Panetta Admits CIA Misled Congress on “Significant Actions”
Flashback: Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | Whistleblower Who Linked “Taliban” Leader To US Intelligence Is Assassinated | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | CIA: Our Drones are Killing Terrorists. Promise. | Psychologists Helped Guide CIA Interrogations | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | Swiss nuclear-smuggling suspect says CIA made him do it | Vets Sue CIA Over Mind Control Tests | CIA Foreknowledge of the Mumbai Attacks | IntelCenter Releases Video of Former CIA Employee Zawahiri Threatening America | CIA, Pakistani ISI have long, complicated relationship | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing – overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | CIA waterboarded 2 al-Qaida suspects 266 times | Document lays bare CIA torture techniques | CIA destroyed 92 interview tapes | DC9 with 5.5 tons of cocaine was CIA plane
Tim Starks, CQ Politics
July 9, 2009
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.
Source | See Also under Secrecy: Revealed – the secret torture evidence MI5 tried to suppress | Taibbi: NYSE ends transparency to protect Goldman Sachs | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing – overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Afghan Airstrike Video Goes Down the Memory Hole | MPs from all four parties ink secret deal on cash | U of T’s Trinity College tainted by secret society | Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation | Our man at Bilderberg: They’re watching and following me, I tell you | Guardian reporter detained for taking picture of sea near Bilderberg conference | Geithner To Take Orders From Global Elite At Bilderberg | Reversing himself, Obama seeks to block abuse photos | Claim of Swiss account ‘preposterous,’ Mulroney says | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Leaked 1955 Bilderberg Docs Outline Plan For Single European Currency | Leaked Agenda: Bilderberg Group Plans Economic Depression | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Military’s ‘Polar Breeze’ cloaked in secrecy | American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse | UK: Government makes ‘unprecedented’ apology for covering up Binyam torture | NSA Surveillance Exploding, Americans Wiretapped Beyond Congressional Limits | Obama Tilts to CIA on Torture Memos | Following Bush lead, Obama moves to block challenge to wiretapping program | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Details being withheld of listeria discussion held prior to outbreak | CIA destroyed 92 interview tapes | New book details Mossad false flag assassination attempt on Canadian passports | Obama tries to kill lawsuit challenging wiretapping program, fails | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Obama administration tries to kill Bush e-mail secrecy case | Harper government withholds listeriosis notes | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | Blackwater, mired in Iraq controversy, changes its name to ‘Xe’ | Senior judges attack US over ‘torture evidence suppression’ | Ignatieff seeks Harper-like control of party message | Publication ban law too broad, top Ontario court rules | CSIS invites academic community into the fold | Whistleblower: NSA even collected credit card records | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Swiss nuclear-smuggling suspect says CIA made him do it | Khadr trial date up in air after ’secret’ refiling of charges: defence lawyer | Bank of England cloaks books, fears of monetary manipulation arise | Police forces withhold information on Taser use from public: audit | Vets Sue CIA Over Mind Control Tests | Banks won’t say where U.S. bailout money going | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Tories release secret tape of ‘coalition’ strategy meeting | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Federal Road Toll Meeting Sponsorship Kept Quiet Until After Election | Former mayors support secrecy surrounding Olympic Village bailout | Canada’s free speech enemies to lay Remembrance Day wreath | UK MPs seek to censor the media | Copyright treaty consultation process snubs public | Europe’s secret plan to boost GM crop production | History: How the US Government Was Overthrown In Three Easy Steps | Tortured trio say report ‘vindicates us’ | Feds ordered to share evidence with defence in Harkat security case | Bush secret order to send special forces into Pakistan | Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says | The Millershevik Revolution: Centralization of Power in Toronto’s City Hall | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | RCMP lays no charges in Maher Arar ‘terrorist’ leaks, declares case closed | Hide IDs in court rulings, privacy chief says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Canadian military silent on Afghan civilian deaths: UN investigator | High court reprimands CSIS policy of destroying secret evidince in security case | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | Amnesty International slams SPP secrecy in letter to Bush, Calderon and Harper | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | More secrecy added to already secret process | Charkaoui set to fight new security certificate law | New security certificates issued | The New Security Certificate: Rushing injustice through the Senate | CSIS suspected U.S. would deport Arar to be tortured: documents | Top secret: Banff security meeting attracted U.S., Mexico officials | Shadowy group meets amid secrecy in Ottawa | Secretive power brokers meeting coming to Ottawa? | Project Paperclip: The US Nazi Amnesty | Much of Britain sprayed in secret germ warfare tests | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation|
July 11th, 2009 at 7:35 am
In 2007 Pakistani Intelligence traced the source of much of terror in Pakistan to a terrorist camp in Helmand province of Afghanistan. The camp was run by two Brits, Michael Semple and Mervyn Patterson. Both of these British spooks were ostensibly working for humanitarian organizations like Oxfam. Semple was Council of the EU, Deputy Representative in Afghanistan and Patterson was “UN diplomat” as well as friend of General Stanikzai. Following this extra ordinary intelligence work by ISI, Karzai of Afghanistan and high officials in Musharraf government exchanged visits which eventually resulted in the arrest and expulsion of Patterson and Semple from Afghanistan.
In December of 2007 Guardian and Independent published stories that were clearly designed to muddle the facts and divert attention away from the real story. The real story was that these training camps were to create the Tehreek-e Taliban-e Pakistan (TMP) or Pakistani Taliban; but why?
A key factor in Bush administration’s Afghan policy was to get Pakistan to make the war against Taliban its own war and not consider it as an American war that can be used to further Pakistan’s goals. By creating Pakistani Taliban US and Brits would be able to pit Pakistan’s military against the Taliban in general and eventually against the Pushtuns to the extent that Pakistani military could be used to do the fighting in Afghanistan. Furthermore, a side benefit of this program would be, if the Taliban were to take over some areas in Pakistan and a part of the capital, then this would provide a sufficient basis for the US to bomb Pakistani nuclear installations and cease their nuclear weapons. There were serious war plans and military exercises conducted by US forces for this scenario. However, unexpected competence of the Pakistani intelligence and ability of the Musharraf government to convince Karzai to through the two Brits out, put a damper on the CIA-MI5 plan. This kind of policy is typical of Bush administration: grandiose, fuzzy and inconsiderate of human life. I think it is the details of this plan that Panetta has uncovered and it may be the reason why Brits are generally unhappy with Obama administration.