An NSA wiretap reveals congressional corruption involving Israel. Or as I call it "Reddit Gold." (cqpolitics.com)

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=hsnews-000003098436

Aid for AIPAC Defendants
By Jeff Stein, CQ SpyTalk Columnist

Rep. Jane Harman , a California Democrat long involved in intelligence issues, was overheard on a 2005 National Security Agency wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

In return, the Israeli agent pledged to help lobby for Harman to become chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Two former senior national security officials, one who has read a transcript of the wiretap and a second who was briefed on its contents, said Harman agreed during the conversation to “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference.” Their accounts were confirmed by a third source with knowledge of the wiretapped conversation and subsequent events.

AIPAC is the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

In exchange, the sources reported, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to lobby House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., who was then the House minority leader, to appoint Harman chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee if Democrats won control of the House in the 2006 elections.

Harman hung up the phone after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist,” according to the former officials.

The sources, who discussed the matter only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of domestic NSA eavesdropping, said Justice Department officials decided there was sufficient evidence to initiate an FBI investigation of Harman. But at the last minute, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales aborted the plan, saying that he needed Harman’s help defending the administration’s warrantless wiretap program.

A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked Monday for an investigation of Harman by the Office of Congressional Ethics and for a Justice Department probe of why a case against the congresswoman was not pursued.

Harman declined to discuss the allegation, instead issuing a denial through a spokesman. “These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact,” she said in a prepared statement. “I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves.”

Allegations that pro-Israel lobbyists tried to help Harman get the chairmanship by lobbying Pelosi and raising money for the future Speaker are not new. They were widely reported in 2006, as was an FBI investigation that was reportedly dropped for lack of evidence.

What is new is that Harman is said by the former national security officials to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA wiretap directed at alleged Israeli covert action in Washington.

Another piece of news is that contrary to reports the Harman investigation was dropped for lack of evidence, the former national security officials and a former high-ranking law enforcement source say that it was Gonzales, President George W. Bush ’s top counsel before becoming attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe because the administration wanted Harman to be able to defend the warrantless wiretapping program the New York Times was about to disclose.

As for there being no evidence to support the FBI probe, the source with first-hand knowledge of the wiretap transcript called that “bull****.”