Countdown: House Democrats on Intelligence Committee Say They Were Misled by CIA
Andrea Mitchell reports on the latest dust up between the CIA and House Democrats. Spencer Ackerman has more:
On June 26, six seven Democrats on the committee — Anna Eshoo (Calif.), John Tierney (Mass.), Rush Holt (N.J.), Mike Thompson (Calif.), Alcee Hastings (Fla.) and Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) [Update: I received an early version of the letter. Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.) also signed it) — wrote to Panetta, “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.” The letter — which doesn’t explain what those “significant actions” concerned — asks that Panetta “publicly correct” his May 15 statement that it isn’t CIA “policy or practice to mislead Congress.” TWI acquired a copy of the letter, which comes after CQ reported that committee chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) also nebulously stated that CIA “affirmatively lied” to the committee.
But CIA spokesman George Little says it’s “completely wrong” to say Panetta determined CIA misled Congress, as the six legislators charge. “Director Panetta stands by his May 15 statement,” Little said. “It is not the policy or practice of the CIA to mislead Congress.
Countdown should track down all those who were calling for Pelosi's resignation and grill them for 5 minutes each. Political hacks.
The funny thing is that the CIA letter only admits to lying during the Bush administration. They've been doing it since "day 1".
So the CIA lied about lying. Pretty funny.
most is that if the CIA withheld pertinent facts from some of Congress--What was the reasoning? Was it because they knew that Congress can not keep facts to themselves--even when it concerns National Security!?? Inside the Beltway- ALL knowledge is used for leverage--Few can be trusted not to divulge pieces of information in the pursuit of power!
This may be a smoke screen to divert attention away from what they were really told...They do not want their constitueints to know they condoned 'torture' for example!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/08/pane...
Which branch of our government told Pelosi to shut up..
No one ever talks about cutting the funds we give to the military and it is over half of our national budget.
It is more then all other countries combine and it just keep growing , while American's jobs and daily lives are in the toilet and sinking each passing day..
The funds the government gives to the military is really not even open for discussion..
This Global Empires needs them to protect them while the invade other nations and steal their resources.
Looks as if the military tells or demanding what funds they will receive , what they will do with it , if it will be revealed to even our elected officials much less the lowly citizens. Also what information they will tell our government or citizens about the actions they may or may not do..
His statement of not informing congress or miss leading them is full profit of who is in charge....
We do not control our military they control us and our every move.
It is so large this they place different funds into different groups so we do not see it all in one allocation..
When ever a word is mention about what our military , intelligent agency does they are silenced.
None
Pelosi is lying through her teeth...The Rachael Maddow interview already addressed this. She WAS informed that this torture ( waterboarding) could be used..AS Rachael Maddow pointed out..she was told of the possibility of committing a war crime and did nothing about about it.
should be rammee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkQ124B9X6Y
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
rammee has suddenly allowed his suppressed left brain to accuse Pelosi of war crimes by omission.
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
that long to figure out how to register.
Tell the rest of the story, rammee.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
...told to her? Look dude, before you can determine whether "Pelosi lied through her teeth" don't you think it is best to know exactly what she was told?
CIA vs CIA
TRN Interview to Ray McGovern an Ex CIA for Decades
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com...
And I COULD DO Angelina Jolie
But it ain't bloody likely.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
maybe "Angelina Jolie could adopt me but it ain't blooddy likely."
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
You're just being anal.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
That's so f*%king funny.
one of these blog commenters has me pegged.
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
CIA motto: "Lying to Congress since 1948"
The real issue is not the lying. The real question is, does Congress prefer to be lied to? Other than the Church committee hearings in the '70s, the agency has pretty much been given a pass by lawmakers who seem to want plausible deniability, not oversight responsibility.
It may not be their practice or their policy, but that doesn't mean it wasn't done.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
tell me it isn't so!
Actually lies (aka - fabrications, distortions, disinformation, tall tales, whoppers, fibs, prevarications, saying something with your fingers crossed behind your back, and redacting information) is what they DO do!!! They protect the mission (they likely decide what the mission is) - they protect the agency, its all need to know, and they determine WHO has a valid need to know!.
