CIA:Cheney’s Intelligence Agency?

July 13, 2009 by Yamini Piplani 

Congress misled on former vice president’s orders for eight years

To add to the long list of secretive and misleading actions taken by the Bush administration in the past eight years, we found out Saturday that former vice president Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to keep one of its most important programs a secret from Congress.

Am I missing something? In a country that was founded on the principles of separation and a balance of powers, one of the most controversial and undemocratic arms of the government, the CIA, acts on the sole authority of the vice president for eight long years?

Cheney cannot convince us that the program was so secretive that even closed briefings to Congress would have risked national security, as that is clearly not the case. Leon Panetta, current director of the CIA, disclosed the program’s appropriate details in closed sessions to congressional intelligence committees the day after he gained knowledge of them last month and ended the program.

Even with disclosure to Congress, the program has not been made public to the detriment of the American people. The details of the program remain classified and members of Congress have proven that they are, in fact, capable of keeping its details secret for the purposes of national security. What a shock.

The decision to order the CIA to keep any imperative information from Congress is highly questionable as it shows the former vice president’s distrust for elected representatives––who are the crux of a democratic system.

If the U.S. can sponsor programs without the basic knowledge of its citizens or those who are democratically chosen to represent them, then how different are we from totalitarian societies where the people have little say in the country’s foreign policies?

The law states that the intelligence committees must be “kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity.” There has to be disclosure to Congress to the extent that national security is not risked. But there has to be some disclosure, however basic.

It would be naïve to think that this kind of abusive fear-mongering has justified secretive actions for the first time. For one reason or another, the CIA and its executive supporters have felt the need to go an extra step to hide their actions from the people for the past eight years.

Those responsible for the security of American citizens have often misled and clouded our judgment in the name of national security – waterboarding was kept a secret for as long as it could have been; the government’s illegal eavesdropping program was kept secret; the secret torture, rape and murder of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was supposedly to protect Americans as well. It is because of these secret programs that Americans don’t understand why the U.S. has a terrible reputation abroad.

The CIA is not supposed to be the American KGB. It exists to protect us, not to be an independently functioning (and heavily armed) part of the U.S. government. There is a fine line between trustworthy discretion and complete independence.

The former vice president of the U.S. always preached democratic ideals to the supposedly uncivilized third world. For him to authorize the CIA to act without the knowledge of appropriate members of Congress is unbelievably hypocritical and downright ridiculous.

Cheney’s decision was an atrocious abuse of his power. It should be investigated and prosecuted.