Friday, May 15, 2009

CIA Director Contradicts Pelosi

(Welcome visitors from Instapundit. You may also be interested to read Supporters' Follow-Up Make Things Worse For Pelosi.

And thanks, Glenn.)


A day after Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of lying to her and misleading the Congress, former Clinton White Chief of Staff and current CIA Director Leon Panetta fired back disputing her claims.

The Hill reported just minutes ago - - -

CIA Director Leon Panetta challenged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s accusations that the agency lied to her, writing a memo to his agents saying she received nothing but the truth.

Panetta said that "ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened."

Pelosi infuriated Republicans this week when she said in a press conference that she was "misled" by CIA officials during a briefing in 2002 about whether the U.S. was waterboarding alleged terrorist detainees.

Panetta, President Obama's pick to run the clandestine agency and President Clinton's former chief of staff, wrote in a memo to CIA employees Friday that "CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing 'the enhanced techniques that had been employed,'" according to CIA records.

"We are an agency of high integrity, professionalism and dedication," Panetta said in the memo. "Our task is to tell it like it is — even if that’s not what people always want to hear. Keep it up. Our national security depends on it." …

The rest of The Hill’s report’s here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is no love lost between me and the CIA, having worked for both Army Intelligence and Navy Antiterrorist Alert Center, my estimate of the CIA is that it is a bunch of elitist ivy-leaguers who occasionally get it right. But on this issue, I stand firmly with the Langley spooks. After Pelosi accused the agency of lying and misleading, I believe the CIA will begin leaking memos and other information which will make Pelosi look a greater fool than she looks now--if that's possible.
When one considers the level of corruption and lack of common sense in our elected representatives, Pelosi makes THEM look good by comparison. I hope the Dems leave her in the speaker's job forever because she's a gift that keeps giving to the GOP.
Tarheel Hawkeye

Danvers said...

It seems to me that America no longer has any people who are capable of leading the country; or is it just that Americans have sold out on their birthright and are now getting the leadership they deserve?

Anonymous said...

This is the same old song and dance Democrats turned to when the war became unpopular. They were lied to by President Bush. He tricked them. Now it's the CIA that lied to them. They were tricked you see.

It worked beautifully in 2006 and there's every reason for Pelosi to try it again. Repeat it enough and soon Democrat voters will actually believe it's the truth.