| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 5:49 pm Post subject: Feds Probe Neocon Dem Jane Harman's Relationship with AIPAC |
| Judge says "ample cause to believe" AIPAC pair were foreign agents:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2006/08/11/irmep-aipac-espionage-case-dismissal-gambit-fails.php
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Feds Probe Neocon Democrat Jane Harman's Relationship with AIPAC
The Department of Justice is investigating whether Rep. Jane Harman and the pro-Israel group worked together to get her reappointed as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee
Posted Friday, Oct. 20, 2006
Did a Democratic member of Congress improperly enlist the support of a major pro-Israel lobbying group to try to win a top committee assignment? That's the question at the heart of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors, who are examining whether Rep. Jane Harman of California and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) may have violated the law in a scheme to get Harman reappointed as the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, according to knowledgeable sources in and out of the U.S. government.
The sources tell TIME that the investigation by Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has simmered out of sight since about the middle of last year, is examining whether Harman and AIPAC arranged for wealthy supporters to lobby House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Harman's behalf. Harman said Thursday in a voicemail message that any investigation of — or allegation of improper conduct by — her would be "irresponsible, laughable and scurrilous." On Friday, Washington GOP super lawyer Ted Olson left voicemail messages underscoring that Harman has no knowledge of any investigation. "Congresswoman Harman has asked me to follow up on calls you've had," Olson said. "She is not aware of any such investigation, does not believe that it is occurring, and wanted to make sure that you and your editors knew that as far as she knows, that's not true... . No one from the Justice Department has contacted her." It is not, however, a given that Harman would know that she is under investigation. In a follow-up phone call from California, Olson said Harman hired him this morning because she takes seriously the possibility of a media report about an investigation of her, even though she does not believe it herself.
A spokesman for AIPAC, a powerful Washington-based organization with more than 100,000 members across the U.S., denied any wrongdoing by the group and stressed that it is not taking sides in regards to the committee assignment. Spokespersons for Justice and the FBI declined to comment.....
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1549069,00.html
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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193487588&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Report: FBI, Justice Dept. probe AIPAC
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JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 21, 2006
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US Justice Department and FBI prosecutors are examining whether Representative Jane Harman of California and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) may have violated the law in a scheme to get Harman reappointed as the top Democrat in the House Intelligence Committee, according to a Time magazine report
US government sources told Time that the investigation is examining whether Harman and AIPAC arranged for wealthy supporters to lobby House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Harman's behalf. Harman said Thursday that any investigation of - or allegation of improper conduct by - her would be "irresponsible, laughable and scurrilous."
On Friday, Republican lawyer Ted Olson left voicemail messages with Time underscoring that Harman has no knowledge of any investigation.
"Congresswoman Harman has asked me to follow up on calls you've had," Olson said. "She is not aware of any such investigation, does not believe that it is occurring, and wanted to make sure that you and your editors knew that as far as she knows, that's not true...No one from the Justice Department has contacted her." It is not, however, a given that Harman would know that she is under investigation.
In a follow-up phone call from California, Olson said Harman hired him this morning because she took seriously the possibility of a media report about an investigation of her, even though she did not believe it herself.
A spokesman for AIPAC stressed that it is not taking sides in regards to the committee assignment.
"Both Congressman Hastings and Congresswomen Harman are strong leaders on issues of importance to the pro-Israel community and would be exemplary Democratic leaders for the House Intelligence Committee," AIPAC stated.
AIPAC also maintained it "would never engage in a quid pro quo in relation to a federal investigation, and the notion that it
would do so is preposterous."
The group claims it was not aware that the Justice Department was looking into the issue, and said that AIPAC was told by the Justice Department in 2005 that neither the organization nor any of its employees were the focus of the government investigation.
Spokesmen for the US Justice Department and the FBI declined to comment.
Around mid-2005, the investigation expanded to cover aspects of Harman's quiet but aggressive campaign to persuade Pelosi to reappoint her to the prestigious position on the House intelligence panel.
The alleged campaign to support Harman for the leadership post came amid media reports that Pelosi had soured on her California colleague and might name Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, himself a major supporter of Israel, to succeed Harman.
