July 12, 2009
Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project
By SCOTT SHANE
NY Times

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.”