Senate Intelligence Committee Finally Decides That Maybe It Should Figure Out What The Intelligence Community Is Up To

from the seems-a-bit-late-for-that dept

Both houses of Congress set up their respective "Select Committees on Intelligence" in the mid-1970s as basically permanent extensions of the Church and Pike Committees that dug into widespread abuses of the US intelligence community in the preceding decades. The idea was that by creating permanent oversight committees, it would prevent the kinds of abuses that were commonly done by the FBI, NSA and CIA. And yet, as we've noted many times, the intelligence committees don't seem to function as an oversight committee these days. Rather, they seem to be the committee designed to whitewash any abuses and to help the intelligence communities give a false veneer of legitimacy to their widespread abuses.

Just to put an exclamation point on the lack of real oversight, the Associated Press is now reporting that, in the wake of the Snowden revelations, then Senate Intelligence Committee boss (now "ranking member"), Dianne Feinstein, asked the committee to create a "secret encyclopedia" of all the various intelligence programs, because members and staffers apparently hadn't been keeping track:

Trying to get a handle on hundreds of sensitive, closely held surveillance programs, a Senate committee is compiling a secret encyclopedia of American intelligence collection. It’s part of an effort to improve congressional oversight of the government’s sprawling global spying effort.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein launched the review in October 2013, after a leak by former National Security Agency systems administrator Edward Snowden disclosed that the NSA had been eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone. Four months earlier, Snowden had revealed the existence of other programs that vacuumed up Americans’ and foreigners’ phone call records and electronic communications.

“We’re trying right now to look at every intelligence program,” Feinstein told the Associated Press. “There are hundreds of programs we have found ... sprinkled all over. Many people in the departments don’t even know (they) are going on.”

Later in the article, Feinstein admits that the committee had not been "satisfactorily informed" about certain surveillance programs.

In other words, the committee clearly hasn't been doing much "oversight." Part of the problem is that so much of the work done by the intelligence community actually falls under executive order 12333. That's the executive order issued by Reagan under which most of the key intelligence programs fall -- and which Congress technically has no oversight mandate.

If the program started back in 2013, why is it only coming out now? Well, because with the changing of the guard in the latest Congress, Senator Richard Burr took over the Senate Intelligence Committee leadership, and he's even more of an intelligence community defender than Feinstein ever was. In the past, he's even argued that there should be no public hearings by the committee, and he's basically fought against any effort for transparency, and always sides with the intelligence community. Given that, many expected him to just kill off Feinstein's attempt at cataloging these programs -- but apparently Burr and Feinstein worked out "a deal" to continue -- but it appears that the "deal" also involves ending this effort by September, and no longer using two staffers from the executive branch who were familiar with these programs:

Feinstein, a California Democrat, initially wasn’t sure that Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who took her place as chairman of the panel when Republicans took control of the Senate in January, would agree to continue the review. But Burr and Feinstein recently reached an agreement to do so, said Senate aides. They were not authorized to discuss the inner committee workings publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Two executive branch officials who had been detailed to the committee are returning to the executive branch and will not be replaced, the aides said, so the effort will be entirely the work of congressional staff. The project will end in September, the aides said.

Of course, for the past few years, Feinstein had insisted that the Committee was fully informed -- and only now it's coming out that she admits they weren't really. Except, now the committee is controlled by someone who is even more in the bag for the intelligence community than she was. Does anyone honestly think that the intelligence committees will now suddenly start doing a better job keeping the rest of Congress informed about what the intelligence community is up to?

Filed Under: dianne feinstein, executive order 12333, oversight, richard burr, senate, senate intelligence committee, surveillance

Turns Out New Senate Intelligence Boss Was Simply Full Of It In Claiming Feinstein Couldn't Distribute The CIA Torture Report

from the off-to-a-great-start dept

The new head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Richard Burr, has long been known as a staunch defender of anything the CIA/NSA decide to do. That's why we still find it odd that he's now in charge of overseeing them, a job that was created to try to prevent their abuses. In the past, Burr has even argued that all hearings by the committee should be held in secret, to prevent any information from ever getting out. So, perhaps it wasn't that surprising when he kicked off his new role by claiming that his predecessor, Senator Dianne Feinstein, had somehow broken all sorts of protocol in actually distributing copies of the committee's 6000+ page report on the CIA's torture program and how the CIA lied to Congress about it. Burr was demanding all the copies back, while supposedly acting furious that it had been distributed. He claimed that it "was not a valid disclosure" and that it was done without approval.

