Jane Harman

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Person.png Jane Harman   PowerbaseRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(spook, politician, deep state functionary)
Jane Harman MSC 2017.jpg
BornJune 28, 1945
NationalityUS
Alma materSmith College, Harvard Law School
Member ofAspen/Strategy Group, Atlantik-Brücke, Council on Foreign Relations/Members, Munich Security Conference/Advisory Council, Trilateral Commission
Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and caught her coordinating with an Israeli agent.

Employment.png Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/President

In office
February 28, 2011 - February 28, 2021
Succeeded byMark Andrew Green

Jane Margaret Lakes Harman is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1993 to 1999, and from 2001 to 2011; when she resigned after an NSA wiretap caught her coordinating with an Israeli agent.

Harman was the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and the Homeland Security Committee's intelligence subcommittee. When Democrats held the House majority, she was in line to chair the House intelligence committee but was denied the post by then-Speaker Pelosi.[1] Resigning from Congress in February 2011, Harman became President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.[2]

Israel Espionage

Harman has been under FBI and Justice Department investigations after an NSA wiretap caught her coordinating with an Israeli agent so she could intervene in the AIPAC espionage case to reduce charges against Steve J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, the two officials indicted for spying. In exchange, according to Time, 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.[3] The New York Times later reported on the arrangement:

In return, the caller promised her that a wealthy California donor — the media mogul Haim Saban — would threaten to withhold campaign contributions to Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who was expected to become House speaker after the 2006 election, if she did not select Ms. Harman for the intelligence post.[4]

In April 2009, CQ Politics, also confirmed the report. Harman ended the phone call, according to CQ, by saying, "This conversation doesn’t exist." 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.[5][6]

Target Iran

Harman with Israeli Pm Ariel Sharon

Shortly after the AIPAC scandal, Harman appeared with James Woolsey at AIPAC's 2009 annual conference in a panel discussion moderated by Dan Senor. Besides pushing for military action against Iran, Harman also recommended the ethnic fragmentation of the country:

The Persian population in Iran is not a majority, it is a plurality. There are many different, diverse, and disagreeing populations inside Iran and an obvious strategy, which I believe is a good strategy, is to separate those populations.

Following pressure from the National Iranian American Council, Harman retracted the comments.[7]

Career

Early career

After graduating from law school, Harman - then known as Jane Lakes - married future NOAA administrator Richard A. Frank in 1969, and they had two children. They spent a short time in Switzerland and then she worked for two years as an associate with the law firm Surrey, Karasik and Morse in Washington, DC. She began her political career by serving on the staff of Senator John V. Tunney, and as his staff director from 1972-73. In 1973, Tunney named her his chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. During this time she also taught at Georgetown. When Tunney lost re-election in 1976, Harman - then known as Jane Lakes Frank - joined the Carter White House where she served as special counsel to the Department of Defense, and as Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet. She made headlines in 1978, when she quit to spend more time with her children. She and her husband, Richard Frank divorced the same year.[8][9] Two years later, she married Sidney Harman, who she had met in the White House when he was her first husband's boss.[10][11] Through the 1980s, Jane Harman worked as a corporate lawyer and as a director of her husband's company, Harman International Industries.[9]

U.S. Representative, 1993 to 1999

Harman was first elected to Congress in 1992. From 1993 to 1999, Harman represented the California's 36th congressional district. In 1994, she barely survived reelection in a heavily Republican year. Harman did not run for the Congress in 1998, instead entering the 1998 California gubernatorial race.[12]

After losing the Democratic nomination to Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis, she briefly taught public policy and international relations at UCLA as a Regents' Professor before running for the House of Representatives, winning her old congressional seat in the 2000 election.

She served on all the major security committees: six years on Armed Services, eight years on Intelligence, and eight on Homeland Security. She made numerous congressional fact-finding missions to hotspots around the world, including North Korea, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Guantanamo Bay. During her long public career, Harman has been recognized as a national expert at the nexus of security and public policy issues. She received the Defense Department Medal for Distinguished Service in 1998, the CIA Agency Seal Medal in 2007, and the CIA Director's Award and the Director of National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2011.

She was one of many Democrats who supported the Iraq War.[13]

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 Affairs Committee Chair Tom Lantos urging him to delay a floor vote on the legislation.[14] Her argument was that while the genocide deserved recognition, it was not a good time to embarrass Turkey, "given that country's role in moderating extremism in the Middle East."[15]

Other activities

Harman is currently a member of the Defense Policy Board, the State Department Foreign Affairs Policy Board, the Director of National Intelligence’s Senior Advisory Group, and the Homeland Security Advisory Council. She was a member of the CIA External Advisory Board from 2011 to 2013. Harman is a Trustee of the Aspen Institute and the University of Southern California. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She is also a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.[16]

Personal life

Harman's first marriage was to Richard Frank, in 1969, with whom she had two children.[17] Her second marriage was to audio pioneer and multi-millionaire Sidney Harman, who served from 1977 to 1979 as the Undersecretary of the Department of Commerce in the Carter administration before repurchasing the company he founded, Harman International Industries, and later taking it public.[18] She also had two children with him.[17] She has four grandchildren.