A congressional source told Time that the lobbying for Harman has also included a phone call several months ago from entertainment industry billionaire and major Democratic party contributor Haim Saban. A Saban spokeswoman said he could not be reached for comment. A phone call pushing for a particular member's committee assignment might be unwelcome, but it would not normally be illegal on its own. And it is unclear whether Saban - who made much of his fortune with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers children's franchise - knew that lobbying Pelosi might be viewed by others as part of a larger alleged plan.
Saban has donated at least $3,000 to Harman's campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records. The Saban Center for Middle East Policy, which he sponsors at the prestigious Brookings Institution, boasts Harman among its biggest fans.
"When the Saban Center talks, I listen," Harman said at a Saban Center briefing in February on US strategy in Iraq.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193487588&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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http://www.forward.com/articles/report-fbi-in-expanded-aipac-probe/
Report: FBI In Expanded Aipac Probe
Surveys Shine Critical Light On Jerusalem, Pro-Israel Lobby
Nathan Guttman | Fri. Oct 27, 2006
An explosive new report claims that the federal investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, has been expanded to include suspicion of meddling in affairs of the House Intelligence Committee.
The report comes immediately on the heels of two new surveys that shine a critical light on Israel and on the role that the pro-Israel lobby plays in shaping American foreign policy.
A recent poll by Zogby International found Americans almost evenly split on whether the pro-Israel lobby was a key factor in influencing the Bush administration to invade Iraq and take a tough stand against Iran’s nuclear program. In a separate study exploring the views of faculty members at American universities, a significant percentage of scholars identified Israel and the United States as threats to global stability.
Last week, shortly after the surveys were released, Time magazine posted an article on its Web site alleging that the FBI is investigating claims of an improper deal between Aipac and Rep. Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Under the alleged deal — which both sides vigorously deny was ever made — the lobby would actively support Harman’s bid to become the next chair of the intelligence committee if the Democrats win control of the House. In return, Harman would press the government to go easy on two former Aipac staffers, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who are being prosecuted under the Espionage Act for allegedly communicating classified information to Israeli diplomats and reporters.
Washington insiders are downplaying the likelihood that an investigation regarding Harman and Aipac would lead to any formal charges of wrongdoing. But the allegations — along with the upcoming trial of Rosen and Weissman, and the recent book deal signed by two of the pro-Israel lobby’s most prominent and vocal critics, scholars Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer — are likely to trigger increased media and public scrutiny of the pro-Israel lobby’s efforts to influence the decision-making process in Washington.
According to Time, Aipac allegedly agreed to get wealthy donors to lobby House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to appoint Harman to the post. Federal officials told The New York Times that such an investigation had indeed been opened, although they said that the inquiry was “no longer being actively pursued.”
It is widely believed on Capitol Hill that Pelosi is not pleased with Harman as the ranking Democrat on the committee and prefers Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat, for chairmanship. Hastings, who is black, could shore up Pelosi’s ties to the Congressional Black Caucus. At the same time, Hastings’s odds are weakened by his past impeachment from a federal judgeship. Pelosi is said also to be considering a third candidate, Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas.
All sides involved denied any wrongdoing or any knowledge of the investigation, which according to the reports has been going on for a year.
Patrick Dorton, an Aipac spokesman, said that both Harman and Hastings have proven pro-Israel track records and that they are both worthy leaders.
“Aipac would never engage in a quid pro quo in relation to a federal investigation or any federal matter, and the notion that it would do so is preposterous,” Dorton said. He pointed to previous statements by the government, which made clear that Aipac was not the target of any investigation.
Several congressional sources confirmed that major donors to the Democratic Party have been lobbying Pelosi on behalf of Harman’s nomination to head the intelligence committee and that these attempts were not welcomed by the House Democratic leader.
The Time report names Haim Saban, a billionaire film producer of Israeli background and Aipac donor, as one of those who approached Pelosi on Harman’s behalf.
Sources close to the issue, and congressional staffers, have speculated that the Harman issue was raised in an attempt to damage the image of Democratic lawmakers in advance of the upcoming midterm elections. The sources also suggested that the leak might be an attempt to get back at senior Democrats on the intelligence committee for leaking the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which embarrassed the administration.
