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CIA 'Briefed Truthfully' in '02: Panetta

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted May 15, 2009 2:09 PM CDT

(Newser) – CIA director Leon Panetta today denied Nancy Pelosi’s claim that the agency misled lawmakers in a 2002 briefing, the Hill reports. In a memo to employees, Panetta said “CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing ‘the enhanced techniques that had been employed.’” Moreover, “we are an agency of high integrity,” he said. “Our task is to tell it like it is.”

“My advice—indeed, my direction—to you is straightforward,” Panetta wrote in the memo, titled “Turning Down the Volume.” “Ignore the noise and stay focused on your mission. We have too much work to do to be distracted from our job of protecting this country.”

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta. (AP Photo)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (AP Photo)

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We are an agency of high integrity, professionalism and dedication. Our task is to tell it like it is—even if that’s not what people always want to hear. Keep it up. Our national security depends on it. - Leon Panetta, CIA director

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 11 comments

oldgoat

May 16, 2009 10:16 AM CDT

Doesn't matter if he is a Dem, he is not the director of the CIA and as such needs to back them first. Actually the best thing to happen to the Dems would be for Pelosi to lose her position. Right now she is one of the best things going for the GOP. The CIA has already been caught fibbing on how many times they talked to Graham, except he had a record of his meetings and they had to back down. Neither the CIA or Pelosi is probably being totally honest after all that is what both do best. Be careful that you ask for a investigation because it just might turn up far more dirt against both sides than either side wants.

nick

May 16, 2009 9:19 AM CDT

It has been know for decades that the CIA is a Government Agency run-amuck. No one knows what they cost US taxpayers, as their budget is mostly off-line and classified. What they do is generally known--they have a mission statement-- but how they accomplish the intriguing part of what they do is heavily classified, unknowable, and for the most part, left unquestioned by Congress. New CIA director Leon Panetta doesn't have a clue of what he's saying here.

carol

May 16, 2009 3:30 AM CDT

......and we enjoyed 7 plus years of no terrorist acts.

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