Leon Panetta

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CIA Sought to Launch Paramilitary Assassin Units

(Newser) - The CIA program kept secret from lawmakers and canceled by Leon Panetta last month sought to establish paramilitary units to take out al-Qaeda leaders, former intelligence officials tell the Los Angeles Times. The officials say that while the program was never made operational, CIA chiefs continued to work on plans...

Liz Cheney: I May Seek Office
 Liz Cheney: 
 I May Seek Office 
Jul 13, 2009 12:53 PM CDT

Liz Cheney: I May Seek Office

(Newser) - DIck Cheney's daughter Liz is considering a run for public office. “It's something I very well may do,” the lawyer and Bush-era State Department deputy secretary tells the Washington Times. Cheney says she's particularly worried about Congressional Democrats' attempts to hang charges of CIA meddling on her father....

Secret CIA Plan Aimed to Kill Off al-Qaeda Chiefs

(Newser) - The secret CIA plan sparking fury among lawmakers this weekend may have been designed to kill or capture al-Qaeda operatives, the Wall Street Journal reports. Former intelligence officials say that a 2001 legal pronouncement by President Bush led to an operation that was later axed by spy chief Leon Panetta....

Dems to Probe Cheney's Secret CIA Program

(Newser) - Democrats plan to investigate the CIA program Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly ordered be kept secret from Congress, reports the Washington Post. The 8-year-old covert operation only came to light June 24 after CIA officials briefed spy-chief Leon Panetta, who then canceled the program. A day later, Panetta notified Congress,...

Cheney Told CIA to Hide Counterterror Program

Panetta has since ended still-secret program

(Newser) - Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to withhold information from Congress about a secret counterterrorism program for 8 years, CIA chief Leon Panetta has told congressional intelligence committees. The revelation, leaked by two intelligence insiders to the New York Times, serves the latest volley in the fierce dispute over how fully...

Secret Intel-Gathering Effort Behind New CIA Flap

(Newser) - So what's this secret program behind the latest feud between CIA and Congress? It's apparently an "on-again, off-again" effort created after 9/11 to collect intelligence about suspected terrorists, the Washington Post reports. It doesn't involve interrogation, but beyond that, details are murky. CIA chief Leon Panetta learned of it...

Dems: Panetta Admits CIA Lied

(Newser) - A group of Democratic lawmakers says CIA chief Leon Panetta admitted that the agency has misled Congress since 2001 and "concealed significant actions," reports Politico. A letter released by the lawmakers, all members of the House Intelligence panel, offered no specifics on when Panetta made the admission or...

Cheney Hopes 'Old Friend' Panetta Was Misquoted

(Newser) - As the CIA scrambled to do damage control today in the wake of director Leon Panetta's New Yorker interview, Dick Cheney fired back. The former VP's office released a statement that reads in full: "I hope my old friend Leon was misquoted. The important thing is whether the Obama...

McCain to CIA Chief Panetta: Retract Cheney Slam Now

Panetta said Cheney almost seemed to want attack on US

(Newser) - Sen. John McCain called today on CIA director Leon Panetta to “retract immediately” his suggestion that Dick Cheney might want another attack on the US, the Hill reports. Panetta told the New Yorker that “it’s almost as if” Cheney is “wishing that this country would be...

Torture Shrinks Rehired by CIA, Fired by Panetta

Contracts renewed after inauguration, then killed in April

(Newser) - The CIA renewed contracts with several psychologists considered the architects of waterboarding and other brutal techniques tantamount to torture a month after Barack Obama's inauguration. The revelation comes in a piece by New Yorker reporter Jane Meyer on Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, who nixed their contracts after his...

Cheney Almost Wants Attack on US Soil: CIA Head

(Newser) - CIA Director Leon Panetta says former Vice President Dick Cheney's criticism of the Obama administration's approach to terrorism almost suggests "he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point." Panetta told The New Yorker that Cheney "smells some blood in the...

Bin Laden in Pakistan: CIA Head

Finding leader remains 'major priority,' he says

(Newser) - Osama bin Laden is still in Pakistan and his arrest remains a top priority for the US, CIA Director Leon Panetta said today, adding that joint operations with Pakistani forces could finally net al-Qaeda’s top leader. The CIA has Pakistani informants that keep it abreast of terrorist targets there,...

CIA Calls on Court to Keep Interrogation Files Secret

Panetta warns that releasing records would benefit al-Qaeda

(Newser) - The head of the CIA urged a federal judge yesterday to keep records of harsh interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects under wraps, CNN reports. The ACLU is suing to make the files, which describe the content of destroyed CIA tapes, public. But Leon Panetta warned that doing so would have "...

The White House May Be Trying to Purge Pelosi
The White House May Be Trying
to Purge Pelosi
OPINION
May 18, 2009 12:13 PM CDT

The White House May Be Trying to Purge Pelosi

Kristol: Why else would CIA boss 'humiliate' his party's speaker?

(Newser) - After Nancy Pelosi suggested the CIA had misled Congress, the agency’s director fired back with a letter denying the claim. But the idea that Leon Panetta would send a letter “humiliating a House speaker of his own party” entirely of his own accord seems “almost inconceivable,”...

Pelosi Backtracks on CIA Claims
Pelosi Backtracks on CIA Claims
May 16, 2009 2:16 AM CDT

Pelosi Backtracks on CIA Claims

Speakers shifts focus to Bush administration after Panetta rebuff

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi retreated yesterday from her claim the CIA lied to Congress about its interrogation program and shifted the blame to the Bush administration, Politico reports. The speaker said her criticism is "separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe....

CIA 'Briefed Truthfully' in '02: Panetta

(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.’...

CIA Chief Warned Israel Against Attacking Iran

Panetta told that Israel won't bomb Iran without first alerting Washington

(Newser) - CIA director Leon Panetta was sent on a secret mission to Israel earlier this month to warn the country's leaders against launching a surprise attack against Iran, the Times of London reports. Panetta asked for—and received—assurances from Israel's hawkish new government  that the country would not bomb Iranian...

Rove: Pelosi's an Accomplice to Torture
Rove: Pelosi's an Accomplice to Torture
OPINION
May 14, 2009 6:50 AM CDT

Rove: Pelosi's an Accomplice to Torture

'Someone appears not to be telling the truth' about waterboarding

(Newser) - Karl Rove indulges in a bit of revenge on Nancy Pelosi in his Wall Street Journal column today, writing that "the political persecution of Bush administration officials she has been pushing may now ensnare her." As evidence mounts that the CIA told her as early as 2002 about...

Speak Another Language? CIA's Got a Job for You

Agency running ads to recruit minorities, foreign-language speakers

(Newser) - The CIA has no trouble finding recruits. But that doesn’t mean it gets the recruits it wants, so the CIA is running a radio ad campaign targeting potential spooks fluent in a second language, Time reports, and nonwhite. “I’d like to get to a point where every...

Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA
 Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA 
Feb 27, 2009 4:22 AM CST

Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA

Inquiry to focus on controversial interrogation and detention program

(Newser) - The Senate Intelligence Committee plans a sweeping investigation into the CIA's actions under President Bush, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officials say the probe is a fact-finding mission rather than an investigation into whether laws were broken, but the inquiry is certain to put the spotlight back on the agency's...

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