When oil executives took to Capital Hill last month to testify before Senate
about their profits, Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was outraged that Democrats
would want them sworn in. What did he know? As it turns out, these executives
lied when asked if they ever met with Cheney about energy policy. In fact they
did meet with him in 2001. Now Democrats are calling for an Attorney General
investigation into the lies told by these executives.
This from
Raw Story:
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) called on both Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist (R-TN) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Thursday to join him
in pressing the Attorney General for an investigation into whether top oil
executives made false statements during a recent Senate hearing when they
said they did not meet with Vice President Dick Cheney about energy policy.
His call was subsequently joined by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid
(D-NV).During a joint hearing of the Commerce and Energy Committees on Nov. 9,
senators heard testimony from the CEOs of the nation’s largest oil
companies. When Lautenberg asked these witnesses whether their companies had
participated in Vice President Cheney’s energy taskforce in 2001, they
denied — answers that were later contradicted by a report in the Washington
Post. Cheney has refused to disclose who he met with at those meetings,
citing executive privilege.
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here
First thing that strikes me as interesting is the fact that Cheney is citing
executive privilege. I thought that was something mainly used for issues of
national security, not meetings of public interest like energy taskforces. The
fact that these individuals would go before Senate and flat out lie to them
means there is something that was discussed in this meeting which they are
trying to hide from the country. What could be of such vital importance that you
need to hide it from the citizens of this country? Only thing that comes to my
mind is something like price gouging.