CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
July 9, 2009 – 12:24 a.m.
Panetta Admits CIA Misled Congress on “Significant Actions”
By Tim Starks, CQ Staff
CIA Director Leon Panetta told the House Intelligence Committee that the agency had misled and “concealed significant actions from all members of Congress” dating back to 2001 and continuing until late June, according to a letter from seven Democrats on the panel.
The letter was dated June 26, two days after Panetta appeared before a closed door session with the committee and it asked that the CIA chief “correct” his statement from May 15 that “it is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress.”
“Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from all members of Congress, and misled members for a number of years from 2001 to this week,” states the letter to Panetta from Anna G. Eshoo of California, Alcee L. Hastings of Florida, Rush D. Holt of New Jersey, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Adam Smith of Washington, Mike Thompson of California and John F. Tierney of Massachusetts.
CIA spokesman George Little said Panetta stood by his May remarks and believes Congress must be kept fully informed and Little added, “it was the CIA itself that took the initiative to notify the oversight committees.”
The disclosure came just as Democrats and Republicans were set to take up an intelligence authorization bill on the House floor on Thursday.
House Democrats have put a provision in the bill which would eliminate the executive branch’s right to decide when to brief the full Intelligence panels, rather than just the top committee and congressional leaders, known as the “Gang of Eight,” on the most sensitive intelligence activities. Congress would set the ground rules for the “Gang of Eight” briefings instead. The White House has threatened to veto the bill if it includes the provision.
The issue is politically sensitive because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., found herself at the center of a firestorm in May when she accused the CIA of misleading Congress over the use of harsh interrogation methods during the Bush administration.
Pelosi had been enmeshed in a controversy over whether she had been briefed in 2002 over the use of the interrogation tactic of “waterboarding” suspected terrorists and but did not speak out about them until the use of the techniques became part of a heated public debate later. In 2002, Pelosi was the top Democratic on the intelligence committee making her one of the Gang of Eight.
House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes , D-Texas, this week sent to the panel’s top Republican, Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, a letter saying new information led him to conclude that the CIA has misled and at least once “affirmatively lied to” the committee. Republicans disputed its contents and have said that the Democrats were trying to protect Pelosi.
Neither Democrats nor Republicans would discuss the subject of the recent congressional notifications that led Reyes to conclude that Congress had been lied to, saying it was highly classified.
The House Rules Committee approved procedures for floor debate that would exclude some GOP amendments explicitly delving into the controversy over whether Pelosi was briefed on the use of harsh techniques, although Republicans will have a chance to offer a motion to recommit and revisit the issue.
One amendment by Hoekstra, for instance, would have required the CIA to publicly release more records about congressional briefings on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
Republicans said it was true, as Reyes wrote in his letter, that the classified subject about which the committee was notified was a subject of bipartisan concern. But they did not endorse Reyes’ conclusions that the CIA had lied.
Hoekstra said, “Was it something where I thought there should be more follow-up? Yeah. But to go put me in a blanket statement based on one briefing?”
He said Democrats wanted to help validate Pelosi’s prior claims by establishing other occasions in which the CIA may have misled Congress. Republicans had seized on those remarks, and Hoekstra said Democrats were trying to “make the men and women of the intelligence community public enemy No. 1.”
Reyes expressed surprise at the Republicans’ remarks about whether the controversy was legitimate and whether Democrats were trying to protect their leader, saying simply, “They know better.”
Another committee Democrat, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, said Democrats wanted to make the point that there will always be questions about who said what and when in congressional briefings. “Let’s move beyond that,” he urged, to focus on the authorization legislation.
Ruppersberger added that a proposed committee investigation that Reyes mentioned in his letter is still in the “developmental” stages, but “I think it probably will not find that anyone intentionally lied.”
Hoekstra doubted an investigation would go anywhere, citing a long-overdue report on a probe into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes of early Bush administration interrogations of suspected terrorists.
Joanna Anderson contributed to this story.
Comments
Of course they lied, Now admit it and move on. Congress should be fully and honestly briefed on issues. And Pelosi deserves an apology.
