 |
Calls grow for probe of CIA hit team plan Cheney concealed
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The program was canceled last month by CIA Director Leon Panetta shortly after he himself first learned of it.
Some Democratic lawmakers suggested the failure to notify the congressional intelligence committees violated the oversight laws, which require the intelligence community to keep Congress informed of its activities.
The leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said that House and Senate intelligence committees should “take whatever actions they believe are necessary to get more information on the subject,” including whether Cheney played a direct role in proposing the secret program and withholding information from Congress.
Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat, joining the ranks of those calling for a thorough investigations, said, “Individuals who ordered that Congress be kept in the dark should be held accountable.” Feingold said he had “deep concerns about the program itself,” adding that he had written to President Barack Obama to ask for the probe.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat and the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said that being kept in the dark by the CIA broke the law and “should never, ever happen again.” But defenders of Cheney suggested that no laws were broken because the counterterrorism program never got beyond the talking stage.
However, the issue might come down to whether any tax dollars were spent on the planning -- and thus subject to congressional scrutiny.
It presented a delicate dilemma for the Obama administration, which so far has steered clear of joining congressional calls for thoroughly investigating controversial intelligence-community actions under President George W. Bush and Cheney and prosecuting those who broke the law.
Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman, continued on this careful path on Monday, saying Panetta was reviewing how keeping the information from congressional intelligence leaders “came to pass and I think that's wise.”
“The president believes that Congress should always be briefed fully and in a timely manner in accordance with the law. Those are his beliefs as it relates to any of these programs,” Gibbs said.
As to a related controversy, reports that Attorney General Eric Holder may be leaning toward having a criminal prosecutor look into whether US interrogators tortured terror suspects, Gibbs repeated Obama's earlier statement that “our efforts are better focused looking forward than looking back.”
Gibbs said the president as well as the attorney general and others in the administration “all agree that anyone who followed the law, that was acting in the good faith of the guidance that they were provided within the four corners of the law, will not and should not be prosecuted.”
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| The modern ‘Great Game’: women’s role and status | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
| KATHY HAMILTON |  |
||
| Random acts of violence | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| Adding insult to injury in Uludere | |||
| NICOLE POPE |  |
||
| Shifting responsibility | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| ‘Errorism’ | |||
| ORHAN MİROĞLU |  |
||
| ‘Strategic vision’ | |||
| ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ |  |
||
| Turkey through Amnesty International’s eyes | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
