Isn't concealing information lying? Panetta says it is not CIA policy to mislead Congress. What a lie! Isn't concealing information misleading? How are we supposed to believe the CIA? As far as I am concerned they have a long history of lying and it only got worse during the Bush misadministration. George Tenet was probably the worst liar in CIA history so Bush could attack Iraq.
I do not like Pelosi but yesterday Pelosi said in regard to the letter sent to Panetta to recant his statement that the CIA is not in the habit of misleading Congress that obviously the House has concerns about the CIA! Panetta has admitted to the house intelligence committee behind closed doors of misleading Congress several times over the last 8 years. What a surprise and of course Republican members of the committee deny it?
7 Democrats including Democratic members of the intelligence committee are signatories of the letter accusing the CIA of repeatedly lying misleading and concealing information from Congress. Representative Jan Shakowski wrote the letter and asked CIA Director Leon Panetta to take back the statement that the CIA is not in the practice of misleading Congress.
CIA director admitted lying to Congress, say Democrats
House Intel Chair: CIA has misled us for years
I have to tell you, to me by definition they would have to lie to Congress to keep things secret. I hate to say it but you can't trust or rely on those people! The letter came a day ahead of the Debate on the intelligence Bill. Supposedly this whole thing according to Republicans is to cover for Pelosi who last may accused the CIA of misleading her. Once again Republicans are trying to make the truth appear as a lie for their gain. They are purposely confusing us again!
In fact, the CIA has lied to members of Congress a number of times, detailed in Tim Weiner's history of the CIA, Legacy of Ashes Here are just a few prominent instances:
In the 1950s, Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles, after being told by Senator Joseph McCarthy that the CIA was "neither sacrosanct nor immune from investigation," began waging a "down and dirty covert operation on McCarthy" which included attempting to bug his office and feeding his staff with disinformation "in order to discredit him."
Former CIA Director Richard Helms was convicted in 1977 of lying to Congress about the United States' role in overthrowing the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende. Allende was succeeded by brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet.
In 1982, Congress passed a law prohibiting the administration from ousting the leftist regime in Nicaragua. The CIA kept trying to overthrow the Sandinistas. CIA Director Bill Casey testified frequently before oversight committees Congress about the agency's covert action plans, during which he was often misleading. "Casey was guilty of Contempt of Congress from the day he was sworn in," Robert Gates, former head of the CIA and current Secretary of Defense, told Weiner. When the Iran Contra Scandal began to break, Casey lied to Congress, denying that they had traded arms for hostages with Iran.
On September 17, 2001, George Tenet told Congress that Iraq had provided al Qaeda with training in combat, bomb-making, and weapons of mass destruction. That information was based on a single source, the interrogation Ibn al-Shakh al Libi, who later recanted and whom we now know was tortured for that information. Tenet of course, hasn't recanted.
These are just some of the cases in which the CIA lied to Congress. In the context of a number of covert operations, the CIA has even lied to the President. This is part of the nature of what we, as a country ask them to do as an organization--the CIA is constantly being asked to engage in illegal behavior, punished when their analysis doesn't fit the preordained conclusions of whatever administration is in power, and then is exclusively blamed when the information comes out or the operations go sour. That's a regrettable state of affairs that says more about the hypocrisy of our leaders than it does about the committed men and women of the CIA.
James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com
4 comments:
This tells me a couple of things. If Panetta didn't know about it until several months after it was started then it tells me we had rogue elements of the CIA who were willing to withhold information from the director.
A wild guess as to who was involved would put this either in Cheney's lap or George H.W.'s as the senior Bush was head of the CIA at one point.
A few other points. Information about WMDs was obtained either through bribery (That's how Chilabi made a good bit of his money) or through torture. This is sounding more like the Sapranos every day. Add to this the fact that the CIA station chief in the Iraq area didn't even speak Arabic and we can see how insane the situation really was.
Lastly I wonder why Obama would veto any bill that would provide oversite. Does the CIA have some secret folder on all members of congress that would bring an end to the system? Or would they be concerned about leaks from loose lipped congressmen. I doubt the later.
Demeur
You have to question everything now and I hate it. I certainly would not trust Congress. I remember Cheney's secret assassin squads that answered only to him. I am sure this will never be investigated.
It's more than a little obvious that Panetta got orders from Team Obama to cover for Queen Nancy's BS-spree... but their are other centers of power at Langley that won't stand for this rubbish.
Pelosi was every bit as informed on the decision to us EITs as were the GOP… but is now lying about it in an attempt to appease the antiwar left and fulfill specious campaign posturing.
And apparently Pelosi and Obama forgot something: the CIA KILLS people… it’s in their job description. Did these two really think that these killers were going to just meekly take-one-for-the-team… when the team captain is a lying, incompetent, arrogant nebbish who has basically told them they need to kiss his ring? -please
Obama really kicked an ant hill with his ill-advised and politically motivated release of Bush Administration memos regarding EITs.
Let’s have a hearing and get it all out there, shall we? Then watch the rats scatter who attacked Bush for protecting the country from terrorist attack… but who clearly knew what was going on five years before we heard a peep out of them.
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
Hi R-R-R
Welcome! I wish they could get it all out but they can't. They are all lying. I wouldn't tell Congress anything either. You can not trust them as far as you can throw them.
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