And this is news? I would think Congress would be more sophisticated than believe they are being all the truth. Congress persons don't even adhere to this themselves.
Doesn't anyone ever take responsibility for their actions any longer? How many people died because of these lies? Until we as a country get back our morality, there isn't much of a country to support.
"... the only real, effective remedy for the abuse of national security intelligence apparatus is to permanently revoke the executive branch of government's authority with respect to deciding what to classify, the level of secrecy, the duration of that secrecy, and the authority to make redactions to declassified materials. There is no inherent right to the executive branch of the US government given for these current practices in Article II of the US Constitution, and to permit the continuance of executive authority in this matter will not invite disaster - because that is already what we have: a disaster. To fail to remove this authority from the executive branch of government will be to ratify this disaster, and to do so will be a usurpation of the rights accorded to the People under the Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth amendments. I do not think we need another secret court. I do not think we need to tweak the secret FISA court we already have. I think we need another constitutional amendment to involve a panel of citizens chosen at random annually or bi-annually, on which no citizen could remain for consecutive periods, to make the decisions about classification, declassification, and redaction. And I think that information once declassified should be forever immune to re-classification ..." - From "Big Brother is Watching You - TALON Project Summary", http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/big_brother_talons_on_you.html fwiw, -dcm
I believe the CIA has and continues to lie to Congress and the People. The CIA's Inspector General has reported that the CIA has covered up its own illegal actions including the shoot-down of a private plane carrying a missionary family when the CIA did not follow its procedures to ensure that the plane was being used to smuggle drugs and lied to cover up their mistake - a mistake that they repeated several times. The GOP is not interested in the truth and ensuring that the CIA operates within the law. They are only interested to preventing further investigations into the CIA which I believe will ultimately reveal that GW Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld with the CIA lied to justify the war against Iraq and violated the U.S. Constitution and international treaties. I think the GOP will cease to be a significant political party over the next few years. The demise of the GOP is long overdue.
Sure they lied. So do the members of Congress, especially when they look like fools. Pelosi is a liar and so are many of the Democrats in Congress, along with many of the Republicans. The voters have the power to change out the entire membership of the House and 1/3rd of the Senate every two years. Let's do it!
Bush, Cheney and The CIA LIED - and Our Soldiers DIED
Whatever's convenient for Pannetta? What ever looks good for Pannetta? I think he should apologise to Pelosi since he declared her wrong for her forward comment she made about Bush's CIA tricks. She should be commented for getting straight to the point. Is it any wonder the whole countries screwed up when you have a family with a CIA director and two presidents in it. Hard to believe we would ever be C.I.Aed in American. No wonder Kennedy wanted rid of the CIA. He knew it was a special interest pilfer and a corporate monster Army set to pilfer and pillage the world. The root of organized crime is the CIA. And the "TROOPS" are their weapon of choice. The worst enemy the people have can be their own troops. Ask any person living in a communist controlled country.
Eisenhower's farewell address remains one of the most important warnings in history. And it seems that it has been totally forgotten. The Military-Industrial Complex he feared, and was loosing control of himself, is running the show. My guess is Obama lacks the courage or power to bring the country back to control by the people and their representatives. I recommend all citizens watch the documentary "Why We Fight" for a powerful look at Eisenhower's warning to us.
In what way did the CIA lie or mislead these clowns (Democrats)? That bit of information seems to be missing from the ridiculous charge by mal-content Reyes. It is obvious that Pelosi is a liar and so is this nutjob Reyes. It has been proven over and over again that Pelosi was briefed on the interrogation methods of the CIA, so don't act the fool and condemn the CIA because of a phony charge by these partisan hacks.
I think the evidence points exactly in the opposite direction from where Mssrs. Yost and Lemon would like it to. It is clearly apparent that the CIA has in the past and through to the present lied and committed acts that we would call terrorism if conducted by other governments, and covered it over with a blush of American exceptionalism. NPR's ombudsperson has stated this explicitly-it's okay if we do it, and it isn't torture when we do it, and it isn't rape and murder and genocide when we do it, because we are the good guys.