Even before the recent allegations involving Aipac, the two recent surveys were giving pro-Israel activists cause for concern.
A poll commissioned by the Council for the National Interest and conducted by Zogby International found that 39% agreed with the statement that “the work of the Israel lobby on Congress and the Bush administration has been a key factor for going to war in Iraq and now confronting Iran” — areas in which public support for military action has dropped dramatically.
Forty percent disagreed with the statement.
Democrats, Catholics and young voters were among those most likely to agree that the pro-Israel lobby played a part in shaping America’s decision to go to war in Iraq. College graduates tended to disagree.
Aipac sources were dismissive of the poll, arguing that the survey was skewed and the question poorly worded. Sources close to the lobby said that there is no way to assess the validity of findings based on a single question in a single poll, while annual Gallup polls consistently show strong support of the American public for Israel. The sources stressed that the lobby is not alarmed in any way by the findings.
Another study, published this week, suggests that a strong anti-Israel current exists in American academic circles. The study, conducted by Gary Tobin and Aryeh Weinberg of San Francisco’s Institute for Jewish & Community Research, found that almost one-third of college faculty members think the United States is the greatest threat to global stability. Overall, respondents ranked America as the second-greatest threat — after North Korea but ahead of Iran, China and Iraq. Israel was ranked seventh, ahead of Syria, Pakistan and Russia.
Tobin said last week that he is planning to publish a separate monograph focusing on the views of American academics regarding Israel and the Middle East. The initial results already suggest that atheists, liberals and those who voted for John Kerry in 2004 are more likely than conservatives and Bush voters to see Israel as a threat to global stability.
Fri. Oct 27, 2006
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ISRAELI SPY RING PROBE WIDENS
INVESTIGATION FOCUSES ON RANKING CONGRESSWOMAN
By Richard Walker
American Free Press Issue #46,
November 13, 2006
While two executives of the powerful Israeli lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) await trial on charges of spying against the United States, the FBI has now broadened its investigation to look at whether the group tried to strike a deal with a leading member of Congress. In particular, federal investigators wish to know if AIPAC tried to reach a shady arrangement with Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
According to a recent report in a mainstream magazine, the alleged deal was that, in the event Democrats took control of Congress, AIPAC would lobby for Harman, now a member of the House Intelligence Committee, to become the chair of that committee. In return, she would be expected to press the White House and Justice Department to go easy on Keith Weisman and Steven Rosen, the two former AIPAC executives soon to be tried for espionage.
Weisman and Rosen were connected to a spy ring involving the self-confessed traitor, Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin. In January 2006, Franklin was sentenced to 12 years in prison for being part of a conspiracy to communicate America’s national defense secrets to a foreign power, namely Israel.
According to Franklin’s explosive indictment, his co-conspirators were not only Rosen and Weisman, but also Uzi Arad, a former Mossad agent, and Naor Gilan, the lead Mossad agent at the Israeli embassy in Washington. Gilan and Arad left the country before they could be interviewed by the FBI, but Rosen and Weisman were not so fortunate. It soon emerged that the FBI had a wealth of incriminating video and wire-tapped material on the two AIPAC executives and had also extracted information from Franklin about his links to them and how he passed them classified papers.
Through their lawyers, Rosen and Weisman argued that they were not guilty of treason and had been doing only what AIPAC had always done: They had pressured important people in the Pentagon and Congress and passed whatever information and documents they got from them to Israel.
The latest claims that AIPAC has been meddling in intelligence circles in Congress will come as no shock to those who know just how powerful the Israeli lobby in Washington is. So far, Harman and AIPAC have denied a secret deal. However, to many insiders, such an arrangement is reasonable given AIPAC’s stated goal of shaping U.S. foreign policy to suit Israel’s agenda in the Middle East.
Many people suspect that the FBI investigations into AIPAC and Harman will go nowhere. However, the Israeli lobby cannot put the Rosen-Weissman espionage case under the rug. The evidence in the case shows conclusively that AIPAC has been the means by which Israel has acquired critical intelligence on America’s Middle East policy, which it has used to influence American public opinion and White House policy.
