Panetta to CIA employees: We told Pelosi the truth

Politico ^ | Glenn Thrush

[GOPinCa]

CIA Director Leon Panetta just sent a stern message to his employees defending the agency against Speaker Nancy Pelosi's criticisms.

His message: We didn't mislead Congress; stay focused on your job.

Panetta's note was sent to reporters via the CIA press office. Here's the key graph:

"Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values. As the Agency indicated previously in response to Congressional inquiries, our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing “the enhanced techniques that had been employed.” Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened."

The full Panetta memo is after the jump.

[jennyjenny]

They're purposely forcing her to. I'm dying to know why.

[meandog]

Oooooooooohhweeeeee, I just love an Italian smackdown! If I were Nasty Nancy (nee D’Alesandro) I'd be on the lookout for a bloody horse head in my hosiery drawer or some dead fish wrapped in my girdle....

"I knew Santino was going to have to go through all this and Fredo... well, Fredo was... But I never wanted this for you. I live my life, I don't apologize to take care of my family. And I refused to be a fool dancing on the strings held by all of those big shots. That's my life I don't apologize for that. But I always thought that when it was your time that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator Corleone. Governor Corleone. Something."--Don Corleone, The Godfather.

[GauchoUSA]

Let me dream with you on this one, if it were not only a dream though...

[beckysueb]

I really really want to see Pelugly go down. I don’t care who they put in her place. She is the most arrogant sack of excrement I have ever seen.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Pelosi will resign by June."

You folks seem to forget that there are different standards for Democrats and Republicans. I expect her to ride this out; what the press wants is more Bush-bashing, and they'll call her a hypocrite and maybe even a liar, but no one will demand her resignation.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

If a real Democrat internal power struggle happens we're going to see a political “shooting war” of the kind that has never been seen in US history. They're not the people of party over country for nothing. But their main goal is their own sorry skins and unlike the Clinton years, attaching themselves to Obama may not give them a safe harbor as his power only resides in the hands of a few powerful behind the scenes Democrat handlers. We may have seen the first shot.

[MrB]

Oh, some will “demand her resignation”, but wink at her after they say it.

[zeebee]

We have to be careful what we wish for. Hoyer will be Rahm Emanuel’s servant.

[swarthyguy]

Me, I’m hoping for a long, torturous(!), slowly, slowly, twisting in the wind, as the issue heats up, truth commissions and whatnot being mooted, as the Dems figure out that the record doesn’t exonerate them, but highlights their true role and knowledge of all this.

Perhaps there ought to be a Keep Pelosi the Speaker group.

It’s simply too much fun.

[r9etb]

This is interesting. Panetta is here engaged in protecting his agency against Pelosi's strident attacks; and by extension against those of the Democrat party.

I think it's institutional loyalty of a sort ... and as such it's very interesting that he should develop it so strongly after only a few months in his current position.

It makes me wonder what's behind that loyalty -- is it that he's genuinely defensive of his agency? Is it a real devotion to not letting Congress ruin the CIA again? Is it defensiveness of his own job? Is it inside knowledge of threats and intel?

I'd really like to get in his head to see which of these is in play.

[swarthyguy]

Consider that he may have been a CIA asset all his life?

[pepsionice]

Just a perception but with Pelosi being the one writing the national health care package...and this going on...with a deadline of July to finish...I think the administration is intentionally arranging this event to fail.

Pelosi will begin to face weekly sessions with the media over what she heard or said. The health care events will slow down and fail because of no internal support within the democratic party. Obama knows this. So he can go along and watch health care sink....then blaming this on the Republicans next fall as elections come and go.

Pelosi? I think she will be around but find no real support from the White House. I don’t think she cares. She has her agenda. Reid has his. And Obama has his. The Democrats are not playing a united agenda. This has been clear since January.

[Squantos]

Steny IMO !

Pelosi was being a authoritarian speed bump for the socialists racers. She only thought they would stand by her !......LMAO !!!

[r9etb]

Consider that he may have been a CIA asset all his life?

Interesting thought.... is there anything to suggest that this might actually be the case?

[Rider on the Rain]

Yeah, she may hang on for a while, but she is 100 percent ineffective at this point, and for America that’s a good thing.

[goodnesswins]

Maybe to spend more time “with her family”....the Gambolinipelosi’s...

[P-Marlowe]

Pelosi will resign by the end of June.

Not a chance. They will have to take that gavel from her cold dead hands.

[Earthdweller]

Pelosi will soon get a visit by the black helicopters spreading swine flu over her house and dropping fake lead paint horse heads in her yard....No one knows who employs them. LOL.

Anyhow, I hear they don't like stinky fish or Mother's Day....

[swarthyguy]

No, simply my conjecture.

Not only his appointment, but the manner in which he seemed to get accepted by the institution so matteroffactly and calmly, slightly odd for a man who was always a political animal with no overt connections to any aspect of espionage or intelligence.

Kinda like how Pappa Bush became head of the CIA, another man with ostensibly no intelligence experience before he headed America’s spy agency.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This is sickening.