The Senate-CIA Blowup Threatens a Constitutional Crisis

[Purveyor]

The allegations of CIA snooping on congressional investigators isn't just a scandal—the whole premise of secret government is in question.

—By David Corn | Tue Mar. 11, 2014

This morning, on C-SPAN, the foundation of the national security state exploded.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, took to the Senate floor and accused the CIA of spying on committee investigators tasked with probing the agency's past use of harsh interrogation techniques (a.k.a. torture) and detention. Feinstein was responding to recent media stories reporting that the CIA had accessed computers used by intelligence committee staffers working on the committee's investigation. The computers were set up by the CIA in a locked room in a secure facility separate from its headquarters, and CIA documents relevant to the inquiry were placed on these computers for the Senate investigators. But, it turns out, the Senate sleuths had also uncovered an internal CIA memo reviewing the interrogation program that had not been turned over by the agency. This document was far more critical of the interrogation program than the CIA's official rebuttal to a still-classified, 6,300-page Senate intelligence committee report that slams it, and the CIA wanted to find out how the Senate investigators had gotten their mitts on this damaging memo.

The CIA's infiltration of the Senate's torture probe was a possible constitutional violation and perhaps a criminal one, too. The agency's inspector general and the Justice Department have begun inquiries. And as the story recently broke, CIA sources—no names, please—told reporters that the real issue was whether the Senate investigators had hacked the CIA to obtain the internal review. Readers of the few newspaper stories on all this did not have to peer too far between the lines to discern a classic Washington battle was under way between Langley and Capitol Hill.

Then Feinstein went nuclear. For more than a half hour this morning, she gave what she called a "full accounting." She began by noting her reluctance to go public:

Let me say up front that I come to the Senate floor reluctantly. Since January 15, 2014, when I was informed of the CIA search of this committee’s network, I've been trying to resolve this dispute in a discreet and respectful way. I have not commented in response to media requests for additional information on this matter; however, the increasing amount of inaccurate information circulating now cannot be allowed to stand unanswered.

In other words, she felt that the spies were leaking false information to nail her and her staffers. So she was upping the ante by taking this dispute out of the shadows.

more...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/dianne-feinstein-cia-intelligence-committee-constitutional-crisis

[FreakinDJ]

1. Thou doest protest too much DiFi

It was Fucking just Fine and Dandy when it was your average American being spied on - "But How Dare They" spy on you

Suck it DiFi

[villager]

2. They've turned on her and lost a key apologist

Overdue and high time.

Let the crisis -- and the vastly overdue discussion -- begin!

[cprise]

5. Exactly! n/t

[jberryhill]

3. Does commanding women to perform oral sex on you give you a thrill

We condemned that sort of rhetoric from Ted Nugent.

What does "Suck it DiFi" bring to this discussion?

[FreakinDJ]

10. Your out in left Field like Pluto on that one

But I suppose taking things out of context is the norm

[al_liberal]

4. Are our leaders really that naive?

What part of "bulk collection" do they not understand? So they think the CIA/DIA/NSA have an exclusion list of phones/computers/e-mail, etc. that they don't spy on?

Goddamn, did it ever occur to them that once you trash the 4th Amendment for an individual it gets trashed for everyone.

And these people are our Nation's lawmakers and leaders?

[rhett o rick]

7. I dont think they are naive about this at all. These spy programs didnt just start yesterday.

I am betting that most of them just want to get by and dont care if the intelligence cabal spies on others as long as it's not them. I think they realize that the cabal is very, very powerful. DiFi is taking a huge risk.

[CJCRANE]

6. They really need to get all this info out in the open.

Just release it already.

And how come Snowden/Greenwald/Assange etc. don't release this kind of info?

[Jefferson23]

8. Are the floodgates opening?

K&R

[Purveyor]

11. Something is up, indeed! eom

[blkmusclmachine]

9. DiFi sez whut ...