The most staggering aspect of the Franklin conviction was that, even though it proved AIPAC was spying on the United States, the majority of members on both sides of the House turned a blind eye to that fact. In other words, Congress was nowhere near as concerned as U.S. courts were that America’s national secrets were being acquired by a powerful special interest group on behalf of a foreign power.
From the moment news of the FBI investigation in AIPAC broke in 2004, the Israeli lobby in Washington called in powerful friends and started circling the wagons.
When it was leaked that Pentagon analyst Franklin had confessed to passing classified national security documents to the Israelis, the Anti-Defamation League called for a probe into FBI leaks as though leaks were more important than espionage.
AIPAC used its powerful friends in the U.S. media and Congress to play down its role in the espionage conspiracy. To that end, it persuaded Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to deliver the keynote address to the May 2005 AIPAC convention in Washington. The event was also attended by Vice President Dick Cheney, Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and leaders of the House and Senate.
Richard Walker is the nom de plume of a former mainstream news producer who now writes for AFP so he can expose the kinds of subjects that he was forbidden to cover in the controlled press.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/israeli_spy_ring_probe.html
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Jane Harman Should Resign
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/184748.php
AIPAC and the Neocon (War for Israel) agenda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rf16XjbOUs
ISRAELI SPY RING PROBE WIDENS
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/187362.php
Read more about how AIPAC is pushing US to invade Iran for Israel next via the 'Iran: The Next War' article by James Bamford at the following URL:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2006/07/28/iran-the-next-war-for-israel.php
President Carter says Mearsheimer and Walt are right about the control/influence of the pro-Israel lobby (AIPAC and similar) in the US:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2006/11/28/carter-says-mearsheimer-and-walt-were-right.php
Last edited by Alpha on Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:36 am; edited 11 times in total | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:03 pm Post subject: |
| Neocon Democrat Jane Harman in Hot Water
Kurt Nimmo
Sunday October 22nd 2006
It is said, come the midterm elections, Democrats will likely take possession of the House and, less likely, the Senate. It is said this will tip the balance of power in Washington and, whizo-bango, we will get more representative government, corruption will be on the run, and the neocon cabal will be on the skids.
If you believe this, you may as well wish for a pony.
In fact, there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans, they both represent the property party, as Gore Vidal deems the gang in control of the government. If you vote for Democrats on November 7, you are voting for more of the same.
As an example, take House Congress critter Jane Harman. “The Department of Justice is investigating whether Rep. Jane Harman and the pro-Israel group [AIPAC] worked together to get her reappointed as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee,” reports Time. “[S]ources tell TIME that the investigation by Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has simmered out of sight since about the middle of last year, is examining whether Harman and AIPAC arranged for wealthy supporters to lobby House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Harman’s behalf.” According to Time, the case
"is a spin-off of a probe that has already led to charges under the Espionage Act against two AIPAC lobbyists, whose case is still pending, and to a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence for former Defense Intelligence Agency official Lawrence A. Franklin. Franklin pleaded guilty a year ago to three felony counts involving improper disclosure and handling of classified information about the Middle East and terrorism to the two lobbyists, who in turn are accused of passing it on to a journalist and a foreign government, widely believed to be Israel. The two lobbyists, who have denied any wrongdoing but were dismissed by AIPAC in April of 2005, were indicted on felony counts of conspiring with government officials to receive classified information they were not authorized to have access to and providing national defense information to people not entitled to receive it."
As we know, the “people not entitled to receive classified information” work for the Israeli government, and there is no “widely believed” about it. For Democrats, the fact AIPAC is a criminal organization matters not, for they understand well what side of the bread gets the butter. “Despite the fact that AIPAC was recently busted for spying on the United States, Pelosi, along with many other top bureaucrats from Washington, gushed effusions of praise on the foreign power” last year at the annual AIPAC confab, according to Joshua Frank. Pelosi made sure to mention her AIPAC sponsored walking tour in Israel, a common enough occurrence, usually reducing American politicos to pathetic Stepford zombies, espousing support for the continued murder of the Palestinians.
