Letters claim Panetta admits CIA misled
By: Alex Isenstadt
politico.com
July 8, 2009 08:52 PM EST
A letter released late Wednesday by six Democratic House members claims that Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta testified that "top CIA officials have concealed significant actions… and misled" members of Congress since 2001 — a claim the CIA is contesting.
The letter did not specify what actions were concealed, or how members of Congress were misled.
In it, the Democrats demanded that Panetta correct a statement he issued on May 15 – just after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of misleading her during the Bush years about the agency’s use of waterboarding techniques – stating that it is not the CIA’s “policy or practice to mislead Congress.”
CIA spokesman George Little told the Washington Independent late Wednesday, said the claim that Panetta admitted his agency has misled Congress is “completely wrong.” He added, “Director Panetta stands by his May 15 statement.”
The letter was signed on June 26 by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), John Tierney (D-Mass.), Rush Holt (D-N.J.), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) and Jan Schakowsky (D- Ill.) – all of whom serve on the House Intelligence Committee.
Earlier today, House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) wrote in a letter to the committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) that he had obtained information that there were serious problems with the CIA’s briefing of lawmakers and that the CIA “affirmatively lied to” lawmakers.
“These notifications have led me to conclude this committee has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one occasion) was affirmatively lied to,” Reyes wrote in his letter.
If that claim is borne out, it would offer a measure of vindication to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has been under constant fire since claiming in April that the agency misled Congress about waterboarding.
Jamal Ware, spokesman for Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, dismissed what he called the "blatantly political nature of the Democrats’ letters" as "a direct result of congressional Democrats continued heavy handed attempts to cover up for Speaker Pelosi and what she knew and didn’t do regarding enhanced interrogation.”
Later, Reyes issued a more conciliatory statement that framed Panetta's alleged admission as an attempt to reform the agency, beginning:
“I appreciate Director Panetta’s recent efforts to bring issues to the Committee’s attention that, for some reason, had not been previously conveyed, and to make certain that the Committee is fully and currently briefed on all intelligence activities. I understand his direction to be that the Agency does not and will not lie to Congress, and he has set a high standard for truth in reporting to Congress."
The release of the lawmakers' letters comes one day before the House is set to begin debate on an intelligence reauthorization bill.
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