Democrats Say CIA May Have Misled Congress Five Times

Two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they believe the CIA misled them in briefings on "enhanced interrogation techniques," The Hill reported Wednesday. Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) are conducting an investigation into accusations that the CIA presented incomplete and sometimes downright deceptive information that members of Congress later heard in the press.

"There have been many instances where we've come to a committee hearing, after having read in the paper of something that should have been notified to us, where it's followed up by mea culpas by the intelligence community," Schakowsky said. "And examples where the committee actually has been lied to."

One of the instances being examined is a 2002 briefing on torture, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referenced earlier this year when she controversially claimed that the CIA lied to her. Under fire for not objecting to waterboarding, Pelosi said that the CIA explicitly told the Intelligence Committee that it was not waterboarding anyone. She said officials "misled us all the time." Findings from the investigation have thus far identified five instances of communication breakdown between the CIA and Congress, which could bolster Pelosi's case.