CIA chief admitted lying to Congress

Updated on : Friday, July 10, 2009

WASHINGTON: The US Central Intelligence Agency has admitted "concealing significant actions" from Congress for years during the Bush administration, prompting the chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee to accuse the agency of having "affirmatively lied".

Members of Congress say the CIA director, Leon Panetta, made the admission at a closed session last month.

The CIA admission came to light after seven Democratic members of the House intelligence committee wrote to Panetta demanding he correct a statement in May in which he denied Pelosi’s assertions, saying that it is not the agency’s "policy or practice to mislead Congress".

"Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from all members of Congress, and misled members for a number of years from 2001 to this week," the letter said. "This is similar to other deceptions of which we are aware from other recent periods."

However Republicans on the intelligence committee challenged the Democrats characterization of the extent of Panetta’s admission.

CIA seeks to broaden foreign language skills

Updated at: 0927 PST, Saturday, May 30, 2009

WASHINGTON: The CIA is undertaking a five-year plan to boost the agency's fluency in foreign languages, Director Leon Panetta said Friday.

Less than a third of CIA analysts and overseas spies are proficient in a foreign language and Panetta said he aims to raise foreign language proficiency inside the CIA to at least half of all analysts and intelligence operatives within the next five years.

"Whether an officer is conducting a meeting in a foreign capital, analyzing plans of a foreign government, or translating a foreign broadcast, language capability is critical to every aspect of our mission," Panetta said.

The actual numbers those percentages represent in CIA employees are classified because the number of agency employees is secret. But agency officials say its staff suffers shortages in some of world's critical languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Pushto, Urdu and Persian.

The CIA will both increase language training and recruit Americans who already speak the necessary foreign languages. Panetta said the initiative would require significant new funding, but did not specify an amount.