And another non-surprise. We have known for years about the ongoing attempts in our MSM and on the left side of the aisle to leak anything damaging to this President and to the Republicans. Security clearences be damned. Now comes news yesterday that Hoekstra suspended an aide to Rep. Jane Harman until a investigation can be completed:
A Democratic staff member on the House Intelligence Committee has been suspended by the Republican chairman of that committee over concerns about the leak of a secret intelligence estimate, and political mudslinging has become a central part of the investigation into the security breach.
The unidentified staff member is Larry Hanauer, FOX News learned Friday. Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., suspended Hanauer earlier this week and won’t allow him access to classified information until a review can be completed, said Jamal Ware, Hoekstra’s spokesman.
The suspension drew heated response from the committee’s top Democrat, Jane Harman, who said she was “appalled” by the suspension and called for his immediate reinstatement.
[…]According to letters released Friday, Hoekstra said he began looking into the leak of the National Intelligence Estimate after a story based on the secret document on global terror trends appeared Sept. 23 in The New York Times.
The leak caused a political uproar last month. In the assessment, completed in April, analysts from the government’s 16 spy agencies concluded that the Iraq war has become a “cause celebre” for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse before it gets better.
President Bush, who suggested the document was leaked for “political purposes” weeks before the midterm elections, later made public four pages of the estimate’s key findings.
In a letter to Hoekstra dated Sept. 29, committee member Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., said a committee staff member — identified by FOX sources as Hanauer — requested the document from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before the Times story appeared.
“I have no credible information to say any classified information was leaked from the committee’s minority staff, but the implications of such would be dramatic,” LaHood said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “This may, in fact, be only coincidence, and simply ‘look bad.’ But coincidence, in this town, is rare.”
Here is some audio of Hoekstra on the Michael Medved show yesterday.
Meanwhile Rep. Jane Harman is under investigation for some shananigans herself:
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.”
[…]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. 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 sources say the probe also involves whether, in exchange for the help from AIPAC, Harman agreed to help try to persuade the Administration to go lighter on the AIPAC officials caught up in the ongoing investigation. If that happened, it might be construed as an illegal quid pro quo, depending on the context of the situation. But the sources caution that there has been no decision to charge anyone and that it is unclear whether Harman and AIPAC acted on the idea.
[…]But congressional sources say Pelosi has been infuriated by pressure from some major donors lobbying on behalf of Harman. In a story touching on tensions between Pelosi and Harman, an alternative California publication, LA Weekly, reported in May that Harman “had some major contributors call Pelosi to impress upon her the importance of keeping Jane in place. According to these members, this tactic, too, hasn’t endeared Harman to Pelosi.”
A congressional source tells TIME that the lobbbying for Harman has included a phone call several months ago from entertainment industry billionaire and major Democratic party contributor Haim Saban.
Ok, now tie this Harman investigation with what we know about the leaker:
“LARRY HANAUER, wrapped up a year of working on U.S. policy toward Iraq and is now managing U.S. defense relations with Israel from his teeny little Pentagon office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Larry was recently elected as a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, asked to join the board of the American Jewish Committee’s Washington Young Leadership Forum, and appointed to the Board of Advisors of Fletcher’s Program on Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization.”
And then we have these connections which Squiggler found. Hanauer was mentioned by Karen Kwiatkowski in this report she wrote about her uneasiness while working for neo-cons:
Another civilian replacement about which I was told was that of the long-time Israel/Syria/Lebanon desk, Larry Hanauer. Word was that he was even-handed with Israel, there had been complaints from one of his countries, and as a gesture of good will, David Schenker, fresh from the Washington Institute, was serving as the new Israel/Syria/Lebanon desk.
Who is Karen Kwiatkowski? Why just one of the signers to a document from the schizophrenic VIPer titled: “A Call to Patriotic Whistleblowing”…..
Hmmmm
It is time for unauthorized truth-telling.
Citizens cannot make informed choices if they do not have the facts – for example, the facts that have been wrongly concealed about the ongoing war in Iraq: the real reasons behind it, the prospective costs in blood and treasure, and the setback it has dealt to efforts to stem terrorism. Administration deception and cover-up on these vital matters has so far been all too successful in misleading the public.
[…]Some of you have documentation of wrongly concealed facts and analyses that – if brought to light – would impact heavily on public debate regarding crucial matters of national security, both foreign and domestic. We urge you to provide that information now, both to Congress and, through the media, to the public.
[…]Needless to say, any unauthorized disclosure that exposes your superiors to embarrassment entails personal risk. Should you be identified as the source, the price could be considerable, including loss of career and possibly even prosecution. Some of us know from experience how difficult it is to countenance such costs. But continued silence brings an even more terrible cost, as our leaders persist in a disastrous course and young Americans come home in coffins or with missing limbs.
[…]Signatories
Edward Costello, former special agent (Counterintelligence), Federal Bureau of Investigation
Sibel Edmonds, former language specialist, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Daniel Ellsberg, former official, U.S. Departments of Defense and State
John D. Heinberg, former economist, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor
Larry C. Johnson, former deputy director for anti-terrorism assistance, Transportation Security, and Special Operations, Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism
John Brady Kiesling, former political counselor, U.S. Embassy, Athens, Department of State
David MacMichael, former senior estimates officer, National Intelligence Council, Central Intelligence Agency
Ray McGovern, former analyst, Central Intelligence Agency
Philip G. Vargas, Ph.D., J.D., director, Privacy & Confidentiality Study, Commission on Federal Paperwork (author/director: “The Vargas Report on Government Secrecy” – censored)
Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel and U.S. Foreign Service officer
Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, recently retired from service in the Pentagon’s Office of Near East planning
Did Larry Hanauer heed the call?
Now, granted, the connections are not rock solid. But as many have found through the years in Washington DC….coincidences don’t happen in that town. He is a man who was booted out of his intelligence job, was obviously a bit upset about that, went on to work for Jane Harman, asked for classified report about Iraq and then a few days later that same report was written about in the Times….
Come on…..
Coincidence my ass. If the accusations are true may he suffer what any other traitor has to suffer.
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