Warlord
05-15-2013, 02:01 PM
Republican senators briefly hijacked a hearing on Iran Wednesday to lambaste the Obama administration on the largely unrelated issue of CIA cash payments to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The angry lawmakers took advantage of a rare appearance by the State Department's third-ranking diplomat to demand answers on the decade of cash payments that The New York Times brought to light last month. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman refused to answer in public.
“Delivering cash to an elected leader – does that help us root out corruption in that country?” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) rhetorically asked Sherman.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) followed-up by questioning the example that the United States is setting.
“Would we object if other nations delivered bundles of cash to President Karzai?” he asked.
“It's OK for us to do it, but not for others?” McCain added. “I think the American people need to know what's being done with their tax dollars.”
Sherman declined to answer either lawmaker. She said the administration would brief Congress in classified setting about the long the payments have gone on and what they were for.
Corker has twice written to Obama demanding to know how the funds help the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, but has not received a response. He was also unsatisfied by her offer of a classified hearing.
“Well, had it been discussed in a classified setting, I couldn’t talk about it. And yet the president of Afghanistan is talking about it; and so it is in a public setting, and I expect a public response,” Corker said. “I guess I’ll have to ask the president of Afghanistan what is happening with this cash.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/asia-pacific/299949-lawmakers-explode-over-cia-cash-payments-to-afghanistans-karzai#ixzz2TORsGVT8
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Maybe Congress should use their power and assert oversight over the CIA? Where are the intelligence committee's? They would have known all about it in their "secret briefings".
The angry lawmakers took advantage of a rare appearance by the State Department's third-ranking diplomat to demand answers on the decade of cash payments that The New York Times brought to light last month. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman refused to answer in public.
“Delivering cash to an elected leader – does that help us root out corruption in that country?” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) rhetorically asked Sherman.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) followed-up by questioning the example that the United States is setting.
“Would we object if other nations delivered bundles of cash to President Karzai?” he asked.
“It's OK for us to do it, but not for others?” McCain added. “I think the American people need to know what's being done with their tax dollars.”
Sherman declined to answer either lawmaker. She said the administration would brief Congress in classified setting about the long the payments have gone on and what they were for.
Corker has twice written to Obama demanding to know how the funds help the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, but has not received a response. He was also unsatisfied by her offer of a classified hearing.
“Well, had it been discussed in a classified setting, I couldn’t talk about it. And yet the president of Afghanistan is talking about it; and so it is in a public setting, and I expect a public response,” Corker said. “I guess I’ll have to ask the president of Afghanistan what is happening with this cash.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/asia-pacific/299949-lawmakers-explode-over-cia-cash-payments-to-afghanistans-karzai#ixzz2TORsGVT8
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Maybe Congress should use their power and assert oversight over the CIA? Where are the intelligence committee's? They would have known all about it in their "secret briefings".