As part of that complaint, he went to the Senate Parliamentarian (basically the referee who makes the calls on all the arcane and sometimes ridiculous rules of the Senate), asking for a determination that Feinstein had violated the rules in distributing the report. Instead, he got the opposite. The Parliamentarian has noted that Feinstein did nothing wrong in distributing the report.

The Senate Parliamentarian has vindicated former Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein against charges that the California Democrat violated committee rules by sending the full, classified version of her panel’s torture report out to the executive branch.

“There’s nothing there. They’re taking no action,” Feinstein told HuffPost Tuesday.

Apparently, Burr isn't giving up, but in typical Burr fashion, he says he's going to keep what he does next a secret:

“We’ll proceed to whatever the next step is gonna be,” Burr said Tuesday. “I think there will be a next step, but it probably won’t be a public one.”

That's not particularly comforting.

Filed Under: cia, cia torture report, dianne feinstein, richard burr, senate, senate intelligence committee

Will Senator Burr's Attempt To Bury CIA Torture Report Actually Make It More Likely The Report Leaks?

from the action,-reaction dept

We already wrote about how Senator Richard Burr has demanded that the White House return all copies of the full, unredacted CIA Torture Report, which Senator Dianne Feinstein distributed to various department heads last month. As we noted in our article, this seemed like an effort to stuff the full report down the memory hole to make sure that no one could ever do anything with it at all and to make it more difficult to access in a series of FOIA lawsuits. Those lawsuits are demanding the report, as well as the internal Panetta Review that is supposedly the smoking gun, involving an internal CIA analysis that mostly agrees with the Senate Intelligence Committee's analysis in the full report.

Reporter Jason Leopold of Vice News (and one of the people suing the government, under FOIA, for the documents) has some more details about Burr's action, including a copies of the letter [pdf] Burr sent the White House, and the letter that Feinstein sent in reply. As Leopold notes, Burr's decision seems specifically designed to try to do a legal two-step to make the document immune from FOIA lawsuits:

By advising the White House to cease entering the full torture report into an executive branch system of records, Burr is saying that the document is a "congressional record," which is exempt from FOIA, as opposed to an "agency record," which is subject to the provisions of the law.

Feinstein's response shows that she disagrees, and that the report can properly be handed over to the Executive Branch. The reason for the letter, obviously, is for it to be used in killing off the FOIA attempts, and the DOJ wasted no time in making just that argument:

Tonight, the government filed a response in our long-running lawsuit and asked a judge to dismiss our case. A CIA lawyer said in a 31-page declaration that the redactions in the executive summary were justified and the Panetta Review is properly classified and should not be released. The government also responded to the ACLU's FOIA lawsuit for the full torture report. The government said the full torture report is not an agency record subject to FOIA, it is a congressional record. The government cited Burr's letter to support its case.

You can see that filing here [pdf], with this being the relevant portion:

Congress retains control over the Full Report for at least five reasons. First, the conditions under which the report was created reflect that SSCI as a whole asserted complete control over not only drafts, but also the final product. Second, throughout the years-long process of creating and finalizing the Report, both SSCI and the CIA handled the Report in accordance with SSCI’s instructions and strict limitations on access. Third, SSCI voted, in accordance with Senate Rules, to seek declassification and release only of the Executive Summary, Findings and Conclusions – not the Full Report. The then-SSCI Chairman’s decision to provide the Full Report to certain Executive Branch agencies for nonpublic use does not amount to a Committee decision to seek to declassify and release the Full Report. Fourth, the current Chairman of SSCI has reiterated SSCI’s intent to retain control of the Full Report. Finally, the defendant agencies have treated the Full Report, received in December 2014, as a congressional record, sequestering it in secure storage space appropriate to its classification and carefully limiting its dissemination and use. Because the Full Report remains a congressional record as opposed to an agency record, this Court lacks jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ FOIA claim seeking its release, and plaintiffs’ claim should be dismissed under Rule 12(h)(3) or 12(b)(1).2

