CIA Deceived Congress for Nearly a Decade

And given that this is based on testimony given by CIA Director Leon Panetta, I'm not sure why the New York Times offers as its headline, "Democrats Say C.I.A. Deceived Congress for Years," which sounds as if there's some game of "they-said, they-said" being played. There isn't. If the Times wants to indicate that the Democrats are publicly reporting what the GOP won't, something like "Democrats Reveal" would be more appropriate. Anyway…

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed "significant actions" from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said.

In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency had "misled members" of Congress for eight years about the classified matters, which the letter did not disclose. "This is similar to other deceptions of which we are aware from other recent periods," said the letter, made public late Wednesday by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, one of the signers.

In an interview, Mr. Holt declined to reveal the nature of the C.I.A.'s alleged deceptions,. But he said, "We wouldn't be doing this over a trivial matter."

Spencer Ackerman's got the aforementioned letter here, with only Democratic signatories. It's understandable that the Dems would have an extra investment in this issue, given the accusations made against Speaker Pelosi, but Steve asks the obvious question: "[W]hy is it that [Intelligence] committee Democrats are the only ones expressing concern?"

It's tempting to think Republicans on the Intelligence Committee might be bothered by eight years of deception.

Except, they're not. They seem to realize that Dems are right about this, but can't be too critical because it would undermine their baseless smear against Speaker Pelosi. Congressional Republicans, in other words, refuse to let facts get in the way of a good lie.

As usual, politics is more important to the GOP than integrity—or anything else, really, including decency, rule of law, national security, and the safety of our troops, given that Sam Stein reports the "significant actions" about which the CIA lied "concern Bush administration interrogation policies."

Maha points out that the rightwing blogosphere is instead all a-flutter about the White House spelling the president's name wrong. Good times.