The CIA's claims to need secrecy to protect the country are seriously undermined by the plausible deniability that it cultivated for so long. There can hardly be any doubt that the US CIA has been involved in numerous activities directed against democratic and legal governments that did not toe Washington's line. Public confidence in the CIA's ability to independently and correctly analyze intelligence has been destroyed by their egregious failures over the past thirty years. The CIA no longer serves a useful purpose; its roles having been effectively replaced by the NSA and the DIA. The die-hard conservatives who continue to defend the CIA do so out of knee-jerk reactionism and political animus directed liberals. American security is too important to be entrusted to the failed institution known as the CIA.
Pelosi is a liar- it is easy for Harry Yost to sit in whatever room he is in and put these words onto the computer. Pelosi clearly is a distinguished and honorable public servant with a long record of distinguished and HONEST service at the highest levels of government. Yost's statement shows the greatest defect of democracy, that false cynicism too often trumps intellectual honesty and moral rectitude in citizens's utterances and writings.
Shocking, just shocking that the CIA would lie to congress,. a pack of liars and thieves themselves. Just how is this a revelation? Even I know when the CIA lies, it's when they deny and open their mouth's.
What program, exactly, was being kept secret? Cheney's Executive Assassination squad? That reported only to Cheney? Does the CIA control our government or does our government(the Congress)control the CIA. IF the CIA refuses to report to the Congress, cut their budget. Only God knows what abuses the CIA, the NSA and the FBI are hiding. When we get to the point where we as a people cannot trust our public agencies not to break the law we are in real danger of losing our freedoms. This must be investigated IN PUBLIC CONGRESSIONAL COMMISSION HEARINGS and all violations of law and abuses of power prosecuted. Keep the pressure on the Democrats to investigate and Prosecute. SIGN THE PETITION calling for a special prosecutor at ANGRYVOTERS.ORG http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
What program, exactly, was being kept secret? This is an excellent question and raises a key point in this entire controversy. The effect of the specific lies told by the CIA spokesmen to the Congress are probably infinitesimal in thier effect, and could probably be called shading or interpretaion by their defenders. Howerve, the overall effect of the CIA's shadings is quite large. In the case that we are debating on this page, the outcome was the American invasion of Iraq. CIA for whatever reason, was unable to adequately inform Congress that the Iraqis would resist robustly to the invasion after the government collapsed. Since ngo and private observers were able to predict this, it is not sufficient to state that this is 20-20 hind sight. Similarly, it is not sufficient to state that since the above named sources were unable to provide the info in tactically useable form it is insufficient. The data was there, the CIA was simply unable to provide it to Congress and has lied to cover up this failure.
I keep seeing written that "Pelosi lied and its been proven over and over". By whom has it been proven and when? To have the extremist pundits just repeat the same thing over and over does not PROVE anything,that is just an OPINION!!! The opposite is true,Panetta has already said that these meetings could NOT have have happened they way that was first reported by the agency,why does that statement escape your reasoning? How about the direct command of Cheney to keep Congress in the dark about this other project? It is Congress people,remember we have three branches of Government? Listen to yourselves,an agency that works under cloak of darkness 98% of the time somehow became this institution of truth and honesty? Pray tell when did that transformation happen? We do not know what the program was that Cheney ordered the CIA to keep from Congress (against the law)what is so hard to believe about CIA lying? We already know these meetings could not have taken place at the times they claimed so what did they say and when?
I'll tell you when the extreme far right wing of the Republican party will believe the CIA can and will lie (I don't believe we have to explain the CIA lies) That is when something happens while a Democrat is in the high office,then by gosh you will hear that every 15 minutes of the day until you believe it.
so this operation went from so secret the director was not briefed until last week? And now according to Fox we have "sources"and people are saying that even though nobody knew anything this week fox knows this was an operation to kill bad guys and all is well.Cheney meant to say just don't tell congress "YET"!!! And the extremists don't see the hole big enough to drive a tractor through? Its time to have honesty in "NEWS".
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