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ZOMG! A Congressperson Accuses CIA of Lying to Congress

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Picture 189Just take a look at these traitorous accusations a certain Congressperson made about the CIA yesterday:

misleading and some might say lying to Congress by the intel community

The [intelligence] community covered it up,

this committee can’t do its job if you don’t share information with us

What is the community unwilling to share with this committee? What policies can’t pass public scrutiny or pass the scrutiny of this committee?

ZOMG! Congressperson, you just accused the CIA of lying to Congress!! You can’t do that!! Remember what Crazy Pete Hoekstra said about such disloyal accusations when beating up on Nancy Pelosi this spring!

She made some outrageous accusations last week where she said that the CIA lied to her and lied systematically over a period of years. That is a very, very serious charge.

It is downright outrageous that a Congressperson would make such brash accusations. Last spring, Crazy Pete even suggested that making such outrageous accusations might require the Congressperson making such claims resign.

Crazy Pete? Will you please tell Crazy Pete that he should stop making such accusations about CIA lying to Congress?

Or better yet, perhaps you can just admit that CIA has systematically lied to Congress, both about the CIA shoot-down of a missionary plane in Peru, and about torture.

HOEKSTRA:Then just kind of speak for a couple of minutes. I want to kind of change the tone a little bit. And I want to talk about accountability.

I want to talk about the inability of the community to hold itself accountable for its performance. And what I see an increasing — from my perspective, an increasing demonstration that this community is unwilling to be held accountable by — by Congress and this committee.

How do I come to this conclusion?

You know we are coming to a — to a close on a very painful chapter in the intel community, the shoot down of Americans, the death of a mother and a daughter in Peru almost nine years ago. The accountability board has recently finished its work. But if there’s ever an example of justice delayed, justice denied, this is it.

The justice — or the accountability board was impaneled to investigate the wrongful deaths of these two Americans, misleading and some might say lying to Congress by the intel community. Read more →

Crazy Pete Hoekstra Called On His Efforts to Profit Off of Terrorism

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I was in my holiday lull last week when the man who wants to be my Governor, Crazy Pete Hoekstra, callously tried to fundraise off of an attempted attack on a flight bound for Michigan.

My promise to you, as your governor, my first duty and most solemn responsibility is to keep Michigan safe!

For almost a decade I have been a leader on National Security and at the forefront of the war on terror. I understand the real and continuing threat radical jihadists pose to our great state of Michigan and our great Nation.

I have pledged that I will do “everything possible” to prevent these terrorists from coming to Michigan.

But I need your help.

If you agree that we need a Governor who will stand up the Obama/Pelosi efforts to weaken our security please make a most generous contribution of $25, $50, $100 or even $250 to my campaign.

Thankfully, for a change, the TradMed was not lulled by Crazy Pete’s fear-mongering. Here’s Terry Moran asking Crazy Pete why he tried to profit off of an attempted terrorist attack aimed at Michigan.

Someone should have told Crazy Pete that filibustering as shamelessly as he did here is a skill best used in the Senate, not in the Governor’s mansion.

Crazy Pete Hoekstra Throws Hissy Fit, Chases Jobs from Michigan

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Well, this is a mighty auspicious accomplishment from Congressman and Gubernatorial-wannabe Crazy Pete Hoekstra. By throwing a hissy fit opposing moving Gitmo detainees to Standish, MI, he has officially chased possible jobs guarding Gitmo detainees to Illinois.

Check out how much the letter from Hillary and Bob Gates to Governor Quinn informing him formally the government is going to buy the prison at  emphasizes how cooperative Illinois has been.

On November 12,2009, you wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Attorney General Eric Holder proposing that the Federal Government work with the State of Illinois to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center to house Federal inmates and a limited number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We appreciate the leadership and assistance you and Senator Dick Durbin have provided during our evaluation of this proposal. We also would like to thank Thomson Village President Jerry “Duke” Hebeler and the people of Thomson and the surrounding region for their support and hospitality.

We write to inform you that the President has directed, with our unanimous support, that the Federal Government proceed with the acquisition of the facility in Thomson. Not only will this help address the urgent overcrowding problem at our nation’s Federal prisons, but it will also help achieve our goal of closing the detention center at Guantanamo in a timely, secure, and lawful manner.

