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's not our policy.

It's just the way we do things.

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.

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.

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!

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.

right . .

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?

Let's go speculatin'

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!

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.....

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?

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!

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."

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.