Executive Branch
Did Cheney Break the Law by Hiding CIA Program from Congress?
Posted Jul 13, 2009, 06:12 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A report this weekend says former Vice President Dick Cheney told the CIA to withhold information from Congress about a secret counterterrorism program, raising questions about whether such an order violates the law.
Two unidentified sources told the New York Times that the new CIA director, Leon Panetta, has halted the program and has told congressional intelligence committees that they were not previously told of the program because of orders by Cheney.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told FOX News Sunday that, if the report is true, the Bush administration may have broken the law, FOX News reports. The New York Times also covered the comments in a separate story.
The amended National Security Act of 1947 says the president should keep the intelligence committees “fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity,” the Times says.
But the law is not absolute: It provides that 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.”
The law also allows for more limited disclosure—to the leaders of both houses of Congress and the heads of the intelligence committees—for CIA covert programs.
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