[snip]

Federal officials also have consulted with local, county, and state law enforcement authorities to begin the process of identifying additional resources they may require to handle the increased population of Federal inmates and detainees. We are pleased that Illinois law enforcement authorities endorsed this plan in a letter to the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General dated December 2,2009. We also note that more than 30 villages, towns, cities, counties, chambers of commerce, and other community and business organizations have sent letters, approved resolutions, or otherwise expressed their support for this plan. We are greatly encouraged by this support, and we commit to working with local authorities closely as this process moves forward. [my emphasis]

You see, Crazy Pete? Not only did you ruin the opportunity to save jobs in Standish, MI, but you’ve made Michiganders look like cads by comparison.

Crazy Pete Hoekstra’s NSA Dirty Work and Nidal Hasan

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I’m almost ready to post my next working thread on the EFF documents. But pages 121 through 125 of the OLC2 set deserves its own post.

It’s basically an email from Chris Donesa, a Republican HPSCI staffer, to a bunch of people at DNI, DOJ, and NSA who had been involved in the Protect America Act passage, followed by a letter Crazy Pete Hoekstra sent to NYT’s Bill Keller. He includes the message, “Happy Tuesday to all” as the only explanation.

The copy of Crazy Pete’s letter in the EFF documents is hard to read, but luckily Crazy Pete sent a copy to Human Events, too. Crazy Pete’s letter is, in turn, a response to an editorial the NYT ran after Congress caved on the PAA and a James Risen article reporting on what the legislation actually did.

Crazy Pete claims to refute the editorial and (more importantly) the Risen article.

Only, the EFF document dump makes it clear that Crazy Pete is, um, lying his ass off.

Every single one of Crazy Pete’s “refutations” completely avoid the charges made by the NYT, even while hiding the now provable fact that the NYT was absolutely correct. For example, this “refutation:”

• Misstatement and Exaggeration: “[T]he court’s only role will be to review and approve the procedures used by the government in the surveillance after it has been conducted.”

o Facts: This is a false and selective characterization of the plain provisions of the law.  Third parties who are asked to assist the intelligence community under the law may challenge the legality of any directive by filing a petition with the FISA Court.

Much of the discussion leading up to passage of PAA, we now know, involved preventing prior court review at all cost. Read more →

Crazy Pete Hoekstra Remembers the Separation of Powers

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Omigod did Crazy Pete just accuse DOJ officials of lying?!?!?!?!?! But I thought only Nancy Pelosi did that!!!

Actually, he’s absolutely right on this count. (h/t scribe) If DOJ officials refuse to testify under oath that the Bush Administration has already lied to Congress about, then I’d say their testimony should not be considered valid.

A House intelligence committee meeting was abruptly terminated when Justice Department officials refused to be sworn in before briefing the lawmakers.

[snip]

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Justice employees "have previously briefed committee staff on this matter and were prepared to provide a similar informal briefing to committee members."

[snip]

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., the top Republican on the committee, questioned Wednesday why the Justice officials refused to be sworn in. "Why is Attorney General Eric Holder afraid of having Justice Department employees be required to tell the truth?" Hoekstra said.

Obviously, Crazy Pete is a raging hypocrite on this score, having not been bothered in the least by Bush officials’ lies before Congress, to say nothing of their complete unwillingness to testify. 

But it is a fair point.

Crazy Pete Hoekstra: Obama Must Torture

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Crazy Pete Hoekstra (and his side-kick, John Shadegg) lives up to his nick-name with this op-ed today in the right wing Washington Times.

He argues that the increased fatalities in Afghanistan stem from a lack of intelligence. And from that claim, he argues that Obama has to abandon the Army Field Manual–basically, he’s calling for a return to the torture regime implemented by the Bush Administration.

For our troops to succeed and protect themselves, it is urgent that we step up our intelligence collection. Regrettably, Obama administration policies are undermining the collection of intelligence against terrorist activities worldwide, but especially in Afghanistan. 

