diane_feinstein_accuses_cia_140311.pgThanks to Stephen Cook for posting this at GAoG. This is somehow representative of a big knot coming apart within the USofA Corporation. This truly is, I sense, one of the many "bombshells" that we are in for as the cabal systems fall apart.

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Bombshell: US Chair of Senate Intelligence Committee Accuses CIA of 'Catalogue of Cover-Ups, Intimidation and Smears'
Posted by Stephen Cook on March 12, 2014
By Dan Roberts and Spencer Ackerman in Washington, The Guardian – March 11, 2014

http://tinyurl.com/nn2aomk

The chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, Dianne Feinstein, on Tuesday accused the Central Intelligence Agency of a catalogue of cover-ups, intimidation and smears aimed at investigators probing its role in an "un-American and brutal" programme of post-9/11 detention and interrogation.

In a bombshell statement on the floor of the US Senate, Feinstein, normally an administration loyalist, accused the CIA of potentially violating the US constitution and of criminal activity in its attempts to obstruct her committee's investigations into the agency's use of torture. She described the crisis as a "defining moment" for political oversight of the US intelligence service.

Her unprecedented public assault on the CIA represented an intensification of the row between the committee and the agency over a still-secret report on the torture of terrorist suspects after 9/11.

Feinstein, who said she was making her statement "reluctantly", confirmed recent reports that CIA officials had been accused of monitoring computer networks used by Senate staff investigators. Going further than previously, she referred openly to recent attempts by the CIA to remove documents from the network detailing evidence of torture that would incriminate intelligence officers.

She also alleged that anonymous CIA officials were effectively conducting a smear campaign in the media to discredit and "intimidate" Senate staff by suggesting they had hacked into the agency's computers to obtain a separate, critical internal report on the detention and interrogation programme.

Staff working on the Senate investigation have been reported to the Department of Justice for possible criminal charges by a lawyer at the CIA who himself features heavily in the alleged interrogation abuses. The CIA's inspector general has another inquiry open into the issue. John Brennan, the CIA director, rejected Feinstein's claims that the agency had monitored the Senate committee's computer networks, which were set up specifically for it to access confidential CIA documents.

Feinstein said the two investigations, launched at the behest of the CIA, amounted to an attempt at "intimidation". She revealed that CIA officials had also been reported to the Department of Justice for alleged violations of the fourth amendment and laws preventing them from domestic spying.

"This is a defining moment for the oversight role of our intelligence committee … and whether we can be thwarted by those we oversee," said Feinstein in a special address on the floor of the the US Senate.
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