Bush Officials Contradict House Republicans On Secret CIA Program
Unless I’m misreading this, it appears that Bush administration officials are now contradicting House GOPers about that secret CIA program we talked about yesterday.
As you know, House Dems on the Intelligence committee have charged that CIA director Leon Panetta privately testified that the agency had been concealing “significant actions” from Congress since 2001.
The House GOP line on this, from ranking Intel committee member Pete Hoekstra, has been that Panetta disclosed programs that the CIA never actually launched. “This was planning, nothing was ever implemented,” Hoekstra said.
But here’s how former Bush officials characterized the program in today’s WaPo:
Current and former administration officials familiar with the program said it was not directly related to previously disclosed high-priority programs such as detainee interrogations or the warrantless surveillance of suspected terrorists on U.S. soil. It was a intelligence-collection activity run by the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, officials said. It was not a covert action, which by law would have required a presidential finding and a report to Congress.
“This characterization of something that began in 2001 and continued uninterrupted for eight years is just wrong. Honest men would question that characterization. It was more off and on,” said a former top Bush administration official….
According to former Bush officials, the program was “run” by the CIA’s counterterrorism team and continued in an “off and on” fashion — with emphasis on the “on.” In other words, Bush officials have now conceded that a program concealed from Congress was implemented. That puts them directly at odds with the House GOP line. Right?
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I wonder how Hoekstra would know all about it if the program wasn’t disclosed to Congress. Is he lying about it, or was he *in* on it? Either way….
Yes, Greg, but remember. Bush was not a Republican nor a conservative. He was simply a Great American Patriot Freedom Fighter. He’ll always be at odds with real Republicans and in fact we are never to mention Bush unless we talk about how tough and extremely brave he was to deliver freedom all around the world. I hope this clears things up for you.
Pardon me while I hold my breath to see if any DC reporter actually confronts Hoekstra about this blatent contridiction.
Anyone who thinks the CIA doesn’t have some certified rotters who give the institution a bad name should spend some time reviewing the doings of Dusty Foggo, sometime big shot in the CIA, placer of his girl friend in a CIA job, procurer of prostitutes for his Congressional friends, etc etc.
But the vast majority of officers do a tough job quietly and without fanfare. The Valerie Plame business should have taught us something.
The CIA sounds like a schizo operation with a rogue element. It’s scary to me that even the new director isn’t finding out about this stuff on day one. It also makes me think that Cheney has been part of some sort of shadow executive operation since Gerry Ford times.
And did you catch Mac Thornberry spinning like mad on MSNBC last night? The Republican talking points are out: there were no untold secrets, and the Dems are politicizing this to cover Nancy’s behind.
woop de doo – I worked for a similar operation, that was not reported to congress. it fell under the DOD, I suppose it showed up in a black budget somewhere.
this type of thing goes on all the time, under all presidents – Intel collection goes on all the time, all over the world – under all adminitrations.
But – go ahead and spin it as an evil neo-con thing. Wasn’t a Neocon thing when Clinton did it, or Reagan, or Bush I, or Carter.
People like you. BigBadBob, it seems, is EXACTLY why these “intelligence” programs need oversight. More of it. Lots more of it.
so it goes. the bushies admit they did stuff they
did not let congress know about. thornberry let the
cat out of the bag. and panetta’s non-denial denial
was priceless. the fact it is not CIA policy to mislead
congress doesn’t mean they didn’t Leon was very careful
to phrase it that way.
LOL so BigBob is betraying his security clearance by admitting to black ops on a blog. YEAH WE BELIEVE IT, WE SURE DO!
Buahahahahahahahaha
Anyway, hey Greg, speaking of security clearance, havent those unnamed Bush officials now broken the rules of top secret information? And since they are no longer in power and can no longer declassify anything themselves, shouldn’t there be an investigation to find out who these unnamed officials are who are leaking this information which may be true but also may be a smoke screen to try to defuse public outrage over a program that the members of the intelligence committee are not allowed to talk about? Surely this kind of leaking which they perfected in the previous 8 years will not go unpunished!
One thing seems absolutely clear: The Dems tried to politicize this in an effort to cover Pelosi’s behind. Strange that Greg does not seem in the least upset about that . . .
One more thing, I am going to say what probably everybody is thinking. That was Dick Cheney or one of his lackeys who gave that “anonymous” information to the WaPo reporter wasn’t it? Its AMAZING how a man can lie us into a war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and still the media will afford him anonymity to pass on bullsh*t in order to confuse or mislead the public. Hell even Thornberry admitted last night that what was revealed wasn’t some benign program and that it was serious enough to need to be investigated further. Give me a frikkin break.
Again the first person to mention Pelosi is sbj. Does that mean you really don’t give a sh*t that the CIA mislead or held back information from the Congress which has oversight which even Republicans have admitted to sbj? Of course it does. The only thing you care about in the world is Democrats getting bad press. You would allow the CIA to do whatever they wanted to to whomever they wanted to including American citizens as long as it mean Republicans would get into office. That is what you call an allegiance to a party over an allegiance to your country.