These people live in another world! I have worked in intel in the past, and unless you have, you can not imagine what doing so is like.) ~ or what the burden of protecting very very sensitive SCI information (and the penalties for unauthorized release!) can do to your psyche)
I was not a spook, I was not agency, but worked with spooks. One guy was so messed up, that HE didn't know who he was, and I certainly did not know who he really was, nor would I have ever asked! He had count them -five (5) COMPLETE identities! SSN, drivers license (various states) family photos (none of the families were the same -everything! Complete wallets, complete identities - all false. He just dissapeared for a while sometimes and came back with the information that was needed. You don't ask questions about sources and methods. ~ I'm long out of spookville - thank god!!
They lose the ability to determine fantasy from reality! It all blurs into one big moosh. And this has been going on since the agency was the OSS and before that!! Fib to congress? nat'l as falling off a log to them, after all, what is a lie?? - what is reality?? They are (not all - there are some truly wonderful people doing very critical and dangerous work, but some are just plain nuts) truly through the looking glass.
... if you believe it."
also...
There is no cake.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
Now, I am lying.
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
are you just thinking you are lying? Or are you lying to yourself, and you think its the truth?? bwa ha ha
It's not our policy.
It's just the way we do things.
I just realized something... The CIA has a policy of what groups they don't lie to? Does that mean they have policies that says it's okay to lie to others?
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
"To is or not to is,
That be the question..."
Your comment reminded me of my Ebonics translation of Hamlet's soliloquy, so far,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l26LeYhTROU&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Very good ys. Pelosi vs Panetta. My guess is that Panetta is the white spy.
.
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
If whatever this is began in 2001, this sounds like it might have more to do with the wiretapping. I doubt they were talking about torturing people before 9-11.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
And He could tell us the absolute TRUTH about EVERYTHING, I'd place all my money on the fact that the CIA has been using torture and MURDER all over the world to get what they want from day one.
Their activities after 9/11 wouldn't even be a blip on their screen of "business as usual".
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
A lie of omission is still a lie. This strikes me as a debate on semantics, but regardless, it seems obvious there was a deliberate attempt to keep Congress in the dark about something. Whether you call it lying, or misleading, or omitting pertinent information is irrelevant in the end.
There was a democratic female representative on Morning Joe this morning and of course she couldn't say what this is all about but she did say they were stunned when they were told what had been happening. Sorry, I cannot remember her name.
She was followed by republican male representative who was also told what was going on and he just blew it off as a political much ado about nothing sort of thing.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I don't care.
Torture and illegal wiretaps were conducted on the basis of faulty/trumped-up information.
The Democrats seem to be more concerned with playing 'it wasn't ME' than exercising oversight.
We went to war in Iraq. As the stakes increase, the burden of oversight must also increase. Rubber-stamping is not an option, but that's what the Demos are trying to establish - oh, the CIA lied, and I *rubber stamped* it, so it's their fault!
But they keep pushing investigations off the table. Not looking foreward.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Never Lead When You Can Concede.
in a regrigerator magnet or are we still boycotting them?
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
Panetta is having to walk a tight wire here. He wasn't the head of CIA when whatever this is was happening yet he represents and speaks for the CIA now.
One other thing the lady on Joe's show said was that whatever this was Panetta assured them he had put a stop to it.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Little said. “It is not the policy or practice of the CIA to mislead Congress."
Since when?
right . .
Why are Southerners so fat? The experts chime in~!
We know exactly when the problem began.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixx66T-FPYM
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
Considering how easily the CIA was itself misled by whacko Iraqi exiles and defectors, doesn't that put Congress pretty high on the most gullible list?
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
My curiosity about all this is driving me crazy. Who is lying and who is not. But mostly, what the hell is it all about? What was the CIA doing that Panetta has now stopped but the members of congress say they weren't aware of when it was happening? If only the president would declassify this we could get to the bottom of it. Was it so bad that it could never be declassified? I mean we know about the torture and the wiretaps, so what's left?
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
hope that helps . . Who is lying and who is not.
http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/i...
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
could be their involvement in the coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002. Google "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."
It's incredible how confused and bamboozled the elites have the masses these days.
..nothing..nobody currently in power will do anything. If they do, they may not get re-elected.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSSUcj9zlH8
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Let's go speculatin'
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
This is all corporate business, and you peasants do not have the right to know any corporate business. None. Back off.
and obey authority.
Just for the record: Fuck Authority. Authority should be respected IF it's respectable...and never otherwise. Which pretty much means never.
The truth is when society becomes too complex authoritarian regimes usually thrive.
