Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Just out of curiosity

Congressman, CIA dispute briefing list accuracy

The story is relevant to the current dispute between Speaker Pelosi & the CIA over what was or was not briefed by CIA to Congressional leaders regarding torture.

Not surprisingly, the loyal opposition has been running with this, coming close to accusing Speaker Pelosi of treason for disputing the CIA version.

Just out of curiosity: When did the CIA achieve this reputation for honesty & forthrightness?
I must've missed that briefing.

p.s. seems at least one of Speaker Pelosi's loudest critics has himself questioned the CIA's candor. From Think Progress:
[Representative Pete] Hoekstra’s [(R-MI)] repeated objections to Pelosi accusing the CIA of having lied to Congress is quite odd given the fact that he’s made nearly identical claims on multiple occasions. As Marcy Wheeler first noted, Hoekstra wrote a letter to President Bush in 2006 accusing the intelligence community of withholding information on their activities from Congress. “I have learned of some alleged Intelligence Community activities about which our committee has not been briefed,” Hoekstra wrote. He said that he believed the Bush administration’s failure to fully brief his committee could constitute “a violation of law“...
...
Similarly, in 2007, Hoekstra described a closed-door briefing by representatives from the intelligence community (including CIA) on the National Intelligence Estimate of Iran’s nuclear capability, saying that the members “didn’t find [the briefers] forthcoming.” More recently, in November 2008, Hoekstra concluded that the CIA “may have been lying or concealing part of the truth” in testimony to Congress regarding a 2001 incident in which the CIA mistakenly killed an American citizen in Peru. “We cannot have an intelligence community that covers up what it does and then lies to Congress,” Hoekstra said of the incident.
“We cannot have an intelligence community that covers up what it does and then lies to Congress.” You mean the CIA sometimes lies??? I'm shocked!

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