NBC News: Members of Congress Angry Over Being Kept in Dark on CIA Secret Program

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 03:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYgqe4jXAw4   Posted on YouTube: July 13, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: July 13, 2009 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 2710

 
NBC Nightly News w/ LESTER HOLT - July 12, 2009.

HOLT: Good evening. Members of Congress are reacting tonight to news that for years they were completely shut out of a top-secret CIA counter-terrorism program, apparently because the vice president of the time, Dick Cheney, didn't want them to know about it. And that revelation is opening old sores about CIA secrets and questions about what else Congress may not have been told about. NBC's Mike Viqueira is at the White House tonight with more. Good evening, Mike.

VIQUEIRA: Good evening, Lester. CIA Director Leon Panetta killed the program as soon as he learned of its existence. But that has not stopped the flood of anger from key members of Congress who were kept in the dark during the eight years of the program at the urging of the former vice president, Dick Cheney.

Panetta himself first learned of the secret program on June 23rd, the next day traveling to the Capitol, where he broke the news to members of the intelligence committees.

DIANNE FEINSTEIN (VIDEO): He was told that the vice president had ordered that the program not be briefed to the Congress.

VIQUEIRA: Though details remain classified, the CIA is required to tell Congress of its operations. Democrats are outraged.

DICK DURBIN (ABC NEWS VIDEO): To have a massive program that is concealed from the leaders of Congress is not only inappropriate, it could be illegal.

VIQUEIRA: And the allegation that it was the Mr. Cheney himself who directed CIA briefers to keep Congress in the dark raises questions.

ANDREA MITCHELL (VIDEO): What this shows is that the former vice president, Dick Cheney, could persuade the CIA - against the better judgment of some people in the agency - not to tell Congress about a secret program when it involved counter-terrorism.

VIQUEIRA: The program began in the aftermath of 9/11. Around that same time, Cheney told NBC's Tim Russert that secrecy in counter-terror operations was essential.

CHENEY (VIDEO): A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly without any discussion using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies if we're gonna be successful.

VIQUEIRA: Today, even some Republicans say failing to inform Congress was a mistake.

JOHN CORNYN (VIDEO): The CIA should brief the Congress. Congress should exercise responsible oversight.

VIQUEIRA: But they also accuse Democrats of playing politics.

PELOSI (VIDEO): They mislead us all the time...

VIQUEIRA: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been under Republican attack since May, when she accused the CIA of repeatedly lying to Congress.

CORNYN (VIDEO): This looks to me suspiciously like an attempt to provide political cover to her and others.

- snip -

VIQUEIRA: Democrats aren't swayed, and in the wake of this latest revelation, insist that Panetta publically admit that the CIA has misled them in the past.

- snip -

VIQUEIRA: And, Lester, one member of the intelligence committee that I spoke with said, whether the program was on-again or off-again, in her two and a half years of serving on the House Intelligence Committee, this is the fourth time the CIA has either misled her or kept vital information from its Congressional overseers.

[fascisthunter]

1. I hope all involved are brought to justice

I do not care whether it is tomorrow or 20 years from now, I want their names and I want them to be remembered appropriately. In my opinion, there is no heaven or hell, but there is an afterlife, one that gets passed down from one generation to the next as a memory. May their names live in infamy as traitors.

[outsourceCEOs]

7. did darth cheney's team bump-off Government scientist Dr. David Kelly

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1199109/13-doctors-demand-inquest-Dr-David-Kellys-death.html

i'm sure the department of law is looking into it :evilgrin:

[notadmblnd]

2. This was Cheney's hit squad?

And we are supposed to believe that it wasn't operational, however it's has been in existance since 2001?

[elleng]

4. Just 'thinking about it.'

.

[d_b]

3. come on guys

it's time to move on.


or something.

[LongTomH]

5. And just who is Lord Vader's Death Squadron loyal to NOW!!!!!!!!!!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!! :eyes:

[MindMatter]

6. WTF? 70% of that footage was about why this ISN"T an issue.

Just what would it take for the MSM to recognize a problem here?

We know that corpses don't do it because there have been a fair number of them from our "enhanced interrogations". This is clearly a case of a rogue organization acting illegally and an administration acting unconstitutionally. WTF are they doing giving Republicans equal time on this, let along MORE time?

[Hissyspit]

8. It's called "balance."

And, yes, I'm being sarcastic.

I love it. "Democrats are playing politics with the fact that the Republican vice president got caught doing something unconstitutional and illegal! Democrats are playing politics when we attacked Nancy Pelosi for not telling the truth when in fact she was telling the truth! And attacking the CIA is unpatriotic!"

[ControlledDemolition]

12. The whole Bush Administrations - yes I & II - were rogue organizations! n/t

[ucfacde]

9. Bush / Cheney Knew CIA was Lying to Congress!

Bush / Cheney Knew CIA was Lying to Congress!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncBPB5odB8A&NR=1

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish

The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.
The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee.

