Report says CIA witheld info from White House

[Terri]

By PAMELA HESS
Associated Press
November 21, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee Thursday called for a criminal investigation into whether the CIA lied to Congress and withheld information from the Justice Department during its inquiry into the 2001 shoot-down of an American missionary plane by the Peruvian air force with help from a CIA spotter plane.

The CIA's Office of General Counsel advised agency managers to avoid producing written reports about the incident "to avoid both criminal charges against Agency officers and civil liability," according to unclassified excerpts of an August CIA inspector general report released Thursday by Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra..

The report said the CIA withheld from the National Security Council, Justice Department and Congress the results of multiple investigations that documented continuous and significant violations of aircraft intercept procedures created to prevent the shoot-down of innocent aircraft over the Amazon jungle. The classified report was completed in August and sent to Congress in October.

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[Charie]

The ability of government bureaucracies to get things wrong is staggering.

If the Peruvian pilots could understand that the CIA guy was saying this was a narcotic smuggler, why is it they couldn't understand him saying, "I think I was wrong!"

This whole thing still smells like more coverup.

[STEELMAN]

This whole thing still smells like more coverup.


That's the federal government working for our "best interests!"

Wouldn't it be nice to just fire the whole bunch, with minor exceptions possibly, lay down the original framework, and start with fresh new people who want to do what's right by the people.

Problem. Could we find that many? Do they exist anymore? Is there any honesty and integrity left in this country?