Allegations of CIA spying on the Senate deserve investigation
By Dana Milbank, WashPost, Published: March 11
President Obama’s foes have been trying for years to uncover scandal in his administration. But the most damning allegation of wrongdoing was leveled on the Senate floor Tuesday morning — by a friend.
California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, has been an ally of Obama and a staunch defender of the administration during the controversy over the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. So her credibility could not be questioned when she went public, reluctantly, to accuse Obama’s CIA of illegal and unconstitutional actions: violating the separation of powers by searching the committee’s computers and intimidating congressional staffers with bogus legal threats.
All of this was allegedly being done to keep quiet information about the CIA’s detention and interrogation programs during the George W. Bush administration. Feinstein said that the CIA’s actions may have violated the Constitution’s speech-and-debate clause and the Fourth Amendment, not to mention criminal law and the ban on domestic spying by the CIA.
“I have asked for an apology,” the 80-year-old legislator said toward the end of her devastating presentation, “and a recognition that this CIA search of computers used by its oversight committee was inappropriate. I have received neither.”
(More here.)
President Obama’s foes have been trying for years to uncover scandal in his administration. But the most damning allegation of wrongdoing was leveled on the Senate floor Tuesday morning — by a friend.
California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, has been an ally of Obama and a staunch defender of the administration during the controversy over the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. So her credibility could not be questioned when she went public, reluctantly, to accuse Obama’s CIA of illegal and unconstitutional actions: violating the separation of powers by searching the committee’s computers and intimidating congressional staffers with bogus legal threats.
All of this was allegedly being done to keep quiet information about the CIA’s detention and interrogation programs during the George W. Bush administration. Feinstein said that the CIA’s actions may have violated the Constitution’s speech-and-debate clause and the Fourth Amendment, not to mention criminal law and the ban on domestic spying by the CIA.
“I have asked for an apology,” the 80-year-old legislator said toward the end of her devastating presentation, “and a recognition that this CIA search of computers used by its oversight committee was inappropriate. I have received neither.”
(More here.)
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