Oct 20 2006
Alleged Intelligence Committee Leaker Could Have Ax To Grind
Update: Reader Ordi notes reports of a possible investigation of Rep Jane Harman, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. I am not sure what to make of this, I have always felt Harman was the best Democrat ever for the position.
Update: Rep John Boehner comments on the leak. – End Update
Mac Ranger pointed to a Fox News report that named the person allegedly who leaked the recent classified NIE to the NY Times, and Mac noted the person may have an ax to grind. He may be right. The man’s name is Larry Hanauer, and he was displaced when the Bush administration came in. More importantly, he is a member of Jane Harmon’s staff, which makes clear why she is all upset.
Hanauer is listed on posts as someone displaced by Neocons, which makes him a possible source (with a chip) to all those myths about Neocons taking over the assessment of Iraq. It always struck me as someone from the inside spilling their guts to the liberal rags. Here is an example:
As the momentum for war began to build in early 2002, Wolfowitz and Feith beefed up the intelligence unit and created an Iraq war-planning unit in the Pentagon’s Near East and South Asia Affairs section, run by Deputy Undersecretary of Defense William Luti, under the rubric “Office of Special Plans,” or OSP; the new unit’s director was Abram N. Shulsky. By then, Wurmser had moved on to a post as senior adviser to Undersecretary of State John Bolton, yet another neocon, who was in charge of the State Department’s disarmament, proliferation, and WMD office and was promoting the Iraq war strategy there. Shulsky’s OSP, which incorporated the secret intelligence unit, took control, banishing veteran experts‚ — including Joseph McMillan, James Russell, Larry Hanauer, and Marybeth McDevitt‚ — who, despite years of service to NESA, either were shuffled off to other positions or retired.
Seems Hanauer could have an ax to grind. Also, from reading this document he co-wrote, he seems to be of a mind the best application of military power is in peace operations. While I would agree that is one of the better applications we could hope for, it may be he was against force at all costs. A mindset that permeated DC for years.
more coming…
Addendum: It seems Mr. Hanauer is not a fan of the Iraq conflict, at least from what we can tell from his own words at a Council of Foreign Relations event in 2005:
QUESTIONER: Larry Hanauer with Booz, Allen, Hamilton. There’s a lot of discussion about regime change, whether it’s something that we or some other outside force instigates, or whether regime change just comes about through ordinary demographic change over time. But I’m wondering if anyone has given thought to really what comes next. The regime change would change the whole political structure, as Ambassador Palmer has said; it would change the economic structure of the country [Iran]. And I think we’re seeing now in Iraq what happens when we pursue regime change without adequately thinking about the aftermath. So I’m wondering what might come next, and who in the U.S. government is thinking about it?
Is this a smoking gun? Nope. Just some insight into this man from his own words. The conference did not seem all that unreasonable from what I scanned.
From this site of a young man working or visiting the Hill (search on Hanauer), I learned Larry Hanauer did a stint on the staff of NY Rep Joseph Crowley, giving Hanauer a NY connection and probably press contacts with the NY Times. Crowley’s official site is here. So that establishes a path to the NY news media.
Barron’s, via Drudge, reporting that their studies show Republican’s holding both Houses of Congress.
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash7.htm
Is conventional wisdom wrong, again?
SBD,
“…one big happy family…”
Yup! Also this:
Counsel on Foreign Relations –
George Stephanopoulis, Arthur Ochs (Pinch) Sulzberger (NYT), Katrina Vander Heuvel (The Nation), Jamie S. Gorelick (9/11 Commission), LARRY HANAUER, Thomas H. Kean (9/11 Commission), Joe Klein (Newsweek), Madeleine Korbel Albright, Samuel Richard (Sandy) Berger, James Earl Carter Jr. (ex-President), Wesley Kanne Clark (ex-Gen), William Jefferson Clinton (ex-President), Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Supreme Court Justice), Lee H. Hamilton (9/11 Commission), JANE HARMAN (D ranking member House Intelligence CA), Vernon Eulion Jordan, Jr., John Forbes Kerry (D-MA), George Stanley McGovern, GEORGE SOROS, Kenneth Ross (Human Rights Watch), John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), the list goes on for several pages….
So Pinch Sulzberger owner of the New York Times, Larry Hanauer, AND Jane Harman are on this list…along with GEORGE SOROS? So why would press people belong to a foreign relations think tank…if not to make connections in that community as well as in the intelligence community? And what is SOROS doing on this list?
Carol
“Update: Reader Ordi notes reports of a possible investigation of Rep Jane Harman, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. I am not sure what to make of this, I have always felt Harman was the best Democrat ever for the position.”
I agree with you that she’s about as good a Democrat as they’ve got. A bit naive, but not patently anti-American pro-enemy (like Ted Kennedy with his 1983 Yuri Andropov letter reported at HotAir.com, FloppingAces.net, Cybercast News Service, etc.)… but, well, if she leaked this then she leaked this.
I don’t have any reason at this time to believe that it’s true, but if the Chairman asked her staffer to step aside he probably had some reason for this whether it pans out or not. It would make sense to investigate Harman too.
Let’s see where this goes.
Oops, I obviously didn’t read the link before commenting. She’s not under investigation for that although, of course, if it leads to her I’d be interested.
It probably won’t.
This other thing? I have no idea. About to read it now. Again, it’s where the facts take us that count.
AJStrata,
Here’s a must-read and very though provoking article about Harman’s behavior this year written by Clarice Feldman of The American Thinker.
http://americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5966
She takes a very analytical view and basically comes to the same conclusion as my gut reaction, which you see in the second comment above.
I just sent faxes to my representatives and senators asking why there is no outrage and requests for a full FBI investigation of this Dem staff leaker even if it leads to the Wash Bureau of the NYT. If the FBI can investigate dirty email from Foley surely they can investigate NIE and possibly other leaks from this Dem staffer. Maybe more Dem staffers are involved – remember the Schumer staffer who stole Steele credit reports earlier.
Strata need “some insight” into OSP leader Doug Feith and the other Likudist Jewish racists who advocate expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland while manipulating the US to fight Israel’s wars..
No American with dual loyalty has any business conducting
any aspect of Middle East policy.
http://www.amconmag.com/03_24_03/cover.html