This is not all that unexpected, even if it's fairly ridiculous. However, it's possible that the whole thing could backfire badly. Feinstein knew what she was doing in distributing the report to a number of people within the administration. While all of whom have access to it have the proper clearance, at least some have to agree that this report is an important historical document, detailing incredible misdeeds by the CIA -- and some of them may view it as important to have that information shared with the public to make sure such events never happen again.

Senator Burr's rather obvious move here to demand all copies be "returned" is seen by many as an attempt to bury the report entirely. As Senator Ron Wyden points out, returning the report would "aid defenders of torture who are seeking to cover up the facts and rewrite the historical record." Given that, it seems more likely that at least someone with access to the document is going to realize that this important review of history is at risk of being shredded. Hopefully there is someone in the government with the courage to stand up and get a copy out to reporters in some manner or another, before Burr has a chance to succeed in wiping it off the face of the earth.

Filed Under: cia, cia torture report, congress, dianne feinstein, doj, foia, jason leopold, leaks, richard burr, senate, senate intelligence committee, whistleblowing

New Senate Intelligence Boss Demands That White House 'Return' CIA Torture Report Copies

from the so-they-can-be-burned dept

We had mentioned in the past, that once Senator Richard Burr took over the Senate Intelligence Committee, it seemed likely that the CIA torture report, prepared by the Committee's staffers, would be buried. That was before the redacted version of the executive summary was released, and it was written to explain why an agreement needed to be reached to release the report before the new Congress took over. However, what we didn't expect was that Senator Burr, upon taking office, would then take the rather unprecedented step of trying to bury the report anyway.

But that's exactly what he's doing.

Specifically, he has freaked out and demanded that the White House return every copy of the full 6,600 page report, saying that Senator Feinstein never should have delivered that full report to anyone in the administration:

Burr, upon taking charge in January, wrote to the executive branch and the federal agencies in receipt of the document, and asked that it be returned to the committee, as he did not feel it was a valid disclosure.

“It gets pretty technical,” Burr said, confirming he sent the letter. The full document, he explained, had been voted complete in the 112th Congress, and the release of the executive summary was voted on by the 113th Congress.

But what wasn’t ever agreed upon, said Burr, was the disclosure of the full report to several arms of the federal government, which prompted his letter demanding all copies be returned.

And, that's not all he's asking for. He's also demanding back the so-called "Panetta Review," which was the internal review, done by the CIA of the torture program, with findings that largely mirrored the Senate Intelligence Committee's report. The Panetta Review had been done, on the orders of then director Leon Panetta, and the CIA insists it was only meant for internal use at the CIA. At some point, however, according to the Intelligence Committee staffers, the CIA gave a draft of that document over to the those staffers. That resulted in then Senator Mark Udall asking the CIA for the final review -- leading the CIA to freak out that a Senator knew of the existence of the Panetta Review in the first place.

That, of course, resulted in the CIA then spying on the Senate staffers' computers to find out how they got the document and the CIA ridiculously claiming that the staffers had violated criminal laws in removing the document from the network and storing it in a safe place. Udall, before leaving Congress, argued that the Panetta Review should be released, but Burr has (not surprisingly) demanded the document back.

Once again, this raises some serious questions about what Senator Burr thinks his role is. Is it oversight of the CIA -- or is he the CIA's protector? Because the demands for both of these reports to be "returned" so that he can more or less destroy them, certainly suggests the latter, rather than the former.

