GOP Rep Thornberry: Panetta Told Us Something CIA Hadn’t Told Congress

[babylonsister]

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/house-republicans/gop-rep-panetta-told-us-something-cia-hadnt-told-congress/

GOP Rep: Panetta Told Us Something CIA Hadn’t Told Congress


I just got off the phone with a GOP Congressman who was in that Intel committee meeting where CIA director Leon Panetta allegedly revealed that his agency had misled Congress for years. It was a cryptic conversation, but the Congressman did confirm that Panetta revealed something to the assembled members of Congress that the agency had not revealed to them before.

“He brought a matter to our attention that had not been brought to the committee’s attention before,” the Congressman, Mac Thornberry, told me.

The claim could be significant, and coming from a Republican it could go some way towards bolstering certain aspects of the assertions being made by Dems. Late yesterday, the news broke that seven Dems on the intel committee charged that in closed-door testimony to their committee, Panetta revealed that the C.I.A. concealed “significant actions” from Congress from 2001 until late last month.

Thornberry would not disclose specifically what Panetta revealed. But he allowed that Panetta had specifically wanted to share new information with the members. “He wanted to discuss a matter that he thought should be brought to our attention,” Thornberry said.

Thornberry cautioned, however, that we shouldn’t conclude Dems had accurately characterized Panetta’s testimony, and questioned the motives of Dems for releasing the info, a move he called a “cheap shot” designed to benefit Nancy Pelosi. The Speaker, of course, got into a big scrape for claiming the CIA lied to her about torture.

However, Thornberry didn’t directly deny the Dems’ characterization of Panetta’s testimony, either. Asked directly if the Dems’ claim was accurate, Thornberry at first said he didn’t remember. When pressed, he then said it was not his “impression” that Panetta said what Dems claimed.

Separately, one of the Dem Reps present at the meeting told HuffPo’s Sam Stein that when Panetta shared his info with the committee, everyone was stunned, “even Republicans.” Time to ask more questions of the Republicans on the committee.

[libertypirate]

1. Welstone -- Is it time to arrest Dick yet? /nt

[choie]

2. How do we Americans continue

to allow the president, congress, cia and nsa to continue keeping us in the dark about what they are doing in our name? Why do we permit it?