In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tones, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1

Who has the ability to hide such large amounts of money, Cheney’s Halliburton with subsidiaries around the world, private contractors of oil companies that made billions in the last days of the Bush administration with $148 barrel oil. $10 Billion a month in profits could hide 363 tones of money.

Arrested: Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt, mastermind of Iraqi oil for food scandal

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt, who started Coastal Corp. with an $800 loan and sold it to El Paso Corp. in 2001 for $24 billion, was charged with bribing Iraqi officials in a scheme to corrupt the United Nations oil-for-food program.

Wyatt, 81, was arrested today at his Houston home. He and two others obtained Iraqi oil for Coastal by paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein, according to an indictment unsealed in New York. Wyatt faces a maximum prison term of 62 years if convicted. U.S Attorney Michael Garcia said he'll seek to seize at least $1 billion from the defendants.

"The oil-for-food program was designed to provide humanitarian relief to the Iraqi people,'' Garcia said in a statement. "These defendants undermined those relief efforts to line their own pockets with oil profits.''

The indictment expands a federal case brought in April against David B. Chalmers Jr., president of Houston-based Bay Oil USA Inc. Wyatt is accused of conspiring with Chalmers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...top_world_news

War Profiteering $998,798 for two washers are just the ones that got caught!

According to this article in today's Washington Post, a new record has been achieved in billing inflation in government contracts. This makes the famous hammer and toilet seat, for which the government paid less than $1,000 each, look like bargains at Home Depot.


“ A South Carolina defense contractor pleaded guilty to bilking the Pentago out of twenty million dollars over nearly ten years by adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of shipping spare parts bound for key military installations. In one instance, in 2006, the government paid C&D Distributors $998,798 in transportation costs for shipping two nineteen-cent washers.


http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=70546

The World is Watching.

[ControlledDemolition]

13. Let's say obscuring the truth with extreme prejudice! n/t

[waiting for hope]

10. Arrgghh...

"Good Morning Gentlemen. Nice day for a murder."

[DearAbby]

11. I am so angry...

just when is it enough? Say Congress, just when the hell is it enough? Roll over and find yourselves out of a job...they snubbed you, like you didn't matter..they violated the law, and you are going to fucking roll over like a whipped dog...just when is it enough?

[pam4water]

14. Is John Cornyn a member of that Family Quazi-Church thing? And when did this story break.

[Hissyspit]

15. This story broke Friday, I believe.

[tomm2thumbs]

16. good question, although he is getting whipped around by hard conservatives lately

perhaps he is the next one to jump ship from the GOP or at least will be cut loose from them

[AntiFascist]

17. Shades of Iran-Contra n/t

[AlbertCat]

19. Shades of Iran-Contra n/t

And how many are involved with BOTH?


Because Iran Contra was a joke of an investigation.... we got this. It's what happens when you pardon everyone and just "look forward".

[flyarm]

18. Not "could be illegal"..is illegal!

"DICK DURBIN (ABC NEWS VIDEO): To have a massive program that is concealed from the leaders of Congress is not only inappropriate, it could be illegal."

Damn it..it is illegal..enough of this bullshit pussy footing and sparsing words..it is illegal damn it.

What are you going to do about it Durbin? What are you going to do about it congress?..is this off the table as well?????????/

Congress, we the people send you to Washington to do the people's work..you take an oath to preserve, protect and defend our constitution..now do your damn job..or get the fuck out of the way and we will put people there to do the job..this is not career making jobs..you are sent to serve our constitution..and to protect it and you have done nothing to preserve and protect our constitution..it is ours. You sit in "our house and senate"..do your damn jobs...or get the fuck out of the way.

Torture has been done in our name..and yet you do nothing about it.

Our phones and emails and communication have been illegally wiretapped and yet you pussy foot around it and this current administration is doing all in its power to protect the criminals who ordered this shit.

You have done nothing to restore Habeas Corpus.

You sit there while people are losing their jobs and livelyhood and lose their homes and families are being torn apart.

You put your fingers up your asses while people die for lack of medical care and medicines.

Do your damn job!

You know damn well the lies of 9/11 and yet you spoon feed us more and more bullshit with commissions that are fixed and nothing but damn white washes.

Enough!
do your damn jobs or get the fuck out of the way.

I for one am damn sick of it all..and am past mad as hell and not going to take it anymore..i will vote with my pocketbook and put my money behind people to remove you jerks who think you have a life's career destroying my constitution and bill of rights and the rule of law in this country.

Just "think" you can get the money to run for more years in office doing nothing .. with all the bankrupt corps in this nation now..

This is One "we the people" who will do my damnest to remove you pathetic, complicit criminals in all the crimes against my nation and her people!

Do your damn Jobs!

[Dying Nation]

27. Not "could be illegal"..is illegal!

I feel your anger, and couldn't agree more. We the American people are sick and tired of this dancing around the issue. It's like nobody could bring themselves to actually utter the words: Bush, Cheney and company are guilty as hell, planned this crap all along, and nobody wants to even talk about bringing them to justice. WHY? What is his administration afraid of? What is the press afraid of? Sure, they went along with it to sell more papers, more tv shows, generate more advertising dollars, and to generally bring our nation down to the level that bush and company were/are on, but I mean- COME ON!
It took the American public long enough, but finally, they're figuring out the fact that they'd been had. What's so bad about bringing these scumbags to justice? They won't even discuss it? What- we can't even mention the fact that Cheney pulled all the strings, ordered the CIA to engage in illegal torture, an illegal war, which continues and will continue to cost us?

