CHENEY LINKED TO CONCEALMENT OF C.I.A. PROJECT -- The Catbird's Forum

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 08:55:51 07/12/09 Sun
Author: Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU
Subject:

CHENEY LINKED TO CONCEALMENT OF C.I.A. PROJECT

"CHENEY IS LINKED TO CONCEALMENT OF C.I.A. PROJECT" - (An Exhibit in CV05-00030 - U S Dept of Justice vs Harmon)

July 12, 2009

From:
Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU

To:
"President Barack Obama" , "U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder" , "David Farmer" , "Steven Guttman" , "Carol K. Muranaka" , "Judge David A. Ezra" , "Judge Kevin S.C. Chang" , "Judge Barry M. Kurren" , "Securities & Exchange Commission Enforcement Division" , "U.S. Treasury Dept. Office of Inspector General" , "Office of Inspector General US Dept of Justice" , "Executive Office for U.S. Trustees" , "Judge Robert Faris" , "SEC Office of The Inspector General" , "Hawaii State Bar Association" , "Hugh Jones" , "Insurance Division Fraud Branch" , "Lawrence Reifurth" , "Linda Lingle" , "Jo Ann Uchida" , "Office of Inspector General Civil Rights Complaints" , "Mark Bennett" , "American Arbitration Association" , "Judith Neustadter" , "Benjamin J. Cayetano" , "Lokelani Lindsey" , "All Representatives" , "All Senators" , "Andrew Walden" , "Aon Insurance Managers" , "Arthur Rath" , "Benjamin Kudo" , "Bradley Tamm" , "Carl Morton" , "Charles Hurd" , "David Shapiro" , "Dee Jay Mailer" , "J C Shannon" , "James B Nicholson" , "James B. Farris" , "James Cribley" , "James Wriston" , "Jeffrey Watanabe" , "Jim Dooley" , "Joe Moore" , "John D. Finnegan" , "Judson Witham" , "Ken Conklin" , "Lyn Flanigan Anzai" , "Margery Bronster" , "Marsh Affinity Group" , "Michael N. Tanoue" , "Michelle Tucker" , "Nathan Aipa" , "Paul Alston" , "Randall Roth" , "Rick Daysog" , "Robert Bruce Graham" , "Robin Campaniano" , "Samuel P. King" , "William K Slate" , "Jim Terrack" , "Rocco Sansone" , "Ted Pettit" , "Laura Thielen" , "Vaughn & Lynda Robinson" , "Rebecca Christie" , "Catbird" , "James Duca" , "Ian Lind" , "Roy F. Hughes" , "Jack Cashill" , "Marshall Chriswell" , "Laser Haas" , "Lucy Komisar" , "Democrats.com" , "Debra Sweet" , "Jane Kirtley" , "John Jubinsky" , "Yamil Berard" , "Global Exchange" , "William K. Black" , "Carole Williams" , "Susan Tius" , "Human Rights in China" , "Michelle Malkin" , "Phil J. Berg" , "Amnesty International U.S.A." , "Michael Moore" , "California Anti-SLAPP Project" , "Thomas Fitton" , "Ron Branson" , "ACLU of Kentucky" , "ACLU Online" , "Louanne Kam" , "Paul Kiel" , "Fiona Tarazi" , "Eric Martinson" , "Bruce Nakaoka" , "Oswald Stender"

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project
By SCOTT SHANE

Published: July 11, 2009

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency�s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.

Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.

Efforts to reach Mr. Cheney through relatives and associates were unsuccessful.

The question of how completely the C.I.A. informed Congress about sensitive programs has been hotly disputed by Democrats and Republicans since May, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the agency of failing to reveal in 2002 that it was waterboarding a terrorism suspect, a claim Mr. Panetta rejected.

The law requires the president to make sure the intelligence committees �are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity.� But the language of the statute, the amended National Security Act of 1947, leaves some leeway for judgment, saying such briefings should be done �to the extent consistent with due regard for the protection from unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to sensitive intelligence sources and methods or other exceptionally sensitive matters.�

In addition, for covert action programs, a particularly secret category in which the role of the United States is hidden, the law says that briefings can be limited to the so-called Gang of Eight, consisting of the Republican and Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress and of their intelligence committees.

The disclosure about Mr. Cheney�s role in the unidentified C.I.A. program comes a day after an inspector general�s report underscored the central role of the former vice president�s office in restricting to a small circle of officials knowledge of the National Security Agency�s program of eavesdropping without warrants, a degree of secrecy that the report concluded had hurt the effectiveness of the counterterrorism surveillance effort.

An intelligence agency spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, declined on Saturday to comment on the report of Mr. Cheney�s role.

�It�s not agency practice to discuss what may or may not have been said in a classified briefing,� Mr. Gimigliano said. �When a C.I.A. unit brought this matter to Director Panetta�s attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared appropriately with Congress. That was also his view, and he took swift, decisive action to put it into effect.�

Members of Congress have differed on the significance of the program, whose details remained secret and which even some Democrats have said was properly classified. Most of those interviewed, however, have said that it was an important activity that should have been disclosed to the intelligence committees.

Intelligence and Congressional officials have said the unidentified program did not involve the C.I.A. interrogation program and did not involve domestic intelligence activities. They have said the program was started by the counterterrorism center at the C.I.A. shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but never became fully operational, involving planning and some training that took place off and on from 2001 until this year.

