DiFi Okayed Staffers to SPIRIT AWAY & SECURE the "Panetta Review"...DEFYING the CIA's Own Counsel!

[KoKo]

Last edited Thu Mar 13, 2014, 03:27 PM - Edit history (1)

(I've never had a nice word to say about Diane Feinstein but this report by Robert Sheer about what went on is a real ZINGER. Reveals the reason the CIA spied on staffers computers. It was SPITE to get back at DiFi for securing the Panetta Report because she thought they'd destroy it or hide it away from the Senate Investigation. Who Could Have Known she actually has some fight in her for Once!)

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Feinstein v. the CIA: A Moment of Truth
by Robert Scheer

As Feinstein pointed out, “the CIA hired a team of outside contractors—who otherwise would not have had access to these sensitive documents—to read, multiple times, each of the 6.2 million pages of documents produced, before providing them to fully-cleared committee staff conducting the committee’s oversight work. This proved to be a slow and very expensive process.”

It was so slow that the committee’s investigation has only now been completed. Along the way, documents that Senate staffers found interesting would then mysteriously disappear from the system. One such set of disappeared documents, referred to as the “Internal Panetta Review,” is now at the center of the CIA hacking scandal.

The Panetta Review became relevant in June, when the CIA offered its critique of the Senate study. But as Feinstein points out, “Some of those important parts that the CIA now disputes in our committee study are clearly acknowledged in the CIA’s own Internal Panetta Review. To say the least, this is puzzling. How can the CIA’s official response to our study stand factually in conflict with its own Internal Review?”

Relations between the Senate committee responsible for oversight of the CIA and the agency were so poor that, as Feinstein states, “after noting the disparity between the official CIA response to the committee study and the Internal Panetta Review, the committee staff securely transported a printed portion of the draft Internal Panetta Review from the committee’s secure room at the CIA-leased facility to the secure committee spaces in the Hart Senate Office Building.

Feinstein defended the committee staff’s spiriting information away from the CIA:”

“As I have detailed, the CIA has previously withheld and destroyed information about its Detention and Interrogation Program. ... There was a need to preserve and protect the Internal Panetta Review in the committee’s own secure spaces.”

The response of the CIA was to hack the computers that Senate staffers had been using at the CIA off-site location, and the agency’s acting general counsel filed a crimes report with the Department of Justice against the Senate committee’s staff.

That was too much for Feinstein, who outed the CIA’s counsel:

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A MUST READ...Robert Sheer makes SENSE OUT OF this Very Complicated Event:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/13-4

[WillyT]

1. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[Scuba]

2. From DiFi's statement one can conclude that the Senate Intel Committee has not control over the CIA.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024655603

[KoKo]

3. Yes..I saw that but, couldn't make sense of it because I don't

trust DiFi and thought it was just her doing her usual Grandstanding and nothing comes of it. But Robert Sheer's article put it into context as to exactly what it was all about and it sure seems "maybe...maybe" this could turn into something good for once with our Democracy if the CIA Counsel gets fired and Senate grasps back oversite while we still have some Democrats controlling it. Be nice if it could bring down Brennan, too. But, that's probably too much to hope for.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. She is out of her depth

For whatever reason, she has decided to make an issue over this, which is puzzling to me as she has always given a blank check to the CIA. She had to know about the torture and she had to know about the Iraq lies since only an absolute moron would believe ANYTHING the CIA said. She knew these things and she was cool with them. Then suddenly she wants the truth to come out, and the CIA has no intention of taking the fall.

Since Obama has made it clear he backs the CIA, I think her professional life is about to come to a nasty end. I would enjoy this except that her actions have doomed us all. The best she can hope for is a delaying action while the CIA works to help the GOP take the senate in the next election.

Richard Burr has made it clear that he is a "company man" and nothing the CIA does will ever be questioned on his watch.

[grasswire]

5. you have foreseen the unthinkable

The CIA helping the GOP take the Senate.

That is the next step. It's all over, then.

For that reason, it's time for us to support DiFi now. Knowing her hypocrisy, knowing her history, it's nevertheless time to support her pushback against CIA.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Problem is,

I am not sure how it will make a difference. First, I don't know why Feinstein changed her mind, so therefore she is just as likely change it back for her own self-serving reasons.

She does have an out. She can stand up in the senate and start reading out the report into the record, as was done with the Pentagon Papers. If she is not willing to do that, I can't see how I, or any other voter with ZERO political influence, can help her.

Obama has made it crystal clear he is NOT going to go after war criminals, and the Justice Department has active prosecuted whistle-blowers. Unless Snowden has a copy of the report hidden away for a rainy day (and it is pouring now) I don't see much hope.

