Obama – Congressional – CIA War Breaks Out
09 July 2009 11:14 am by Taylor Marsh
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. – Democrats Say C.I.A. Deceived Congress for Years
You really have to go back to Panetta’s May 15th statement to CIA employees to understand what’s unraveling right now. It begins:
There is a long tradition in Washington of making political hay out of our business. It predates my service with this great institution, and it will be around long after I’m gone.
CQ reported this week that House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Reyes wrote to Rep. Hoekstra (the Republican leader on the Committee) that the CIA indeed “affirmatively lied to” Congress during briefing sessions.
“These notifications have led me to conclude this committee has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one occasion) was affirmatively lied to,” Reyes wrote.
The letter pictured above requests CIA Director Panetta to “publicly correct” his May 15th statement, given his subsequent June 26th letter. He has declined.
Speaker Pelosi has been in a running battle over intelligence briefings for months, with her critics believing this is all about providing her cover.
As for the Intelligence Authorization Bill, President Obama has issued his first veto warning if the bill includes an expansion of congressional participants in classified briefings that goes beyond the “Gang of Eight,” to include entire members of the intelligence committees.
The bottom line is that Panetta evidently told congressional leaders on June 26th, however obliquely and without pointing a direct finger at George Tenet or the Bush-Cheney administration, that Congress had indeed been misled. But if you read Panettas May 15th statement, that it is “not our policy or practice to mislead Congress, That is against our laws and our values…” The difference between what was done during the tenure of another director and under a different Administration, doesn’t negate CIA policy and practice, according to Panetta. He also states in that statement that leaders were “briefed truthfully” on Abu Zubaydah. This directly refutes Speaker Pelosi, but doesn’t go any further to include other briefings referenced in the June 26th letter, which Reyes and others are insisting Panetta make official.
As for briefing a larger number of congressional people on sensitive covert and national security actions, Obama is right to keep control of who is briefed and how many. I still don’t understand why a provision isn’t written in that members who are briefed can be permitted through statute to seek official legal counsel that has a further channel to find remedy, if what they’re hearing in those briefings alarms them.
The reality is that Panetta has to protect the integrity of the Agency. If he sells out, so to speak, a prior director or employees for following orders, how much trust will he have with his people?
Another reality is that Obama can’t allow sensitive national security information to be in the hands of a wide group of congressional representatives, especially in the partisan atmosphere of Capitol Hill, where not everyone is a grown up and partisan politics takes precedence.
But making clear what Bush-Cheney allowed the CIA to do with briefings to Congress, which is mislead them directly or by omission, is important and goes well beyond any cover people are saying it offers Pelosi. It sets the record straight on what we already know happened through Cheney’s bullying of Agency analysts. It’s been reported, congressional Democrats simply now want it made official.
