NSA tracked suspected Israeli agents, recorded talk with Rep. Harmon
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence has been tracking and monitoring suspected Israeli agents operating within the American government, the Congressional Quarterly reported.
Former and current officials said the National Security Agency was assigned to wiretap communications by alleged Israeli intelligence operatives in Washington.
NSA monitors conversations between Americans and foreigners for information on security and intelligence. The agency had been accused of using its expanded authority to monitor opponents of the then-Bush administration.
In one case, the officials said, NSA determined that a suspected Israeli agent was in contact with a leading member of the House who sought to become chairman of its intelligence committee.
In 2006, Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat, was said to have pledged to an unidentified Israeli representative that she would appeal to the Justice Department to drop charges of espionage against two senior staffers of the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the largest pro-Israel lobby in the United States.
The Congressional Quarterly reported that Ms. Harman was cited in an NSA wiretap as telling a "suspected Israeli agent" that she would "waddle into" the AIPAC case in exchange for its help to become chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
"This conversation doesn't exist." Ms. Harman was quoted by the NSA transcript as saying.
"These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact," Ms. Harman said of the CQ report. "I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves."
The allegation, later reported by other American media, was disclosed amid difficulties by the Justice Department in prosecuting former AIPAC staffers Stephen Rosen and Keith Weissman under a rarely-used 1917 espionage law. The trial has postponed nine times amid defense efforts to subpoena former senior officials in the Bush administration.
In an April 20 report by CQ national security correspondent Jeff Stein, Ms. Harman was said to have accepted an Israeli offer to persuade then-House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi to appoint her longtime rival as chair of the House Intelligence Committee. The alleged conversation, reported by two former officials familiar with the NSA transcript, took place before the November 2006 election in which the Democrats won control of the House and Senate.
"It's true, she was on there," a U.S. security source, referring to Ms. Harman, was quoted as saying.
On April 21, the New York Times quoted other unidentified officials who reported the NSA wiretap of Ms. Harman. The newspaper reported that Ms. Harman, said not to have been the target of surveillance, was told that her help in reducing charges against Rosen and Weissman would be rewarded by pressure on Ms. Pelosi from a leading donor.
"In return, the caller promised her that a wealthy California donor — the media mogul Haim Saban — would threaten to withhold campaign contributions to Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who was expected to become House speaker after the 2006 election, if she did not select Ms. Harman for the intelligence post," the New York Times reported on April 21.
In late 2006, Ms. Harman was reported to have been investigated on suspicion of trading favors with pro-Israeli lobbyists. The FBI dropped the investigation for lack of evidence.
Rosen and Weissman, indicted in 2005, were also accused of maintaining contact with an Israeli embassy official as part of their quest to obtain U.S. information on Iran's nuclear program. The official, Naor Gilon, was said to have been under FBI surveillance until he returned to Israel.
A key contact of Rosen and Weissman was a Defense Department analyst, Lawrence Franklin, later convicted and sentenced to 12 years for relaying classified documents to the AIPAC staffers.
Stein said NSA had monitored Ms. Harman as part of an operation to uncover Israeli covert activities in Washington. He said his sources refused to discuss the NSA operation or identify the Israeli agent.
"The identity of the 'suspected Israeli agent' could not be determined with certainty, and officials were extremely skittish about going beyond Harman's involvement to discuss other aspects of the NSA eavesdropping operation against Israeli targets, which remain highly classified," Stein wrote.
CQ said the FBI investigation of Ms. Harman was suspended by order of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Currently, Ms. Harman, regarded as one of the most knowledgeable Democrats on intelligence issues, has been chairing a subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee.
"Such accounts go a long way toward explaining not only why Harman was denied the gavel of the House Intelligence Committee, but failed to land a top job at the CIA or Homeland Security Department in the Obama administration," Stein said.