We as a society have a bad complexion problem.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
really really bad case of zits, possibly leprosy
Blogging.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
do Angelina Jolie.
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
Intelligence agencies deceive, mislead and outright lie as a matter of course. That's what they're set up to do. What would be a surprise is if we found out that they had always been straight with congress and the American people. But we will never know that because they're set up to deceive, mislead, etc. Follow?
Oh no man these people are looking out for us!
LOL
That's a relief. I stand corrected.
I said this from the time he made that statement in May. Panetta never said the CIA did not lie to or mislead congress. Everyone needs to remember that from the start of the Bush/Co campaign for invading Iraq, and with the Republican Majority, the Democrats were almost constantly shut OUT of briefings, many times with a token Dem or 2 on vital committees brought in for PART of the meetings and then dismissed.
PEOPLE, they complained constantly about not being allowed to stay for the full meetings and occasionally EVEN Bush or Cheney, (rarely Cheney because he was in hiding for most of their 8 years) or someone else in Bushcos elite circle, would slip up and comment about having kept Dems in the dark, not in so many words. You had to be paying ATTENTION to every word that was said because you had to catch the contradictions and the accidental slips of truth in the whole comment, regardless who was talking from the Bush side.
When the "fact" of some Democrats having been briefed on torture immediately after they took the majority, INCLUDING Nancy Pelosi, my first reaction, because of months of complaints having been aired on various media, was "Right!!!!!! Briefed how much? Briefed on what? How to make an omelet?"
Republicans are complaining TODAY that Obama "screens" questions? Bush screened a heck of a lot more than that and HE dictated answers as well.
The CIA operates by subterfuge, lies, covering up, secrecy. Panetta SAID "It is not our POLICY to lie to or mislead congress. That would be a crime." He didn't say they didn't DO IT, just that it is not their POLICY to do it. He knows it is a crime to lie to or mislead congress, therefore he uses double speak to avoid admitting to a crime.
He doesn't need to worry. Anyone who committed a crime in the Bush Administration is EXEMPT from prosecution, EXEMPT from the law, AND from ACCOUNTABILITY EVEN IF CAUGHT RED HANDED are ABOVE THE LAW, can CHANGE THE LAW, RETROACTIVELY TO COVER THEMSELVES AT WILL. And there's still the fifth, so he never has to answer any question he doesn't like anyway.
And, one more thing. SHOULD there EVER BE anyone held accountable for ANY ONE OR ALL of the crimes of the Bush Administration? Obama will PARDON THEM, just as Bush 1 did all HIS co-conspirators in IRAN CONTRA. Those criminals are all millionaires are all raking in the bucks on radio, tv, teaching their gun slinging nut job followers how to kill ATF agents, inciting violence against the U.S., our president and the whole world.
Bush II didn't pardon anyone just because he's a petulant little bully and would rather every person he ever knew be hanged than ever admit HE might have been wrong. Remember, the only thing he ever regretted is saying "Bring it on" and the "Mission Accomplised" banner on the battleship. Nothing ELSE!
Seconded.
Not to take one thing away from the seriousness of your comment, when you began your second paragraph with "People" I was wondering if you were Stephen Colbert.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Great post Wes.
and doesn't Colbert say:
"Nation, ...."
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
He says both.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
haven't watched in a while ...
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
..the semantics being used are all Panetta has to fall back on.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
You libruls should be ashamed of yourself. I'm VERY concerned that the patriotic 'Mericans who protect us at teh CIA will become very dejected if they feel they can't lie to Congress. I can't believe C&L is promoting such anti-'Merican articles as this and I've been reading here for a long time.
Herbert Walker Bush was in the cia when Kennedy,Kennedy,King were killed. They have no record. They are an internal instrument for a coup. Let the FBI take care of them...But CIA is: Corruption In America! That's all they are. Their corruption is intending to collapse America. The CIA needs to be disolved and arrested, tried and prosecuted. Just another KGB. Another SS.
J.Edgar Hoover.....
Kennedy tried that - see the Zapruder film for the results of those efforts.
Kennedy was killed because he refused to deregulate the cable industry. Bobby K ruled that cable, then in its infancy, was subject to the FCC. A certain Mississippi cable company, recently purchased, paid a man well known to Dixie Mafia to get rid of their cousin JFK, stating that "Blood is thicker than water, but money is thicker than either." Said company is now huge. This story from my KKK dad who beerboarded one of the Roberts clan to get it. FBI knows the story and put Grassy Knoll in witness protection after he murdered, so help me, another pol.
