Anti-Bill of Rights Jane Harman to resign from Congress

Rep. Jane Harman, a blue-dog Democrat from California, announced today she will resign from office, to head the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Harman’s pro-business, anti-liberty stance is world-renowned. She introduced HR 1955, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, otherwise known at the Thought Crimes bill.

In 2005, she voted to make the Un-PATRIOT Act permanent, but in 2010 opposed some provisions of the bill.

In addition to serving on the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment and Subcommittee on Health, she also Chairs the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment.

AIPAC controversy

In October 2006, Time magazine, quoting anonymous sources, asserted that an FBI and US Department of Justice investigation of Harman was underway. The magazine alleged that Harman had agreed to lobby the Department of Justice to reduce espionage charges against Steve J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, two officials at the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In exchange, Time said there was a quid pro quo in which AIPAC would lobby then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to appoint Harman as chair of the House Intelligence Committee if the Democrats captured the House after the 2006 elections. Harman, the FBI, the Justice Department and Pelosi’s office have all denied knowledge of or involvement with any investigation. AIPAC denied it had engaged in a quid pro quo with Harman. “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,” a spokesperson said at the time.

In April 2009, CQ Politics, also quoting anonymous sources, said Harman had been captured on a National Security Agency wiretap prior to the 2006 elections, telling an “Israeli agent” that she would “waddle into” lobbying the Department of Justice on the AIPAC case. Harman ended the phone call, according to CQ, by saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.” Harman denied the allegations, saying: “These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact. I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves.”

According to CQ, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales pressed CIA Director Porter Goss to drop the agency’s investigation of Harman, because he wanted Harman’s support during the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, about to break in The New York Times. Harman called The New York Times and urged them not to publish details on the program. Gonzales and Goss declined to comment.

A strong supporter of the military, she rejects the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, believing “authorities” should read mail and email, tap phones, and conduct random searches without a warrant, backing the Bush regime while lobbying the New York Times not to run the story in 2004.

Armenian Genocide

Harman was a co-sponsor of the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution bill in 2007. However, while still cosponsoring the bill, she wrote a letter to House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Tom Lantos urging him to withdraw the bill. Her argument was that while the genocide deserves recognition, it was not a good time to embarrass Turkey given that country’s role in moderating extremism in the Middle East.

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Notes:

Unless linked, all info from Wikipedia: Jane Harman