"That’s something that should never, ever happen again” :wtf: That's it?
And Cornyn blames Dems, as usual. :boring:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/feinstein-cheney-told-cia-not-to-brief-congress-2009-07-12.htmlFeinstein: Cheney told CIA not to brief Congress
By Ian Swanson
Posted: 07/12/09 09:31 AM
Former Vice President Dick Cheney told the CIA not to brief Congress on a classified CIA program, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday.
Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence panel, said Cheney’s decision to order the CIA not to brief Congress was a “big problem” and that Congress should have been told about what she said was a sensitive program.
“I think you weaken your case when you go outside the law,” Feinstein said on "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace." If the appropriate committees had been informed, Congress could have made judgments about whether the program was working, she said.
“That was not the case because we were kept in the dark. That’s something that should never, ever happen again,” she said.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also said Congress should have been told of the program, but he criticized Democrats for trying to “out” Cheney as responsible.
“This unfortunately sounds like a new theme where they still want to blame the Bush-Cheney administration for the economy and other things . . . .” Cornyn said.
He said the move looked like an effort to provide political cover for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said in May that the CIA had lied to her about its use of waterboarding. Cornyn said those charges remained unproven.
CIA Director Leon Panetta informed the intelligence committees of the program on June 24, and said he was canceling the program, Feinstein said.
Cornyn said Attorney General Eric Holder should not appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a criminal investigation into whether U.S. personnel used torture in their interrogations of detainees. Feinstein did not take a position on whether a special investigator should be appointed, but said a classified CIA inspector general report on the interrogations “was chilling.”
As a result, she said she understood why Holder could be considering the appointment of a special investigator.
Newsweek reported Holder was mulling the idea on Saturday evening.