Calls for an investigation into post-9/11 C.I.A. operations are growing after news broke that former Vice President Dick Cheney told the C.I.A. to withhold information from Congress on a counter-terrorism program within the agency.

The program, which C.I.A. Director Leon Panetta shut down in June soon after being told about the program’s existence, had been created back in 2001 after the attacks on September 11. Started by the counterterrorism center at the C.I.A., it was designed to replace drones with paramilitary teams who would capture or kill members of Al-Qaeda around the world. But according to officials familiar with the program, it never really got off the ground.

Intelligence officials described the program to Politico as “on-again, off-again over the years,” saying that it “never went fully operational.”

“It sounds great in the movies, but when you try to do it, it’s not that easy,” one former intelligence official said. “Where do you base them? What do they look like? Are they going to be sitting around at headquarters on 24-hour alert waiting to be called?”

The program was never scrapped altogether, though, because the Bush administration had been looking for another way to kill suspected terrorists without relying on drone aircraft, which have sometimes killed innocent civilians.

But when Panetta found out about the program, not only did he shut it down, but he also decided to reverse what Cheney had told the C.I.A.: he went to Congress and informed them about the program.

“When a C.I.A. unit brought this matter to Director Panetta’s attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared appropriately with Congress,” said C.I.A. spokesman Paul Gimigliano in an interview with the New York Times. “That was also his view, and he took swift, decisive action to put it into effect.”

Now that Congress knows about being lied to by the C.I.A. for several years, congressional Democrats are calling for investigations into the C.I.A.’s misinformation.

“I think it behooves the [House Intelligence] Committee to take whatever actions they believe are necessary to get more information on that subject as to whether the intelligence community was directed by the vice president to create a program and intentionally withhold that information from Congress,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters at a news conference.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) believes that the Senate Intelligence Committee should “absolutely” investigate the secret program, telling ABC’s “This Week” that “the executive branch of government should not create programs like these programs and keep Congress in the dark. To have a massive program that was concealed from the leaders in Congress is not only inappropriate, it could be illegal.”

“The failure to notify the congressional intelligence committees of the program prior to last month was a violation of the National Security Act, and individuals who ordered that Congress be kept in the dark should be held accountable,” agreed Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

But while there does seem to be growing consensus amongst Congressional Democrats that Congress should look into this secret program, they don’t expect much cooperation or support from Congressional Republicans.

“It’s unfortunate, but I think [Republicans] feel they need to be partisan, and I don’t think it needs to be partisan,” Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA), a member of the intelligence committee, told Politico. “That’s their politicization, and I think it’s unfortunate.”

But Senator John McCain (R-AZ) warned on CBS’s “The Early Show” that an investigation into the past administration would turn the issue into “a witch hunt.”

“[Withholding information from Congress] isn’t a reason to disassemble the C.I.A. and make them a whipping child in the middle of public opinion, which basically undermines the whole agency,” Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This is a national attempt by some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to basically undermine efforts to collect intelligence.”

Popularity: 1% [?]