Intelligence
DECEMBER
22, 2014
The
Problem With Brennan
Lies, Spies and More Lies
by MELVIN A. GOODMAN
CIA Director John
Brennan has joined an exclusive list of CIA directors and deputy directors who
have lied to the U.S. Congress and the American people. Unlike Richard
Helms, William Casey, Robert Gates, and George Tenet, however, Brennan has
gotten protection from the White House and apparently will get away with his
perfidy.
Earlier this year,
Brennan told the chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, Senator
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and the American people, that it was “beyond the scope
of reason” to charge that the CIA was trying to block the committee’s
investigation of CIA torture and abuse and had even hacked into the computers
of the committee and several staff members. Now, we have learned that
Brennan not only knew about the obstruction of the congressional investigation,
a violation of the separation of powers, but had ordered one of the CIA lawyers
to conduct the search.
Even
worse, Brennan established an accountability board to investigate the matter,
consisting of three Agency officers and two outsiders, which will recommend no
punishment for the five CIA officials involved in the matter. According
to the New York Times, the CIA’s Inspector General determined
that the CIA improperly monitored the intelligence committee’s activities and
sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice based on false
information. Nevertheless, President Barack Obama continues to refer to
Brennan as a “patriot.”
Sadly,
there is a long history of CIA deceit and dissembling to the congressional
intelligence committees. In 1973, CIA director Helms deceived the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, refusing to acknowledge the CIA’s role in overthrowing
the elected government of Chile. A grand jury recommended that Helms be
indicted for perjury, but the Department of Justice brought a lesser charge
against Helms, who pleased nolo contendere; Helms was fined
$2,000 and given a suspended two-year prison sentence.
In
the 1980s, CIA director Casey and his deputy, Bob Gates, consistently lied to
the congressional oversight committees about their knowledge of
Iran-Contra. The late senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D-NY) believed that
Casey and Gates were running adisinformation campaign against the Senate
intelligence committee. Gates’ lies on Iran-Contra led to the committee’s
unwillingness to vote on his confirmation as CIA director in 1987. Gates
was nominated again in 1991, and this time he was confirmed, but not before I
provided the committee with rhyme and verse on Gates’ tailoring of intelligence
to fit the biases of Bill Casey.
Throughout the 1980s and
early 1990s, Aldrich Ames performed as the most destructive traitor in the
history of the CIA, but a brace of CIA directors–Gates, William Webster, and
Jim Woolsey–failed to inform the congressional intelligence committees of the
serious counter-intelligence problems that had been created. In the late
1980s, Judge Webster concealed from the Congress the information that Saddam
Hussein was diverting U.S. farm credits through an Atlanta bank to pay for
nuclear technology and sophisticated weaponry.
The greatest CIA
disinformation campaign in the Congress took place in 2002-2003, when CIA
director Tenet and his deputy John McLaughlin consistently lied about Iraqi
training for al Qaeda members on chemical and biological weapons as well as the
existence of mobile labs to manufacture such weapons. McLaughlin played a
major role in providing a spurious briefing on Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction to President George W. Bush in January 2003 and to Secretary of
State Colin Powell in February for Powell’s presentation to the United Nations
in March.
Several
years ago, Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), then ranking minority member
of the House intelligence committee, documented the CIA’s dissembling to
cover-up the Agency’s involvement in a drug interdiction program in Peru that
led to the loss of innocent lives. Hoekstra accused CIA director Tenet
with misleading the Congress. It is noteworthy that Brennan, protege of
Tenet, was a staff assistant to the director at that time.
Former CIA director Leon
Panetta publicly stated on many occasions that “it was not CIA policy or
practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our
values.” Well, we have certainly learned a great deal about CIA values in
the past several weeks. The fact that there will be accountability for
the lies of Brennan and various CIA lawyers to the Congress and even the White
House doesn’t augur well for ever repairing the CIA’s moral compass.
Brennan
once remarked that “If I did something wrong, I will go to the President and explain
to him exactly what I did.” Well, we now know that he has a long list of
improprieties, but there is no record of his report to the President. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
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