The CIA has been accused of yet another fraud. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had referred a CIA attorney for disciplinary action and is considering further sanctions against five current and former CIA employees, including former CIA Director George Tenet, for misleading the court in a federal case.
The case involved a lawsuit by former agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency, Richard Horn, who claims that the CIA illegally wiretapped his home in Burma in 1993. Tenet told the court in a 2000 affidavit that the former station chief in Burma, Arthur Brown, was still a covert agent and thus the case against him should be dismissed. However, in 2002, the agent’s cover had been lifted but the CIA never informed the Court.
In a measure of the lack of trust and credibility given CIA representations in court, Judge Lamberth stated “The court does not give the government a high degree of deference because of its prior misrepresentations regarding the state secrets privilege in this case.”
The case continues Tenet’s checkered career. History will long note George W. Bush’s infamous awarding of Tenet with the Presidential Medal after he gave false information to Congress and the United Nations to justify the Iraq War and carried out a variety of unlawful programs after 9-11.
Lamberth’s action remains a rarity among federal court which often tolerate such false or misleading affidavits — refusing to allow opposing counsel to question the representations of the government.
And let’s not forget Michael D. Furlong and his “off-the-books spy operation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/world/asia/15contractors.html
(begin quote): While it has been widely reported that the C.I.A. and the military are attacking operatives of Al Qaeda and others through unmanned, remote-controlled drone strikes, some American officials say they became troubled that Mr. Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation. The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised his work. (end quote)
It is my contention that Furlong or someone of his ilk, has been and continues to be engaged in something domestically.
The following letter to Joe Sestak highlights the sort of activities to which I often allude in this blog:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?letter_id=4961158501
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. and Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb. applaud KBR’s corruption and fraud, and give another big bonus to corrupt contractor Booz Allen Hamilton for pursuing phony cyber-war on terror at the Nebraska-based U.S. Strategic Command. Booz continues to bill STRATCOM for stalking, bullying, harrassing and terrorizing Americans.
Something’s rotten domestically, folks. Rotten to the core. Sooner or later, I trust, “the truth will out.”