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| Senator: CIA Improperly Searched Computer Network - ABC News Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:17 AM PDT The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the CIA Tuesday of criminal activity in improperly searching a computer network set up for lawmakers investigating allegations that the agency used torture in terror investigations during the Bush administration. Democrat Dianne Feinstein, in an extraordinary speech on the Senate floor, publicly aired an intense but formerly quiet dispute between Congress and the spy agency. She said the matter has been referred to the Justice Department for further investigation. Both Feinstein and the CIA 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 U.S. Constitution." CIA Director John Brennan, asked about Feinstein's accusations, said the agency was not trying to stop the committee's report and that it had not hacked into Senate computers. 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." The CIA provided computers to congressional staffers in a secure room in northern Virginia in 2009 so the panel could review millions of pages of top secret documents in the course of its investigation into the CIA's detentions and interrogations during the Bush administration. At issue now is whether the CIA violated an agreement made with the Senate Intelligence Committee about monitoring the panel's use of CIA computers. Feinstein said the Senate staff members had an electronic search tool to deal with 6.2 million pages of documents and the ability to make copies on their computers. She said the arrangement suffered a blow when CIA personnel electronically removed the committee's access to documents that had already been provided to the panel. She said about 870 documents were removed in February 2010, and an additional 50 were withdrawn without the knowledge of the committee. Feinstein said she has asked the agency for an apology but the CIA has been silent. CIA Director John Brennan, who first told Feinstein about the surveillance of the Senate investigation that occurred before he took over the CIA, had no immediate comment on the senator's statement. The dispute comes as the Obama administration is trying to regain public trust after classified details about widespread surveillance of Americans were disclosed by former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden last summer. This dispute does not involve the NSA spying on Americans, but it does show a fractious relationship between the U.S. spy agencies and the Congress charged with overseeing them. Feinstein, as head of the Intelligence panel, has defended the NSA against criticism of its practices, making her comments about the CIA dispute highly unusual. Senators said the stakes demanded it. "If we do not stand up for the protection of the separation of powers and our ability to do oversight, especially when conduct has happened that is all likelihood criminal conduct on the part of a government agency, then what do we stand for?" asked Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee. | ||
| Terror Links to Stolen Passports Unlikely, Jet Inquiry Finds - New York Times Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:17 AM PDT [unable to retrieve full-text content]
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