The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed “significant actions” from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said.
In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency had “misled members” of Congress for eight years about the classified matters, which the letter did not disclose. “This is similar to other deceptions of which we are aware from other recent periods,” said the letter, made public late Wednesday by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, one of the signers.
In an interview, Mr. Holt declined to reveal the nature of the C.I.A.’s alleged deceptions,. But he said, “We wouldn’t be doing this over a trivial matter…”
The question of the C.I.A.’s candor with the Congressional oversight committees has been hotly disputed since Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the agency of failing to disclose in a 2002 briefing that it had used waterboarding against a terrorism suspect. Ms. Pelosi said the agency routinely misled Congress, though she later said she intended to fault the Bush administration rather than career intelligence officials.
Uh, when did they say this started?
While I certainly question the convenience of the source and timing of the statement, I must say, it surprises me not a whit if this were true.
If you want to keep something secret, DON’T TELL CONGRESS. They can’t keep their fat traps shut, and the last thing the CIA wants is to have some junior senator with his own agenda revealing to the world everything about our clandestine operations.
Look, the intelligence business is a dirty business. It’s dirty, messy, and it gets ugly. But the moment you shove a microscope up its ass, it loses every bit of effectiveness it once had.
We used to have great intel coming in until we stopped leaving them alone to do their jobs.
So they lied or misled Congress. I’m not shocked, nor does this bother me. I’d expect them to do so.
umm, news flash, spying is tricky business. you can’t expect honesty when using covert methods.
Nothing different here than in any other country that has covert ops.
Did anyone learn anything from the war in Viet Nam?
I guess not.
What do you call it when people keep doing the same things over and over and over again and expecting different results?
Gee. Really?
So prior to 2001 they weren’t lying?
The CIA needs oversight. If not Congress, then who do they answer to? Perhaps not the whole body but a trusted congressional committee selected by The People seems necessary to keep a very powerful branch of the govt in check.
This guy said that to his knowledge it started in 2001 however it most likely started before that. Normally it’s what they don’t say rather than what they do say.
The oversight committee’s only contain a small fraction of Congress however some of them don’t know how to keep their mouths shut all that well. I’m afraid they still have the right to know. In fact they need to know.
#2, Mac
So they lied or misled Congress. I’m not shocked, nor does this bother me. I’d expect them to do so.
Yet the right wing, including the CIA, Bush, and Cheney told us that Congress had been appraised of the illegalities. So much so that many of these right wing nuts continue to blame the Democrats as if it was their responsibility for the illegalities done.
No. This is not the way a democracy is run. We elect leaders to be responsible for what happens. When the agencies lie to Congress they are not doing what the law requires. Maybe you like this, but normal, responsible people don’t.
Dirty lying neocon
Sitting on a fence
Trying to make a dollar
Out of fifteen cents
Dirty lying neocon
You got the last laugh
Your friends died in Vietnam
While you dodged the draft
Dirty lying neocon
You find it hard to think
Growing up all you cared about
Were cocaine, pot, and drink
Dirty lying neocon
Moronic Texas inbred shrub
Your Daddy was always ashamed that
Mommy didn’t drown you in the tub
Dirty lying neocon
Your retirement plan is war
For every dead American
Halliburton makes a dollar more
Apparently the chair of the oversight committee either couldn’t be trusted or he was likely to object to what Bushco told CIA to do. Given that this chair was a Republican most of the time, it says a lot about the Bush administration and their motives.
Actually, I’m torn between wanting the openness in gov’t we have been promised, or the disclosure of all things secret to the idiotic temps we call our “leaders”.
Either way, we’re screwed.
Helps to understand the context…
This issue revolves around the Dems trying to protect Pelosi, who says the CIA lied, and the Repubs who plan to make a lot of noise about Pelosi during the debate over an upcoming spending bill.
Odd choice of sources for details, but these guys explain the issue well. The bottom is the most interesting part.
Will harm be caused from time to time by Congress letting secrets loose?==Lets assume so.
Has harm been caused by secrets being kept from Congress?==No need to assume, of course.
So==rather than stating that harm will occur and assume an unavoidable conclusion ((some would say so obvious a blind man could see it)) what a careful observer would ask is what is the balance of benefit and harm by one proposal compared to another.
