Spies, secrets, and politics.
Put them all together and you have the latest Washington drama.
American media sources are suggesting former Vice President Dick Cheney personally ordered the CIA to withhold information about a covert program from Congress.
The controversy now – should Cheney be taken to task over his decision to keep it quiet?
We’re researched different media perspectives on this developing story.
The Wall Street Journal has the viewpoint it’s all a moot point because the covert program never got off the ground anyway.
In the aftermath of 9/11:
“…a small CIA unit examined the potential for targeted assassinations of al Qaeda operatives, according to the three former officials…”
The paper adds this from a former intelligence official…
“It was straight out of the movies. It was like: Let's kill them all.”
CNN broadcasts the angle the Obama administration leaked the story to help the current President’s poll numbers.
“To somehow suggest it might have been improper for the president or the vice president to keep an important program secret, I mean, that happens every day.”
“Every time they get in trouble, which the president's poll numbers are slipping and his health care and global warming initiatives are under assault, they dredge up a Darth Vader story.”
The Christian Science Monitor’s Cheryl Sullivan shakes the 8 ball – asking will this program pull Cheney to Washington for an interrogation of his own?
“Democratic lawmakers on Sunday implied or flat-out stated that such a failure to inform Congress is illegal. Intelligence panel members from both the House and the Senate say Congress should investigate.”
So, are we going to start prosecuting former officials for the decisions they made while in office years ago?
That’s what Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson is asking.
“After 2001 the entire country was unified in targeting Al Qaeda and in killing Al Qaeda operatives and in killing Osama bin Laden and so does that political determination in 2009 become a criminal act?”
Do you think Congress should call for a probe of Cheney’s actions? Or, should they focus on other concerns, like health care?
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