Panetta Admits CIA Misled Congress on “Significant Actions”

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Tim Starks
July 9, 2009 – CQPolitics.com

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CIA Director Leon Panetta told the House Intelligence Committee that the agency had misled and "concealed significant actions from all members of Congress" dating back to 2001 and continuing until late June, according to a letter from seven Democrats on the panel.

The letter was dated June 26, two days after Panetta appeared before a closed door session with the committee and it asked that the CIA chief "correct" his statement from May 15 that "it is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress."

"Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from all members of Congress, and misled members for a number of years from 2001 to this week," states the letter to Panetta from Anna G. Eshoo of California, Alcee L. Hastings of Florida, Rush D. Holt of New Jersey, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Adam Smith of Washington, Mike Thompson of California and John F. Tierney of Massachusetts.

CIA spokesman George Little said Panetta stood by his May remarks and believes Congress must be kept fully informed and Little added, "it was the CIA itself that took the initiative to notify the oversight committees."

The disclosure came just as Democrats and Republicans were set to take up an intelligence authorization bill on the House floor on Thursday.

House Democrats have put a provision in the bill which would eliminate the executive branch's right to decide when to brief the full Intelligence panels, rather than just the top committee and congressional leaders, known as the "Gang of Eight," on the most sensitive intelligence activities. Congress would set the ground rules for the "Gang of Eight" briefings instead. The White House has threatened to veto the bill if it includes the provision.

The issue is politically sensitive because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., found herself at the center of a firestorm in May when she accused the CIA of misleading Congress over the use of harsh interrogation methods during the Bush administration.

Pelosi had been enmeshed in a controversy over whether she had been briefed in 2002 over the use of the interrogation tactic of "waterboarding" suspected terrorists and but did not speak out about them until the use of the techniques became part of a heated public debate later. In 2002, Pelosi was the top Democratic on the intelligence committee making her one of the Gang of Eight.

House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes , D-Texas, this week sent to the panel's top Republican, Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, a letter saying new information led him to conclude that the CIA has misled and at least once "affirmatively lied to" the committee. Republicans disputed its contents and have said that the Democrats were trying to protect Pelosi.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans would discuss the subject of the recent congressional notifications that led Reyes to conclude that Congress had been lied to, saying it was highly classified.

The House Rules Committee approved procedures for floor debate that would exclude some GOP amendments explicitly delving into the controversy over whether Pelosi was briefed on the use of harsh techniques, although Republicans will have a chance to offer a motion to recommit and revisit the issue.

One amendment by Hoekstra, for instance, would have required the CIA to publicly release more records about congressional briefings on the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Republicans said it was true, as Reyes wrote in his letter, that the classified subject about which the committee was notified was a subject of bipartisan concern. But they did not endorse Reyes' conclusions that the CIA had lied.

Hoekstra said, "Was it something where I thought there should be more follow-up? Yeah. But to go put me in a blanket statement based on one briefing?"

He said Democrats wanted to help validate Pelosi's prior claims by establishing other occasions in which the CIA may have misled Congress. Republicans had seized on those remarks, and Hoekstra said Democrats were trying to "make the men and women of the intelligence community public enemy No. 1."

Reyes expressed surprise at the Republicans' remarks about whether the controversy was legitimate and whether Democrats were trying to protect their leader, saying simply, "They know better."

Another committee Democrat, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, said Democrats wanted to make the point that there will always be questions about who said what and when in congressional briefings. "Let's move beyond that," he urged, to focus on the authorization legislation.

Ruppersberger added that a proposed committee investigation that Reyes mentioned in his letter is still in the "developmental" stages, but "I think it probably will not find that anyone intentionally lied."

Hoekstra doubted an investigation would go anywhere, citing a long-overdue report on a probe into the CIA's destruction of videotapes of early Bush administration interrogations of suspected terrorists.