btchd

I watched this video and didn’t know how to say “I’m sorry.”

You can’t script something better than what has happened to Rep. Jane Harman of California. Last month, Rep. Harman tabled a bill in the United States House of Representatives to sanction and limit any foreign aid to Pakistan based on “access to AQ Khan.” Rep. Harman called AQ Khan “Mr. Khan is again a loose nuke scientist with proven ability to sell the worst weapons to the worst people.”

Well, Rep. Harman, what should we call someone who attempts to sell out their own country to save a couple of spies? The Congressional Quarterly yesterday published a damaging story about the NSA recording Rep. Harman “was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.”

She was picked up during a court approved NSA wiretap directed at an alleged Israeli covert action in Washington, DC.

Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

But in reading the story, the tale that unfolds in fantastic. In 2006, the FBI had launched an investigation into “pro-Israeli lobbyists trying to get her on the Intelligence committee,” but were dropped for “lack of evidence.” Rep. Harman was appointed the head of the Intelligence committee in the House of Representatives after the 2006 elections.

As for there being “no evidence” to support the FBI probe, a source with first-hand knowledge of the wiretaps called that “bull****.”

“I read those transcripts,” said the source, who like other former national security officials familiar with the transcript discussed it only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of domestic NSA eavesdropping.

“It’s true,” added another former national security official who was briefed on the NSA intercepts involving Harman. “She was on there.”

Such accounts go a long way toward explaining not only why Harman was denied the gavel of the House Intelligence Committee, but failed to land a top job at the CIA or Homeland Security Department in the Obama administration.

The identity of the “suspected Israeli agent” could not be determined with certainty, and officials were extremely skittish about going beyond Harman’s involvement to discuss other aspects of the NSA eavesdropping operation against Israeli targets, which remain highly classified.

But according to the former officials familiar with the transcripts, the alleged Israeli agent asked Harman if she could use any influence she had with Gonzales, who became attorney general in 2005, to get the charges against the AIPAC officials reduced to lesser felonies.

AIPAC official Steve Rosen had been charged with two counts of conspiring to communicate, and communicating national defense information to people not entitled to receive it. Weissman was charged with conspiracy.

AIPAC dismissed the two in May 2005, about five months before the events here unfolded.

Harman responded that Gonzales would be a difficult task, because he “just follows White House orders,” but that she might be able to influence lesser officials, according to an official who read the transcript.

As you read the article, you start to think one thing… coverup at the highest levels… apparently everyone from the FBI Director to the Attorney General helped to make sure that this Representative was not admonished for her behavior.

But here is my question, if you call AQ Khan a loose scientist for trying to build a weapon to defend his home country – what do you call someone who conspires with foreigners to help people escape espionage charges against their home country?

Should it matter if they are Israeli?

Reverend Jesse Jackson, an inspirational speaker of the civil rights movement in the United States, wrote a poem called “I Am Somebody,” to motivate black students in 1966. I am reproducing the poem here because I think we need to remind our government that there are still people whose voices, while unheard, still matter.

I Am Somebody
I Am Somebody
I May Be Poor
But I Am Somebody
I May Be Uneducated
But I Am Somebody
I May Be Unskilled
But I Am Somebody
I May Have Lost Hope
But I Am Somebody
I May Be Young
But I Am Somebody
I May Be On Welfare
But I Am Somebody
I May Be Small
But I Am Somebody
I May Make A Mistake
But I Am Somebody
My Clothes Are Different
My Face Is Different
My Hair Is Different
But I Am Somebody
I Am Black, Brown, and White
I Speak A Different Language
But I Must Be Respected
Protected
Never Rejected
I Am God’s Child
I Am Somebody

“There is a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they’re going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses,” Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, told the chief executive officers of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.

“It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo. It kind of makes you a little bit suspicious.” He added, “couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled or something to get here? It would have at least sent a message that you do get it.”

I don’t know how many of my fellow bloggers are following the bailout debate for US automakers. Many may know that the Big 3 (Ford, Chrysler, and GM) have asked the US government for a US$ 25 billion bailout package otherwise they could be forced to liquidate assets and close operations. The Democrats had been on-board with a bailout for the automakers because of the effect the loss of employment and revenue to the national economy, but yesterday that picture changed with one question that is very relevant to our national financial situation.

Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, asked the 3 CEOs to “raise their hand if they flew here commercial?” “Let the record show, no hands went up,” Sherman continued. “Second, I’m going to ask you to raise your hand if you are planning to sell your jet in place now and fly back commercial. Let the record show, no hands went up.”

