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Accusations pile up over Panetta CIA briefing
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
07/09/09 2:00 PM EDT
The ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Peter Hoekstra, of Michigan, said he does not believe Central Intelligence Director Leon Panetta admitted to the panel that the spy agency had been lying to Congress, as Democrats are now claiming.
Hoekstra said he was in the room when Panetta briefed the members of the committee.
"I don't think Leon came in and said that," Hoekstra said.
The so-called admission, Hoekstra said, was actually a disclosure of programs the CIA was planning but never put into action.
"This was planning, nothing was ever implemented," Hoekstra said. "Leon said we hadn't been briefed on it."
Democrats are demanding that Panetta retract a May statement in which he seemed to counter a claim by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that the agency had withheld from Congress its use of enhanced interrogation techniques on terror detainees.
Pelosi took a political beating over the accusation, and they want Panetta to vindicate her by admitting her claim was actually true.
Panetta aides said he stands by the May 15 statement, in which he said the CIA has always been truthful congress.
Intelligence Committee Chairman Sylvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said he may call for a committee investigation into the matter.
Pelosi told reporters she is leaving is not getting personally involved in deciding whether to investigate the matter.
"I'm sure they will be pursuing this in their regular committee process and that's the way it will go," she said.
In the meantime, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Pelosi is the one who should be investigated for accusing the CIA of lying.
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