The CIA coverup has been ongoing since long before 2001. Take a close look at former CIA head Poppy Bush and go straight to the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, seeking info on the weeks following Clinton's inauguration. You will find ample citations on Bush's new post-Presidential employment--for the Bin Laden family of Arabia.
You illegitimate relatives of the Cardinal who didn't like my adulation of Gordon Thomas' book can really start slinging the personal appearance insults now. Your attempts to create stress-related acne reflect on you, not on the Southerners who have to listen to your crybaby whining.
How can you loose $9,000 billion dollars in 8 months and have no fucking idea where it went ? It represents $30,000 per american. It doesn't seem like the US governement have any intention to try to track it down too. The dumb american taxpayers will pay once again so that rich people gets even richer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJqM2tFOxLQ
Capitalism at its best...
Paraphrased: "It is not the policy or practice of 'residents of my house' to 'sell drugs'"
What the hell does this mean? I don't but I have no idea what prior residents did.
Ask Panetta about the pre 1/20/2009 CIA leadership. Was it their policy?
If you need funds to pay for essentials, you have a revenue problem
If you need funds to pay for frivolity, you have a spending problem
nada! Zip! Bupkiss (and that is of course the intent - its spook no-speak)
Where was the CIA during the Valerie Plame issue and why didn't they back her up?
Or did the resident bomb sniffing dog eat that memo?
The CIA doesn't scoop either?
The bastards!
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
But they did not lie or mislead!
Wow, I guess it depends on what the definition of the word is is?
What bullshit!
republicanism is a mental illness!
House Dems, House Rethuglicans, and the White House all know exactly what the CIA and FBI and Homeland Gestapo are doing. Those that don't know, don't know because they don't want to. It's all one big stinking pile of cow manure. Ya right. The government responsible for agencies, doesn't know what those agencies are doing. Uh huh. And I have a huge bridge for sale in my backyard. It's amazing. When Rethugs had a majority, and the US prez in their backpockets, everyone screeched about how they all knew what was going on. Now that it's Dems, "Oh they were lied to". Bull.
- Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
- Ignorance is no excuse for a law.
What you were told is irrelevant. The facts have been established - there were no WMDs, we DID torture, we DID conduct wiretaps, and there's a paper trail of mealy-mouthed, ass-covering legalese to be had.
At some point, when you discover you are headed in the wrong direction, you turn around. You don't keep heading towards the edge of the cliff saying, "But ... nobody ever told me the bridge was out!"
Originally, but Saddam used them all on Iranians and the Kurds in his own country.
How do we know that Saddam had WMDs? We kept the receipts.
But the WMDs were either gone, dismantled or fell into ruin by the time we got to them, so it made that plausibility look rather stupid.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
... besides the perishable nature of such weapons, Saddam was supposed to have them buried in such a manner as to elude international inspection teams and satellite surveillance.
But, then, how does one access those weapons in a timely fashion when an invading army shows up? You can't.
It seems that we're still fighting the wars that we started over 30 years ago.
It never ends. The stage remains the same. The crew behind the curtain are still the same, but the players are different and they're the ones that usually end up dying.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
It seems there are lots of secrets that keep themselves and would just worry our little heads if we knew the truth, or so the narrative goes.
The Dems aren't going to go and expose any Repug malfeasance cause they're in it up to their necks too.
Aren't two party systems great, I just wish they'd wear different coloured jerseys so I could tell them apart.
... brown jerseys to remind us they're peddling shit.
If I didn't know better, you and ysb just might be trying to lure me into starting a poop thread.
Astray, astray, show me the way ;)
Which branch of our government told Pelosi to shut up..
Was it the CIA , FBI or the Military.
They seem to be running our country and Obama has fell right in line..
None
Dumbya had the CIA in his pocket too and they promised not to tell a soul about his illegal activities.
"Little said. “It is not the policy or practice of the CIA to mislead Congress.""
What the CIA is say is that lying to Congress isn't in its mission statement. That doesn't mean they don't lie. Simple as that.
How do we know he's not LYING when he says this? It could very well be the practice to lie to Congress, just for drill, then lie about not lying.
And it may be that very sentiment is contained in a doubleplussecret mission statement. But we'll never be told the truth about it.
me-oww!
I'm lying when I say I always lie. I love politics!
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