Asked in 2010 about a possible conflict of interest, Sidney Harman said: "We’ve been married for over 30 years. I’ve never told her how to run the government and she’s never told me how to run the business (Harman International). That’s absolutely fundamental to us."[19] He retired in 2008 from Harman Industries, purchased Newsweek Magazine in 2010, and founded the Academy for Polymathic Study at USC before he died in April 2011.[18] Harman maintains a residence in Venice Beach, California.


 

Events Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Brussels Forum/2006Belgium
Brussels
Yearly discreet get-together of huge amount of transatlantic politicians, media and military and corporations, under the auspices of the CIA and NATO-close German Marshall Fund.
Munich Security Conference/200920092009Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 45th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/20114 February 20116 February 2011Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 47th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/20131 February 20133 February 2013Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 49th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/201431 January 20142 February 2014Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 50th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/20156 February 20158 February 2015Germany
Munich
Bavaria
"400 high-ranking decision-makers in international politics, including some 20 heads of state and government as well as more than 60 foreign and defence ministers, met in Munich to discuss current crises and conflicts."
Munich Security Conference/201612 February 201614 February 2016Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 52nd Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/201717 February 201719 February 2017Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 53rd Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/201915 February 201917 February 2019Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 55th Munich Security Conference, which included "A Spreading Plague" aimed at "identifying gaps and making recommendations to improve the global system for responding to deliberate, high consequence biological events."
Munich Security Conference/202014 February 202016 February 2020Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 56th Munich Security Conference, in 2020, "welcomed an unprecedented number of high-ranking international decision-makers."
Munich Security Conference/202218 February 202220 February 2022Germany
Munich
Bavaria
Munich Security Conference/202317 February 202319 February 2023Germany
Munich
Bavaria
Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists. The real decisions are made by deep politicians behind the scenes, elsewhere.
Munich Security Conference/202416 February 202418 February 2024Germany
Munich
Bavaria
Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists - in their own bubble, far from the concerns of their subjects
WEF/Annual Meeting/202021 January 202024 January 2020World Economic Forum
Switzerland
This mega-summit of the world's ruling class and their political and media appendages happens every year, but 2020 was special, as the continuous corporate media coverage of COVID-19 started more or less from one day to the next on 20/21 January 2020, coinciding with the start of the meeting.
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References

  1. http://www.politico.com/story/2011/02/harman-to-resign-from-house-048984%7Ctitle=Harman to resign from House
  2. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/house/jane-harman-to-resign-from-con.html
  3. Timothy J. Burger, Exclusive: Feds Probe a Top Democrat's Relationship with AIPAC, Time, 20 October 2006
  4. Neil A. Lewis and Mark Mazzetti, Lawmaker Is Said to Have Agreed to Aid Lobbyists, New York Times, 21 April 2009
  5. Jeff Stein, Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Discussing Aid for AIPAC Defendants, CQ Politics, 19 April 2009
  6. Jane Harman's Wiretapped Conversations, Washington Post (Investigations), 21 April 2009
  7. Adam Horowitz, Jane Harman retracts comments advocating the ethnic division of Iran, Mondoweiss.net, 21 May 2009
  8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/980495/?terms=%22Jane%2BLakes%22%2BWhite%2BHouse
  9. a b http://history.house.gov/People/Detail/14550
  10. https://books.google.com/books?id=Wz9OB2xLGecC&pg=PA832
  11. https://books.google.com/books?id=ACTF56SnaykC&pg=PA518
  12. https://articles.latimes.com/1998/mar/23/news/mn-31902%7C
  13. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/04/pelosi_harman_have_long_histor.html?hpid=news-col-blog
  14. http://cbs2.com/local/Rep.Jane.Harman.2.536739.html
  15. http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2007/10/harman-flip-flo.html
  16. https://www.issueone.org/reformers/#reformer-full-list
  17. a b http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss360_bioghist.htm
  18. a b Shapiro, Taylor (2011). Arts Patron, Industrialist Sidney Harman Dies At 92 The Washington Post. April 13, 2011.
  19. Vega, Tanzina (2010). Audio Pioneer Buys Newsweek. The New York Times. August 2, 2010.