[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17659-17660]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 DO NOT MAKE THE CIA A POLITICAL PINATA

  (Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California asked and was given permission 
to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, now is not the time 
for us to make a political pinata out of the CIA. How long ago was it 
that 9/11 occurred? And what did the commission on 9/11 tell us? It 
said we did not have adequate intelligence. We had lost an entire 
generation of intelligence operatives as a result of prior action by 
this Congress.

[[Page 17660]]

  We can talk about the Church Committee report. We can talk about what 
happened during the Carter administration. We can talk about what 
happened in the Clinton administration. We thought we didn't need human 
intelligence; we could do it all with electronic.
  The way to attract people, bright young people, committed patriots, 
to this country's intelligence is not to go after the CIA, is not, 
after the fact, for what appears to be political reasons, to threaten 
criminal investigations of those who are doing nothing more than trying 
to save this country from attack by others who would try and kill 
innocent Americans.
  This outrage must stop. Do not make the CIA a political pinata, for 
whatever purpose.

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