Director of National Intelligence Admits Lying to Congress

Posted by GottaLaff at 6:01 AM on September 13, 2007.

This post, written by GottaLaff, originally appeared on Cliff Schecter's Blog

First get the "news" out, then retract it after it's become "news". Hopefully this time, the Bush assministration will suffer more than the usual embarrassment.

In a new embarrassment for the Bush administration top spymaster, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is withdrawing an assertion he made to Congress this week that a recently passed electronic-surveillance law helped U.S. authorities foil a major terror plot in Germany.

There's that whole misspeaking thing again, nipping at the heels of the White House. No biggie. All he said was that the FISA law had...

...helped to "facilitate" the arrest of three suspects believed to be planning massive car bombings against American targets in Germany. Other U.S. intelligence-community officials questioned the accuracy of McConnell's testimony and urged his office to correct it.

Spit it out, McConnell. You can do it:

Late Wednesday afternoon, McConnell issued a statement acknowleding that "information contributing to the recent arrests [in Germany] was not collected under authorities provided by the 'Protect America Act'."

The number of lies spewed by the Bush crime family is staggering.

The developments were cited by Democratic critics on Capitol Hill as the latest example of the Bush administration's exaggerated claims--and contradictory statements--about ultrasecret surveillance activities. In the face of such complaints, the administration has consistently resisted any public disclosure about the details of the surveillance activities--even thought McConnell himself has openly talked about some aspects of them.

I bet he has some innocent explanation. Don't you bet that? I bet that he does.

Counterterrorism officials familiar with the background of McConnell's testimony said they did not believe the intel czar made inaccurate statements intentionally as part of any strategy by the administration to goad Congress into making the new eavesdropping law permanent. Officials said they believed McConnell gave the wrong answer because he was overwhelmed with information and merely mixed up his facts.

The "intel czar"--that's the czar that handles double-secret-spy stuff--is just overwhelmed with mountains of intelly-type info and got his facts all mixed up--I'm sorry, "merely" mixed up--and became faint and spinny-headed and, um, lied.

What was that, again, about America being safer than it was in 2001?

Tagged as: fisa, bush administration, terrorism, intelligence, mcconnell

GottaLaff is a regular blogger for Cliff Schecter's Blog