Thursday, July 09, 2009

I Am Shocked ...

...Oh wait. No, I'm not.

Apparently neither was the NY Times, which placed this article on page 20 of the print edition.

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. ...

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Silvestre Reyes, Democrat of Texas ...wrote that the committee “has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one occasion) was affirmatively lied to.”
[Emphasis added]

About the only shocking revelation in the story is that Democrats seem to think the CIA has been deceiving Congress and the American people for only the past eight years. That doesn't say much for the intelligence and/or veracity of the people we've elected. The CIA has a much longer history of deception when it comes to congressional oversight of its actions. It's just that during the last administration the CIA was encouraged to lie to and mislead Congress by the White House.

And have things changed now that we have a new president? Apparently not:

In a related development, President Obama threatened to veto the pending Intelligence Authorization Bill if it included a provision that would allow information about covert actions to be given to the entire House and Senate Intelligence Committees, rather than the so-called Gang of Eight — the Democratic and Republican leaders of both houses of Congress and the two Intelligence Committees.

Nothing new. Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.

Clean cups!

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3 Comments:

Anonymous PeasantParty said...

Nothing new here. Move along.

Diane, thanks for this article. I am not a Pelosi fan, but the repugs want to keep blame flames going. When will the MSM point them to the Intell committee numbers? In 2001 thru 2003 when all of this was evolving they point their fingers at Nancy. They in fact were the ones in charge.

Also, somebody needs to explain why Nancy and a few Dems were briefed separately and not included in the real briefing. And, what would have happened if Nancy actually said no to all of it. Would they have stopped? HELL NO! Cheney ordered it. He visited the CIA personally many times. That was one place he did go besides his secret hidding hole.
Thanks again, Diane.

4:34 AM  
Anonymous larry, dfh said...

Congress is all abuzz because they were outed. It was made public that they were lied to. Well, of course they knew this all along. They only deal in plausible deniability. I expect alot of huffing and puffing and finger wagging, the net result of which will be more carte blanche for the c.i.a. and cover for the congressional asses. And the losers will be....you and I.
While I would sincerely like to believe that the intel. law of which you write is a legitimate effort at expanding oversight and accountability, the evidence is much more along the lines of continual ass-covering.

7:35 AM  
Blogger Cosa Nostradamus said...

.
I guess there will be a relentless drumbeat of positive stories about Pelosi in the media now, and a sudden rush by Republicans to get behind her and sanction the CIA. On our non-evil twin planet.

What part of "secret budget" and "black ops" is Congress comfortable with, anyway? Despite many groovy movies & teevee shows to the contrary, spies are exactly what they have always been: Liars, thieves, cheats, frauds, forgers, murderers and sociopaths. That's the job description, and that's how spies used to be treated, as people without honor, beneath contempt and utterly untrustworthy. Now, on their word alone, we're supposed to see them as heroes and give them legal carte blanche and a big blank check?

Here's where America went off the rails. At least the military used to be mostly accountable. Now they're so mixed up with and contaminated by the spooks sh*t, they're out there on their own doing whatever and nobody asks anything, and Gawd help us all when their sh*t hits the fan, say, at One Worlds Trade Center, or your local mall. We've become not just good but EXCELLENT Germans. And great targets. Thanks, boys!
.

7:12 PM  

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