9/11 Commission Stonewalled by CIA

The commission’s mandate was sweeping and it explicitly included the intelligence agencies. But the recent revelations that the C.I.A. destroyed videotaped interrogations of Qaeda operatives leads us to conclude that the agency failed to respond to our lawful requests for information about the 9/11 plot. Those who knew about those videotapes — and did not [...]

White House Demands New York Times Correct CIA Tape Story

One of the top national stories of the day is the front-pager in The New York Times which suggests that White House involvement in the controversy surrounding the destruction of the CIA “torture tapes” was much wider than previously known.
The White House has kicked back against the Times on various other front-page reports in recent [...]

Senate Republicans Block Bill to Restrict Torture

Senate Republicans blocked a bill Friday that would restrict the interrogation methods the CIA can use against terrorism suspects.
The legislation, part of a measure authorizing the government’s intelligence activities for 2008, had been approved a day earlier by the House and sent to the Senate for what was supposed to be final action. The bill [...]

White House Rejects Right-Wing NIE Witch-Hunt

Since the Iran NIE was released, conservatives have desperately tried to discredit it. Former Vice President Cheney aide David Wurmser questioned “how much it can really be banked on.” John Bolton called for congressional investigations into the “politicized” intelligence community.
Some conservatives in Congress are following these calls, proposing a “second look” into the NIE in [...]

Libby to Drop Appeal in CIA Leak Case

Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby is no longer appealing his conviction in the CIA leak case, a tacit recognition that continuing his legal fight might only make things worse.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction but President Bush commuted his 30-month prison [...]

Democrats’ fury grows over destroyed CIA tapes

Congressional Democrats reacted furiously on Friday to the CIA’s disclosure that it had made and destroyed videotapes of terrorism interrogations, as leading lawmakers called for a Justice Department inquiry. The White House said President George W. Bush did not recollect being told about the CIA tapes or their destruction before Thursday, when he was briefed [...]

Former CIA Officials: Bush Iran Claims “Preposterous”

Four former CIA officials who provided intelligence information to past presidents described as preposterous President Bush’s claim that he was unaware until very recently that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Melvin Goodman, who worked for the CIA from 1966 to 1990 and now is a senior fellow at the [...]

Armitage says he was foolish in CIA leak

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Sunday he was foolish to have revealed Valerie Plame’s CIA identity.
Armitage’s acknowledgment came in response to comments by Plame, who said the former Bush administration official had no right to talk to a reporter about where she worked.
A year ago, Armitage publicly apologized to Plame and her [...]

Novak: Wilson didn’t strongly object to wife’s name being revealed

Wilson: Novak ‘going to hell for his lies’
Conservative columnist Robert Novak said he did not hear forceful objection from the husband of a then-undercover CIA agent before her name was printed in his infamous column that sparked a years-long legal battle over his sources.
“He was not terribly exercised about it,” Novak said, referring to Ambassador [...]