In the tense months after Sept. 11, when Bush administration officials believed new Qaeda attacks could occur at any moment, intelligence officials brainstormed about radical countermeasures. It was in that atmosphere that the unidentified program was devised and deliberately concealed from Congress, officials said.

Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, said last week that he believed Congress would have approved of the program only in the angry and panicky days after 9/11, on 9/12, he said, but not later, after fears and tempers had begun to cool.

One intelligence official, who would speak about the classified program only on condition of anonymity, said there was no resistance inside the C.I.A. to Mr. Panetta�s decision to end the program last month.

�Because this program never went fully operational and hadn�t been briefed as Panetta thought it should have been, his decision to kill it was neither difficult nor controversial,� the official said. �That�s worth remembering amid all the drama.�

Bill Harlow, a spokesman for George J. Tenet, who was the C.I.A. director when the unidentified program began, declined to comment on Saturday, noting that the program remained classified.

In the eight years of his vice presidency, Mr. Cheney was the Bush administration�s most vehement defender of the secrecy of government activities, particularly in the intelligence arena. He went to the Supreme Court to keep secret the advisers to his task force on energy, and won.

A report released on Friday by the inspectors general of five agencies about the National Security Agency�s domestic surveillance program makes clear that Mr. Cheney�s legal adviser, David S. Addington, had to approve personally every government official who was told about the program. The report said �the exceptionally compartmented nature of the program� frustrated F.B.I. agents who were assigned to follow up on tips it had turned up.

Mr. Addington could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Questions over the adequacy and the truthfulness of the C.I.A.�s briefings for Congress date to the creation of the intelligence oversight committees in the 1970s after disclosures of agency assassination and mind-control programs and other abuses. But complaints increased in the Bush years, when the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies took the major role in pursuing Al Qaeda.

The use of harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding, for instance, was first described to a handful of lawmakers for the first time in September 2002. Ms. Pelosi and the C.I.A. have disagreed about what she was told, but in any case, the briefing occurred only after a terrorism suspect, Abu Zubaydah, had been waterboarded 83 times.

Democrats in Congress, who contend that the Bush administration improperly limited Congressional briefings on intelligence, are seeking to change the National Security Act to permit the full intelligence committees to be briefed on more matters. President Obama, however, has threatened to veto the intelligence authorization bill if the changes go too far, and the proposal is now being negotiated by the White House and the intelligence committees.

Representative Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat of Illinois on the House committee, wrote on Friday to the chairman, Representative Silvestre Reyes, a Democrat of Texas, to demand an investigation of the unidentified program and why Congress was not told of it. Aides said Mr. Reyes was reviewing the matter.

�There�s been a history of difficulty in getting the C.I.A. to tell us what they should,� said Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat of Washington. �We will absolutely be held accountable for anything the agency does.�

Mr. Hoekstra, the intelligence committee�s ranking Republican, said he would not judge the agency harshly in the case of the unidentified program, because it was not fully operational. But he said that in general, the agency had not been as forthcoming as the law required.

�We have to pull the information out of them to get what we need,� Mr. Hoekstra said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/politics/12intel.html?th&emc=th

* * *

July 12, 2009

Dear President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Trustee Farmer, Mr. Guttman, Ms. Neustadter, Judge Kevin Chang, Judge David Ezra, and All Concerned:

Due to the new discovery of facts that directly relate to this lawsuit which violates my constitutional rights of Free Speech and a Fair Trial, and Federal and State Anti-SLAPP statutes, I am adding the subject Exhibit.

Related information can be found on-line at:
http://www.kycbs.net/911-COVERUP.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/AIG.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Allied-World-Assurance.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/ChickenHawks.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Chief-Bush.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CIA.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV-Starr.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/FBI.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Indict-Bush.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Kissinger-of-Death.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/MarshBirds.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Mossad.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/NSA.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Peacemakers.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Thorns.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Torture.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Vampires.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Cheney-Dick.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Panetta-Leon.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Gonzales-Alberto.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Gotbaum-Joshua.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Bush-George.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Obama-Barack.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Holder-Eric.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Rewald-Ron.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Ezra-David.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Farmer-David.htm

Mr. Farmer and Mr. Guttman, in spite of all this factual evidence (not just "political opinions" or "conspiracy theories" as you have previously alleged), I am again asking that we attempt to reach a global settlement of this matter through confidential negotiation or mediation rather than continuing these costly and seemingly-endless court proceedings.

However, if you and your insurance carriers are still not willing to attempt to negotiate or mediate settlement in these cases, then I ask that you perform your mandated review of these two Exhibits in accordance with Judge Ezra's Order, and advise me, whether or not, you find that they are relevant and if they contain any so-called "protected subject matter".

I respectfully request your immediate reply. If I do not receive a response from you or your insurance carrier within 15 days, I will assume that you have found no "PSM" in these updated pages, and that you will NOT file any objections to my Motion.

Very truly yours,

Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM

Additional References:
http://www.kycbs.net/
http://www.kycbs.net/Apartheid-Hawaii.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/BH-CHRON-88-96.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/BH-CHRON-97-99.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/BH-Settlement-Chronology.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Bishop.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Broken-Trust-Book.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Confessions.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-OUST-vs-Harmon.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Freedom-To-Sing.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/HarmonArbitration.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/JUSTICE.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Lost-Generations.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/RICO-in-Paradise.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/SLAPP.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Whistler.htm
http://voy.com/129276/
http://whistlersongs.blogspot.com

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]