The CIA is spying on Congress (shock horror), the Congress is spying back (fainted, pass the smelling salts), the White House is silent (as befits the leading from behind strategy). What possibly can go wrong?
….
The
digital pile was unwieldy, with no index or structure. Investigators
organized their searches around names of CIA prisoners, scanning for any
references to Khalid Sheik Mohammed and others who had been held at the secret CIA sites.
Precisely
how the committee obtained that document remains unclear. Feinstein
said it was found on the shared database using a search tool provided by
the agency. “The committee staff did not hack into CIA computers to
obtain these documents,” she said.
“The firewall was breached,” said a U.S. official briefed on the matter. “They figured out a work-around.” If
true, that would represent an embarrassing lapse in security in the
computer system assembled by the agency. But, to agency officials, such a
breach and a concern about getting caught would explain why the
committee last year began asking for documents it already had. Committee officials flatly deny that the files were obtained through surreptitious means. The
dispute has exposed a thicket of potential conflicts. Among them is the
fact that the CIA’s acting general counsel, who Feinstein said is named
in the report more than 1,600 times, made the criminal referral about
committee staff to the Justice Department.
The fallout has also
focused attention on Feinstein and Brennan, revealing a deep rupture
between two of the most powerful figures in the U.S. intelligence
community that has the potential to spill into other areas where spy
agencies rely on Feinstein as an ally. Feinstein has been among
the most ardent backers of the CIA’s drone campaign, for example, citing
a deep confidence in the information that she and her staff have
gleaned from frequent and detailed briefings provided by the same agency
she has now accused of a pattern of misconduct and deception. Brennan
is widely respected for his integrity and deep experience in
intelligence work. But some congressional officials this week questioned
whether his indignation at the committee’s charges — and a tendency to
dig in his heels when challenged — had worsened the conflict.
“How
this will be resolved will show whether the intelligence committee can
be effective in monitoring and investigating our nation’s intelligence
activities,” Feinstein said, “or whether our work can be thwarted by
those we oversee.”
regards
