| White House opposes increased CIA oversight; House intel chairman says CIA lied to Congress Raw Story 7/8/09 By Daniel Tencer UPDATE In another sign of an increasingly secretive White House, the Obama administration has threatened to veto an intelligence-services spending bill because it would increase the number of Congresspeople who would have to be informed of the activities of agencies such as the CIA. On Wednesday, it emerged that House Intelligence Chairperson Sylvestre Reyes alleged in a letter that the CIA had misinformed Congress on unspecified issues having to do with the spy agency’s activities. Reyes and his fellow Democrats had been prepared to debate Thursday a bill that would significantly expand Congressional oversight of the 16 agencies that carry out intelligence services for the US government. (Details of the bill follow below.) The bill would expand the number of Congresspeople informed of the most sensitive intelligence activities from the current eight to around 40, AP reports. But according to the Hill, “if the intelligence authorization bill contains language broadening who the president must inform on covert activities, President Obama would be advised to veto the bill.” ORIGINAL ARTICLE FOLLOWS A leading House Democrat has added his voice to a growing chorus of accusations that the CIA has been misleading members of Congress over its activities. In a letter made public by the Congressional Quarterly today, House Intelligence Chairperson Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) told the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee that CIA Director Leon Panetta had disclosed recently that his agency may have misled Congress in some of its reports to the committee. Reyes’ letter disclosed no details about the alleged misinformation, likely due to national-security restrictions. Panetta’s disclosures “have led me to conclude this committee has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one occasion) was affirmatively lied to,” Reyes wrote to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI). The House Intelligence Committee is currently deliberating an intelligence appropriations bill that would increase Congressional oversight of the CIA and other national-security agencies. The new law would make the positions of NSA director and general counsel subject to Congressional approval. It would also create oversight officers at the NSA and the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence, who would have the power to investigate all 16 intelligence agencies and could not be fired by the heads of the CIA or NSA. The new law would also require the CIA to videotape interrogations. Additionally, the power to decide when the CIA briefs the full intelligence committee, and when it briefs only a select few members of Congress, would be given to Congress, rather than resting with the executive branch as is currently the case. GOP: THE REAL ISSUE IS PELOSI But Republicans on the committee have shown little desire for greater oversight of the US’s national security agencies, and instead appear focused on the issue of what House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi knew about the CIA’s use of waterboarding, and when she knew it. In May, Pelosi admitted that she had been told by the CIA in 2003 of waterboarding, but accused the agency of misleading her and other members of Congress about the technique and its uses. Other Congressional Democrats also accused the CIA of misleading them. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee had added a clause to the appropriations bill that would have required an investigation into Pelosi’s claims about waterboarding, but the Democratic majority shot it down. Republicans are now accusing Rep. Reyes of attempting to deflect attention from Pelosi by writing a letter to Rep. Hoekstra, which then became public. “We’re not going to respond to something so unprofessional as a letter that was slipped under the Republican staff director’s door after hours after everyone had gone home for the night,” Jamal Ware, a spokesman for Hoekstra, told the Congressional Quarterly. “It’s been two weeks since this [notification from Panetta] happened, per their letter, and they’ve not tried to have any conversations with the ranking member.” |
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