In a brazen and sophomoric act, the National Security Agency (NSA) spied and then released information on Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), a member of the House Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk, in what can only be an effort to discredit her. 

Before Congress voted to expand the eavesdropping capabilities of the NSA as part of the FISA Amendment Act of 2008, the NSA was spying on Rep. Harman.  In 2005 (or 2006) NSA (or FBI) wiretapped the representative and recently released portions of a conversation between Harman and AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, to a journalist.  In these conversations, Harman allegedly agreed with AIPAC to intervene on behalf of two suspected Israeli spies during their espionage case.   In exchange, AIPAC was to lobby Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for Harman’s chairmanship of the House Intelligence committee – a position she did not get.

That agreement, if it occurred, may not constitute illegal activity and note that these allegations aren’t new.   However, the media has completely dropped the ball on the real story here.   The worst abuse of power is on the part of the NSA, not Rep. Harman. 

On April 16, Eric Lichtblau and James Risen revealed in a New York Times article that a member of Congress had inadvertently been wiretapped.  This information was submitted by the Justice Department and Director of National Intelligence to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) as part of a biannual reporting requirement.  The NSA reported the eavesdropping as an “overcollection” of information resulting from technical problems.

The Risen-Lichtblau article was followed on April 19 by the much discussed Congressional Quarterly article by Jeff Stein which revealed the Harman situation.  Stein, however, did not find out details concerning the wiretap of Harman from the DOJ/DNI reporting.  Instead, he cited intelligence officials connected to the wiretapping as his source.

DOJ and DNI have not yet acknowledged if Harman was the congressperson in question.  This fact is important.  If they were not referring to Harman then the NSA has spied upon at least two members of Congress.  If Harman is the subject in question then the NSA lied about the surveillance being the result of a technical error.
 
How one accidentally wiretaps a congressperson boggles the mind but let’s say it’s true and assume Harman was not the subject of the tap.  If the NSA uncovered potentially law violating activity on the part of a congressperson it would be more prudent to go directly to the Justice Department or to the Congressional committee for further investigation.  Instead, the NSA went to a journalist and leaked selective information to the public thereby taking matters into its own hands.  This is clearly a breach of protocol and points to the conclusion that the action was taken to discredit Rep. Harman.

More importantly, the NSA’s highly questionable actions could create a chilling effect that prevents Congressional leaders from serving in the best interests of the people.   While no politician is above the law or above investigation, agencies should not be allowed to intimidate elected officials with the appearances of impropriety.  This is not Soviet Russia and the NSA should not act as the KGB.

Perhaps when it comes time to renew FISA, Congress will rethink its past actions.  Ironically, Harman was an early supporter of the 2008 FISA bill.  I will not go into why Harman was harassed by the NSA.  There’s plenty of speculation on the J. Edgar Hoover like antics.