WASHINGTON Reuters – The CIA withheld information  about a secret counter-terrorism program from Congress for  eight years on orders from former US Vice President Dick  Cheney, the New York Times said Friday.

Citing two unidentified sources, the newspaper said Central  Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta disclosed Cheney’s  involvement in closed briefings to congressional intelligence  committees late last month.

Panetta, who was named to head the agency earlier this year  by President Barack Obama, ended the program, which remains  secret, when he first learned of its existence from  subordinates on June 23, the Times said. Intelligence and congressional officials told the newspaper  the agency began the programme after the Sept. 11 attacks and  said it never became operational and did not involve CIA  interrogation programs or domestic intelligence activities.

The newspaper said its efforts to reach Cheney through  relatives and associates were unsuccessful.

Asked about the Times report, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano  said it was not the agency’s practice to discuss classified  briefings.
“When a CIA unit brought this matter to Director Panetta’s  attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared  appropriately with Congress. That was also his view, and he  took swift, decisive action to put it into effect,” Gimigliano  said, declining to comment further.

Cheney was a key advocate in the Bush administration of  using controversial interrogation methods such as waterboarding  on terrorism suspects and has emerged as a leading Republican  critic of Obama’s national security policies.

Panetta has vowed not to allow coercive interrogation  practices, secret prisons or the transfer of terrorist suspects  to countries that may use torture, a pledge seen as a break  with the agency’s policies under President George W. Bush.

Critics of the agency, however, want it to be more  forthcoming about its secret programs.
Fears the CIA withheld key information from Congress were  rekindled in May when House of Representatives Speaker Nancy  Pelosi, a Democrat, accused the agency of failing to reveal in  2002 that it was waterboarding a terrorism suspect.