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Cheney 'ordered CIA to hide plan'
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| Magnetonium |
:wtf:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8146466.stm
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Former US Vice-President Dick Cheney gave direct orders to the CIA to conceal an intelligence programme from Congress, US media reports say.
The existence of the programme, set up after 9/11, was hidden for eight years and even now its nature is not known.
CIA director Leon Panetta is said to have abandoned the project when he learnt of it last month.
He has now told a House committee that Mr Cheney was behind the secrecy, the unnamed US sources say.
There has been no comment from Mr Cheney.
War of words
The claims come amid an increasingly bitter row between the CIA and Congress over whether key information was withheld about other aspects of the agency's operations.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has claimed that the CIA misled her about interrogation methods including waterboarding, while other senior Democrats have quoted Mr Panetta as admitting that his agency regularly misled Congress before he took office.
Leon Panetta
Panetta is said to have closed the programme when he discovered it
Details of the newly-revealed secret programme have still not been divulged, but sources say it did not relate to the CIA's rendition programme, interrogation methods or a controversial domestic surveillance project.
Officials quoted by the New York Times say the programme was launched by anti-terror operatives at the CIA soon after the 2001 attacks, and involved planning and training but never became fully operational.
Another unnamed official told AP it was an embryonic intelligence-gathering effort, aimed at yielding intelligence that would be used to conduct covert operations abroad.
Sources have told a number of US media outlets Mr Cheney personally instructed the CIA to withhold information about the programme from Congress.
Mr Panetta - who took over directorship of the CIA under President Obama's administration - is said to have learnt about the programme only on 23 June.
The next day he called an emergency meeting with congressional intelligence committees to tell them about its existence and to say that it was being cancelled, the reports say.
Veto threat
The allegations come as Democrats in Congress are trying to push through new rules that would increase the number of members of Congress who are told about covert operations.
The White House is threatening to veto the bill, fearing that operational secrecy could be compromised.
The CIA has not commented on the reports of Mr Cheney's role.
"It's not agency practice to discuss what may or may not have been said in a classified briefing," said spokesman Paul Gimigliano.
"When a CIA unit brought this matter to Director Panetta's attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared appropriately with Congress. That was also his view, and he took swift, decisive action to put it into effect."
A CIA spokesman insisted earlier this week that "it is not the policy or practice of the CIA to mislead Congress." |
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| culorut |
Holy again? This guy (Cheney) is still walking around on the streets a free man?
Only in America......
:rolleyes: |
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| Krypton |
| Pelosi was right. The CIA was deceiving Congress. Now Hannity and Limbaugh can finally shut the up. |
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| josh4 |
| Does this really surprise anyone? They should be impeached just on principle. |
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| Joss Weatherby |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
Does this really surprise anyone? They should be impeached just on principle. |
I dont know if you can impeach people that are no longer in office.
Criminal charges might be possible... not sure how that would all work out though.
Either way, its pretty scummy. |
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| Magnetonium |
If only Obama, "the Bush lover", didn't try hard enough to prevent this probe and prosecution for crimes against Constitution from happening. What is he afraid of? The truth? Prosecute the criminals, and set a good example so that the kind of Bush did will not happen again. Americans must not allow this to be swept under the carpet, otherwise it will happen again.
Twin probes of Bush policies looming
http://thespec.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/598897
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July 13, 2009
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (Jul 13, 2009)
Six months into Barack Obama's presidency, twin investigations may be on the horizon into Bush-era policies in the war on terror.
Two senators, including the head of the intelligence committee, suggested yesterday the prior administration broke the law by concealing a CIA counterterrorism program from Congress.
The assertion that vice-president Dick Cheney ordered the concealment came amid word that Attorney General Eric Holder is contemplating opening a criminal probe of possible CIA torture.
Holder will decide within the next few weeks on appointing a prosecutor, a U.S. Justice Department official said. A move to appoint a criminal prosecutor is certain to stir partisan bickering that could be a distraction to Obama's efforts to push health-care and energy reform.
Obama has repeatedly expressed reluctance to probing alleged Bush-era abuses. He resisted an effort by congressional Democrats to establish a "truth commission," saying the country should be "looking forward and not backwards."
Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said he was against opening a criminal investigation into interrogation practices during the Bush administration. The former presidential candidate suggested on NBC's Meet the Press a criminal investigation would provide a recruiting tool to terrorists.
Regarding the eight-year-old counterterrorism program, the Bush administration's failure to notify Congress "is a big problem, because the law is very clear," said Senate intelligence committee chairperson Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat.
Congress should investigate the secrecy because "it could be illegal," Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, said yesterday on ABC's This Week.
According to Feinstein, CIA director Leon Panetta told Congress last month that Cheney ordered the program not be revealed to Congress. "We were kept in the dark. That's something that should never, ever happen again," said Feinstein, who spoke on Fox News yesterday. |
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| Q5echo |
You guys are such breathless media sheep :haha: And y'all don't even know what the plan was
The super secret squirrel plan Dick didn't want anybody to know about was...wait for it...TO ASSASSINATE TOP AL QUEERA LEADERS!!!! ooooh sinister:rolleyes: |
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| Magnetonium |
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
You guys are such breathless media sheep :haha: And y'all don't even know what the plan was
The super secret squirrel plan Dick didn't want anybody to know about was...wait for it...TO ASSASSINATE TOP AL QUEERA LEADERS!!!! ooooh sinister:rolleyes: |
You didn't read between the lines - they are not prosecuting for the contents of the plans, but for the fact that these were concealed from Congress. Thats a serious violation of the law. And besides, if these plans were so straightforward and dandy, there would have been no need to conceal them, would there? |
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| ziptnf |
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
You guys are such breathless media sheep :haha: And y'all don't even know what the plan was
The super secret squirrel plan Dick didn't want anybody to know about was...wait for it...TO ASSASSINATE TOP AL QUEERA LEADERS!!!! ooooh sinister:rolleyes: |
So you don't tell Congress about your plan? What the ? Can you define Democracy for me, Q? |
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| Q5echo |
| quote: | Originally posted by Magnetonium
You didn't read between the lines - they are not prosecuting for the contents of the plans, but for the fact that these were concealed from Congress. Thats a serious violation of the law. And besides, if these plans were so straightforward and dandy, there would have been no need to conceal them, would there? |
No, you haven't read between the lines (although your article completely fails to mention it). The CIA was given orders not to tell the entire Congress because it never really got past the planning stages.
This is all a media enabled smokescreen to distract from the failures of the last 6 months |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| As much as it pains me, Q is right on this one. Certain classified information sensitive to national security is shared with only certain members of certain committees. More information may be forthcoming, but at first glance this story doesn't seem to have much in the way of legs. |
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| Krypton |
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
You guys are such breathless media sheep :haha: And y'all don't even know what the plan was
The super secret squirrel plan Dick didn't want anybody to know about was...wait for it...TO ASSASSINATE TOP AL QUEERA LEADERS!!!! ooooh sinister:rolleyes: |
Cheney was the Vice-President. Who gave him the authority to order the CIA to do anything? His job is to preside over the Senate and take the place of the President if needed. Not give orders to the CIA. |
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