[snip]

Despite the effectiveness of CIA interrogation of senior al Qaeda suspects, last August President Obama stripped the CIA of responsibility for such interrogations and handed it to an interagency team to be led by the FBI and monitored by the White House. This multiagency interrogation bureaucracy will be restricted to using interrogation techniques in the Army Field Manual. It is certain to be much less effective in obtaining crucial and timely intelligence needed to protect our troops. 

Hoekstra claims that Obama has contributed to low morale, citing as proof a letter written by seven guys who no longer work at CIA.

For example, the risk of being investigated and prosecuted for working on counterterrorism programs is causing CIA officers to flee from such jobs or leave the CIA entirely. This was made clear by a bipartisan Sept. 18 letter from seven former CIA directors. It noted the "distraction and devastating impact" that reopening an investigation into enhanced interrogation of al Qaeda suspects is having on "CIA morale, America’s counterterrorism efforts and our foreign intelligence partnerships." 

But wait!! See those quotation marks, implying that the CIA ex-Directors said precisely those words? Do you see those words in their actual letter?  Nope–me neither, not even searching for those words in a searchable PDF. In fact, the word "morale" doesn’t even appear in the letter.

That, Congressman Hoekstra, is called "making shit up." You can quote me on it.

And speaking of "making shit up," Hoekstra claims that Nancy Pelosi, "has accused CIA officers of being pathological liars."

Um. No. She said they did not tell her that they were in the business of waterboarding–sort of like when Crazy Pete himself complained that the CIA didn’t tell him about certain covert programs. And Porter Goss, who was in that briefing, does not disagree with Pelosi.

Read more →

Breaking! Crazy Pete Hoekstra Wants to Refuse New Jobs for Michiganders

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picture-121.thumbnail.pngJust saw this on Twitter:

petehoekstra If press reports on moving Gitmo detainees to Mich are accurate my answer is no. I will do everything possible to stop this.

Mind you, John Engler, Carl Levin, and Bart Stupak have all spoken favorably of moving Gitmo detainees to Michigan. Bipartisan support! And why not? We’ve got the empty prisons, the remote areas. And lots and lots of Michiganders who need a job.

But Crazy Pete apparently thinks he needs to fearmonger on terrorism more than Michiganders need jobs (or America needs to restore its reputation internationally).

And he wants to run for Governor of Michigan?

Update: I’ve put a map of where the prison in question is located–basically the pointer finger knuckle, in mitten-speak. 

Crazy Pete Hoekstra’s Pre-Emptive Disavowal of C Street

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Crazy Pete Hoekstra, who will use Dick DeVos’ almost unlimited funds to run for MI Governor next year, has pre-emptively admitted, but disavowed, C Street.

Hoekstra said he stopped attending meetings about two years ago, saying he’d gotten what he needed out of his visits. While never living at C Street, he was a regular for about seven years at a dinner-fellowship every Tuesday.

"We’d fellowship, we’d pray, we’d talk about Jesus, and we’d eat," Hoekstra said. "In the headiness of Washington, D.C., it’s trying to make sure you keep your head screwed on straight."

Now, frankly, I hadn’t even realized Crazy Pete was a member of this group, and I could swear I’ve checked once (he is definitely their "type"). So it surprises me a bit to see Crazy Pete offering up his ties to the group.

Obviously, his upcoming gubernatorial run may be part of that. MI has its share of conservatives who like to advocate authoritarianism in the name of Christ (and the U.P.’s Bart Stupak is one of the Democrats who lives at C Street).  But MI still has the remnants of a sane Republican party, it has open primaries, and it has a big number of independents and Dems who would detect the stench of the group.

In other words, it’s not necessarily a state where crazy religious ties helps in a state-wide election.

I’m wondering, too, whether Leisha Pickering’s suit against Chip Pickering’s new gal has anything to do with this. Leisha Pickering has submitted a secret diary in which Chip documented his affair, and named those members of the Family who facilitated his affair.

While former Rep. Chip Pickering of Mississippi allegedly carried on an extramarital affair with Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd, he recorded details of his exploits in a secret diary, including the dates and locations of his adulterous encounters.

Pickering, a Republican, described several assignations he had with Creekmore Byrd inside the C Street House, a Capitol Hill townhouse inhabited by an all-male group of right-wing Republican congressmen belonging to The Fellowship, an evangelical group, according to a person familiar with the diary’s contents.

