CIA Admits Lying To Congress; Where Is The Apology To Pelosi?
A top CIA official admitted Tuesday that the intelligence community failed to fully inform Congress about its spying activities. Most significantly, as Jason Leopold points out, the CIA failed to reveal to leading members of the House and Senate intelligence committees that the agency tortured detainees.
Speaking to reporters immediately after the hearing, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois, pictured) said the CIA’s failure to disclose details about its use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” is a “symptom of a larger disease.”
Schakowsky revealed that, in addition to withholding information from lawmakers about torture, the CIA lied or misled Congress about the shooting down of an airplane over Peru in 2001 carrying American missionaries, the destruction of torture tapes and a top secret assassination program aimed at targeting leaders of al-Qaeda. She would not reveal details of what the fifth case was. A 2008 CIA inspector general’s report had already concluded that the agency lied to Congress about the Peru incident.
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed that the CIA misled Congress in the torture issue, she was roundly criticized, even after CIA chief Leon Panetta acknowledged that the agency lied to Congress.
“We were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used,” Pelosi told reporters during a press conference last May. The CIA “misled us all the time.”
Perhaps the fine, upstanding truth-seekers who mocked Madame Speaker would like to make a correction.
We have to keep the dems as a majority. at the same time it’s important to have a few republicans to balance things out.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
They are just begging for more oversight with this crap.
givn their penchant for keeping records, the destruction of those tapes smells like a flat roof being repaired with hot tar.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I dunno. Dont u think its a given CIA isnt gonna give ya a straight answer to protect their interests?
October 28th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
That’s just it.
It is in their best interests to keep Congress informed because for one, it gives them cover for controversial operations.
They also avoid the kind of terribly disruptive investigations and hearings that result when they try to avoid their responsibility.
When they follow the law, the American people are far better served.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Did you hear, Alan?
Conservatives and Republicans don’t care about facts and the truth anymore.
They decided to play politics with the lives of Americans and smear anyone that gets in their way with hateful slanders instead of be Americans.
They are lying scum.
I refuse to give lying scum the same level of consideration as the thoughtful and intelligent.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Perhaps the fine, upstanding truth-seekers who mocked Madame Speaker would like to make a correction.
Perhaps fear-mongers like yourself, ALAN, would do well to realize there is NOTHING in the article that indicates these “spy activities” were at all related to the EITs Pelosi was briefed on.
Or this could be yet another of those programs that was never briefed because they were never put into use. Good job latching on to the vagueness of this article to push yet another ill-informed tirade against all things conservative. I’m starting to think you enjoy looking the fool.
You’re slipping, ALAN…and it’s getting annoying.
Lee Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 5:22 am
“Perhaps fear-mongers like yourself, ALAN, would do well to realize there is NOTHING in the article that indicates these “spy activities” were at all related to the EITs Pelosi was briefed on. ”
I don’t know for sure either way what the truth is here and neither do you. But since that’s the case, Speaker Pelosi deserves the benefit of the doubt here at the very least.
But given all the discrepancies in the CIA’s reported dates briefings were given along with them admitting that they occasionally didn’t even notify congress of ’significant’ actions, I’d say the weight of evidence is definately on her side.
Certainly anyone calling her a liar owes her an apology.
October 30th, 2009 at 3:21 am