Secret Counter-Terrorism" Program Uncovered

Dick Cheney kept Congress in dark over CIA counterterrorism action Guardian UK — The former US vice president Dick Cheney directed the CIA not to inform Congress about a counterterrorism programme that the CIA director, Leon Panetta, ended last month, according to revelations by US intelligence officials. The programme, the nature of which is not known, was set up eight years ago after the 9/11 attacks, reported the New York Times, citing a former intelligence official and another government official familiar with Panetta's briefing to the House and Senate intelligence committees on 24 June. click to read complete article

Democrats Say C.I.A. Deceived Congress New York Times — The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed “significant actions” from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said. 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. click to read complete article

Cheney 'silenced CIA over spy plan' Aljazeera — Dick Cheney, the former US vice-president, deliberately withheld details of a secret CIA spy programme from the US congress for eight years, a newspaper has reported. Cheney, who was vice-president to George Bush between 2001 and January this year, ordered the CIA not to tell congress of a new "counter-terrorism" programme, The New York Times reported on Saturday. click to read complete article