(Not the least bit suspicious) U.S. to Drop Spy Case Against Pro-Israel Lobbyists

[Fireweed247]

WASHINGTON – The Obama Justice Department moved Friday to drop all charges against two former pro-Israel lobbyists who had been charged under the Espionage Act with improperly disseminating sensitive information.

The motion said that, “We have re-evaluated the case based on the present context and circumstances and determined that it is in the public interest to dismiss the pending superseding indictment.”

The investigation of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman also surfaced recently in news reports that Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat long involved in intelligence matters, was overheard on a government wiretap discussing the case. Ms. Harman was overheard agreeing with an Israeli intelligence operative to try and intercede with Bush administration officials to obtain leniency for Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman in exchange for help in persuading Democratic leaders to name her the chairman of the House intelligence Committee.

Ms. Harman has denied interceding for the Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman and objected to her being wiretapped.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/us/politics/02aipac.html?hp

The strangest thing is how hard Google worked to bury the story about Jane Harman working to get this case thrown out, but this story is on the top of google with only 173 stories...they seem very proud of this one and want everyone to know it.

[Fireweed247]

1. Does this sound like a reason to throw a court case out?

"the case was fraught with deep political dimensions, as it raised delicate issue of behind-the-scenes lobbying over Middle East policy and the role played by American Jewish supporters of Israel."

This is the exact reason that we need to expose this, not overlook it! :grr:

and why doesn't anyone here care about this?

Are all of the threads being deleted or something?

Should I have written 'Susan Boyle angry about spy case' for the headline or something?

[Wiley50]

17. I usually don't comment on threads concerning this general area, but I think I feel safe in saying

I usually don't comment on any thread concerning Israel in any way

since, right after the the 2006 election when I was upset because

Ned Lamont had lost his contest with Holy Joe who I felt had betrayed the party

and not played fair by running as an indie after losing the primary.

The next night I got involved in a very intense disscussion with several of those "american supporters of Israel"

The next morning I got a moderator's message over it warning that it was felt I showed borderline antisemitism

which is not at all where I was coming from. I agreed, none the less, as I like it here.

and since then I don't comment on Israel threads and would die before setting foot in the I/P forum.

But, I do feel a need to say this:

At least they are acknowledging that "american supporters of Israel" have a "role in our middle east policy"

Well, at least that's a start.

[Fireweed247]

2. Either I am on everyone's ignore

or DU is full of people who just come here for gossip? How can people not think this story is important?

If anyone is reading this who understands how important it is, can you repost this as a topic please? I think I may have been put on full ignore or something because I have posted too many stories about Jane Harman.

[Hannah Bell]

4. Google worked to bury the story about Jane Harman working to get this case thrown out...

but this story is at the top..."


could you explain the implication, i'm not getting the drift.

[Fireweed247]

5. Jane Harman wiretapping/bribbery eventually had thousands of stories

but every time it made it to the google home page it would be quickly removed. There was so much involved there, exposing our government in both parties and who is really controlling what is going on they wanted to cover it up.

This story was quickly promoted to the top with less than 200 stories about it, as if whomever is controlling google is super excited about it.


Perhaps the letting the cat out of the bag about Harman was a warning. Either drop the case or we will expose more government insiders working for AIPAC.

I have no idea but there is something very fishy going on. Even DU has been quick to eliminate any and all stories about Jane Harman and this wiretapping/ bribery/ blackmail deal. I cannot think of anything more important than getting to the bottom of this story.

This explains(wiretapping/bribery/blackmail) how the Bush administration got away with everything they did, ignoring the Constitution, ignoring international law....this is the key to everything we have been seeing and discussing.

[Hannah Bell]

6. thanks.

[unc70]

18. Google censors on behest of governments, can also be manipulated

I started noticing widespread "strangemess" with Google, the AP, the MSM, and even DU concerning which stories became "important", which ones "ignored", and which ones "surpressed" -- even made to "disappear" in a 1984-style Undo. Recently, I saw a thread about searching within DU being much-more effective at finding important articles and discussions than searching with Google. I have also been involved in diagnosing a lot of Net problems including ones that hacked Google in various ways. I started an article for DU but have not found enough time to complete it.

I expect to finish the longer article in a few days and will post a link to it in this thread. Here are a couple of its main points:

1. DUers need to personally archive any articles referenced through a link. Web pages disappear or are changed for all sorts of reasons, online versions of newspaper or MSM stories are routinely modified after the fact and may have little in common with the printed version of the same article. Unless you personally archive the page with complete documentation, in five years it becomes just a a myth.

