In the wake of revelations that CIA had failed to disclose to Congress a planned terrorist assassination program for seven years, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Reyes announced Friday that his committee has launched a formal investigation into CIA's failure to disclose its activities to Congress. Congressional Republicans, who in the past have been vociferous critics of CIA and especially its communications with Congress, complain that the investigation would be unfair to CIA and is a smokescreen to protect Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Reyes issued a statement Friday afternoon announcing the investigation:
After careful consideration and consultation with the Ranking Minority Member and other members of the Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will conduct an investigation into possible violations of federal law, including the National Security Act of 1947.
This investigation will focus on the core issue of how the congressional intelligence committees and Congress are kept fully and currently informed. To this end, the investigation will examine several issues, including the program discussed during Director Panetta's June 24th notification and whether there was any past decision or direction to withhold information from the Committee.
The House Intelligence Committee's investigation will cover a range of issues related to CIA's relations with Congress, such as:
-- Allegations leveled by former CIA official Mary McCarthy in 2006 that senior CIA officers lied to Congress when they claimed that agency interrogation methods complied with treaties barring torture and inhumane treatment.
-- Former ranking Democratic committee member Bob Graham's assertion in 2005 that Vice President Cheney and Bush administration intelligence officials lied to him about domestic eavesdropping,
-- Ranking Republican Intelligence Committee member Pete Hoekstra's accusation that CIA lied to Congress about the shootdown of an American missionary airplane over Peru in 2001.
Hoekstra, who has flipflopped from excoriating CIA to becoming its impassioned defender, illustrates how the GOP is less interested in intelligence policy governance than in scoring political points against Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. A few short years ago, Republicans were openly distrustful of CIA for its supposed 'disloyalty' to Bush administration views on a variety of national security issues.
Indeed, Hoekstra denounced the investigation immediately, telling Tabassum Zakaria of Reuters, "At no time will the Republicans of this committee agree to or take part in congressional Democrats' efforts to tear down the CIA to provide cover for Speaker Pelosi."
Meanwhile, at least one House Intelligence Committee Democrat wants to see Congressional investigations into CIA activities go even further.
Rush Holt, Democratic Intelligence Committee member from New Jersey, has called for investigations "as intense and comprehensive as the probe conducted more than 30 years ago -- in the wake of the Watergate scandal -- by a special committee headed by U.S. Sen. Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat," according to the Newark Star-Ledger. (Hat tip to attackerman)
The Church Committee, and its House of Representatives counterpart, the Pike Committee, carry legendary significance in CIA hallways. Spencer Ackerman of Washington Independent describes the Pike and Church Committees as having "divided the history of the CIA into before and after epochs, with the post-Church/Pike period being one of much greater congressional scrutiny."
Is the House Intelligence Committee's investigation the beginning of a new round of far-reaching Congressional inquiries into intelligence activities? Congress may spoil Obama's plan to look forward to the future, rather than backwards at the past.
Follow Frank Naif on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_naif