[grasswire]

7. she's not the only one who could read the report.

Wyden. Udall. Any senator. Right?

[MindMover]

10. correcteamundo, and the plot thickens ...

[Kelvin Mace]

16. Yes, but I wonder if

Reid would cut the mic?

[grasswire]

20. Ha.

I wonder.

[Kelvin Mace]

22. Once upon a time

I would not have contemplated the possibility that a senator doing this might be physically assaulted, perhaps even shot, because such a thing just could not happen.

But once upon a time I never thought a president would order people tortured and his successor from the opposite party would help him cover it up.

[grasswire]

33. the best protection for Feinstein...

.....would be for her fellows in the Senate to stand with her.

[MindMover]

37. Totally agree ... they should have started lining up last week ...

and she should be trumpeting to everyone she knows, both on and off the so called intelligence committee ...

[fleabiscuit]

12. The President cannot back out now.

The instant he OK'd the use of drone strikes to maintain empire he sealed his fate going forward.

[Kelvin Mace]

15. Which gives him all the more reason to

side with the CIA, bury the report, and Feinstein with it.

[grasswire]

18. oh gee

I just realized that this is the standard technique of the spook world and how recruits are held forever. The recruit, by virtue of the nature of his/her job, will engage in some unlawful activity. Thus tainted, the recruit may never leave the profession; always will be in jeopardy. Controlled.

That is the result of what you describe. When he OK'd drones for empire, he was forever theirs.

[fleabiscuit]

28. I wouldn’t try to take credit for what others point out.

“...There’s a global assassination campaign going on which is pretty interesting when you look into how it’s done. I presume everyone’s read [a May 29] New York Times story, which is more or less a leak from the White House, because they are apparently proud of how the global assassination campaign works. Basically President Obama and his national security advisor, John Brennan, now head of the CIA, get together in the morning. And Brennan’s apparently a former priest. They talk about St. Augustine and his theory of just war, and then they decide who is going to be killed today….”
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/noam-chomsky-america-openly-brags-about-boom-times-its-drone-wars-while-casuallty

How could President Obama not shield President Bush and the C.I.A.?

[bobduca]

51. this: "and then they decide who is going to be killed today"

[tularetom]

34. "just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in..."

[MindMover]

40. welcome back, good to have your opinion ...

[tularetom]

44. Well, it's actually Michael Corleone's opinion

but it does sort of point out the similarity between the two criminal enterprises.

Or, to put it another way:

"I know you're workin for the CIA
They wouldn't have you in the Mafia"

-Why Can't We Be Friends
-War, 1974

[questionseverything]

48. holder has hinted that he would consider going after the lawyers that told the agents

that "enhanced interrogation" was ok and/or any agents that went past what the "legal memos" said was ok

I know I might be engaging in wishful thinking but he has said that

di fi claims over and over that " the torture was much worse than they were told"

maybe she knows something is coming out and wants to shield herself from the accusation that she did not practice proper oversight?

the reason she thinks the missing report is so important is it confirms what her senate report says (torture=bad).the report disappeared after the cia had reviewed the senate report and were very hostile towards their findings

I do not see how the report can contain more damning info than what wikileaks reported to us.....

waterboarding, beatings leading to death, electrical shocks to genitals, sexual deprivations (rapes ),chained to the floor, water thrown over them, frozen to death after a beating.....humiliations and stress positions

[Kelvin Mace]

49. Yeah, he "hints"

but never does anything. I believe he is out of here by the end of this year, so it is somebody else's problem then.

The utterly disgraceful aspect of this is that Obama is protecting these people all in the name of political expediency.

[MindMover]

11. Unfortunately ...this is not the only time the CIA has its fingers in the ringer ...

[Aerows]

25. It kind of amazes me

that when I come on DU I see people claiming that 8 Democratic Senators are telling lies.

[MindMover]

27. Who said, that I said, politicians lie ... they don't lie ... making up stories

now that is something else entirely ...

[Aerows]

29. It wasn't directed at you

Just a general statement. You were the unlucky person I replied to, but the fact remains. I'm rather shocked that on a Democratic site there would be so many people that question 8 Democrats on the Intelligence Committee that claim they were lied to by the CIA and that their investigation was obstructed.

[MindMover]

31. It just seems very strange that an intelligence committee is so blind sided by ...

the truth ... after so many years after the facts and so many citizens screaming for justice, that at this time, we get some grandstanding on lies from the CIA ...

It is just a gigantic WOW ...

[Aerows]

32. It just tells me that some really ugly

things are about to come out and they want to get out in front of it.