2. Google and other sites routinely censor what they present to different users, whether because of the country where they live, marketing demographics, or sinister motives. For example, Naszi information and items for sale would not be show to someone residing in Germany. There are logs of topics and sites that are not normally available to net users in China. The same happens in the US.

3. Outside groups can manipulate search and news results almost at will without any active involvement of Google, et al. With a few hijacks of the the Net DNS, with a modest size botnet or even a "virtual" botnet and bloggernet one can manipulate Google to make your site the top search result while making competing sites almost disappear, possibly be blocked, (Details later. Techical hints: Takes advantage of Google ranking algorithm concerning volatility, duplicate content, noindex, nofollow, invected with maleware, and involves OpenDNS and others.)

4. Truth, like its friends security and freedom, is just an illusion. "There are some who say that life is an illusion, and reality is but a figment of the imagination. If this is so, then Brad and Janet are quite safe. ... however, ..."

5. Where does this leave all of us? Probably quite confused and rather anxious. Much the same as a disturbing episode of the "Twilight Zone", just much worse and without ithe assurance that the reality of a commercial advertisement will soon intrude.

6. During the primaries, Obama gained great benefit from the Net, often attributed to his being lucky in chosing those who had opposed him. After considerable reasearch, I have concluded that thi, too, poses a great problem. How far shall we go to rescue another, possibly one already affectedd with theis problem.

More when I am able to post again.

[Lerkfish]

11. just now saw the thread.

but I think its obvious that at times AIPAC and us govt. are siamese twins joined at the anus.

[timtom]

3. It's not a DU talking point.

But it's something that has slipped under the radar for many many years.

[Fireweed247]

7. ...

Did the NYT Help Bush Win the 2004 Election by Sitting on the Illegal NSA Wiretapping Story at the Request of Jane Harman?
http://blog.buzzflash.com/analysis/738

[Fireweed247]

8. nope

none of this has any importance.

I will go away now. :cry:

[Mist]

12. I appreciate that you've posted this, Fireweed. It is indeed an important story. I think there's

going to have to be an avalanche of similar info before more people take notice.

[mod mom]

9. UFB! This is a national disgrace-imho!

[mod mom]

10. TPM Coverage (w more to come!)

Report: AIPAC Case Dropped
By Zachary Roth - May 1, 2009, 9:51AM
The AIPAC case -- which provided the backdrop for the current flap over Jane Harman's wiretapped conversation -- has been dropped, reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency:

A source with intimate knowledge of the case against two ex-AIPAC staffers accused of passing along classified information says the case has been dropped.
Keith Weissman, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's former Iran analyst, and Steve Rosen, its former foreign policy chief, were charged under a rarely used section of the 1917 Espionage Act that makes it a crime for civilians to receive and distribute closely held defense information. Both men were later dismissed by AIPAC, with the organization claiming the two had violated its rules; Rosen, in turn has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against AIPAC.

Federal prosecutors reportedly had been considering dropping the criminal case in the wake of a number of recent judicial decisions that make the prosecution more difficult. Among these was an appeals court rejection of a prosecution request to review the trial judge's order that prosecutors make the case that the defendants harmed the United States and not merely benefited Israel. Some Democrats see the case as a piece with Bush-era efforts to expand government secrecy powers, but the Post quoted its sources as saying that the review would have occurred whether or not Barack Obama had won election as president.

-snip

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/report_aipac_case_dropped.php

[mod mom]

13. "the government says it could not go ahead with the case and risk the disclosure of classified

evidence"

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/05/01/1918204.aspx

SO IT'S NOT THAT THEIR INNOCENT BUT THAT THERE IS INFORMATION THAT CAN'T BE MADE PUBLIC

:mad:

[sixmile]

14. kicked for later

and for putting America first before Ireland, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Israel and all other governments.

[Fireweed247]

15. Thanks for the kicks and recs

:hi:

[bvar22]

16. Definately worth a K & R.

There really isn't much to discuss about this.
It is only one of THE ELEPHANTS in the living room.


I agree with your statement in Post #1.

"the case was fraught with deep political dimensions, as it raised delicate issue of behind-the-scenes lobbying over Middle East policy and the role played by American Jewish supporters of Israel."

This is the exact reason that we need to expose this, not overlook it! :grr: