Like a good boss, Leon Panetta is wanting to cover for his people, but - via TalkingPointsMemo - Greg Sargent notes that Leon Panetta's statement is less than an unequivocal denial:
But Panetta is also amplifying and repeating the agency's refusal to promise that the recently-released documents offer a reliable version of how and when members of Congress were briefed on the use of torture techniques.
Panetta sent a note today to CIA employees, which you can read right here. Here's the key part:
Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values. As the Agency indicated previously in response to Congressional inquiries, our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing "the enhanced techniques that had been employed." Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened.
That's pushback against Pelosi, to be sure. But that's not all it is. The agency also restated the agency's earlier unwillingness to vouch for the overall reliability of what the docs say about what happened. He's saying, in effect, that only Congress can determine the truth about what members of Congress were told.
That's not a call for a Congressional probe. But it does seem like a suggestion that such a probe is the only way the truth can be established. If nothing else, the CIA is redoubling its efforts to distance itself from the political charges some are making - on the basis of CIA info - about who knew what and when about torture.
But as Sargent notes in his earlier link, the Panetta's reiterated that the accuracy of the CIA's records has to be verified. Considering how many visits Vice President Dick Cheney made to the CIA to successfully fix the intelligence that he wanted in the runup to the Iraq war, the accuracy of the CIA's contemperaneous records is questionable, particularly when Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Sen. Bob Graham have called the accuracy into question as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
This is yet another reason for a full investigation into the torture and coverup by the Bush administration. If Democrats also were complicit, so be it. I've stated before this is an issue that rises above mere politics. But at this point, the efforts by the rightwingers are nothing more than an attempt to play politics, hoping that attempts to link Democrats to the scandal will create a poison pill. So far, and this is highly indicative that the rightwinger's effort is failing, Pelosi, Rockefeller and Graham welcome that investigation.
Attorney General Eric Holder should appoint a special prosecutor immediately. I recommend due to his experience and expertise it should be U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald who has shown in the past he pursues a case regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats were involved.
Update: Think Progress has an excellent piece on how the rightwingers have miscalculated, thinking they could shut down investigations by trying to drag Pelosi and other Democrats into the debate:
For weeks, conservatives have been launching hypocritical and disingenuous attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) regarding her level of knowledge of the Bush administration's torture program.
Fox News conservatives are revealing one of the underlying motives for these attacks - to diminish calls for a truth commission on torture.
snip
Pelosi has been clear that recent questions about her level of knowledge about Bush's torture program only add more - not less - need for an investigation to take place. "Until a truth commission comes into being, I encourage the appropriate committees of the House to conduct vigorous oversight of these issues," Pelosi said.
If conservatives were being honest about their criticisms, they'd be taking up Pelosi's desire for a full investigation, an inquiry that would not only examine what members of Congress knew but also the prominent role Cheney played in authorizing illegal acts.
The rightwingers are terrified about what will come out which is why they are desperate to stop it by dragging in Democrats. Pelosi and Rockefeller are for full investigations and if they did something wrong, they'd have the most to lose by such inquiries. Yet they're for them. Why other Democrats are fearful of the truth coming out is a mystery. |
