*** Congress Investigating Documented CIA Lying ***

[L. Coyote]

This BIG news today from The Ed Show on MSNBS:

Congress Investigating Documented CIA Lying
VIDEO here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x314073

No wonder the Rs are playing a pre-emptive 'Convict Pelosi' media spin game!
Bush liars are already targets of a Congressional inquiry in process.

Rep. Jan Schakowski, Intelligence Comm., Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Sub-Committee,
instructed the Intelligence Comm. staff "weeks ago" to begin considerations
for "a thoughtful and reasonable and responsible inquiry."

Rep. Jan Schakowski:
"On our subcommittee we are beginning an inquiry into a situation ...
initiated by the ranking minority member to look at a situation where the CIA
did mislead the Congress ... a documented issue of the CIA misleading the Congress ..."

========
Spinning off a new thread after:
Will Porter Goss be prosecuted for lying to Congress?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5671623

[bottomtheweaver]

1. No wonder they're screaming.

Thanks for the good word!

[L. Coyote]

3. I'm betting this leads to Bush, given the concerted spin and propaganda effort

Which lies are they looking into?
Of course, the possibilities are almost endless
when you start an inquiry into Bush Junta falsehoods!

[bananas]

2. instructed "weeks ago" to begin considerations for an inquiry

k&r!

[SpiralHawk]

4. ...by a ranking minority member

hmmm

[L. Coyote]

5. Members: Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
http://intelligence.house.gov/SubCommittees.aspx?ID=2

Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Chairman
John Tierney (D-MA), Vice Chair

Jeff Miller (R-FL), Ranking Rep
Peter Hoekstra, Ranking Member (R-MI), ex officio

Silvestre Reyes, Chairman(D-TX), ex officio
Patrick Murphy(D-PA)
C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger(D-MD)
Mike Thompson(D-CA)
Adam Schiff(D-CA)
Dan Boren(D-OK)

Mac Thornberry (R-TX)
Mike Rogers (R-MI)
Roy Blunt (R-MO)
John Kline (R-MN)

[L. Coyote]

9. Rep. Jeff Miller was "selected" by Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris

Rep. Joe Scarborough, whose 28-year-old aide Lori Klausutis was found dead in July, is in the process of quitting Congress to "spend more time with his family." His unusual mid-term resignation led to a special election, starting with a primary on July 24. Once again, the winner (State Rep. Jeff Miller) was "selected" by - you guessed it - Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris.

28-Aug-01 - http://archive.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Joe%20Scarborough

[sybylla]

6. K & R

I love it when the Dems lay another ace on the table and the pukes start shitting bricks.

[L. Coyote]

12. I love it when the Dems keep their lips buttoned to not prejudice ongoing criminal proceedings

The Dems know what the nature of the trap is,
and they are not falling for any elephant tricks.

Pelosi is like a victim at the burning stake,
who can withstand the fire without screaming,
"There are numerous ongoing CIA criminal investigations."

[surrealAmerican]

7. Thank you, Jan Schakowsky.

k&r

[L. Coyote]

8. emptywheel - Crazy Pete Hoekstra Flip-Flops on Congressional Notification

Not Hoekstra? It was Hoekstra's responsibility to investigate CIA and Bush lies when he was Chair,
so no surprise he is in on "punishing" Pelosi for allowing investigations to proceed a few weeks ago!

=================
Crazy Pete Hoekstra Flip-Flops on Congressional Notification
By: emptywheel Friday May 15, 2009 - http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/15/crazy-pete-hoekstra-flip-flops-on-congressional-notification/

In 2006, a certain member of Congress laid out the President's and Intelligence Community's obligation under the National Security Act to brief Congress on intelligence activities.