But it is not strictly Jabotinsky fanatics in Israel who are interested in making sure Harman is reappointed to the House Intelligence Committee -- the ghoulish perpetual war industry and war profiteers have a large stake in the reappointment as well. Not surprisingly, Harman’s top contributors include Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. In normal, non-Bushzarro times, this would be seen as a conflict of interest, as the House Intelligence Committee works closely with the Armed Services Committee, the standing committee responsible for funding and oversight of the Department of Defense.
Consider the fact major Democratic party contributor Haim Saban called up Nancy Pelosi’s office, urging Harman’s reappointment. “Saban has donated at least $3,000 to Harman’s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records, and the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, which he sponsors at the prestigious Brookings Institution, boasts Harman among its biggest fans.”
Saban has proudly stated: “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.”
It should be mentioned that the Brookings Institution has a close relationship with the Republican Party, that is to say the Neocon Party. “Since the 1990s it has taken steps further towards the right in parallel with the increasing influence of right-wing think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation,” notes SourceWatch. “It is difficult to imagine that the Brookings-Saban Center will be a think-tank that will represent or research the Middle East with the interests of the broad base of the Democratic party in mind,” that is to say the broad antiwar base of the Democratic Party, arrogantly written off during the last “election” as John “Skull and Bones” Kerry ran on a pro-war platform, describing the problematic Iraq occupation as a management problem.
Not surprisingly, Brookings receives funding from the John M. Olin Foundation, and Olin also funds the American Enterprise Institute, where Bush gets his criminal “minds,” and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace (although primarily war), and, tellingly, the globalist Council on Foreign Relations. The president of Brookings is none other than Strobe Talbott, former Clintonite and “world federalist,” in other words a one-worlder who hates the idea of national sovereignty and thus the Constitution.
Harman and crew are connected at the hip to neocon’s Zionist pet project on the one hand, and the “world federalist” slave planet philosophy on the other. In short, a vote for your local Democrat, beholden to the party leadership, including Harman and Pelosi, is a vote for more of the same, that is to say more war, more destruction of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and more privation for the middle class, as the plan is to enforce a sort of annihilative equality among serfs and usher in a world government steered by corporate potentates, determined to run roughshod over the planet in search of exploitative profit in the name of unrestrained greed and gluttony.
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=619
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Nancy Pelosi and Israel
"As for foreign policy, [Nancy] Pelosi is as Zionist friendly as any Straussian neocon, albeit in a fuzzy Democrat sort of way, and thus we can expect more murder and mayhem in the Middle Eastern neighborhood.
"Pelosi 'denies that the key issue is Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza,' writes Mark Gaffney. 'The real issue, she states, is the survival of Israel' and 'the biggest danger to Israel today comes from Iran, whose nuclear ambitions, though still unproved, also threaten the US. Her perspective contains the seed of ominous things to come, because, after all, something will have to be done about Iran, right? Yes, and soon.... Meanwhile, Pelosi manages to overlook Israel's brutal treatment of the Palestinians,' a consistent crime, recently magnified to disgusting dimension by Israel's recent attack on Beit Hanoun in the Gaza, killing innocents in their beds.
"'The United States will stand with Israel now and forever. Now and forever,' Pelosi avowed last year at the AIPAC meeting, never mind the seeming inexhaustible crimes against humanity."
--Kurt Nimmo, "George and Nancy Make Nice" (Nov. 9, 2006)
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=646
AIPAC Builds Ties With New Lawmakers:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/middle-east-and-asia/2006/11/11/how-israel-corrupts-and-controls-the-us-congress-and-media-page-241.php
WATCH OUT FOR PELOSI, A DEMOCRAT BUT PRO-ISRAEL!
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/middle-east-and-asia/2006/11/06/how-israel-corrupts-and-controls-the-us-congress-and-media-page-240.php
Last edited by Alpha on Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:54 pm; edited 2 times in total | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:26 pm Post subject: |
| Just think how the following poll would be if Americans got the full story (about Mearsheimer/Walt, the AIPAC/spying for Israel federal case, what Colin Powell said about JINSA, etc.) from the Zionist occupied US press/media:
New CNI Poll Shows Americans Wary of Israel Lobby
Date: October 18, 2006
A new poll commissioned by the Council for the National Interest Foundation shows that a significant number of Americans are wary of the power of the Israel lobby, and believe it is behind the invasion of Iraq and the current belligerent tone of the White House and Congress toward Iran .
