Support for Nancy Pelosi — and for our point that questioning the CIA’s honesty isn’t really too radical a position — has come from a perhaps unlikely new source.
The Hill reports that Arlen Specter, the new Democrat who as a Republican chaired the Senate intelligence committee, told a luncheon audience at the American Law Institute: “The CIA has a very bad record when it comes to — I was about to say candid, that’s too mild — to honesty.”
According to the paper, Specter then referred to misleading information about the CIA’s involvement in mining harbors in Nicaragua, and the Iran-Contra affair.
The Hill continues:
“Director Panetta says the agency does not make it a habit to misinform Congress. I believe that is true. It is not the policy of the Central Intelligence Agency to misinform Congress,” Specter said. “But that doesn’t mean that they’re all giving out the information.”
Because of leaks that have come from Congress, Specter said he understands the agency’s hesitancy to disclose all its information.
“The current controversy involving Speaker Pelosi and the CIA is very unfortunate in my opinion because it politicizes the issue and it takes away attention from … how does the Congress get accurate information from the CIA?” Specter said. “For political gain, people are making headlines.”
It says something about the absurdity of the current debate that pointing out the fact that the CIA isn’t known for its honesty is news-worthy. But there you go.
As for Specter, after a rocky start, is he finally learning how to be a Democrat?
