Do Republicans Agree That CIA Director Claimed Agency Misled Congress?
This one is really bewildering, and I need your help. One of the big stories of the day is that House Dems are charging that CIA director Leon Panetta revealed to a closed-door panel of members of Congress that the agency has been misleading Congress since 2001.
That’s obviously a very big deal, since it could support the claim that the CIA misled Congress about torture. Naturally, Republicans such as Pete Hoekstra are condemning House Dems as “bizarre” for revealing what Panetta said, saying that they’re trying to help Nancy Pelosi, who recently charged that the CIA lied about enhanced interrogations.
But here’s the question: Do Republicans agree or disagree with Dems that Panetta made this surprising revelation about his agency in the first place? What’s their reaction to Panetta’s revelation?
I can’t find any evidence that GOPers have commented on the basic substance of this story. They’re just condemning Dems for revealing Panetta’s remarks, without commenting on what Panetta said or whether he said it.
House Republicans on the Intelligence Committee were at the meeting on June 24th where Panetta supposedly alleged this. Seems like we should ask these Republicans whether they’re prepared to acknowledge that the CIA director told them the agency has misled Congress for years. The next step would be to ask those Republicans what they think of that.
What am I missing?
Update: One Republican at the House Intel meeting says Panetta revealed new info that the CIA had never divulged to Congress before.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
“What am I missing?”
Easy. These Republicans are bigger liars and charlatans than anyone at the CIA.
I see flounder answered your question. I don’t think you’re missing a thing – the Repugs are hoping to slide by with the red herring of Nancy Pelosi – which is the giant red herring they created and have had everyone following down a primrose path in a grand snipe hunt. (love my mixed metaphors? LOL!)
What are you missing? If the CIA has been misleading Congress then Congress should mount an investigation. Shouldn’t someone be held to account? I recall that the GOP has been trying to get Pelosi and the rest to go along with a bipartisan investigation but so far no luck . . . Perhaps Reyes will have better luck – here’s hoping he investigates Pelosi’s charges.
More to your point: “The ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Peter Hoekstra, of Michigan, said he does not believe Central Intelligence Director Leon Panetta admitted to the panel that the spy agency had been lying to Congress, as Democrats are now claiming. Hoekstra said he was in the room when Panetta briefed the members of the committee. “I don’t think Leon came in and said that,” Hoekstra said. The so-called admission, Hoekstra said, was actually a disclosure of programs the CIA was planning but never put into action. “This was planning, nothing was ever implemented,” Hoekstra said. “Leon said we hadn’t been briefed on it.”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Accusations-pile-up-over-Panetta-CIA-briefing-50382262.html
“Panetta aides said he stands by the May 15 statement, in which he said the CIA has always been truthful congress.”
sbj, they have already said they want an investigation. no?
Hoekstra lied to Joe Klein of Time. Hoekstra told Klein that the House version of the FISA amendment that was being debated last year (with the Senate version ultimately passing) would have required FISA to get individual approval of each foreign surveillance target when the bill did not do this.
Klein ended up looking really, really stupid for not reading the short piece of legislation himself.
http://firedoglake.com/2007/11/29/fisa-kleins-source-was-hoekstra-and-other-unforced-errors/
Hoekstra is a liar. Why would you possibly believe his version of events? People that take Hoekstra at his word get hosed a la Klein.
@Greg: I believe Reyes has said he “may” pursue an investigation – but of what? Of Pelosi’s claim that she was lied to repeatedly and never told about waterboarding, or an investigation about what Hoekstra is talking about – not being informed about programs in development. The Democrats have had at least two chances now to support a GOP effort to investiagte the charges that Pelosi has leveled and they have twice punted. I doubt that Reyes’ investigation would be so broad as to directly address Pelosi’s specific charges.
Please also note that Obama has threatened “to veto the pending Intelligence Authorization Bill if it included a provision that would allow information about covert actions to be given to the entire House and Senate Intelligence Committees, rather than the so-called Gang of Eight.” Note, please, that Dick Cheney has championed the idea of informing a greater number of congress critters about this sort of stuff.