The poll, which was carried out by Zogby International, reveals that 39% of the American public "agree" or "somewhat agree" that "the work of the Israel lobby on Congress and the Bush administration has been a key factor for going to war in Iraq and now confronting Iran." However, a similar number, 40%, "strongly disagreed" or "somewhat disagreed" with this position. Some 20% of the public, or more than one in five, were not sure.
The poll suggests that the espionage charges against two employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the publicity given to a new study of the power of the Israel lobby by two mainstream academic professors has had an affect on people's awareness of the lobby.
The academic study, done by Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard University, was published in the London Review of Books in March 2006, and was the subject of a recent debate at Peter Cooper Union that included Professor Mearsheimer, Prof. Rashid Khalidi (Columbia University), and Prof. Tony Judt (New York University) and three influential pro-Zionists, Martin Indyk, Dennis Ross, and Shlomo Ben-Ami.
The poll's details show that 46% of Democrats tended to believe that the lobby was influential in the decision to go to war in Iraq while 45% of Republicans tended to believe it was not.
Along religious lines, while Protestants tended to be evenly divided on the role of the Israel Lobby in the Iraq invasion, 49% of Catholics tended to see the lobby's hand in the invasion, while 77% of Jewish Americans overwhelming disagreed with the premise. Among ethnic groups, Hispanics (53%) believed that the lobby's role was influential.
Among age groups, 50% of those between the ages of 18 and 29 agreed that the Israel lobby had a hand in forming the current pro-war policy. As one might expect, those who call themselves progressive (49%) or liberal (52%) also agreed in the role of the lobby, while "moderates" (42%) and "very conservative" (44%) people disagreed with the idea, as did a significant percentage of college graduates (44%).
Eugene Bird, president of CNI Foundation, commented about the poll, "It demonstrates the need for widening the circulation of information about the role of the Neocons and the pro-Israel lobby in the corridors of power during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003."
Some 1,035 people participated in the poll, which was conducted in every part of the country. For a full presentation of the data, see www.cnionline.org/learn/polls/czandlobby/.
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Council for the National Interest Foundation
1250 4th Street SW, Suite WG-1
Washington, District of Columbia 20024
http://www.cnionline.org/
http://www.rescuemideastpolicy.com/
Phone: 202-863-2951
Fax: 202-863-2952
To unsubscribe, please click here: http://democracyinaction.org/cnif/unsubscribe.jsp
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Make AIPAC Register as a Foreign Agent:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/the-americas/2006/10/20/make-aipac-an-agent-of-a-foreign-government.php | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:30 am Post subject: |
| http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102401446.html
Probe of Harman's AIPAC Ties Confirmed
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 25, 2006; A06
Federal law enforcement sources confirmed yesterday that the FBI opened an investigation in 2005 into whether Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) improperly enlisted the aid of a pro-Israel lobbying group, but they cautioned that no evidence of wrongdoing was found.
The inquiry focused on whether Harman had made promises to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in exchange for its support of her desire to become chairman of the House intelligence committee if Democrats take control of the House, several law enforcement sources said.
Although the case is still considered open, officials said, the allegations have not been substantiated, and there has been no significant investigative activity on the issue in recent months. The inquiry was first reported by Time magazine.
Harman -- who has hired prominent GOP lawyer Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general -- told Time that the allegations were "irresponsible, laughable and scurrilous."
Sources said the Harman inquiry was an outgrowth of the ongoing criminal prosecution of two former AIPAC lobbyists who are charged with violating the Espionage Act in connection with receiving national defense information and transmitting it to journalists and employees of the Israeli Embassy who were not entitled to receive it. Lawrence Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst who pleaded guilty to passing government secrets to the two lobbyists, was sentenced this year to more than 12 years in prison.
Time reported that investigators were looking at whether Harman -- who is involved in an intraparty dispute over who might head the intelligence panel -- promised to try to persuade the Justice Department to "go lighter" on the former AIPAC officials.
