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Cheney ordered CIA to withhold secret program from Congress: report

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Former vice-president Dick Cheney directly ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to withhold from Congress information on a counterterrorism program kept secret for eight years until it was terminated by current CIA director Leon Panetta, according to a Saturday New York Times report. The secret counterterrorism program was initiated in the months following the 9/11 attacks, and details about the program's scope have not been disclosed to the public. Panetta informed Congress in an emergency closed meeting with both the Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Senate on June 24, after learning about the program and immediately terminating in on June 23. According to Congressman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Chairman of the House Intelligence committee, the CIA would have violated National Security Act requirements that Congress be kept informed of programs such as this one by keeping it a secret. On Friday, five federal agencies released a report on the president's warrantless wiretapping program that reviewed both the flawed legal origins of the program as well as questioned the effectiveness of information produced by wiretapping international communications of American citizens. In May, Cheney defended the national security policies of the Bush administration speaking at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), while criticizing many of the security policies of President Barack Obama.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 12, 2009 (boomark / email).