[MindMover]

35. Yes, umm, lets say 6-8 maybe more, years past ugly and many thousands of peoples lives

destroyed/changed and complete lack of confidence in anything said truthfully will jeopardize these disclosures ... and when most of the pages will be blacked out and blank then the outrage is going to be even more dangerous than just words ....

[Aerows]

38. Some bad knowledge is on the horizon, MM

Either it's going to be obfuscation, as you suggest, that makes the clamoring for information even worse than it is, or enough bones are going to fall out of the closet that they can't be buried easily or quickly.

I'm betting on the latter, but you could be completely right about the former.

[MindMover]

42. In other words, there better be some meat on the bones and some heads should fall ...

and maybe, just maybe, we can escape to a better day ....

[Aerows]

43. Your guess is as good as mine!

[Aerows]

24. She's lying

along with the 7 other Democratic Senators, too, did I get that right?

[Dems2002]

46. Excuse me?

I take umbrage at the notion that Senator Feinstein is out of her depth. She is a Senator with 20 years of experience. She knows how the game is played. Senator Feinstein has a temper. She also cares about her staff as do most members. As is so often the case, when you make it personal, even people you expect to stamp the approved document, suddenly change course. At this stage in her life she has very little to lose. And I'm sure she knows where quite a few bodies are buried.

When you piss off the Senator Feinsteins, you should recognize that your days are numbered.

[Kelvin Mace]

47. She is out of her depth

The president is not going to back her. The Justice Department is not going to back her. The Dem leadership is not going to back her. The GOP sure as Hell is not going to back her.

She is picking a fight with an organization she has enabled for years and they have all the juice. Domestic spying is fine with Feinstein as long as it is us proles being spied on. Now she discovered she's just a slightly more privileged prole who is spied on as a matter of routine and she is outraged.

She is a member of the 1% in good standing and now she is pissed that it doesn't get her what she thought it should get her.

[Dems2002]

52. We'll see

Somehow, if she had a dick I don't think anyone would use the phrase, 'out of her depths.' It's insulting to a Senator with her years of experience and intelligence.

[Berlum]

8. K & R

Nt

[tea and oranges]

9. K & R

[Rex]

13. The totally sad thing is watching apologist carry water for the CIA.

I've actually seen some here pretend the CIA has done nothing wrong...I mean, can you get anymore delusional or what? NO, they broke no laws...just spied on the committee that has oversight over the CIA!

I swear some here are as fake as the excuses they make up.

[Kelvin Mace]

17. I am often amazed at people's ability

to either delude themselves, or be hypocrites on a cosmic scale.

[Rex]

19. Me too. I expect it from Conservatives. They've lived in LALA land for decades.

It is sad to see from regular DU posters imo.

[Fumesucker]

14. When an absolute bombshell like this gets dropped my first thought is..

What the hell ~else~ is going on that they need this big a stink to distract the public?

Definitely not the sort of dirty laundry the the Very Serious People normally want aired in public.

[G_j]

21. this is an amazing story

it sure has my rapt attention. But now, the American people MUST see the details.

[yuiyoshida]

23. I remember when she was

Mayor of San Francisco. I don't know what happened to her after that,...she has changed..and not in a way I would have expected.

[zeemike]

30. Perhaps she was captured by the Borg.

[DearAbby]

26. Isn't it ironic it's DiFi?

Because who else would have the gravitas to tear it down. At this point I don't care what her motives are...at this point the goal is the only thing that matters. De Fang the CIA. Imagine no control of the CIA? CIA siding with a political party, bought and paid for by two men, with extreme ideas?

[malaise]

36. She knows the Constitution

The CIA has absolutely no authority over the United States Senate.
Time to rein in these scumbags.
We have an old proverb - 'play with puppy - get lick'.

[2banon]

39. "It's something that George W. Bush would have said"

Scheer's ending comments:

Enough said, except that White House spokesman Jay Carney put the president on the side of those like current CIA Director John Brennan covering up torture: “The president has great confidence in John Brennan and confidence in our intelligence community and in our professionals at the CIA.” It’s something that George W. Bush would have said.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/13-4



Indeed.

[Aerows]

41. Quick question for the board

If you found out that it was a documented fact that a person worked for a CIA front company as one of their first jobs out of college, would you suspect them of being linked to the CIA, or perhaps even employed by them officially at some point?

[Octafish]

45. Who runs the Government?

CIA still won't release the Bay of Pigs history. And We the People paid for it.

[msanthrope]

50. Good for her. She did the right thing. nt

[Catherina]

53. K&R. Thanks Koko! n/t