Panetta to CIA employees: We told Pelosi the truth

[snowdays]

Source: Politico



http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0509/Panetta_...

May 15, 2009

Panetta to CIA employees: We told Pelosi the truth

CIA Director Leon Panetta just sent a stern message to his employees defending the agency against Speaker Nancy Pelosi's criticisms.

His message: We didn't mislead Congress; stay focused on your job.

Panetta's note was sent to reporters via the CIA press office. Here's the key graph:

"Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values. As the Agency indicated previously in response to Congressional inquiries, our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing “the enhanced techniques that had been employed.” Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened."


Message from the Director: Turning Down the Volume

There is a long tradition in Washington of making political hay out of our business. It predates my service with this great institution, and it will be around long after I’m gone. But the political debates about interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday when the CIA was accused of misleading Congress.


Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values. As the Agency indicated previously in response to Congressional inquiries, our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing “the enhanced techniques that had been employed.” Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened. ............




Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0509/Panetta_...

---

Looks like this dust up only is getting deeper.

[blm]

1. How the FUCK would Panetta know what was done from 2001-2008? That's like Obama declaring WH doesn't

lie to excuse Bush and Cheney.

[IsItJustMe]

17. Utter non-sence. Of course Panetta would not know a damn thing. Beyond stupid.

[No Elephants]

2. The same Panetta who said that he couldn't vouch for the accuracy of the info he sent Congress?

That Panetta?

He seems confused.

[lamp_shade]

3. He's doing what he has to do (for now) to calm the waters at the CIA.

[snowdays]

6. True.

[mkultra]

4. Yes, the CIA would never lie. Thats a SLAM DUNK!

[downindixie]

5. Cia misinformation

Just google it.

[Iliyah]

9. The key

No mentioning of waterboarding at the briefing in 9/2002.....

Same thing Pelosi said. Key word is missing "waterboarding"

[Downwinder]

7. SO tell me about:

Bay of Pigs.
Frances Powers.
Chile.
Guatemala.
Iran Contra.
Drug sales in LA.
El Salvador.
Bolivia.
Peru.
Haiti, Haiti, Haiti.
Panama.
Air America.
I missed a lot but these are what come to mind.

[Psephos]

8. Who to believe, Pelosi or Panetta? lol

How about neither?

[LAGC]

11. Water-board them both. (n/t)

[emulatorloo]

18. Senator Bob Graham backs her up. He is not a Liar. Boehner and the CIA are though. EOM

[Robb]

19. Indeed. I want to see Bob Graham mentioned EVERY time

this is brought up. Period.

[emulatorloo]

22. Check out this article: The CIA vs. Sen. Bob Graham: how to keep score at home

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

===
The CIA vs. Sen. Bob Graham: how to keep score at home
James Fallows

14 May 2009 07:49 pm
It's easy! If the CIA says one thing and former Sen. Graham says another, then the CIA is lying. Or, "in error," if you prefer.

===
More in kpete's thread

[Solly Mack]

10. I'm officially amused

I was certain I'd hear something about how anything said to Congress by the CIA was said in "good faith"

(I slay me)

[rabs]

12. The same Panetta who said THIS ?

“I do not believe what I said and neither does the government of the United States. It was my mistake to repeat something that someone told me. It was not my intention to assume that thought as my own.”

--------------------

(Panetta actually wrote that to the ambassador of Argentina (Timerman) on March 1 after a flap caused by Panetta's talking about the possible economic destabilization of Argentina. The remark was largely ignored by the MSM in the United States, but it caused great hilarity in Argentina.)

[w4rma]

27. Note that Argentina's economy was later destabilized by the banks, of course. (nt)

[stillcool]

13. Sounds like the CIA is going to be..

the fall guy in all this..just like 9/11. It's a good thing Rummy already put some of the intelligence apparatus under the Pentagon..along with the budget. This way they can just decimate the CIA, and have other alphabet letters, or better yet Private Military Corporations take over. That would sure fix all this legal/illegal mumbo jumbo, and what Congress does or does not know.

