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Hoekstra: It's Wrong To Call CIA Liars -- Except When I Do It
We told you earlier this afternoon about how Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who has called Nancy Pelosi's claim that the CIA lied to her "outrageous," has himself initiated a probe into whether the agency misled lawmakers about a 2001 shooting incident in Peru that caused the death of an American citizen.
And it looks like Hoekstra's hypocrisy goes even further. Think Progress points out that Hoekstra last night went on Fox News, where he explained to Greta Van Susteren that it's fine to criticize the CIA's performance, but not to accuse it of lying:
HOEKSTRA: I think you do go back and you break it into two different issues. One is the performance, how well, they're doing their job. The second is whether they have misled or lied to Congress, two very, very different issues.
And yet, as Think Progress also notes, Hoekstra said last November in regard to the Peru incident, that the CIA "may have been lying or concealing part of the truth." And: "We cannot have an intelligence community that covers up what it does and then lies to Congress."
Although maybe there's an amendment to Hoekstra's rule that provides an exception if Peru is involved?
Josh
Zachary
In April Hoekstra asked the CIA about briefings to members of Congress. The CIA responded with a table showing that the identities of the briefers is Not Available for 7 out 28 meetings of Type = Briefing. That is 25%. Will Rep. Hoekstra follow-up with the CIA as to WHY the identities are not available to Congress?
May 19, 2009 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately, the Repubs won this battle. Now, when we discuss the torture issue, we are talking about a Democrat, Pelosi, instead of those who conspired to violate both the US Constitution and federal law, all of whom are Repubs. And, anyone who is surprised that the CIA lies, knows nothing about the CIA.
May 19, 2009 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's OK that it's about Pelosi. It looks like she'll win this battle over who is more believable. Let's use this to get an full investigation of who knew what about torture. The worst that can happen to Democrats is they might have known of something wrong and kept quiet, compared to Republicans who formulated the policy.
May 20, 2009 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Think Progress link doesn't work.
May 19, 2009 9:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Worked for me.
May 20, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hoekstra has a bigger history that the one TPM is bringing up.
It's interesting that the destroyed CIA torture/interrogation tapes are never mentioned. On that subject, the GOP accused the CIA of lying about briefing a GOP member of Congress. I don't know why no one brings this up.
NY Times 12/07/07
In his statement, General Hayden said leaders of Congressional oversight committees had been fully briefed about the existence of the tapes and told in advance of the decision to destroy them. But the two top members of the House Intelligence Committee in 2005 said Thursday that they had not been notified in advance of the decision to destroy the tapes.
A spokesman for Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, who was the committee’s chairman between 2004 and 2006, said that Mr. Hoekstra was “never briefed or advised that these tapes existed, or that they were going to be destroyed.”
The spokesman, Jamal Ware, also said that Mr. Hoekstra “absolutely believes that the full committee should have been informed and consulted before the C.I.A. did anything with the tapes.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/washington/07intel.html?_r=1
Gingrich and others are making the case that its outrageous to say the CIA lied. But in Hoekstra's cas, he did the same thing, and on the same subject, Congressional briefings about matters related to torture.
And how can the GOP claim that the CIA is so honest about what occurred concerning torture, when we know the CIA destroyed the interrogation tapes? We also know those tapes were requested by the 9/11 Commission and weren't provided.
So the CIA lied and the GOP called them liars. Why the different standards now?
May 19, 2009 9:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The GOP has a flex-value system in operation. They subscribe to the Special Theory of Moral Relativity.
May 20, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
So "evolution" is sorta like a rubber band: it expands or shrinks depending on the political climate?
May 20, 2009 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is like going to a carnival and watching the sideshow while your pocket is being picked by the guy with the big ears.
May 19, 2009 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink