By Ian Swanson
Democrats are calling for an investigation of a CIA program that former Vice President Dick Cheney allegedly kept from Congress.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said there “absolutely” has to be an investigation by congressional intelligence panels into Cheney’s influence on CIA briefings about the program, while Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the Cheney’s decision to order the CIA not to brief Congress was a “big problem.”
“The executive branch of government cannot create programs like these programs and keep Congress in the dark,” Durbin said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The decision to keep knowledge of the program from Congress was inappropriate, he said, and could be illegal.
more Cheney under fire on secret terror project Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, said: “I think it’s impossible to just leave it lay when you have something like this. It’s either true or it’s not true . . . nobody in this country is above the law.”