[Downwinder]

14. According to Margaret Truman,

Harry S. felt his biggest mistake as President was signing the CIA legislation.

[humbled_opinion]

15. Just stop all this Drama

CIA lied, Bush Lied, Obama is trying to fix these things and it looks like the Republicans want to stir a hornets nest and try to blame Democrats, now that is rich.

Pelosi said people (her contemporaries were briefed on the torture) She was not briefed. They will have to prove she personally was there at the briefing so where were all the briefed Republicans and are they stating for the record they knew that torture was being applied they knew and were complicit?

they were the majority in Congress they approved torture, there needs to be more then a truth commission and the UN should be called to step in and hold this country to account.

The CIA was conducting ILLEGAL acts and we are exptected now to believe them?

[kirby]

16. "contemporaneous records" - LOL!

You mean back-dated memos and fuzzy recollections?

[emulatorloo]

20. ---Ex-CIA Official: Agency Brass Lied to Congress About Interrogations---

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[marshall]

21. But did she understand what you were saying to her?

That is the crux of the matter. Was it couched in language and imagery that she understood? She might have physically been at the meeting(s) and the sound might have entered her ears, but if she didn't understand what they were talking about then was she really briefed?

[LynnTheDem]

23. "enhanced techniques" were used by the CHINESE to TORTURE Americans;

"enhanced techniques" were used by Spain in the SPANISH INQIUISITION.

Dear world, it's ok to use "ENHANCED TECHNIQUES" against US citizens.

Ignore the fact that we used Saddam's "torture" policies as an excuse to invade & slaughter Iraqis.

No idea what's so fucking "ENHANCED"
America; land of torturers who add hypocrisy to their crimes by denying torture is torture.

[ljm2002]

24. The headline is misleading...

...let's break down what he *really* said:

(1) "It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress."

Okay -- so the *policy* is not to lie to Congress. Got it. It would be a bit surprising if they had a stated policy to lie to Congress -- it would be refreshingly honest on their part, but is hardly to be expected.

(2) "<...> our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully <...>"

Okay -- so their records indicate that the CIA officers briefed "truthfully" -- er, sure. Again, one would hardly expect their own records would to indicate anything other than that they told the truth. C'mon. We already know that their records to not corresond well with Bob Graham's records, and he is known for keeping his records quite diligently. Yet the CIA's records managed to claim at least 3 meetings with him that never happened, according to *his* contemporaneous records.

(3) "Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened."

Okay -- so what is he really saying? Looks to me like he is saying Congress should open an investigation. How else can they evaluate evidence other than by holding some kind of formal procedure?

Bring it on.

[steven johnson]

25. SPIN METER: What Pelosi Knew When on Waterboarding

The New York Times today has an interesting timeline about the published statements about Nancy Pelosi's knowledge about waterboarding.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/05/15/us/politics/...

[rocktivity]

26. An internal memo stating that it is not company policy to mislead Congress

is a far cry from a public statement specifically disputing Nancy Pelosi's public statement. Especially since the CIA has had to make a public statement that their documentation of the briefings may not be accurate.


rocktivity

[creeksneakers2]

28. How can Panetta possibly say the CIA was honest?

They destroyed interrogation tapes, some of which were under subpoena. Tapes were requested by the 9/11 Commission and Congress. There was a big cover up. Hoekstra,a Republican who is now after Pelosi, previously accused the CIA of lying about what he was told.

In his statement, General Hayden said leaders of Congressional oversight committees had been fully briefed about the existence of the tapes and told in advance of the decision to destroy them. But the two top members of the House Intelligence Committee in 2005 said Thursday that they had not been notified in advance of the decision to destroy the tapes.

A spokesman for Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, who was the committee’s chairman between 2004 and 2006, said that Mr. Hoekstra was “never briefed or advised that these tapes existed, or that they were going to be destroyed.”

The spokesman, Jamal Ware, also said that Mr. Hoekstra “absolutely believes that the full committee should have been informed and consulted before the C.I.A. did anything with the tapes.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/washington/07intel.ht...

I plan to edit in more about this