AIPAC spokesman Patrick Dorton said yesterday that the group "would never engage in a quid pro quo in relation to a federal investigation or other federal matter." | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:25 am Post subject: |
| http://www.forward.com/articles/report-fbi-in-expanded-aipac-probe/
Report: FBI In Expanded Aipac Probe
Surveys Shine Critical Light On Jerusalem, Pro-Israel Lobby
Nathan Guttman | Fri. Oct 27, 2006
An explosive new report claims that the federal investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, has been expanded to include suspicion of meddling in affairs of the House Intelligence Committee.
The report comes immediately on the heels of two new surveys that shine a critical light on Israel and on the role that the pro-Israel lobby plays in shaping American foreign policy.
A recent poll by Zogby International found Americans almost evenly split on whether the pro-Israel lobby was a key factor in influencing the Bush administration to invade Iraq and take a tough stand against Iran’s nuclear program. In a separate study exploring the views of faculty members at American universities, a significant percentage of scholars identified Israel and the United States as threats to global stability.
Last week, shortly after the surveys were released, Time magazine posted an article on its Web site alleging that the FBI is investigating claims of an improper deal between Aipac and Rep. Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Under the alleged deal — which both sides vigorously deny was ever made — the lobby would actively support Harman’s bid to become the next chair of the intelligence committee if the Democrats win control of the House. In return, Harman would press the government to go easy on two former Aipac staffers, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who are being prosecuted under the Espionage Act for allegedly communicating classified information to Israeli diplomats and reporters.
Washington insiders are downplaying the likelihood that an investigation regarding Harman and Aipac would lead to any formal charges of wrongdoing. But the allegations — along with the upcoming trial of Rosen and Weissman, and the recent book deal signed by two of the pro-Israel lobby’s most prominent and vocal critics, scholars Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer — are likely to trigger increased media and public scrutiny of the pro-Israel lobby’s efforts to influence the decision-making process in Washington.
According to Time, Aipac allegedly agreed to get wealthy donors to lobby House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to appoint Harman to the post. Federal officials told The New York Times that such an investigation had indeed been opened, although they said that the inquiry was “no longer being actively pursued.”
It is widely believed on Capitol Hill that Pelosi is not pleased with Harman as the ranking Democrat on the committee and prefers Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat, for chairmanship. Hastings, who is black, could shore up Pelosi’s ties to the Congressional Black Caucus. At the same time, Hastings’s odds are weakened by his past impeachment from a federal judgeship. Pelosi is said also to be considering a third candidate, Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas.
All sides involved denied any wrongdoing or any knowledge of the investigation, which according to the reports has been going on for a year.
Patrick Dorton, an Aipac spokesman, said that both Harman and Hastings have proven pro-Israel track records and that they are both worthy leaders.
“Aipac would never engage in a quid pro quo in relation to a federal investigation or any federal matter, and the notion that it would do so is preposterous,” Dorton said. He pointed to previous statements by the government, which made clear that Aipac was not the target of any investigation.
Several congressional sources confirmed that major donors to the Democratic Party have been lobbying Pelosi on behalf of Harman’s nomination to head the intelligence committee and that these attempts were not welcomed by the House Democratic leader.
The Time report names Haim Saban, a billionaire film producer of Israeli background and Aipac donor, as one of those who approached Pelosi on Harman’s behalf.
Sources close to the issue, and congressional staffers, have speculated that the Harman issue was raised in an attempt to damage the image of Democratic lawmakers in advance of the upcoming midterm elections. The sources also suggested that the leak might be an attempt to get back at senior Democrats on the intelligence committee for leaking the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which embarrassed the administration.
Even before the recent allegations involving Aipac, the two recent surveys were giving pro-Israel activists cause for concern.
A poll commissioned by the Council for the National Interest and conducted by Zogby International found that 39% agreed with the statement that “the work of the Israel lobby on Congress and the Bush administration has been a key factor for going to war in Iraq and now confronting Iran” — areas in which public support for military action has dropped dramatically.
Forty percent disagreed with the statement.
Democrats, Catholics and young voters were among those most likely to agree that the pro-Israel lobby played a part in shaping America’s decision to go to war in Iraq. College graduates tended to disagree.
