Trying To Resolve The U.S. Senate - CIA 'Spat'

Brennan Seeks 'Way Forward' In CIA-Senate Fight -- Politico

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan told the spy agency's employees Friday that he's committed to resolving the unusual public dispute that broke out recently between the CIA and its overseers in the U.S. Senate.

"You can be sure that we and the Committee are committed to finding a way forward that allows CIA to continue with its important intelligence mission and that promotes effective and independent Congressional oversight of our Nation’s classified intelligence activities," Brennan said in an unclassified, agency-wide message obtained by POLITICO.

"As we all well know, the intelligence profession is frequently a difficult and challenging one, and it should come as no surprise that many of the things CIA is asked to do are subjected to close scrutiny. Moreover, it is appropriate for the Intelligence Committees in the Senate and the House to carry out their oversight responsibilities thoroughly and comprehensively, and CIA needs to do all it can to assist the Committees in that regard," Brennan added

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My Comment: The CIA has lost the trust of the U.S. Senate intelligence community. It is not going to be easy to resolve this dispute ... or to forget.

Update: Here is a good commentary on how the politics of U.S. intelligence is actually handled .... If Dianne Feinstein is Michael Corleone in the CIA-Senate war, will she shoot? -- Barry Eisler, The Guardian

More Congressional Oversight Over The U.S. Intelligence Community

Congress Wins Expanded Oversight of Intelligence Community -- The Atlantic

After months of tough negotiations with the White House, members of Congress who monitor intelligence agencies believe they've won meaningful new oversight powers via a bill the President has promised to sign.

Among these new powers: agency directors will have to certify, under penalty of law, that they've disclosed to Congress everything that must be disclosed; criteria will be expanded for the types of covert operation planning that Congress must be briefed on; and the White House will even have to retain (for the sake of public records to be disclosed in the future) a written record of every briefing it provides to the intelligence communities and a list of attendees.

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My Comment: In short, what all this means is more paper work.

Released Documents Revealed That Congress Was Briefed On The Interrogation Program

CIA Briefed 68 Lawmakers On Interrogation Program -- Yahoo News/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – CIA officials briefed at least 68 U.S. lawmakers between 2001 and 2007 on enhanced interrogation methods like simulated drowning that were being considered or used against captured al Qaeda members, according to declassified documents released on Tuesday.

The once-secret CIA papers, obtained in a lawsuit by the conservative legal foundation Judicial Watch, shed new light on which lawmakers knew the details of the controversial interrogation program and when.

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My Comment: Kudos to Judicial Watch for having these documents released. But I expect Congress to be silent on its contents.

Is Congress Being Blocked From Receiving Intelligence On The Fort Hood Shooter

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Rep. Hoekstra Getting "No Cooperation" for Fort Hood Probe -- CBS News

The top ranking Republican in the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said Tuesday the FBI and CIA have given him "no cooperation at all" in his request for information on what the intelligence agencies knew about Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan.

"Finally they held a briefing last night for some of the senators and some of my staff, but again, the House is not in session, I've not been able to get the information at this point," he said on Tuesday's "Washington Unplugged." "I don't think they've been as cooperative as what the law requires them to be with Congress."

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More News On Congress And The Intelligence Community On the Fort Hood Shooting

Information being withheld about Fort Hood shooter -- Examiner
Hoekstra: White House Blocking Investigation of Fort Hood Massacre -- Newsmax
Sparring within House intelligence panel over Fort Hood grows sharper -- Washington Post
Intelligence Officials Deny Sitting on Information About Fort Hood Shooting Suspect -- FOX News
CIA Denies Report of Blocking Hasan Intel -- CBS

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.

Secret Program Fuels CIA-Congress Dispute

From The Washington Post:

Four months after he was sworn in, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta learned of an intelligence program that had been hidden from Congress since 2001, a revelation that prompted him to immediately cancel the initiative and schedule a pair of closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill.

The next day, June 24, Panetta informed the House and Senate intelligence committees of the program and the action he had taken, according to Democratic and Republican members of the panels.

The incident has reignited a long-running dispute between congressional Democrats and the CIA, with some calling it part of a broader pattern of the agency withholding information from Congress. Some Republicans, meanwhile, privately questioned whether Panetta -- who has stood with CIA officers in a dispute with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) -- was looking to score points with House Democrats.

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My Comment: An "off again, on again" program, that was never used as a major tool against Al Qaeda, is now at the center of this storm?

Please .....

It appears that if Congress is not informed on how many rolls of toilet paper that the CIA complex at Langley is using, this becomes more evidence that the CIA is holding back information from Congress.

We all know that this "controversy" is to just give cover to House Speaker Pelosi who accused the CIA of lying to her, and then not following up on an investigation .... which she have been done since she had just attacked the integrity and reliability of the CIA.

CIA Director's Panetta involvement in this sordid affair is also unfortunate. From where I am standing, this is just an attempt (and a poor one at that) to get back into the good graces of major Democratic politicians. I had voiced in the past that his nomination to the Director's post of the CIA would only politicized the organization .... he is fulfilling this prophecy beautifully.

Democrats Say Panetta Admits CIA Misled Them

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon E. Panetta has told lawmakers that the agency "concealed significant actions" from Congress, according to a letter released Wednesday from seven Democratic lawmakers.

The letter also contends that Mr. Panetta said CIA officials have misled Congress since 2001.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes sent a separate letter on Tuesday to the top Republican on his committee saying that Mr. Panetta's appearance led him to conclude that the CIA had "affirmatively lied" to the committee. Mr. Reyes, a Texas Democrat, said the issues Mr. Panetta disclosed to the committee may lead to a full committee investigation.

"I believe that CIA has, in the vast majority of matters, told the truth," Mr. Reyes said in a statement. "But in rare instances, certain officers have not adhered to the high standards held, as a rule, by the CIA with respect to truthfulness in reporting."

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My Comment: This "leak" is to give cover to House Speaker Pelosi and her comments that the CIA was lying to her during her CIA briefings.

The key paragraph is the fourth one ....

"I believe that CIA has, in the vast majority of matters, told the truth," Mr. Reyes said in a statement. "But in rare instances, certain officers have not adhered to the high standards held, as a rule, by the CIA with respect to truthfulness in reporting."

So most (if not all) of these briefings were accurate, but when asked what were they mislead on ....

Neither letter described the nature of the actions hidden. Both lawmakers and the CIA declined to provide details. The murky circumstances surrounding the allegations make it hard to assess the claims and counterclaims of both sides.

A full investigation is necessary .... and has been necessary when Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of lying to her. But will one happen ..... if I was a betting man my answer is no.