At the time it was first mentioned, Harman had not seen the written report on the alleged Capitol Hill threat, which had been provided to congressional intelligence panels but not to her Homeland Security Subcommittee. (Harman had previously served as ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee but was ousted by Pelosi in what was widely seen as a personality clash between the two when the Democrats took control of the House this January.) But after hearing her Republican colleagues talk about the prospect of a summertime threat, she contacted an official at the National Counterterrorism Center—a unit of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence—to find out the basis for the report.

At first, Harman said, NCTC staff "claimed to have no idea what the Republican members were referring to," according to an Aug. 14, 2007, letter she sent to the Vice Admiral John Scott Redd (Ret.), director of the counterterrorism center. But after two days, officials tracked back the information to the unreliable report about an attack on the Capitol and passed it along to Harman. That document "made clear that the source of the information was not credible," Harman wrote in her letter. Harman still wasn't satisfied: "Misrepresenting intelligence for the purpose of scoring political points does nothing to enhance the public's trust in either our institutions or our political process," she wrote in her letter to Redd. "Equally frustrating, however, was the NCTC's silence while one of your products was being misrepresented and misused for political gain. This is not how you or anyone else in the Intelligence Community should be doing business, and it severely undermines your credibility going forward."

A spokesman for the NCTC declined comment.

Terror Watch, written by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball appears online weekly

© 2007