In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency had “misled members” of Congress for eight years about the classified matters, which the letter did not disclose. “This is similar to other deceptions of which we are aware from other recent periods,” said the letter, made public late Wednesday by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, one of the signers.
In an interview, Mr. Holt declined to reveal the nature of the C.I.A.’s alleged deceptions,. But he said, “We wouldn’t be doing this over a trivial matter.”
No, of course not. The country trusts you implicitly.
After all, what possible motive could Congress have to lodge unsubtantiated attacks against the intelligence establishment?
The question of the C.I.A.’s candor with the Congressional oversight committees has been hotly disputed since Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the agency of failing to disclose in a 2002 briefing that it had used waterboarding against a terrorism suspect. Ms. Pelosi said the agency routinely misled Congress, though she later said she intended to fault the Bush administration rather than career intelligence officials.
Since then, Republicans have called Ms. Pelosi’s complaint an unwarranted attack on the integrity of counterterrorism officers and have demanded an investigation. Democrats have rebuffed the demand.
Because that would be telling.
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I have 2 words – term limits. It’s really time for a rout throughout Congress. Get these entrenched has-beens out.
They will not allow it Kris. The usual excuse is that we already have TL; it’s called the vote. Please, give me a break.
Probably a greater chance of a viable 3rd party happening before congress allows term limits. They stack the deck and are not going to let you or I change the rules.
Cynically Yours,
Yes, very cynical. Alas, also true.
Add my name to the list of cynics and I vote for a thorough house cleaning. Out with the in’s and in with the out’s. Ya’ gotta rotate your stock ’cause it’s got a very short shelf life and then it ‘goes bad’, so’s ta’ speak.
Ron – a girl can dream can’t she?
Kris, if we could not dream I would be depressed instead of cynical (or perhaps in addition to).
Regards,
And the CIA is not supposed to be able to have secrets from the general public? And to protect those secrets? But that’s not what we’re talking about here. What we’re really discussing is the fact that Nancy Pelosi either wasn’t attending the meeting with the CIA representatives who were trying to explain in words of one syllable the things they were allowed to tell Congress, or she wasn’t listening. Since Ms. Pelosi apparently never reads legislation before she calls for the House to vote, it isn’t surprising if she wasn’t listening. But like a spoiled child she lashed out and accused the CIA of lying. And now, because this is a serious accusation to make against a government agency and she could be liable for punishment or censure, all her loyal troops are trying to bail her out.
I suspect she thought if she got out of town for awhile [to China IIRC], the dumb old public, which can’t remember anything for more than two weeks, would forget she did this and let it slide.
But our dumb old memories are getting better and better. And she may be in trouble.
Ahem. What a shame, innit?
Marianne
Call me paranoid, cynical or just flat out nuts but I have a nagging suspicion that a washed up hack with absolutely no experience in the intelligence field being put in charge of the CIA smacks of a poorly thought out intelligence gathering mission by the Democrats. AKA, gee, I have the keys to this, lets see what’s inside and they’ve been hiding from us. Maybe I can even prove Nancy was right!
But then again its early and I need to get some coffee in me to ramp up. Just a nagging thought inspired by a nagging Speaker of the House.