C.I.A. Reviewing Its Process for Briefing Congress

Leon Panetta, director of the C.I.A., ended an unidentified program that was disclosed to Congressional Intelligence Committees.

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency is conducting an internal review of how it briefs Congress on secret programs, intelligence officials said on Thursday, as Democrats and Republicans traded barbs over an admission by the agency’s director that the C.I.A. failed for eight years to inform the Intelligence Committees of one unidentified program.

The agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, assigned a senior C.I.A. officer “to take a look at what happened and to explore what the C.I.A. can do to improve its reporting to Congress,” said an official familiar with the instructions, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

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My Comment: What is going to happen .... is a procedure is going to be set up in which Congress is going to be flooded with all the information that is manageable. In short .... the people who should be focused on tracking and stopping groups like Al Qaeda and other extremist organizations .... they will now be focused on satisfying Congress to the nth degree, and to make sure that all information and programs (including programs that are insignificant or "low key") be transmitted to the relevant Congressional representatives.

I can only see an organizational and managerial mess .... but then again, if you want to CYA, this is the situation that you want.

As for CIA Director Panetta, he is doing exactly what critics were originally fearful he was going to do .... the politicization and neutering of the CIA.