Aipac sources were dismissive of the poll, arguing that the survey was skewed and the question poorly worded. Sources close to the lobby said that there is no way to assess the validity of findings based on a single question in a single poll, while annual Gallup polls consistently show strong support of the American public for Israel. The sources stressed that the lobby is not alarmed in any way by the findings.
Another study, published this week, suggests that a strong anti-Israel current exists in American academic circles. The study, conducted by Gary Tobin and Aryeh Weinberg of San Francisco’s Institute for Jewish & Community Research, found that almost one-third of college faculty members think the United States is the greatest threat to global stability. Overall, respondents ranked America as the second-greatest threat — after North Korea but ahead of Iran, China and Iraq. Israel was ranked seventh, ahead of Syria, Pakistan and Russia.
Tobin said last week that he is planning to publish a separate monograph focusing on the views of American academics regarding Israel and the Middle East. The initial results already suggest that atheists, liberals and those who voted for John Kerry in 2004 are more likely than conservatives and Bush voters to see Israel as a threat to global stability.
Fri. Oct 27, 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:17 am Post subject: |
| Harman Intelligence post at risk
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press WriterThu Oct 26, 7:02 PM ET
As top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record) would seem positioned to take the gavel if her party wins control of the House on Nov. 7.
Instead, Harman faces being sidelined by either of two other lawmakers now viewed as front-runners: Reps. Alcee Hastings of Florida and Silvestre Reyes of Texas, the second- and third-ranking Democrats on the intelligence panel.
Harman, 61, used her seniority on the committee to build a national profile on intelligence and defense. But her hawkish views hardened an ideological gulf between her and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), the liberal House minority leader. Both are Californians.
"There is no seniority on the Intelligence Committee. Not a person who's on there now is on there the first day of the Congress," Pelosi said in a recent interview.
She sidestepped a question on Harman's future by citing House rules that give her more say over Intelligence than any other committee. "The leader or the speaker can appoint a whole new set of people," Pelosi said.
Harman declined to be interviewed but issued a statement through her office: "I love my work on the committee and hope to continue it. House Intelligence Committee activities are directly relevant to the major concerns of my constituents."
Her case is not helped by an investigation into her ties with a pro-Israel group that formerly employed two lobbyists indicted on charges of disclosing U.S. defense secrets.
Last week, the Web site time.com reported that the FBI had begun probing whether she enlisted the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's help in lobbying Pelosi to keep her job.
A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, told The Associated Press that Harman's ties with AIPAC have been under scrutiny since last year.
However, the inquiry has been dormant in recent months and so far has failed to turn up evidence of illegal activity, said the official, who would not detail any concerns there might be.
Harman has dismissed the allegations as "laughable and scurrilous."
Hastings is being promoted for the Intelligence Committee chairmanship by the 42-member Congressional Black Caucus. Choosing him could help Pelosi curry favor with a caucus upset by her decision to kick another black Democrat, Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), off a committee after the FBI characterized $90,000 found in his freezer as a bribe.
"I don't think the CBC members will look very kindly on Mr. Hastings being passed over, especially since he does have the expertise and he is next in line," said Myra Dandridge, the group's spokeswoman.
Hastings, however, has his own baggage: He's an impeached federal judge. Republicans have already cited that in news releases warning voters against giving Democrats control of Congress on Election Day.
Defense contractors and policy analysts also are sounding alarms about jettisoning Harman, who has won allies through her expertise on intelligence systems and spy satellites, many of them built in her coastal Los Angeles County district.
Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, said no one in the House understands intelligence matters and spy technology better than Harman.
"It seems as though Pelosi is making her political calculations based entirely on Democratic Party considerations rather than on broader national needs," Thompson said. "This is an awfully bad way for the Democrats to get started in proving their defense credentials."
Harman, serving her sixth term, played a key role in legislation creating a national intelligence director after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. She supported the Patriot Act and the Iraq war — Pelosi opposed both — and appears regularly on Sunday talk shows to support her views.
In 1998, Harman ran for California governor but lost in the primary. She reclaimed her old House seat two years later.
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Associated Press Writers Lara Jakes Jordan and Katherine Shrader in Washington and Jeremiah Marquez in Los Angeles contributed to this report. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
