As the former Senior Democratic Congresswoman on the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman was in a position to be informed about the intelligence operations and errors of the Bush Administration between 2002 and 2006.
Importantly, Rep. Harman did nothing substantive to try to stop Illegal Warrantless Wiretapping, choosing instead to rubber stamp any and all Bush Administration schemes.
We now learn of another intelligence misadventure of which Jane Harman was informed:
The CIA destroyed tapes of interrogations of captured high-level al Qaeda operatives. Almost certainly, this was done to cover-up illegal or unethical torture of detainees, essentially amounting to criminal cover-up.
Jane Harman apparently wrote a letter of complaint when she learned of the cover-up in 2003. She did not, however, do anything meaningful to expose or stop the Bush Administration's destruction-of-evidence agenda.
Harman's knowledge of Warrantless Wiretapping
As I and others have documented previously, Jane Harman was one of a handful of Democratic congresspersons informed of the Illegal Warrantless Surveillance Program before it became publicly known. Despite her knowledge of The Program's secret and illegal subversion of existing FISA law, there is no evidence she took any measures to stop the illegality during her term as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Blue Dogs are Bush Administration Favorites
Furthermore, in July and August 2007, when the House and Senate intelligence committees were negotiating fervently with DNI Mike McConnell to write legislation for FISA update, the Bush Administration was engaged in parallel, back-channel lobbying and negotiations with Jane Harman and her fellow Blue Dog Democrats. Although ultimately voting against the Protect America Act, on August 1, 2007, along with other Blue Dogs Rep. Harman signed a letter emphasizing her alignment with Bush Administration priorities:
"We also agree that it is important to address the issue of retroactive liability for our private sector partners."
Harman is eager to Compromise on FISA
We have also recently learned of Rep. Harman's ongoing back-channel negotiations with Republicans to compromise on FISA reform:
And as Democratic leaders push their own legislation to rein in the wiretapping program, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) has been quietly exploring avenues of compromise with Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee. Centrist Democrats hope those talks can dovetail with the Senate intelligence committee's own bipartisan measure on surveillance of suspected terrorists.
Harman knew about the Destruction of Interrogation Tapes
These and similar defections from the principles and ideals of the Democratic Party are disappointing, but to the above list we can now add another example of Rep. Harman's enabling of overt Bush Administration illegalities: her failure to intervene in the cover-up of the CIA's destruction of videotaped interrogation. Per the AP:
Rep. Jane Harman of California, then the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and one of only four members of Congress informed of the tapes' existence, said she objected to the destruction when informed of it in 2003.
"I told the CIA that destroying videotapes of interrogations was a bad idea and urged them in writing not to do it," Harman said.
Yet, as Glenn Greenwald points out:
[S]he took no steps -- no press conferences, no investigations, no demands for a criminal referral, no court action -- to impede this destruction-of-evidence plan in any way.
Summary
I have been accused of unfair criticism of the role of Jane Harman and other Democrats in enabling Bush Administration malfeasance, but I stand by my opinion.
Nancy Pelosi took a significant step toward restoring the integrity of Congressional Democrats when she stripped Jane Harman of her leadership post on the intelligence Committee in November 2006. By design or by impotence, as a leader of the House Intelligence Committee Jane Harman has been an accomplice to the destruction of the Rule of Law and The Constitution.
I am hopeful that California Democrats will see to it that Jane Harman loses her privileges to enable.
Note:
According to the AP, other "key lawmakers" were also informed of the desire to destroy the tapes but not the actual destruction. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller indicated that the SSCI learned of the tapes' destruction in November 2006. See Glenn Greenwald's excellent post for more details of Rockefeller's major role in the enabling of Bush Administration illegalities.
Note 2
Complicity by complacency: by failing to be a true opposition party, at a time when our country needed one.