Lawmaker caught on US wiretap

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Rep. Jane Harman was allegedly recorded by a Bush administration wiretap promising a suspected Israeli agent that she would pressure the U.S. government into reducing espionage charges against two other suspected agents, according to former national security officials. The former senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee denied trying to influence the spy investigation, reported The Associated Press.

Harman also asked the Justice Department to release all transcripts of her recorded conversations involving the treatment of two pro-Israel lobbyists accused of spying. Harman was recorded saying she would seek "lenient treatment" for Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, reported Congressional Quarterly.

The two were charged in 2005 with conspiring to communicate defense information to unauthorized personnel in violation of the 1917 Espionage Act. The indictment said the classified material included information about the al-Qaeda terror network, the bombing of the Khobar Towers dormitory in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. Air Force personnel, and U.S. policy in Iran.