Spy Agency Fiasco
18 August 2009 11:20 am by JoeCHI
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-18/spy-agency-fiasco/?cid=bsa:mostrecent2
Spy Agency Fiasco
by Joseph Finder
Three former CIA directors have privately told their successor he had his facts wrong when he revealed an illegal assassination program, reports Joseph Finder, and his spies will suffer for it.
CIA Director Leon Panetta stunned Washington earlier this summer by disclosing, in an emergency closed-door briefing to Congress, that for the last eight years, the agency he now runs illegally concealed a secret terrorist-assassination program. The reaction was predictably explosive. The House intelligence-oversight committee launched a major investigation. Here was official confirmation, from the very top, that the CIA in the Bush years had been flagrantly and systematically violating the National Security Act of 1947.
But according to a half-dozen sources, including several very senior, recently retired CIA officials, clandestine-service officers, and Cabinet-level officials from the Bush administration, the real story is at once more innocent—Panetta was mistaken; no law was broken—and far more troubling: an inexperienced CIA director, unfamiliar with how his vast, complicated agency works, unable to trust senior officials within his own agency, and desperate to keep his hands clean, screwed up.
The Daily Beast has learned that shortly after his electrifying June 24 disclosure, Panetta spoke personally with each of his three predecessors—George Tenet, Porter Goss, and Michael Hayden—and only then realized the mistake he’d made about the program. An innocent mistake, but the consequences of his gaffe, which he’s unable to admit without damaging his own reputation further, will likely subject U.S. intelligence capabilities to unnecessary and intrusive oversight for years to come….
This post was submitted by JoeCHI.
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I’m asking around about this one. I’m just not sure of the reporting.
“will likely subject U.S. intelligence capabilities to unnecessary and intrusive oversight for years to come”
Yeah, yer right, I mean, we can trust the CIA not to lie to the American people or Congress right?
You have GOT to be fu*kin kidding me.
I’m perfectly fine with the CIA lying to the American people. The only thing I want them to do is to keep us safe.
Their JOB is to LIE. I agree with Joe CHI. I want to be able to trust those who aren’t supposed to lie.
UNT VE VILL KEEP YOU SAFE just give us UNLIMITED POWER to SPY on you and KILL anyone WE decide needs killin.
Sorry, I remember the good old days of CIA trained and backed death squads running all over VietNamn along with those fun guys they trained and helped in Central America. NEVER HAD A FU*KING THING TO DO with “keeping us safe” It had ALOT to do with keeping rich folks rich.
The CIA MUST be under oversight. The CIA shouldn’t initiate a single farking THING without an OK from proper authorities, you know, those folks we ELECTED to do that kinda stuff.
JoeChi
That is the problem; the CIA’s lying makes us unsafe. It is called “blowback” One of the reason our relations with Iran are now so toxic is because of the CIA’s interference with Iranian Democracy way back in the 50’s. The CIA helped overthrow the legitimately elected government of Mossadegh and installed the Shah. Flash forward to the Carter years and that bit of regime change blew up in our face big time.
One might want to look at the history of CoinIntel and WetOps before you come rushing into the Agency’s defense. From the incompetent attempts to singe Castro’s Beard to the more recent foul ups in Africa of killing the wrong man who was definitely NOT Al Queda the CIA has a long and inglorious history of screwing the pooch.
The CIA fouls up because secrecy lets hair-brained ideas go forward. With a little more reality checking and more input from other some of more foolish intelligence cock-ups may never have happened.
We live in a dangerous world so some sort of intelligence collection group is essential. We also live in a democracy, and democracy requires openness. Democracy depends on the broadest possible dissemination of information. Democracy also depends on the broadest possible participation in decision making. That means accountability.
Accountability means that citizen should insist they be fully informed on the actions of their government. We are not mushrooms to be kept in the dark and fed manure.
Personally I’m waiting for my favorite Missouri Gal to deliver the goods on this story. The Daily Beast article does not smell right, as a matter of fact it looks like disinformation. It looks like the spooks in the CIA are spinning away furiously. Remember that the program has its roots in Bush-Cheney and that dynamic duo were not noted for their restraint.
Holly Jeebus Crispies Crap, I agree with spincitysd!!!?
I been wondering…if Panetta “got his facts wrong” are you telling me the CIA LIED to it’s own Chief??!
Secular don’t worry this will pass
a broken clock is right at least twice a day.