Jane Harman: What the CIA hid from Congress

[babylonsister]

What the CIA hid from Congress

Were members of congressional intelligence committees told everything about the Bush administration's surveillance programs? Not even close, reveals Jane Harman.
By Jane Harman
July 25, 2009


As ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee from 2003 to 2006, I was part of the so-called Gang of Eight -- a group made up of the House and Senate leaders plus the chairs and ranking members of the two chambers' intelligence committees that is required by law to be briefed on the CIA's "covert" action programs.

Those briefings were conducted roughly quarterly at the White House -- either in the vice president's office or the Situation Room. Most of the ones I attended concerned a code-named program now known as the Terrorist Surveillance Program. Respectful of the double oath I signed to protect highly classified material, I did not take notes or speak to anyone about the meetings. However, comments by Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency and the CIA, that the Gang of Eight was "fully" briefed on the TSP prompt me to disclose, for the first time, what they were like.

In virtually every meeting, Hayden would present PowerPoint "slides," walking us through the operational details of the TSP. The program has since been described, in part, as one that intercepted communications to and from the U.S. in an effort to uncover terrorist networks and prevent or disrupt attacks. We were told that the program was the centerpiece of our counter-terrorism efforts, legal and yielding impressive results.

Often present were CIA officials (including then-Director George Tenet) and then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales. Missing was any Justice Department presence -- a tipoff, in retrospect, to the legal limbo under which the program operated.

Fast-forward to the jaw-dropping inspectors general report released this month, which makes clear that the TSP's legal underpinnings were fatally flawed and its results minimal. Those topics consumed scant time at our briefings. Why?

It is now clear to me that we learned only what the briefers wanted to tell us -- even though they were required by law to keep us "fully and currently informed." Absent the ability to do any independent research, it did not occur to me then that the program was operated wholly outside of the framework Congress created as the exclusive means to conduct such surveillance: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-harman25-2009jul25,0,6575602.story

[C_U_L8R]

1. Sometimes I wonder if our representatives are dense

or do they just play that way for the cameras?
Haven't we been talking about these very issues here for YEARS ???

[rrneck]

2. When all else fails claim stupid. nt

[leveymg]

3. Sounds like Jane and the Other Gang of 8 didn't bother to ask the right questions:

1) Were domestic U.S. person to U.S. person calls also being collected without warrants?
2) What were the criteria for minimization of U.S. person data?
3) What was being done with the data collected?
4) Was U.S. person communications being data mined, and for what purposes?
5) Were U.S. persons being profiled as potential terrorists?
6) What was the criteria for such labeling?
7) What were the consequences of such labeling?
8) Was this data and analysis being shared with other intelligence agencies?
9) Was this data being shared with political offices in the White House?
10) What safeguards were in place to protect innocent Americans from ending up in dozens of distributed databanks around the world?

What a curious lack of curiosity, Jane.

[cascadiance]

5. Or Jane's trying to act innocent when she was complicit at the time...

Now, looking back at how Feinstein was upset that the White House "passed over" Jane Harman to pick Leon Panetta to head the CIA, who was the one individual to start bringing forward these abuses now, it makes you wonder why DiFi and Harman were so concerned at the time about the choice of Panetta... Perhaps they were worried that this "truth" might get out with him in charge, which it did?

http://www.wowowow.com/post/sen-feinstein-hits-back-against-obamas-cia-pick-rep-jane-harman-passed-over-job-167674

And for all of these issues you bring up, you have to wonder what Jane Harman was thinking when she was working WITH Gonzo and the White House to lobby the New York Times to not run the story on domestic spying they were going to publish before the 2004 election in exchange for pressure from AIPAC to get her an intelligence committee chair position from Pelosi.

http://www.inteldaily.com/news/126/ARTICLE/10471/2009-04-22.html

I think Harman's trying to distort her complicity in this now, try9ing to "muddy the waters" so to speak to avoid Marcy Winograd kicking her butt in 2010 with this stuff more out in the open and more clearly pointing towards her complicity.

[Aragorn]

8. Hey!

Isn't that what people said about gwb?

[troubledamerican]

10. Thomas Pynchon quote

"If they can get you to ask the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers."

Jane Harman is proven scum, slightly below Joe Lieberman & Harry Reid.

[ellenfl]

4. doesn't this back up pelosi's stand? everyone knows there's

no love lost between these two women. it would be nice if the rw msm would point this out, but, of course, they won't.

ellen fl

[TankLV]

6. Do not get distracted by the REAL CRIMINALS!

Do NOT fall for the right wing repuke spew and try to make it about THOSE WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE INFORMED!

It IS and SHOULD REMAIN about the CRIMINALS WHO DID THE ILLEGAL ACTS!!!

Only AFTER these CRIMINALS are SUCCESSFULLY prosecuted, then we can even BEGIN to discuss those who should have done their "oversite" better!

IT'S ABOUT THE REPUKE CRIMINALS!!!

let's keep it that way...

[AntiFascist]

9. I disagree...

unless we hold the fire under key Democrats then they will remain complicit and business will go on as usual.

[Uncle Joe]

7. To me, this part seems like they made bank robbery legal after the bank was robbed.

"Much has happened since. The Yoo memo was officially discredited and replaced. After considerable resistance, the Bush administration finally briefed the full intelligence committees, and FISA was amended to assure its application to the TSP."