@SG: Take a breath, big guy! The letter’s entire purpose was to provide cover for Pelosi so, like it or not, that is a big part of this story. Aren’t you at all concerend that your party, the Democratic party, chose to politicize this revelation in a dishonest attempt to shield their Speaker? You, who formerly seemed so opposed to such alleged actions by the evil Bush admin now seem quite willing to compromise your principles and excuse your own party for doing precisely the same. Your lack of integrity is showing.
Of course I am concerned if the CIA concealed information from Congress – as I’ve repeatedly said. Your mischaracterizations of my previous comments (which are available for all to see) seems particularly dumb on your part. Any honest person can see that I have previously written that the CIA should be investigated even if it means that Pelosi is vindicated. All of your huffing and puffing won’t mean a thing to honest readers here (hello? hello? hello?) And even though not another single person who visits this site will cover my back I’ll continue to point out the truth of the situation here. The Dems tried to politicize this in an effort to cover Pelosi’s behind. Allegiance to party over country my a$$. Look in the mirror.
Betraying? – Nothing was betrayed. You sir, speak of things you do not know. There is nothing wrong or incorrect with what I stated. You are just another Internet idiot, one that hates anything you perceive to be from the “other side” even when it is not so. You sit in your dark corner and hate. Keep it up, it shortens your life.
As always – you attack the person, but don’t debate the merits. Your mother must be so proud.
All I am saying – is the intel world is vast & complex. Not everything has congressional oversight. If you want a cladestine operation outed – the quickest way to do that is to brief congress. Right or wrong – that’s the way it is. When I served, things were not republican nor democrat – information was gathered, vetted and reported – and thats it. These operations have gone on since the 50’s – and not all have been reported to congress, that this one joins that club does not make it an evil neo-con thing, it’s just the latest in a long string. But, keep spinning it as an evil Bush/Cheney thing.
Off and On – but not continuous? That’s splitting hairs that have already been split a couple of times.
Give me a break, please.
sbj – You can quit your crusade now – the general consensus is that Nancy Pelosi was vindicated by Panetta’s admission.
It’s over – sbj – you lost. Pelosi won. Shut up about it now.
@tena: How’s the weather over there?
Quote from the story:
“It was a intelligence-collection activity run by the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, officials said. It was not a covert action, which by law would have required a presidential finding and a report to Congress.”
Note that the Bush ‘official’ said that since it was not a covert op that it did not require a report to Congress.
It’s always funny when people ignore important items in information they themselves posted to try and make a point that then invalidates that point.
“sbj – You can quit your crusade now – the general consensus is that Nancy Pelosi was vindicated by Panetta’s admission.
It’s over – sbj – you lost. Pelosi won. Shut up about it now.”
What Panetta admission? That there may have been a program that wasn’t disclosed to Congress? That’s a silly position to take, unless you can prove that Panetta was specifically speaking about the waterboarding/EIT issue (which you can’t, since Panetta still stands by the comments he made regarding what Pelosi was briefed on).
Pelosi lied, stop worrying about how she looks and move on with it.
This admission of the CIA’s lack of accountability to Congress in itself makes Speaker Pelosi’s claim much more credible. She has stood by her accusation and it evidently was warrented. The CIA, under Cheney’s direction, was actively hiding activities from Congress and giving dishonest reports.
@Debra: She hasn’t stood by her accusation – she has refused to answer any questions about the matter! This doesn’t help Pelosi because “this lapse [in CIA disclosure], if it occurred, was not about interrogation, and her issue was interrogation.”
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.
And 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.
Quote from the story:
“It was a intelligence-collection activity run by the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, officials said. It was not a covert action, which by law would have required a presidential finding and a report to Congress.”
As @WMK brought up, it was not, as quoted, as covert operation. However, if it is not a covert operation, what is the justification for not informing Congress. There are occasions when disclosure may not be legally required, but remains ethically wrong not to disclose such information. From what I’ve been able to glean from the aftermath is that disclosure would have been the better course of action.
Aside from that, when it comes to black ops that the intellignce community was involved with, it would not surprise me at all, if Cheney was the one actively involved in interactions with the CIA, et al., and that there may have been some of those black ops that Bush was never informed of. After all, it was Cheney pushing for executive privilege beyond the bounds granted by the US Constitution, which lead to Ashcroft resigning as AG, with the subsequent misdeeds performed by DOJ under Gonzales.
The fact that viewers of news reports and readers of the article believe this somehow vindicates Pelosi is exactly the whole, and only, purpose of this manufactured “crisis”. Of course the CIA has programs under all presidents in the talking stage that either rise to the level of implementation and reporting to congress or don’t. I’ve noted that all the CNN news reports on this make a point of not telling their audience that this isn’t connected in any way to the waterboarding issue. Nor will they point out that these “in the talking stage” non programs have gone on in every administration without being reported to congress. Any President, during a time of war, (which Dems conveniently like to forget) would be wise to wait until this type of program is actually at the point of implementing before reporting to congress if he hopes to give it chance to work before it’s leaked. (Sen Leahy)
The OJ defense team used a similar gimmick to “prove” the LA police framed OJ. Didn’t a cop use a racial slur in a novel 10 years ago? Well then, that proves they will all lie to frame a black man. And voters with the same level of intelligence as the OJ jury will conclude that this somehow vindicates Pelosi. As with the OJ jury, all the dems have to provide to their constituents is a reason to say she’s vindicated. It doesn’t have to make any logical sense.