And, as ridiculous as it may sound to demand the return of these reports, it's more than just a gesture of solidarity with the CIA. The ACLU is currently suing the CIA over its refusal to release the Panetta Review under a FOIA request and also the federal government for refusing to release the full CIA torture report. Having that information in other parts of the government make it more likely that a court could order it to be turned over. But Burr seems to be focused on making sure that it's only held by "friendly" parties who might destroy this important historical document, detailing the CIA's abuses. As the ACLU noted in a statement:

“Senator Burr is supposed to be overseeing the CIA, not covering up its crimes. The full Senate torture report was given to Executive Branch agencies to be widely used to make sure that the federal government learns its lesson and never uses torture again. Senator Burr’s attempt to recall the report seems like a bid to thwart Congress’s own Freedom of Information Act, which protects the rights of the American people to learn about their own government. Americans should ask, if Senator Burr isn’t going to serve his role in the Constitution’s system of checks and balances, then why did he want to be chairman of the intelligence committee? This is a poor start to a chairmanship.”

Filed Under: cia, cia torture report, foia, oversight, panetta review, richard burr, senate intelligence committee
Companies: aclu

If GOP Takes Senate Next Week, Expect The CIA Torture Report To Disappear

from the bye-bye dept

We've heard some mumbling about one of the main reasons that the CIA has been dragging its feet on declassifying the executive summary of the CIA torture report that the Senate Intelligence Committee put together: it knows there's a decent chance that the Republicans will win the Senate next week, and suddenly the report may disappear from view. As you may recall, the Intelligence Committee (with support from GOP Senators) voted to declassify the 480 page executive summary of the 6,300 page report (which the Senate spent $40 million putting together). Multiple leaks concerning the report have suggested that it's devastating and details how terrible the CIA's torture program was, how it was completely ineffective and how the CIA lied about it all.

But most of the support for releasing the report is coming from the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Dianne Feinstein (who sides with the NSA on plenty of stuff, but is more willing to challenge the CIA). But if the Republicans take the Senate next week, then the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee will likely shift to Senator Richard Burr, who has made it quite clear that he's on the CIA's team and against the public interest.

"I personally don't believe that anything that goes on in the intelligence committee should ever be discussed publicly," Burr told reporters in March. "If I had my way, with the exception of nominees, there would never be a public intelligence hearing."

It's also expected that Burr will try to muzzle Ron Wyden and Mark Udall (if Udall is re-elected, which is iffy at this point):

If Burr takes over as chair, he could easily sideline the committee's vocal civil libertarian bloc led by Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and bolstered by Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), two senators who've called for Brennan's resignation.

Udall, in particular, drew blunt criticisms from Burr earlier this year for disclosing the existence of an internal CIA review of the detention and interrogation program that Democrats believe vindicates their own study.

"I think Mark did make some public releases that were committee-sensitive information, but that's for the committee internally to handle," Burr told reporters in March. "My concern is that the release of information could potentially cause the losses of life to Americans. That to me, is a threshold that should be addressed."

As for the torture report itself, Burr has already said that the report is inaccurate and he's against it being released in any form. When a group of religious leaders asked him to support releasing the report, Burr told them he didn't think the report was accurate:

Last year, Burr drew criticism from more than 190 North Carolina religious leaders, including Christians, Jews, Quakers, and Muslims, for opposing the release of the Senate's post-9/11 torture report.

"The U.S. does not condone torture, but torture has been done by our citizens and in our country's name," reads a letter the religious leaders sent Burr. "We are writing to you as fellow people of faith to support the release of the ... report."

Disappointing the religious groups, Burr responded in a letter saying he opposed making the report public due to factual inaccuracies contained within the report. "I believe the American public should be provided with reports that are based on accurate facts," he said.

Given all of this, if the GOP does win, it seems like the only way the public may ever see the details is if someone steps up and leaks the damn thing.

Filed Under: cia, congress, dianne feinstein, gop, republicans, richard burr, senate, senate intelligence committee, torture report

Senate Republicans, Trying To Score Political Points, Claim Democrats Revealing Spying Scandal Puts Lives At Risk

from the insanity dept

The Senate/CIA spying scandal continues to get more and more ridiculous. The latest is that it's turning into a political fight between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, rather than what it really is: a Constitutional crisis concerning the separation of powers and the ability of Congress to oversee the executive branch's intelligence community. You would think that other Senators would line up behind Senator Feinstein's anger over the CIA directly spying on Senate Intelligence Committee staffers who were compiling a detailed report into the CIA's use of torture.

