Saving Nancy Pelosi

It's now quite clear that the kerfuffle regarding the CIA's keeping an Al Qaida assassination program secret from Congress was manufactured to give Nancy Pelosi cover.

Two U.S. officials with detailed knowledge of current CIA operations said the agency presented Panetta last month with new plans for moving forward with training for potential members of the assassination teams -- activities that would have involved "crossing international boundaries," in the words of a former counterterrorism official briefed on the matter.

"When a CIA unit brought the program to Panetta's attention, it came with a recommendation to brief Congress since there was some thought being given to moving toward a somewhat more operational phase -- that is, a little training," said an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the events.

In other words, it was just something that was being considered and had never been operational, or particularly close to operational. When the CIA started thinking more seriously about it, they decided that it was time to tell Congress. And Panetta exploited that to affect outrage and bolster Pelosi's irresponsible claim that the CIA illegally withholds information from Congress all the time.