Here are some links regarding what may be a major story regarding a C.I.A. program which had been kept secret from Congress.
Scott Shane’s article in the New York Times stating that CIA Director Leon Panetta testified before Congress that the CIA had been lying to Congress about a secret program since 2001.
An article on the same subject by James Rowley of Bloomberg, published at Yahoo News.
A letter from six members of Congress to Mr. Panetta regarding this matter.
A letter from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes to ranking Republican Peter Hoekstra regarding this matter.
An article by Sam Stein of the Huffington Post in which he states that Rep. Anna Eshoo told the reporter that Mr. Panetta testified that he “stopped the program the day after he was informed," and speculating about what program that might be:
An article by Chris Kenrick of the Palo Alto News stating that Rep. Anna Eshoo has called for an investigation of the covert program that Panetta halted.
Today's discussion in The Arena from The Politico is a debate on the question “What are the implications of the CIA’s admission that it misled Congress?
There are several constitutional implications to this story – the power of the President and a civilian agency to conduct such a program, whatever it is, without congressional oversight and perhaps without authorization from Congress - the power of the President or the agency to mislead Congress about it – perhaps the power of an agency to mislead its own Director and the President about the existence of the program – and the implications of the secret program and government misrepresentations regarding it under the First Amendment and democratic principles. I think that it is premature to speculate about what this program was and what the precise legal ramifications are. I am sure that we will learn more about it in the coming days and weeks.
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It is interesting to conjecture what this program may have been.
Eh.
Probably something really evil like hunting down Al Qaeda operatives.
Larry, I agree with you that there is nothing illegal about "hunting down al Qaeda operatives." We are at war with al Qaeda, and I am confident that we are assassinating their leaders and members whereever we can find them.
For that reason, I doubt that was the secret program that Vice-President Cheney ordered the CIA not to disclose to Congress and that CIA Director Leon Panetta terminated the day after he learned about it. There would not even have to be a presidential directive allowing this. These are not people who have diplomatic status – they are our enemies who have declared war upon us by word and deed. We won't stop "hunting down al Qaeda operatives" until they are all dead.
As for what the "secret program" was, I imagine we will learn sometime what it was. It's too good a story to stay secret forever.