EXCLUSIVE: Former Sen. Intel Chair Reports White House Misled About Wiretap Briefings

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/08/bob-graham-wiretapping/

EXCLUSIVE: Former Sen. Intel Chair Reports White House Misled About Wiretap Briefings

One of the long-standing deceptions involved with the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program is the White House claim that they fully briefed Congress prior to conducting these activities.

After the domestic surveillance program was revealed in 2005, former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham (D-FL) said that White House briefings that he attended in the Vice President’s office failed to disclose that the administration was spying on Americans:

There was no reference made to the fact that we were going to…begin unwarranted, illegal — and I think unconstitutional — eavesdropping on American citizens.

Shortly thereafter, Cheney fired back at Graham, arguing, “Well that’s not true. knew.” The White House accused him of “misremembering the briefings.”

In a recent interview with ThinkProgress, Sen. Graham told us that, after the controversy erupted in late 2005, the White House provided him with dates when they alleged Graham had been briefed. Graham said he consulted his famous spiral bound notebooks and determined he had not been briefed on these dates:

When I got those dates, I went back to my notebooks and checked and found that on most of the dates there were no meetings held. In fact, in several of them, I wasn’t in Washington when the meetings were supposed to have taken place. So I stand by what I said.

Listen to it at link~

Graham said the White House ultimately acknowledged “we had the wrong dates.” But the deception didn’t end there.

After our interview with Graham, the AP reported a four-page memo authored by then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte which claimed to assert dates on which members of Congress were briefed about the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” The document alleged that Graham was briefed on four dates: October 25, 2001; November 14, 2001; April 10, 2002; and July 8, 2002.

ThinkProgress went back to Graham and asked if he could verify that he was briefed on those dates. Graham said that on two of the dates (10/25/01 and 4/10/02), there were no meetings. On two others (11/14/01 and 7/8/02), he did attend White House meetings, but he stands by his earlier statements that he was never informed about domestic surveillance.

Graham wryly noted, “The White House needs to hire itself an archivist.” His revelations should raise greater concerns about the information the White House has released claiming that members of Congress were fully briefed on the wiretapping program.

[MissWaverly]

1. we need to get to the bottom of this

we can't blame congress if they were never in the loop on this, which is why impeachment is the only option.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. Jay Rockefeller knew. Link below.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/rock-cheney1.html

[never_get_over_it]

6. Speaking of Jay Rockefeller

Do you remember when Pat Roberts was chair of the intelligence committee a few years ago and they finally came out with a report on the intelligence failures regarding the invasion - but it was focused on the intelligence community only - kind of helped with the talking points that it was all some big horrid intelligence mistake and misunderstanding - NOT THAT the White House was cooking the books and cherry picking the evidence - there was suppose to be a follow up report on the White House's role in all this - but Roberts dawdled and said it wasn't necessary or WHATEVER - has our good friend Jay Rockefeller followed up on that - and if not why not and maybe we ought to give his office a call to find out WHERE IS HIS REPORT

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. Excellent point. A few months ago a poster here at DU said that Rockefeller would be getting

that report out soon, and since then heard nothing.

Here is a link to that post
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=367340#367662

[KoKo]

21. He had enough of a conscience to cover his butt putting copy of his letter

in protest in a safe....but he seems to have lost his way. Maybe he thought he'd be held to account and being an "old school dem" thought there would be investigations and he wanted his hands clean.

[Zodiak]

8. I do not like Rockefeller

His voting record looks a lot like Leiberman's.

And he was on the gang of 14 that gave us all those wonderful Bush judicial appointees...along with Leiberman.

I don't trust him.

[babylonsister]

9. I think the balance of that report was released with not much fanfare.

If someone could help us out with what the name of the report was I could research it to be sure.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

13. You're right! It was Phase 2 and released at the end of May 2007. I don't recall seeing this! Link

http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/prewar.pdf

[babylonsister]

14. Yep, phase 2. Thanks for finding that link. nt

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. Your welcome. I have to get to work here but it appears if you go to the summary at

the end, the Dems agreed that that the Intel was cherry picked. In scanning for something, I noticed the the Minority opinions were harping on Ambassador Wilson and Valerie Plame. I'll try and read it all later.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. See my post #13. It was released. The link is there. nt

[never_get_over_it]

18. Thanks

I'll have to take a look at this - don't remember hearing a thing about it - find that interesting because I do most certainly remember the first one when "they" spent a lot of time almost entirely blaming the intel community and making the admin look like total victims of faulty intelligence...

[KoKo]

19. If it helps what I remember is that when it was released there was

still alot of information witheld for security reasons. It got some play in the Liberal Media but there wasn't enough there that wasn't already know to cause much of a stir.

Hope folks can find it...

[spanone]

3. So many lies.....it's hard to fathom an honest government anymore

[seafan]

4. Senator Graham's *weird notebooks* are vindicated.

It was only a matter of time.



EXCLUSIVE: Former Sen. Intel Chair Reports White House Misled About Wiretap Briefings

[creeksneakers2]

11. No wonder Graham kept notes on everything

He's a smart man. I was disappointed that he wasn't chosen as the party's 2004 nominee for president.

[karynnj]

12. My first thought to - it is ironic that they used them to make him look weird

and compulsive. Now, it will be hard to say that his notes were just inaccurate or incomplete.

[TahitiNut]

17. I strongly advise all employees, particularly managers, to keep such notebooks.

If there's a SINGLE practice that separates the 'quick' from the 'dead' in the corporate world, it's the habit of journaling ALL interactions and events one encounters both on the job and in peripheral activities. Even being present during conversations between others should be entered in such a personal journal, if only to "CYA" - because it's virtually certain to be needed. Contemporaneous notes have high evidentiary value - even in a court.

It's important that such a notebook is personal property - I advise folks to buy it (a spiral notebook is satisfactory) themselves (not taking one from the stockroom) and keep the filled journals in a safe place at home.

[MasonJar]

5. I love "that" Senator Graham; I wish he had not decided to retire.

[never_get_over_it]

10. Me too

you know before the invasion I was completely opposed to it and did not believe there were WMDs for TWO reasons - one what Scott Ritter was reporting and two and most importantly the freak in chief is a LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR and I don't believe a word the man says never have....

so somewhere along the line I heard Senator Graham in and interview as much as say that he voted against IWR because they are BIG FAT LIARS - now of course he put it much more diplmatically than I have - but when I heard it I sort of chuckled and said YOU GO BOY!!!!!

[KoKo]

20. Probably he felt it wiser to

get out while he still had his life. I hope one day he writes a memoir based on his notebooks...And, maybe they've been in a secure location.

[Disturbed]

23. YouTube - Sen. Durbin Drops Bombshells on the Senate Floor

YouTube - Sen. Durbin Drops Bombshells on the Senate Floor
Posted to digg from crooks and liars. Save diggers from the ...
Watch video - 2 min 7 sec - Rated 0.0 out of 5.0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8zppehbGWc

[L. Coyote]

22. How high can the lies be piled? More lies to a member of Congress is more felonies.

I guess the old axiom about the first lie is true. Once you cross the threshold, you just have to lie, lie, and lie some more to cover the first lie.