm told it was a court-approved NSA tap." Marc Ambinder over at the Atlantic reports his sources say Harman "was recorded as part of the ongoing FBI investigation" and wouldn't speak to the NSA issue.
Ambinder also drops that "One source said that the person on the other end of the line was also a U.S. citizen." This gets to one of the biggest unanswered questions of the story – If Rep. Harman wasn't the target of the wiretap, who was?
