Politics | 05/15/2009 1:50 pm
CIA's Leon Panetta Fires Back at Pelosi's Allegations Over 'Misleading' Comments
CIA director Leon Panetta insists he and his colleagues did not mislead Congress, as Nancy Pelosi suggested.
© Getty Images
CIA director Leon Panetta fired back at Nancy Pelosi after the House speaker said that the spy agency "misled" Congress on waterboarding and other torturous interrogation tactics.
Panetta said today that he and his colleagues are not in the business of lying and urged his staff to keep their eye on the prize. In a memo entitled "Turning Down the Volume," Panetta told staffers, via Politico:
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.
Panetta also insisted that the agency is one of "high integrity, professionalism and dedication," and instructed agents to not get distracted by all the "political hay" caused by Pelosi’s press conference yesterday.
Read more about: CIA, congress, Leon Panetta, Nancy Pelosi, News, Scandal, torture, U.S., Waterboarding
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- The World in Vogue (Photos)
- Caption This!
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Caption This!
- Lily Tomlin Is Coming to NYC!
- Joan Ganz Cooney Still Shops the Way She Always Has
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Caption This!
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- The World in Vogue (Photos)
wOw Features
Reader Voices
Caption This!
Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
110 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
DeBurca…your support and willingness to go the extra mile is admirable. However, there comes a time when even a favored child does something wrong…
This Nation needs people like you now…right now. Stop seeing this all as Dems and Rep. Obama is no Dem. The CIA did not lie.
I know that it must be hard to let a dream die…but your dream is not dead…it just belongs with another. Obama is destroying this country. He has done NOTHING that has worked. He is spending and spending and now EVEN he has admitted that it will not work. After the fact. After the damage.
Start looking for a leader that has a firm plan for America. Look for one that lays it out, step by step, not with catchy slogans. Now more than ever, this Nation needs a "change". Now more than ever, we need someone strong to lead us out of this mess.
Check out ACORN and all of the 270 shadow organizations that money is funneled to. Check out GE and and all of the money that has headed that way, into all of the different entities that they own and control. It is a deep, deep money trail that implicates many…straight to Obama.
Here’s some "enlightenment" for all;
Gitmo detainees have gained on an average 20 pounds…. (really bad place there…ah-uh)
This "torture" talk is so sensationalized, especially when someone tries to bring up the Japanese being convicted of war crimes because of waterboarding. NOT TRUE. The Janpanese tortured in concert with a water torture, NONE of which was done during the 2002-2003 EIT’s. The Janpanese cut off limbs, and severely beat and injured the prisoners THAT is what they were convicted of…not the waterboarding of the strictly supervised EIT’s.
The one real war crime the Janpanese were convicted of was waterboarding of A CIVILIAN. Anything inflicted upon a civilian is a war crime….
So people….it this really worth all the attention that our Nation is now giving this? NO it isn’t. It has been banned since 2003 by a Bush CIA Director anyway….
Although I think that its GREAT that Pelosi has been shown to be the liar and manipulater that she is…however…it is NOT WORTH ALL OF THIS. Now…the DEMS lose the most….
Phyllis I heard that two of the people briefed took copious notes in the meetings. Where are the notes? They need to bring facts forward that would prove or disprove what is being said. All this speculation is just a waste of time until someone either presents notes or a recording.
Jane Harmon had the same briefing at that time and she wrote a letter to the CIA condemning waterboarding. McCain was also briefed at the same time and he raised strong objections to the waterboarding. So someone better help her out and show up with some kind of evidence. Even if she was told they might do it later, she made no objection to it, that is what has kept the argument going.
Obama admits deficit is unstustainable..get ready for inflation and tax increases…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJsSb4qtILhg&refer=worldwide
Obama goes back to Bush military trials….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1182228/Barack-Obama-U-turn-military-terror-trials.html
Yep Laureen…and he is right about a lot more…the Obamabots should have left the past administration alone, instead of blaming them at every turn, to distract from their own failures.
Obama has accepted EVERY position on Gitmo and detainees that Bush had….oh so interesting….
Seriously Allene? You doubt all of the notes and supportives reports that the CIA has? Just think about it Pelosi is backing up as quickly as possible…they leaked just enough to her so that she KNOWS she’s done if this continues.
Obama will attempt to put this behind him….maybe a "monkey/swine/flu?
There is nothing interesting here, just typical political lies and power grabs.