The plot thickens, as they say. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been linked to a decision within the Bush Administration to conceal a still-unidentified CIA program from Congress. The New York Times has the story:

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency's director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.

Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.

Leon Panetta was sworn in as Director of the CIA on February 20, 2009. Why did it take four months for subordinates to inform the CIA Director of an on-going program? While intelligence and Congressional officials have said the unidentified program did not involve the CIA interrogation program and did not involve domestic intelligence activities, the exact nature and purpose of the program remains unknown.

Intelligence officials have said the program was started by the counterterrorism center at the CIA shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but never became fully operational, involving planning and some training that took place off and on from 2001 until this year. It remains unclear whether the program was conceived by the intelligence community or by the Vice President's office.

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For those who don't accept that there is grass roots support for the impeachment of Dick Cheney, today must have been a surprise.  Over 100,000 petitions for his impeachment were turned over to Dennis Kuicnich today!

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For a second time, Congress is arguing over a supplemental funding bill for the G.W. Bush War in Iraq. As you all know by now, Congress set a new course for the war in Iraq. It provided a way forward for the Iraqi people, and laid a path to bring our Troops home. Sure it had riders on it to provide funding for some of the pressing problems faced in this country.

But the idiot we have in the Whitehouse chose to veto the Iraq spending bill. Why? His stupid pride was hurt.

This president has a revenge-obsession with Iraq and continues to play like the three monkeys or at least two, he closes his eyes and covers his ears to the truth of this occupation. He could give a damn about the U.S. troops who have died in Iraq, a number approaching 3,400 men and women, not to mention the deaths tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. The farce of a president has thrown away over $427 billion of taxpayers hard earned money in Iraq, a vast amount of it has been stolen by unscrupulous U.S. contractors. This is $1423.00 for every man, woman and child in this country.

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