House Intelligence Committee » The Republican Temple

Jim sent this in:

Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, criticized a decision by the Department of Justice to bar its briefers from attending an Intelligence Committee briefing scheduled for Wednesday on the CIA Peru shoot-down incident. He also faulted committee Democrats for the ham-fisted manner in which they tried to handle the briefing.

“Once again the Obama administration is stonewalling the intelligence committee and rebuffing the committee’s Democratic leadership,” Hoekstra said. “From closing Gitmo, to interrogation and detainee policy, to a number of questionable national security decisions, the administration has refused to appear before the committee to explain its rationale or answer any questions.

“The breakdown of intelligence oversight due to the deep mistrust between the intelligence community, the Holder Justice Department and congressional Democrats is cause for growing concern. It certainly has hurt the ability of this committee to get the job done.”

Yesterday’s briefing by the Justice Department into its review of the CIA Inspector General’s report into the tragic shoot down of a missionary plane over Peru that led to the deaths of two innocent Americans was canceled after committee Democrats insisted the briefers be sworn-in. Rather than take an oath, the Justice Department pulled out of the briefing despite the fact that, oath or not, witnesses are required by law to testify truthfully before Congress.

“There is a disturbing pattern that has emerged of the Obama administration refusing or finding reasons to refuse to share information with Congress,” Hoekstra said.

“While I think the oath demand was unnecessary, I don’t agree that, given the law, it provides a reasonable basis for which to refuse to do an agreed-upon briefing. Why is Attorney General Eric Holder afraid of having Justice Department employees be required to tell the truth? Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration are clearly not on the same page when it comes to intelligence, and the administration is using their differences to avoid meaningful attempts to provide oversight,” he said.

Hoekstra went on to add that his committee staff has been informed that the Democrats are in discussions to re-schedule the briefing or possibly turn it into a hearing, but he said that does not excuse the mishandling of the briefing scheduled for today.

“The Intelligence Committee has a solemn responsibility to the American people and this Congress, and it’s hard to argue that the responsibility is being kept at the moment.”

Filed under: Temple Tidbits, The Red Skinny

Tags: Democrats, Department of Justice, House Intelligence Committee, infighting, intelligence briefings

Jim sent this in:

US Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, issued a biting statement to the National Association of Chiefs of Police after learning that the Department of Justice will continue its investigation of terrorist interrogations and that Attorney General Eric Holder is intent on naming a special prosecutor to investigate CIA officers engaged in counterterrorism.

“At the same time the situation in Afghanistan is getting decidedly worse and the Taliban is advancing, the Obama Justice Department is launching an investigation that risks disrupting CIA counterterrorism initiatives. This is the last thing that should happen when the president is sending more troops into harm’s way, and the nation’s top military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said over the weekend that al-Qaeda still remains a threat to America and our interests abroad,” stated Congressman Hoekstra.

“Attorney General Holder should know that as he increases the focus on America’s past counterterrorism efforts, he is distracting from the CIA’s current counterterrorism efforts. Having recently been forced to drop cases due to prosecutorial misconduct at DOJ, the attorney general argued that these were rare instances and not part of a broader problem. The same can be said of the CIA, where the agency initiated the investigation, reported cases of misconduct and disciplined the officers involved,” he said.

“President Obama has said repeatedly that he wants to move forward, but his Justice Department seems intractably stuck in reverse. The message from the administration is completely confused, and the men and women at the CIA who we ask to protect our nation have been left in the lurch. The attorney general needs to stop his zealous attempt to make this out to be a systemic problem, when unlike cases such as the 2001 Peru shoot down, the CIA IG did not find evidence that there was a systemic problem. Disgruntled lawyers at DOJ, having lost the debate that America’s counterterrorism efforts should be focused on prevention not prosecution, need to put an end to this bureaucratic turf battle,” Hoekstra stated.

Groups such as Amnesty International, Code Pick and others are applauding Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate cases brought to the Department of Justice against members of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The premise of this questionable investigation is the allegations of misconduct by interrogators who questioned suspected terrorist leaders and their foot soldiers.

According to the CIA’s inspector general’s report, during Bush-era interrogations of suspects, CIA agents carried out mock executions — although no one was physically harmed — and the agents made threats of violent torture.

