CQ's Tim Starks: HPSCI chairman says CIA lied to Congress.

Letter by 6 House Dems claim Panetta admits CIA misled Congress. "A letter released late Wednesday by six Democratic House members claims that Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta testified that "top CIA officials have concealed significant actions… and misled" members of Congress since 2001 — a claim the CIA is contesting. The letter did not specify what actions were concealed, or how members of Congress were misled. In it, the Democrats demanded that Panetta correct a statement he issued on May 15 – just after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of misleading her during the Bush years about the agency’s use of waterboarding techniques – stating that it is not the CIA’s 'policy or practice to mislead Congress.'”

NYT: Democrats say CIA deceived Congress for years.

In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency had “misled members” of Congress for eight years about the classified matters, which the letter did not disclose. “This is similar to other deceptions of which we are aware from other recent periods,” said the letter, made public late Wednesday by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, one of the signers.

In an interview, Mr. Holt declined to reveal the nature of the C.I.A.’s alleged deceptions,. But he said, “We wouldn’t be doing this over a trivial matter.” ...

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Silvestre Reyes, Democrat of Texas, referred to Mr. Panetta’s disclosure in a letter to the committee’s ranking Republican, Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, Congressional Quarterly reported on Wednesday. Mr. Reyes wrote that the committee “has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one occasion) was affirmatively lied to.”

More from Spencer Ackerman.

And from the AP's Pamela Hess.

Posted by Laura at July 8, 2009 11:39 PM