No Obligation to Disclose What You Don't Do

Written by Elise Cooper on Tuesday July 14, 2009

Was the CIA wrong for not informing Congress about a covert program to kill Al-Qaeda terrorists? Absolutely not say all those interviewed by NewMajority.

Once again the Democrats are going after the intelligence community by exaggerating an issue.  There were Pelosi’s accusations, the Justice Department plans for prosecution, and now the leak about a CIA covert action program. The Democrats on the Congressional Intelligence Committee wrote a letter to Panetta about the supposed CIA misconduct and leaked that letter and Panetta’s letter of notification to the press. NewMajority was able to interview some former CIA officials and the ranking Republican member of the Congressional Intelligence Committee, Congressman Peter Hoekstra.

Representative Hoekstra told NewMajority that the Democrats are becoming “keystone cops.”  He explained that the Democrats' letter of June 26th to Panetta was put on plain stationary.  If they had sent it with a Congressional letterhead they would have had to immediately send the Republicans on the committee a copy.  Instead, he and the other Republicans heard about it from the press.  When he asked the Democrats about it their response was “who told you?”

This happened again on July 13th when a letter was slipped under the door of his chief of staff's office after everyone had gone home.  Once again he found out about the contents from the media. (The letter called for a complete investigation into these so called wrongdoings.)  Congressman Hoekstra noted that the Democrats have “decided to work through the intelligence committee through the media… The Democrats are playing with our national security to promote their political agenda.  It is really pathetic.”

NewMajority sources implied that the issue is former Vice-President Cheney’s decision to ask the CIA not to brief Congress on a covert program to kill Al-Qaeda terrorists. Everyone interviewed concurred that nothing was done wrong since nothing was actually done.  Representative Hoekstra explained if the CIA conceptualizes it to see if it is workable and practicable, then in his opinion “that does not really arrive to the scale that says I need to know about it.  I want the CIA to consider all ideas.  I don’t need to know every idea that they (the CIA) came up with but I do want to know which ones they implement and Congress better be informed of what’s happening.”

Was the CIA wrong for not informing Congress regarding this issue?  Absolutely not say all those interviewed.  One former operative stated that the CIA considers a lot of plans but “90% of those ideas are never implemented.” Two former CIA officials stated that the “bottom line is the OP didn’t get past the planning stages and unfortunately the Democrats jumped on it to help buoy the Speaker.  Given the nature of the OP and because it didn’t go live, I don’t believe there was ever a requirement to brief the gang.”

It appears that the Obama administration and the Democrats are playing bad cop-good cop regarding their actions toward the CIA.  Congressman Hoekstra goes a step farther saying its “bad cop-bad cop.“  He points out that Eric Holder is now talking about prosecuting some CIA employees and noted that “Obama needs to stand up to these members of his party.  He needs to say we are not going to prosecute.  Eric Holder, last I checked, works for the President and the President should stop all of this.”

The bottom line is that there was no need to brief Congress, but if one looks at this past week, can Congress be trusted not to play partisan politics with America’s national security?  Congressman Hoekstra stated that the Democrats “are accusing the CIA of developing plans to kill Al-Qaeda.  Isn’t that what they are supposed to do?  The bad CIA, they developed plans to kill Al-Qaeda people; they crossed the line now.”  A high ranking former CIA official explained that “once Congress was notified by Panetta, within days they started leaking the program demonstrating the wisdom of not briefing them.”

All those interviewed agreed that the Democrats are playing partisan politics.  Congressman Hoekstra summed up their feelings when he stated that “99.9% of the people in the intelligence community are risking their lives and putting in long hours every day to keep America safe and for them to be hounded and to be characterized by the speaker and chairman of the HouseIntelligence Committee is despicable.”

Category: News