Pa. lawmaker: Witnesses may have lied in security hearings

A Pennsylvania lawmaker said Friday witnesses may have lied under oath during fall hearings on the state Office of Homeland Security’s controversial intelligence gathering contracts.The Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee held two hearings looking into the information the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response gathered on political groups across the state.Republican Sen. Lisa Baker, committee chairwoman, said the hearings have raised some concerns. She is asking the attorney general’s office to take a look at them.”The possibility that untrue testimony may have been given under oath. The possibility that records may have been improperly destroyed,” she said. “Those are things that I think shouldn’t be casually waived off, just because of the waning days of an administration.”Baker isn’t saying who may have lied or destroyed evidence.Witnesses included Gov. Ed Rendell’s Chief of Staff Steve Crawford, Homeland Security Director James Powers, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Robert French and ITRR executive Mike Perelman.The Rendell Administration isn’t commenting on Baker’s letter to Attorney General Tom Corbett.  A spokesman says the attorney general is reviewing the issue.