Posted on 12/26/2007 11:35:46 AM PST by radar101
Outrage over the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes is but one element of the distress about the agency by Republican intelligence watchdogs in Congress. "It is acting as though it is autonomous, not accountable to anyone," Rep. Peter Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told me. That is his mildest language about the CIA. In carefully selected adjectives, Hoekstra calls it "incompetent, arrogant and political."
Chairman Silvestre Reyes and other Intelligence Committee Democrats join Hoekstra in demanding investigation of the tape destruction in the face of the administration's resistance, but the Republicans stand alone in protesting the CIA's defiant undermining of President Bush. In its clean bill of health for Iran on nuclear weapons development, the agency acted as an independent policymaker rather than an adviser. It has withheld from nearly all members of Congress information on the Israeli bombing of Syria. The U.S. intelligence community decides on its own what information the public shall learn.
Intelligence agencies, from Nazi Germany to present day Pakistan, for better or for ill have tended to break away from their governments. The OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the CIA's World War II predecessor, was infiltrated by communists. While CIA tactics were under liberal assault in Congress during the Watergate era, current accusations of a rogue agency come from Republicans who see a conscious undermining of Bush at Langley.
The CIA's contempt for the president was demonstrated during his 2004 re-election campaign when a senior intelligence officer, Paul R. Pillar, made off-the-record speeches around the country criticizing the invasion of Iraq. On Sept. 24, 2004, three days before my column exposed Pillar's activity, former Rep. Porter Goss arrived at Langley as Bush's hand-picked director of central intelligence. Goss had resigned from Congress to accept Bush's mandate to clean up the CIA. But the president buckled under fire from the old boys at Langley and their Democratic supporters in Congress, and Goss was sacked in May 2006.
Goss's successor, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, restored the status quo ante at the CIA and nurtured relations with congressional Democrats in preparation for their coming majority status. Hayden, an active duty four-star Air Force general who lives in government housing, first antagonized Hoekstra by telling Reyes what the Democrats wanted to hear about the Valerie Plame CIA leak case.
There is no partisan divide on congressional outrage over the CIA's destruction of tapes showing interrogation of terrorism detainees. Hoekstra agrees with Reyes that the Bush administration has made a big mistake refusing to let officials testify in the impending investigation.
Republicans also complain that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluding that Iran has shut down its nuclear weapons program was a case of the CIA flying solo, not part of the administration team. Donald M. Kerr, principal deputy director of national intelligence, on Dec. 3 "took responsibility for what portions of the NIE Key Judgments were to be declassified." In a Dec. 10 joint article for the Wall Street Journal, Hoekstra and Democratic Rep. Jane Harman (a senior Intelligence Committee member) wrote that the new NIE "does not explain why the 2005 NIE came to the opposite conclusion or what factors could drive Iran to 'restart' its nuclear-weapons program." (Six days later on "Fox News Sunday," Harman called the NIE "the best work product they've produced.")
Hoekstra is also at odds with Hayden over CIA refusal to reveal what it knows about the Sept. 6 Israeli bombing of Syria's nuclear complex. Only chairmen and ranking minority members of the Intelligence committees, plus members of the congressional leadership, have been briefed. Other members of Congress, including Intelligence Committee members, were excluded. The Intelligence authorization bill, passed by the House and awaiting final action in the Senate, blocks most of the CIA's funding "until each member of the Congressional Intelligence committees has been fully informed with respect to intelligence" about the Syria bombing.
In a June 21 address to the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Hayden unveiled "CIA's social contract with the American people." Hoekstra's explanation: "The CIA is rejecting accountability to the administration or Congress, saying it can go straight to the people."
ping
And George Tenent never destroyed “any thing” under the Clinton Administration. I think it’s time to start filing the used toilet paper from every where so Congress can have a paper trail and investigate it fully.
I agree that there should be some heads rolling in the CIA for leaking the existence of the tapes, and leaking that they were destroyed. If the people in this agency can’t keep their darned mouths shut, they don’t belong there.
“Only chairmen and ranking minority members of the Intelligence committees, plus members of the congressional leadership, have been briefed. Other members of Congress, including Intelligence Committee members, were excluded. “
And the day after they’re briefed, we’ll read all about it in the NYT.
Sorry, but to be perfectly consistent, I have to depart from Mr. Hoekstra on this one. As we've seen with the leaky Democrats time and time again, the fewer people in Congress who get briefed on this kind of sensitive information, the better. If nothing else, it narrows the number of suspects when it comes to finding out who leaked. Since both Majority and Minority members were briefed, it's unlikely that the American people were short-changed on information they should know, or truly "need to know".
Interesting......
There are plenty of leaky Democrats, but the most damaging leaks seem to have come directly from the CIA over the last 5 years.
Words used by Rep. Hoekstra to describe the CIA (incompetent, arrogant and political) fit the current Congress to a “tea”. Before Hoekstra opens his mouth he should take a good long look in the mirror.
There is more involved than just a few people not being able to keep their mouths shut. There is now an open conspiracy within the State Department and CIA to collude with the “Rats” at undermining American foreign policy. The conspiracy has existed, albeit more subdued, since Bush took office, aided and abetted by Colin Powell, but this particular and present incident has made the political divides within the respective agencies declare virtual, open war.
If Iran develops a viable Nuke soon they will use it soon, if one believes their psychotic leader. If the situation is allowed to deteriorate in that direction charges of treason will be rightfully leveled at both the State Department and CIA.
In a speech a few days after 9-11, President Bush went to Langley and spoke directly to all Intelligence personnel. I watched the speech live on either the Fox News Channel or CSPAN. Bush said, basically, that he wasn’t blaming anyone for the intelligence lapses, but the agency had better “get it together” in all areas. I think the whole visit to Langley was a not too thinly veiled threat, and to show up there was demonstrating that he was powerful, even on CIA turf.
I don’t think they got the message and I don’t think that Bush will follow up on his admonitions to his government.
I never said that there weren't, nor do I doubt that many of them (e.g. Valerie Plame) were "infiltrated" during the Carter and Clinton administrations. However, I don't see how giving more Congresscritters access to extremely sensitive information will lead to less leaking than is already going on.
I’m more concerned about their attempt to bring down a sitting President, with the Wilson/Plame fraud.
It is depressing when Scooter Libby is the only one prosecuted for leaking anything CIA related lately.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, has happened to anyone who has betrayed a position of trust in the US government when it comes to national security except for Scooter Libby.
This nation will not survive another 25 or 50 years if we don’t get a handle on those who place their own personal political motives ahead of the nation’s good.
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