And according to a divorce filing by Pickering’s estranged wife, Leisha, the former congressman’s diary reveals the identities of several men who enabled his adulterous trysts and helped him cover his tracks.

Pickering resigned in August 2007, just under two years ago. If the diary precipitated the divorce, then it may end about two Read more →

Bill Leonard: Congress Is Responsible for CIA Not Informing Them

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Bill Leonard makes an important point about the HPSCI investigation into whether or not the CIA is adequately informing Congress.

No matter the seriousness of the challenge, some politicians, members of the media, pundits, et. al. insist on reducing issues of grave importance to a "left vs. right" or "tough vs. soft on terrorism" didacticism. This week’s announcement by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) that it has opened an investigation into whether the Bush administration violated the law by not notifying Congress of certain classified intelligence programs, to include an alleged program to assassinate key al-Qaeda leaders, is the latest example.

In many regards, the substance of the program is irrelevant. However, if the latest fuss is, in fact, about an alleged covert program to assassinate key al-Qaeda leaders in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, once again you do have to wonder from whom the "covert" nature of the program was intended to keep its existence secret. Clearly not the al-Qaeda leaders who knew they would be hunted down, as Bush himself said, "dead or alive." That’s why so many of them have chosen to live the rest of their lives holed up in a cave somewhere.

What is relevant is that much of the controversy is of Congress’ own doing. In an interview with the Washington Post, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said agency officials may not have been required to notify Congress about the program, though he believes they should have done so."It was a judgment call," Blair said in the Post interview. "We believe in erring on the side of working with the Hill as a partner."

Blair is absolutely right, it is a "judgment call" but only because Congress made it one by giving the executive a loophole through which anyone could drive a Mack truck, even one loaded with numerous CIA assassination teams. As I wrote about earlier, while the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, requires the President to make sure the intelligence committees “are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity,” the statute goes on to state that such briefings should be done “to the extent consistent with due regard for the protection from unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to sensitive intelligence sources and methods or other exceptionally sensitive matters.” Read more →

Was Porter Goss Briefed on Things Pelosi and Harman Weren’t?

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I decided recently that it was time to re-read George Tenet’s book.

And given all the recent discussion about CIA briefings, I was a little surprised to see this paragraph pertaining to early discussions with the UK on the Iraq war.

In May of 2002, my counterpart in Great Britain, the head of MI-6, Sir Richard Dearlove, traveled to Washington along with Prime Minister Blair’s then national security advisor, David Manning, to take Washington’s temperature on Iraq. Sir Richard met with Rice, Hadley, Scooter Libby, and Congressman Porter Goss, who was then chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. (309) [my emphasis]

The paragraph almost appears to be a non-sequitur. The previous paragraphs discuss the series of meetings in 2002 that discussed the challenges of war in Iraq, without first addressing the question of "whether" war in Iraq was a good idea. Then the two paragraphs directly preceding this one pose the question, "When did you know for sure that we were going to war in Iraq"–but they focus on July 2002, not May. And the paragraphs following this one discuss the July 2002 Downing Street Memos amd Dearlove’s explanation to Tenet that he had concluded at the July 2002 meeting that war was "inevitable." (They also describe Dearlove disputing Libby’s allegations of a tie between al Qaeda and Iraq.)

So ostensibly, at least, this paragraph about May 2002 might be there for contrast–the previous meetings with which Dearlove was comparing the July 2002 meetings, after which he concluded there had been a "perceptible shift" and the war was definitely going to happen. Except that Tenet offers no details about what was said at that May 2002 meeting (note, Tenet did not apparently attend). 

And regardless of the content of the meeting, what was Porter Goss doing at a meeting with the National Security Advisor, the Deputy National Security Advisor, Cheney’s henchman, and the UK’s chief spook? Was he representing "the temperature" of those in Congress on a potential Iraq war? Or was he participating in the Administration’s early planning for that war?

I raise that question because of all the recent discussions about CIA briefings of Congress. This meeting occurred, of course, just as the Administration was implementing its torture program for Abu Zubaydah. CIA originally claimed that Bob Graham had been briefed on torture, twice, the previous month (April 2002). Read more →