And you're right, these congressional whimps and sissified senators just go along with it, seemingly with no amount of curiosity about how they did it, why they did it (for money and power of course) and what we should do about it.

I too am angry as hell, and I WANT THESE PRICKS BROUGHT TO JUSTICE!!!

[flyarm]

28. Welcome to DU Dying Nation! and i am glad to see someone new here that is equally as angry as I am!

Glad you are here and please contribute..we all need to be mad as hell!!

Welcome!

fly

[Dying Nation]

30. let's put that smirking chimp behind bars!

thanks for the welcome, fly. it's still so difficult for many of us to believe that bush and cheney were actually 'voted' into office- twice. it sickens me that we've become so complacent and allow these things to continue, with no repercussions. i understand that many folks wanted someone to pay for the whole 911 attack, but they've become blind to hearing the truth behind the reasons, and simply go along with the masses. it's a mob mentality that overtook our nation, and now we're not even interested in pursuing charges? i say get rid of eric holder and get someone with some balls in there.

watching cheney and bush smirk their way through that bullshit war, and the way they just ran roughshod over our constitution, while congressmen and senators alike just marched in lockstep, afraid of the political fallout- RRRrrrr! I would personally love to walk up to both of them, and spit in their lying, smirking f#@k#ng faces! Angry? that word doesn't do it justice for the way I, and many others feel about the state of our great nation.

[kevsters]

20. Watch Marcy Wheeler Say "Blow Job" While Debating the CIA Investigation

In the midst of debating the merits of whether or not a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the CIA, FDL blogger, Marcy Wheeler, says "Blow Job" on MSNBC.

Watch the whole segment here.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2152

[pjt7]

21. We don't need anger, we need action

hiding this from Congress is breaking the law.

Bring up charges against Dick C.

Hello Justice Dep't.

[ucfacde]

22. CIA Station Chief in Jordan Refuses Order to Engage in Sabotage

Context of '(October 2002): CIA Station Chief in Jordan Refuses Order to Engage in Sabotage against Iraqi Vehicles'

http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=AnabasisCarSabotage

The World is Watching, as they wonder if they could be next, will America attack them? will they torture are people? will they arrest and hold people in dungeons, they need to know we are not a lawless society and if they think we are, God Help Us.

[winyanstaz]

23. If they are pissed, perhaps they will grow some *****

and get off their butts and investigate Cheney and Bush for war crimes already..sheesh.

[and-justice-for-all]

24. Do not pass go and go directly to PRISON!!! nt

[ucfacde]

25. After September 11, 2001: US Steps Up Its Use of Extraordinary Renditions

After September 11, 2001: US Steps Up Its Use of Extraordinary Renditions

After the September 11 attacks, there is a dramatic increase in the frequency of US-requested “renditions.” Officially, the original purpose of renditions was to bring suspected foreign criminals, such as drug kingpins, to justice (see 1993). But after September 11, it is used predominantly to arrest and detain foreign nationals designated as suspected terrorists and bring them to foreign countries that are willing to hold them indefinitely for further questioning and without public proceedings. According to one CIA officer interviewed by the Washington Post, after September 11, “The whole idea a corruption of renditions—It’s not rendering to justice, it’s kidnapping.” “There was a debate after 9/11 about how to make people disappear,” a former intelligence official will tell the New York Times in May 2004. By the end of 2002, the number of terrorism suspects sent to foreign countries is in the thousands. Many of the renditions involve captives from the US operation in Afghanistan. The countries receiving the rendered suspects are often known human rights violators like Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco, all of which have histories of using torture and other methods of interrogation that are not legal in the US. The rendition program often ignores local and international extradition laws. In fact, US officials have admitted that the justification for rendition is sometimes fabricated—the US requests that a suspect be rendered, and then the allied foreign government charges the person “with a crime of some sort.” After a suspect is relocated to another country, US intelligence agents may “remain closely involved” in the interrogations, sometimes even “doing together” with the foreign government’s intelligence service.

http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=AnabasisCarSabotage&scale=2#AnabasisCarSabotage

Bush Administration wallowed in the Victory over Democrats, totally asleep at the wheel, crashed when 9/11 happened, as that became the rallying cry for more insanity with a Hitler like mentality, we are the chosen ones to take on the boogieman scaring the country into submission as they became the devil.

[Faygo Kid]

26. Nothing will happen. Don't get your hopes up.

Hell, Karl Rove is raking in millions as a commentator. If Rove can flip off Congress with impunity, Cheney has nothing to worry about.

[troubledamerican]

29. Hey Congress. Why are you "Kept In The Dark" about Sibel Edmonds?

Oh, wait a minute, yes, that's right, you don't give a fuck.