But, they're not. This first became clear when the top two Republicans on the Committee more or less spoke out against Feinstein:

Many of the Republicans on the intelligence committee didn't share her position. The panel's top Republican, Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said he and Ms. Feinstein "have some disagreements as to what the actual facts are."

Others criticized her for airing her concerns so openly. "I personally don't believe that anything that goes on in the intelligence committee should ever be discussed publicly," said Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.).

Burr's comments are particularly chilling, as he's actually likely to replace Chambliss as the top Republican -- meaning that if the Republicans recapture the Senate, he's likely to take over Feinstein's job as the chair of the Intelligence Committee. Think about all the stonewalling the Committee currently does. Then picture the guy who said that quote above in charge.

And, in the last day it's gone even more haywire, as Burr and other Republicans are now trying to use this as a political gambit to claim that Senator Mark Udall (a Democrat and the one who really called attention to the CIA's actions) somehow leaked classified info in revealing the CIA's actions. According to Politico, even though Republicans have leaked far more info, they see this as a chance to attack Udall, a first term Democrat known for actually standing up for civil liberties and the rights of the public (how dare he):

Republicans say that not only has the committee’s chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), provided selective information to the public about improper CIA conduct, but they are also now pointing the finger at Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.).

The Colorado Democrat, Republicans say, shouldn’t have disclosed internal Senate proceedings over the CIA investigation — something that some Republicans privately say should warrant an ethics committee review.

Democrats counter that Republicans are now engaging in a partisan witch hunt aimed at hurting Udall politically and providing cover to the CIA and the George W. Bush’s administration’s handling of the controversial interrogation and detention program.

I've made it clear before few things annoy me more than partisan bickering in Congress (which is why we rarely even mention which party politicians belong to -- unless, as here, it's a part of the story). And this is a particularly stupid issue to have partisan bickering over. Senate Republicans really think that bashing Udall is a better strategy than making sure that they can have real oversight of the CIA without having the CIA spy on their own staff?

Besides even the arguments that Udall revealed sensitive information, or that it deserves an "ethics" review are incredibly weak. The concern stems from the letter Udall sent the President last week concerning the nomination of a new CIA General Counsel. In it, he mentioned the following:

As you are aware, the CIA has recently taken unprecedented action against the Committee in relation to the internal CIA review, and I find these actions to be incredibly troubling for the Committee's oversight responsibilities and for our democracy. It is essential that the Committee be able to do its oversight work -- consistent with our constitutional principle of the separation of powers -- without the CIA posing impediments or obstacles as it is today.

That reveals nothing that appears to be particularly sensitive or classified. Instead, it actually was general enough that it left many people scratching their heads. But to hear Senator Burr talk about it, he acts as if this information puts the lives of people at danger:

“I think Mark did make some public releases that were committee sensitive information, but that’s for the committee internally to handle,” said Burr. “That’s being reviewed right now.”

Burr added: “If you look historically, the committee has cleaned up any mistakes that members have made. Members can do whatever they want to. My concern is that the release of information could potentially causes the losses of life to Americans. That to me, is a threshold that should be addressed.”

Oh come on. Seriously? By mentioning the fact that the CIA searched the network of the Senate Intelligence Committee staffers, it means people will die? Who does he think he's kidding? We know that there are always ridiculous claims whenever there are intelligence community leaks about "lives in danger" (which almost never pan out to be true). But at least in those cases, there's an argument that could be made how the revelations might tie back to national security issues. There is no such thread here at all. This is not about the CIA spying on potential terrorists. It's about them spying on their overseers, and rather than recognize what this means for their own interests Senate Republicans are pretending that its putting people's lives at risk?

Filed Under: democrats, dianne feinstein, mark udall, politics, republicans, richard burr, saxby chambliss, senate intelligence committee, spying scandal