My own review of history suggests that USA has been more harmed by secrets than the release of them. Perhaps more oversight by Congress would benefit the Nation AND if Congress would censure the violators both in the Congress and in the Administration who violate National Security Laws, we could have the benefits of secrecy and oversight at the same time.
When given a choice, I always say both.
Hey, who fixed my post? 🙂 First, thanks, and second, is there a link to the tags that can be used here?
Geeze, what lengths the right wing nuts will go to. Here we have several comments claiming the Committee members can’t keep their mouths shut and here it turns out that a Republican leaked a confidential letter and briefing.
Years ago the prevailing attitude among Republican supporters was that those briefed about the warrant less wiretaps, especially the Democrats, should have said something. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, their tune has changed. Can you say hypocritical political posturing?
I would like one of you responsible, Republican supporters to tell us about ONE Democrat that leaked anything from any confidential briefing, communication, or anything else. Just one. It seems you believe none of them can be trusted, just name one that gave away secrets.
#3
“umm, news flash, spying is tricky business. you can’t expect honesty when using covert methods.”
Congress can have closed sessions for a reason. There is absolutely no excuse for the CIA lying to Congress.
Say Hello to the new boss, same as the old boss.
http://tinyurl.com/nmjf6c
I’m kinda curious as to how the democrats will respond to a veto considering all the hoopla they raised over Bush acting like a dictator.
Re: “starting in 2001” Are you kidding?
If you do not know about the Gulf Of Tonkin incident it is time to get up to speed.
http://tinyurl.com/m45yan
“In an interview, Mr. Holt declined to reveal the nature of the C.I.A.’s alleged deceptions,. But he said, “We wouldn’t be doing this over a trivial matter…””
This says all I need to know. Like Waxman leading the inquisition against the National baseball league while the war I Iraq is raging yeah sure… they wouldn’t go after trivial issues?? Don’t look over here… Ohh look at that. Here have some koolaid.
It’s probably too much to ask, but can the wingnuts stop blubbering that it’s all the Democrats’ fault, because they were overseeing the whole thing? Now that we know the CIA didn’t tell them everything?
Yeah, I’m gonna hold my breath for that… not.
Maybe The CIA was worried that top secret information from a closed doer session would come out in public? Um, like this?
Awww…congress got lied to…congress has been doing that to the American public for the last 20 years easy.
What’s worse than the lying is this is nothing but to cover Nancy Pelosi’s ass. Panetta is a liberal democrat and is towing the party line blaming past parties in the CIA for “lying” just so Pelosi doesn’t look like the arrogant fool that she is.
Neither party, republicans or democrats are worth a crap. They are the same; they are corrupt, they are greedy, they are unpatriotic, they are imbecils.
So they admit they lied. Why would you trust anything an admitted liar tells you including when they started lying to you?
#22 Angus…maybe the CIA shouldn’t break the law that says covert ops must be disclosed to a certain few senior members of congress.
The CIA has carried out some number of covert ops that have never been disclosed. At least, we can safely assume this is true, would you agree. They don’t get compromised very often, in fact it’s rare.
What I want to know is, where are the Republicans saying “yes, I was told we were going to waterboard”?
#22, Angus.
This was a letter from a group to the Director of the CIA raising questions. No secrets were disclosed in the letter or any later discussion of the letter. The matter is still secret.
So, when will conservatives start issuing public apologies to Nancy Pelosi?
I suggest Newt Gingrich go first:
– – –
Newt Gingrich: CIA comment ‘disqualifies’ Nancy Pelosi
“Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Monday that Nancy Pelosi’s claim that she was “misled” by the CIA “disqualifies” the California Democrat from continuing as speaker.
“To have the person third in line to be president say that the CIA misleads us all the time is so utterly irresponsible and such an attack on the men and women who are risking their lives … that she disqualifies herself for being speaker of the House,” the Georgia Republican said during an interview on Joe Scarborough’s radio show.”
http://tinyurl.com/qmf63w
>> Mac Guy said, on July 9th, 2009 at 6:26 am
>> If you want to keep something secret, DON’T TELL CONGRESS. They can’t keep their fat traps shut,
Hmmm. The conservatives keep telling us that congress was FULLY BRIEFED on torture but kept their traps shut.
Which is it?
#28, Greg Allen
I would still like to see one these conservatives tell us of one instance where a Democrat reported what happened during one of these top secret briefings.
Something tells me no one will go to jail for all these felonies, because Obama protects evil-doers if they happen to work for the US govt.