I want to reemphasize that the Administration has the legal responsibility to "fully and currently" inform the House and Senate Intelligence Committees of its intelligence and intelligence-related activities. Although the law gives you and the committees flexibility on how we accomplish that (I have been fully supportive of your concerns in that respect), it is clear that we, the Congress, are to be provided all information about such activities. I have learned of some alleged Intelligence Community activities about which our committee has not been briefed. In the next few days I will be formally requesting information on these activities. If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the Administration, a violation of law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the Members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information on our enemies. I strongly encourage you to direct all elements of the Intelligence Community to fulfill their legal responsibility to keep the Intelligence Committees fully briefed on their activities. The U.S. Congress should not have to play "Twenty Questions" to get the information that it deserves under the Constitution.

This letter makes the President's and Intelligence Community's obligation pretty clear. They must "fully and currently" inform congressional intelligence committees. They must provide all information about such activities. Congress should not have to play "Twenty Questions" to get such information. Not providing such information is a violation of the law. And, "just as importantly," it is "a direct affront" to Congress to withhold such information.

That's a pretty clear statement of the importance of CIA's obligation to inform Congress of their activities.

So why do you think it is that the author of this letter--Crazy Pete Hoekstra--has spent the last three weeks beating up Nancy Pelosi when--by all accounts--she was not briefed on the CIA's activities "fully and currently" in 2002? ..............

[L. Coyote]

11. Pincus and CIA Panic - May 19, 2009 = CIA before Grand Jury this week!!

Pincus and CIA Panic - May 19, 2009
By: emptywheel - http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/19/pincus-and-cia-panic/


On Saturday, I wrote this about Leon Panetta's statement to the CIA. .....

This morning, Walter Pincus makes precisely the same point (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/18/AR2009051803126.html?hpid=topnews).

Battered by recriminations over waterboarding and other harsh techniques sanctioned by the Bush administration, the CIA is girding itself for more public scrutiny and is questioning whether agency personnel can conduct interrogations effectively under rules set out for the U.S. military, according to senior intelligence officials.

...

The agency's defensiveness in part reflects a conviction that it is being forced to take the blame for actions approved by elected officials that have since fallen into disfavor. Former CIA director Michael V. Hayden said in an interview that CIA managers and operations officers have again been put "in a horrible position." Hayden recalled an officer asking, "Will I be in trouble five years from now for what I agree to do today?"

...

Although President Obama has said no CIA officers will be prosecuted for their roles in harsh interrogations if they remained within Justice Department guidelines in effect at the time, agency personnel still face subpoenas and testimony under oath before criminal, civil and congressional bodies.

As part of an ongoing criminal inquiry into the CIA's destruction of videotapes depicting waterboarding, CIA personnel will appear before a grand jury this week, .....

............

[L. Coyote]

10. Obama Backs Pelosi as Republicans Step Up Pressure in CIA Flap

Obama Backs Pelosi as Republicans Step Up Pressure in CIA Flap
Heidi Przybyla and Hans Nichols - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKZyA3NQRl3E&refer=us


May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration said it has confidence in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after Republican lawmakers waged a fresh attack on her for saying the Central Intelligence Agency misled her about terrorism-related interrogation tactics.

............ Asked whether President Barack Obama has confidence in Pelosi, Gibbs answered: “He does.”

.... Another poll shows the public splitting along partisan lines on the question of what Pelosi was told.

Forty-three percent of voters in a Rasmussen Reports poll said it was at least somewhat likely the CIA didn’t tell her the truth on the waterboarding of prisoners. That compared with 41 percent who thought it unlikely the agency misled her.

The poll, which was released yesterday, showed a partisan divide. Sixty-two percent of Democrats believed Pelosi’s version of events, while 62 percent of Republicans doubted her.

[L. Coyote]

13. SALON: Is the CIA lying about destroyed tapes?

Is the CIA lying about destroyed tapes?
The agency says it told Congress about the tapes and that the 9/11 Commission never asked. Really?
Tim Grieve - http://mobile.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/12/07/tapes/index.html


When the CIA learned Wednesday that the New York Times was going to publish a story saying that it had destroyed videotapes of "harsh interrogations" of two men suspected of being members of al-Qaida, the agency went for the preemptive strike: Gen. Michael Hayden, the CIA director, issued a statement acknowledging the destruction of the tapes but saying that the agency had acted "in line with the law" and had briefed members of Congress before acting.

