Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

CIA accused of spying on Senate probe

Feinstein: Documents were removed

Donna Cassata Associated Press

WASHINGTON – In an extraordinary public accusation, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee declared on Tuesday that the CIA interfered with and then tried to intimidate a congressional investigation into the agency’s possible use of torture in terror probes during the Bush administration.

The CIA clandestinely removed documents and searched a computer network set up for lawmakers, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein in a biting speech on the Senate floor. In an escalating dispute with an agency she has long supported, she said the CIA may well have violated criminal laws and the U.S. Constitution.

At odds on major contentions, both sides noted the matter has now been handed to the Justice Department for further investigation and potential prosecution. The CIA’s inspector general, David Buckley, first referred the matter to the Justice Department, and the CIA’s acting counsel responded by filing a criminal report about the intelligence committee staff.

“I am not taking it lightly,” Feinstein said of the tit-for-tat investigations. “I view the acting counsel general’s referral as a potential effort to intimidate this staff” in the interrogation investigation.

The dispute between the CIA and senators, which has been going on privately for more than five years, exploded into a public clash as the California Democrat offered a detailed account of the Senate’s secretive dealings with the CIA in an investigation of post-Sept. 11 interrogation and detention practices.

More broadly, all U.S. spy agencies have drawn intense scrutiny since revelations last summer about surveillance of Americans by the National Security Agency. The Obama administration has struggled to rebuild public trust since former analyst Edward Snowden made the disclosures. Feinstein has been one of the intelligence community’s most ardent advocates, arguing that the wide surveillance of people’s electronic and telephone communications was a necessary counterterrorism tool.

In the current matter, a long-running dispute has centered on whether waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, and other harsh interrogation techniques were factors in aiding the CIA’s antiterror efforts and helped the agency track down Osama bin Laden.

CIA Director John Brennan rejected Feinstein’s accusations, insisting that the agency was not trying to thwart the committee’s work and denying that it had been spying on the panel or the Senate. He said the appropriate authorities would look at the matter further and “I defer to them to determine whether or not there was any violation of law or principle.”

Brennan told Feinstein in a letter in January that he took responsibility for ordering CIA technicians to audit the computer systems used by the Senate staffers – to determine if there was a security breach.

In the letter, shared with CIA workers and obtained by the Associated Press on Tuesday, Brennan said he asked for the review after finding that Senate investigators may have “improperly obtained and/or retained … sensitive CIA documents” that the CIA had no record of sharing with them. He repeated his request for their return.

Feinstein insisted that her staff members acted appropriately in following an agreement worked out between her committee and then-CIA Director Leon Panetta in 2009.

But Feinstein and the CIA also have accused each other’s staffs of improper behavior. She said she had “grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution,” as well as the Fourth Amendment that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

She said she has sought an explanation and an apology from the CIA. Neither has been forthcoming.