Does anyone even know yet what they were misleading about? I suppose it doesn’t matter. Either by this afternoon or tomorrow once the focus groups have been hammered, we’ll hear the GOP position and I’m sure Nancy Pelosi, their lighting rod, will be in the middle of it. Since when does the truth matter in the U.S. Only what the news decides to report on becomes the truth.
@mike: In this case I suppose you should take it up with the Democrats. They are the ones who releaased the letter making vague claims without any specifics. I can tell you that as a conservative I think it is absolutely vital that Congress receives accurate info from the CIA and I support an investigation into Pelosi’s claims even if it ends up vindicating her.
2 things.
.
1 Panetta never used the word “always” in his May 15 statement. He used some clever wording that could be used in present or past tense which gave him wiggle room.
.
2. They are already calling for an investigtion.
.
3 Now as to the question of whether Republicans agree, Greg you are never going to get them to say what they heard at that closed door meeting. They will just keep dancing around the subject and obfuscating. I believe Spencer Ackerman had a statement from Hoekstra on the issue where he totally did not even touch the subject of whether or not Panetta admitted that the CIA held back from Congress information on a covert program that he himself didn’t learn about until a day before he finally briefed Congress. Now the evidence itself that Panetta didn’t even know about the covert program as the CIA director is pretty damn clear don’t you think that obviously they HADN’T been forthcoming up until that point.
test
test
Hey, I didn’t realize that paragraph breaks work now. No more dot spacers needed. Thanks for fixing tha that problem Plum Line programmers!
It’s simple Greg. Fox News has yet to tell Republicans that the CIA lied to Congress. Check it out for yourself. Every time FNC mentions lying to the CIA they put quotes around “lies.” It’s on their front page right now with quotes around it. Once Fox News starts broadcasting the fact that the CIA director testified that they misled Congress then Republicans will agree.
@sbj, what no cartoon talk?
Hoekstra has no credibility. Morning Joke had two people on : the Democrat who signed the letter and a Republican – a new member – who gave us the sop Republican bs. Don’t criticise the CIA; don’t question them; keep everything hush hush. Raising Pelosi as a bugaboo allows the Repugs to avoid telling whether Panetta did or did not say something were kept out of the CIA briefings. SBJ has a cute way of explaining this altho’ he wants Pelosi investigated and ready to accept her exoneration. See, she looks guilty until proved otherwise.
The Bushistaa knew how to keep Republicans in line: ” shush: CIA – you dont ask; we dont tell”.
@chris:
Chris: What do you do at a Young Republicans meeting?
Alyssa: We help those who already have the means to help themselves. Also, we perpetuate the idea that Jesus chose America to destroy non-believers and brown people.
Chris: I don’t know why, but I feel safer already.
@alan: You give me far too much credit. Our intelligence agencies have let us down far too often for us to let Madame Speaker’s accusations of lying go unresolved.
How many movies have been made about this exact topic? Maybe you should stay out of the theaters.
For get giving them lie detector test, lets waterboard them all until we the people get the truth from them.
doqnlrx_@yahoo.com
izumymw lgggdlp cqzijmb rzhsuew panzer camille 131 – @ y a h o o . c o m
nqzycydu dq
Hoekstra lied to Joe Klein of Time. Hoekstra told Klein that the House version of the FISA amendment that was being debated last year (with the Senate version ultimately passing) would have required FISA to get individual approval of each foreign surveillance target when the bill did not do this.
Klein ended up looking really, really stupid for not reading the short piece of legislation himself……
I think the issue with the Republicans is
(a) They hardly have any political weight left
(b) They’re not willing to stake it on this
The CIA has been broken at least since the Bay of Pigs issue. However, if it’s proven that we can’t trust the director, then we’re in very serious trouble.
However, I’m more inclined to believe the CIA than a letter by a handful of democrats (why no more?) with funky timing (http://www.newsy.com/videos/congress_dems_take_on_cia)
That it is CLEAR that the wealthy run the world. When are we going to take it away from them?