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?
I’m glad this is coming out. Now maybe Pelosi will allow the investigation of the CIA, that was proposed after she accused them of lying, start. For some “strange” reason she blocked that proposal… Hmmm…
And George Tenet lied so well that Dubya pinned a medal on the bastard!
Rotten SOBs should spend the rest of their lives in the Crowbar Hotel!
Until the lie comes out and a Republican backs this story, it’s all political posturing. A Obama appointee callng foul is home team umpiring.
That must be the medal for lying.
So how come these Democrats won’t vote for an investigation into Nancy Pelosi’s accusations?
# 35 MikeN said, “So how come these Democrats won’t vote for an investigation into Nancy Pelosi’s accusations?”
That’s the million $ question.
I really don’t understand why this is all such a big deal.
If this is true, it just demonstrates that elected government is treated as little more than an inconvenience, when it comes to what the big boys (Pentagon, Defense Corporations) want to do. So they cook the books and present the altered “facts” to Congress for their Ok. And if this isn’t totally true. Then it’s just an excuse to get Congress of the hook for it pasted bad decisions, involving Iraq and war prisoners. Eventually, it will be announced that nobody is responsible, for the torture. So nobody gets to be a war criminal.
Concealed is an interesting word.
It’s not the same as lie… which is an act of commission, not omission.
Not healthy, but considering the blabbermouths involved, understandable.
What better people to lie to than congress? The way they leak sensitive information the CIA might as well brief the New York Times and cut out the middle man.
What are they complaining about anyway? Congress lies to us all the time – if lies are good enough for us then lies are good enough for them.
#16 “here it turns out that a Republican leaked a confidential letter and briefing”
Holt is a Democrat. Though the example of Scooter Libby means both sides leak everything.
The Cheney regime tried but failed in facist government overthrow. We now need to prosecute and set an example for others. Something this serious calls for capital punishment such as war treason.
>> Mr. Fusion said, on July 9th, 2009 at 10:15 am
>> #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.
I have not heard of a case. In contrast, didn’t Jay Rockefeller send a letter stating his concern about about waterboarding being torture? But, to my knowledge, he never leaked the briefing. The Bush administration, just blew him off and used “secrecy” as a way to avoid public debate.
I CERTAINLY don’t buy this conservative view that potential leaks in congress mean that the CIA needs to be a rogue agency accountable to no one.
However, I’m not naive. Of course congress leaks. But the Bush Administration leaked like crazy, too. And they leaked for the most shameless self-serving reasons. The treasonous outing of Valerie Plame was only one such instance.
>> allstar said, on July 9th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
>> What better people to lie to than congress? The way they leak sensitive information the CIA might as well brief the New York Times and cut out the middle man.
You mean the way the Bush Whitehouse committed treason by leaking directly to the New York Times the identity of an active CIA agent because her husband opposed their bogus war?
#36, Cow-Patty,
If the House decided to hold hearings on Pelosi’s claim, you wouldn’t know about it. Simply because there are too many secrets that simply CAN NOT be told.
That the right wing nuts howling for Pelosi’s head fail to see that is not without precedent. Even the Republican Ranking member of the Intelligence Committee claimed last year the CIA was not being totally forthcoming.
But then all you care about is scoring political points, and you ain’t doing too well.
#45
Au contraire. That would only prevent a public investigation. According to you and others in this thread, Congress can be trusted, so there shouldn’t be any problem to a full closed door Congressional investigation should there?
It’s a LIE! All that stuff about lying to Congress is, itself, a lie. They’re just lying to promote support for the Obama Administration by having appeared to have lied about things in the Bush Administration in such a way that when Pelosi lied about not having been informed of the waterboarding, the CIA said …yeah, that’s the ticket! We were lying all along.
Now they really are lying. But that just goes to show you, they’re liars.
You know, I guess you guys are right. This means that Nancy Pelosi was right. The CIA called a briefing to tell her about a torture method they weren’t using, you bercha.
It is okay to lie to congress – It is authorized by some law passed by Congress or order signed by Clinton. Forgot the name.
#46, Thomas,
I see your point but have grave difficulties with it. Closed hearing don’t tell us, the people, much. There will still be those who will wail and whine about the closed door aspect, guilty politicians, etc.
Don’t get me wrong. I would prefer this to nothing. I’m only commenting on the actualities.
I think the members of the Intelligence Committees know enough that THEY don’t think a deep investigation will tell them much. The problem is how do you control such a large agency that must remain secret?
# 48 MikeN said, “You know, I guess you guys are right. This means that Nancy Pelosi was right. The CIA called a briefing to tell her about a torture method they weren’t using, you bercha.”
This is why she quashed the proposed investigation of the CIA “lying” to her.
Well, it’s out now. The unknown program was an assassination squad, directly led by Vice-President Cheney that tried to assassinate foreign dignitaries. It seems to be his private army.
No wonder the CIA kept this secret and Congress is upset they weren’t told.
The bigger question is will we ever really know the truth?
So was that quail hunting a test-run, or a successful operation that was covered up?