“It is important to note that incidences of inappropriate, unauthorized conduct cited in the 2004 IG report were dealt with. The unauthorized conduct has been exhaustively reviewed in the past, including by the committee. That the Obama administration apparently is planning to reopen these cases after thorough review by nonpartisan prosecutors raises serious questions” said Congressman Hoekstra.

“The American people have made it clear, they want the CIA to focus on exactly what its mission should be — disrupting and defeating our nation’s enemies and preventing the next attack,” Hoekstra said in closing.

“Attorney General Holder has been biting at the bit since he took office in January to go after someone — anyone — regarding what he views as torture, although the IG’s report reveals there were only threats of doing physical harm to the terrorists and their associates,” said former NYPD Det. Sid Frances, a former intelligence officer.

The timing of this news is suspect, as well. Obama’s having trouble with his left-wing supporters and with this move by Holder, the Obama Administration is throwing them a bone to keep them from deserting him during his push to pass a health care bill,” said the decorated detective and former Marine.

Filed under: Temple Tidbits, The Red Skinny

Tags: CIA, counterterrorism, Eric Holder, House Intelligence Committee, National Association of Chiefs of Police, Pete Hoekstra

The very last thing that the Central Intelligence Agency needs right now is to be ostracized by at least one Democrat – in this case House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But Pelosi, unwittingly or not, has someone who is helping herin questioning the CIA’s ways of conducting business – one Silvestre Reyes (D-TX).

Reyes is head of the House Intelligence Committee; on Tuesday, he sent a letter to the panel’s top Republican, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), expressing concerns that he has about the agency’s truthfulness. In the letter, Reyes says that he believes “this Committee has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one case) was affirmatively lied to.”

It is rather interesting – and maybe a coincidence – that there is a debate on an intelligence authorization bill on Thursday (tomorrow). Reyes also, in an interview with FOX News, said that he was concerned about the Republicans cornering Pelosi on the interrogation issue. No kidding Mr. Reyes. Pelosi made an outright accusation naming the CIA, so of course the GOP is going to be after her.

And the Republicans have said as much, indicating that they intend to make Pelosi and her allegations that the CIA misled her a central part of the intelligence legislation debate. So in essence, the letter that Reyes wrote to Hoekstra was by and large a waste of time, effort and writing paper. I don’t think that he realizes what he got himself into here. and as for Pelosi, I predict that she will have hell to pay for her allegations against the CIA.

Filed under: Temple Tidbits

Tags: CIA, House Intelligence Committee, Nancy Pelosi, Silvestre Reyes

Methinks that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have to straighten out her halo. See, here is the situation. Pelosi has flip-flopped recently on whether she attended briefings conducted by the CIA, which involved waterboarding and its usage as an interrogation tactic. Interestingly enough, she has decided to use a tried and true tactic that the Democrats have become masters at. She is now blaming the CIA for allegedly misleading Congress about its use of enhanced interrogation techniques.

What she said is rather telling:

“Yes I am saying the CIA was misleading the Congress and at the same time the (Bush) administration was misleading the Congress on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, to which I said that this intelligence doesn’t support the imminent threat. Every step of the way the administration was misleading the Congress and that is the issue and that’s why we need a truth commission.”

Oh, there’s more folks; it gets better.

Pelosi said that she was only briefed once on the interrogation methods in September 2002 and admitted that her intelligence aide informed her of another briefing 5 months later in which Bush officials said that waterboarding was used on Al-Qaida leader Abu Zabaydah.
Pelosi also said that she supported a letter put together by Rep. Jane Harman (CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee who also attended the briefing in February 2003, and sent to the Bush administration – raising concern over the technique.
She also said last month that she was never told that the interrogation methods were being used, despite a national intelligence report which showed that she was briefed 7 years ago on the techniques while she was a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

So you see folks, there are many holes in Pelosi’s story. She, at last count, has changed her story 5 times – which should tell you everything there is to know about Pelosi. And to be honest with you here, it seems to me that she is simply trying to cover her ass as it looks like she is obviously hiding something.

It is high time that she is served a subpoena under oath and spill the beans. by the way, the CIA is sticking to what they have shared thus far, which is that they have documentation that proves that Pelosi was complicit. And assuming that Pelosi is lying here, then it is time to then commence impeachment proceedings. Last time I checked, lying to Congress is grounds for impeachment.

Filed under: Temple Tidbits, The Sermon

Tags: Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaida, CIA, Congress, House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman, Nancy Pelosi, waterboarding