Leon Panetta, Director of the CIA, reportedly gave closed-door testimony to Congress indicating that the CIA withheld certain information from Congress, but there is no indication what that information concerned. This stands in stark contrast to Panetta's prior public statement that Congress was "truthfully" informed regarding interrogation techniques, despite Nancy Pelosi's public statements to the contrary.
Needless to say, the testimony is being used to exonerate Pelosi from her accusation that she was misled as to interrogation techniques. In fact, unless the testimony specifically speaks to the interrogation disclosures, Panetta's testimony actually confirms that Pelosi was not misled as to interrogations.
A letter from several Congressmen asking Panetta to correct Panetta's general statement that it is not CIA practice to mislead Congress, does not address specifically the interrogation techniques issue. The CIA denies that Panetta told Congress that the CIA lied. By leaking a letter addressing only generalized accusations, the Democratic Congressmen get the best of all worlds; they get to underhandedly accuse the CIA of lying to Congress, without having such accusations tested because the substance is classified. They also give their Speaker some ammunition with which to defend herself, and avoid this question:
Why would Panetta confidentially disclose that some programs or information were withheld (assuming that such characterization of the testimony is accurate), but be willing to state publicly that Pelosi was not misled on interrogations?
Until we learn more about the testimony, we cannot say for sure, but as of now, it appears that Panetta is standing by his prior public statement that Congress, including Pelosi, was not misled as to interrogation techniques, even if Congress allegedly was misled as to some other issue.
UPDATE: This Washington Post story appears to confirm that the program allegedly concealed from Congress had nothing to do with interrogation methods. So whatever is in dispute between Congress and the CIA, it does not exonerate Nancy Pelosi from her representation that the CIA concealed information from her regarding interrogation of al-Qaeda detainees.
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Pelosi Accuses CIA Of Lying
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Thursday, July 9, 2009
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I'd say credibility is lacking all around which is why an investigation is all the more important.
ReplyDeleteProbably because the things they were misled about were crucial to the war on terror and they knew the Dems would leak like a sieve.
ReplyDeleteDan Maloney
NY State Coordinator
Gathering of Eagles
http://nygoe.wordpress.com/
Since Panetta is Obama's puppet I think Obama's the biggest factor. If weakening Pelosi is beneficial to Obama, I think you'll see Panetta leak all kinds of information into the media ahead of the inquiry. Depending on what they release, Pelosi may not be able to hide behind the term classified since classified documents have a funny way of being declassified.
ReplyDeleteIt's not CIA policy or practice to mislead Congress. The CIA is so tight even their interns need clearance. Personally, I'm more inclined to trust the director of the CIA than a handful of Democrats.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the timing on the letter is really bizarre. You can see more about that at http://www.newsy.com/videos/congress_dems_take_on_cia
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.
ReplyDeleteAnd 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/