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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]