And there died a US$ 25 billion bailout package.

The Detroit Free Press yesterday published that 1 roundtrip flight on the jet cost US$ 20,000, while a First Class commercial ticket would have only cost US$ 1000.

Now turning to our President and his recent state visit to Saudi Arabia to request financial assistance for Pakistan. President Zardari felt that 240 of his closest friends needed to perform Umra with him. While President Zardari says he paid for all the people to travel, it doesn’t change the image that the Saudi’s must have gotten with the planes and numerous guests that arrived from Pakistan.

Symbolically, this government has not shown that it understands the plight of the people, and principally have offended the sensibilities of most foreign donors by the lavish spending on airfare, entourages, and other luxuries that a government that is begging for international financial assistance can not afford.

Maybe that is why IMF has been appointed as the Gatekeeper of Pakistan’s finances or none of the “Friends of Pakistan” were ready to help Pakistan?

Ever since President-Elect Barack Obama became a serious candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency, the right and the ultraright, the Fox News, and the ill-informed segment of the population which follows Fox’s “fair and balanced” news and analysis used Mr. Obama’s middle name and the fact that his grandfather was a Muslim against him. In such propaganda, being a Muslim is tantamount to being evil, having ill will towards the United States, and someone who could not be trusted, especially with the highest office of the land.

As a supporter of Mr. Obama, I was often disappointed that he did not confront such bigotry. His standard reaction to the accusation of being a Muslim – one also enforced by his camp – was always, “I am a Christian; I have never been a Muslim.” It really bothered me and people like me when, for example, last June Mr. Obama’s aids removed from the front row of a rally in Detroit a few Muslim women with their Islamic hejab – cover for their hair – because they did want them to be seen in photos with Mr. Obama.

Although people like me never liked the way our President-Elect handled the “issue” of his Islamic “heritage,” and even though my like-minded friends and I have been apprehensive about what he may do in the Middle East and the Islamic world, we wanted, more than anything else and above all, Mr. Obama to be elected the 44th President of the United States. The thought of living in a Bush-3 regime under John McCain was just too painful and frightening, and the dream of breaking the racial barrier with all of its consequences was too enticing. Pragmatism and the realities of America in the post-9/11 era also dictated our silence. We put our worries and unease in the backburner.

Now, however, our candidate has won by a landslide. Now, he does not have to worry about the accusation of being a closet Muslim as a campaign issue. Now, the elections have shown that the people have moved, to a large extent, beyond race as a barrier to the highest office of the land. Now, our President-Elect has won a mandate for fundamental changes, part of which should be cultural.

Mr. Obama is not, of course, a Muslim. He believes in the Christian faith. As a practicing Muslim, I have the highest respect for his faith. In my mind, Jesus Christ is the all-time symbol of kindness, forgiveness, and sacrifice for the sake of others. Thus, as a follower of Christ, Mr. Obama should set the record straight about the injustice that has been done to true Islam in this country.

Mr. Obama should now use the same eloquence; the same type of powerful speeches, and the same cool, intelligent, deliberate manner with which he mesmerized us all, to lead the people beyond the bigotry of hating Muslims, simply because they are Muslim. He should simply declare:

So what if I am a Muslim? Read the rest of this entry »

Gordon Brown issued the most objectionable statement of the financial crisis today by asking China and the oil-rich Gulf nations to bolster an enhanced IMF bailout fund for countries rocked by the global economic downturn. His quote is “those with the greatest surpluses should do more.”

(isn’t it interesting that the “do more” comment is saved for Muslim countries like Pakistan and oil-rich Gulf states)

Let us be clear, the IMF is not a “developing country” friendly financier. IMF traditionally demands that national assets be privatized and socio-development programs be brought to a halt to control domestic deficit levels. Pakistan, who is seeking IMF funding, has been provided with an unbelievably strict guideline for funding. For Pakistan, it is a last option because the US and UK have worked hard to make sure that Pakistan is brought to its knees.

My question for the honorable Prime Minister is very simple:

The oil-rich Gulf states are Muslim countries. They have been the target of an concentrated campaign by the entire world to brand the Muslim as a terrorist, Islamist, Mohammedian and many other things that Islam does not represent.

And a Chinese people whose currency you want to devaluate to even out the trade imbalance with the rest of the world. So for the better part of the year, its been rhetoric against the Chinese and their government and now you would like them to step up and “do more?”

While the world has been doing this, somehow all of your “developed” nations could put the money together to invade Afghanistan and drop the ball because of weak leadership in both Washington and London. Read the rest of this entry »