Really?

The Times says Rep. Peter Hoekstra and Rep. Jane Harman -- the chairman and ranking Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee at the time -- say they weren't told in advance that the tapes would be destroyed. The Washington Post says Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, says he wasn't told about the destruction of the tapes until long after the fact. "While we were provided with very limited information about the existence of the tapes, we were not consulted on their usage nor the decision to destroy the tapes," he said.

.................

[L. Coyote]

14. NYTimes: C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations = 92 destroyed videotapes

C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations
MARK MAZZETTI - December 7, 2007 - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/washington/07intel.html?_r=1&hp


WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terrorism suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. The tapes were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that video showing harsh interrogation methods could expose agency officials to legal risks, several officials said.

In a statement to employees on Thursday, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, said that the decision to destroy the tapes was made “within the C.I.A.” and that they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value.

The destruction of the tapes raises questions about whether agency officials withheld information from Congress, the courts and the Sept. 11 commission about aspects of the program.

The recordings were not provided to a federal court hearing the case of the terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui or to the Sept. 11 commission ...........

====================
Deja DU: CIA Has 3,000 Docs on Torture Tapes
Mar-21-09 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5303329

Consortium News

By Jason Leopold
March 21, 2009

The CIA has about 3,000 documents related to the 92 destroyed videotapes that showed “war on terror” detainees being subjected to harsh interrogations, the Justice Department has disclosed, suggesting an extensive back-and-forth between CIA field operatives and officials of the Bush administration.

The Justice Department said the documents include “cables, memoranda, notes and e-mails” related to the destroyed CIA videotapes. Those tapes included 12 that showed two “high-value” prisoners undergoing the drowning sensation caused by waterboarding and other brutal techniques that have been widely denounced as torture.

The number of documents – but not their contents – was mentioned Friday in a Justice Department letter from Lev Dassin, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Dassin told Judge Hellerstein that unredacted versions of the materials would be available for only him to review “in-camera” on March 26. The CIA also refused to provide the ACLU with a list of individuals who watched the videotapes prior to their destruction because that information “is either classified or otherwise protected by statute.”

........

Read more: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/032109a.html

[EFerrari]

15. Doesn't everyone remember Tenet lying to Congress about his meetings

with Bush in August of 2001? He said he didn't meet with him and then it turned out that of course he had. Isn't that the way it went?

And for lying to Congress, he got a medal.

[L. Coyote]

16. There are simply too many plausible candidates.

[L. Coyote]

17. AP: Congressman, CIA dispute briefing list accuracy = 49 mins ago

LBN: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3884417
Pamela Hess – http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090519/ap_on_go_co/us_cia_interrogation

WASHINGTON – A top House Democrat raised new questions Tuesday about the accuracy of the CIA's account of congressional briefings on severe interrogation techniques. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey of Wisconsin said a staff aide that the CIA listed as attending a 2006 briefing was instead barred from the session.

The CIA stood behind its version of the briefing.

In a letter Monday to CIA Director Leon Panetta, Obey questioned CIA records that show a committee aide, Paul Juola, attended a Sept. 19, 2006, briefing that included a discussion of 13 harsh interrogation techniques.

According to Obey, Juola accompanied members of Congress to the briefing room, but was told by then-CIA Director Michael Hayden and another CIA official that he could not attend.

.............

[L. Coyote]

18. Hoekstra requested the investigation in relation to plane shot down in South America

after CIA identified the plane as "drug runners" and covered up their role.

NOT a torture inquiry!
KO has the story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPY9MW4tDNM

Representative Pete Hoekstra (R - MI) is former chair of the sub-committe.

[spanone]

19. k&r...