Senate Panel Questions C.I.A. Detentions

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Senate Panel Questions C.I.A. Detentions

By SCOTT SHANE
Published: June 1, 2007

WASHINGTON, May 31 — The Senate Intelligence Committee on
Thursday questioned the continuing value of the Central Intelligence
Agency’s secret interrogation program for terrorism suspects,
suggesting that international condemnation and the obstacles it has
created to criminal prosecution may outweigh its worth in gathering
information.

The committee rejected by one vote a Democratic proposal that
would essentially have cut money for the program by banning
harsh interrogation techniques except in dire emergencies, a
committee report revealed.

“More than five years after the decision to start the program,” the
report said, “the committee believes that consideration should be
given to whether it is the best means to obtain a full and reliable
intelligence debriefing of a detainee.”

It added: “Both the Congress and the administration must continue
to evaluate whether having a separate C.I.A. detention program that
operates under different interrogation rules than those applicable
to military and law enforcement officers is necessary, lawful and
in the best interests of the United States.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/washington/01intel.html

---

Source: Los Angeles Times

Panel is critical of secret CIA jails

The Senate Intelligence Committee doubts whether the
overseas network is in the nation's 'best interests.'

By Greg Miller, Times Staff Writer
June 1, 2007

WASHINGTON — washington — A Senate committee that has passed
a bill to set funding levels for U.S. spy agencies suggests that the
CIA's secret overseas prisons should be shut down unless the Bush
administration can demonstrate that they are "necessary, lawful and
in the best interests of the United States."

The committee's nonbinding report amounts to a fresh attack by
Congress on the 5-year-old detention program, which has been
credited with providing valuable intelligence on terrorism but has
also been condemned by other countries.

The report accompanies a bill that the Senate Intelligence Committee
passed last week and posted online Thursday. (The bill is at
http://intelligence.senate.gov/bill.pdf and the report is at
http://intelligence.senate.gov/11075.pdf.)

The bill would boost spy agencies' budgets to about $45 billion even
as the committee calls for new scrutiny of controversial espionage
programs. The bill is the first spending measure passed by the
committee since Democrats won control of Congress in November's
election.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel1jun01,1,4629304.story

[maddezmom]

1. Ben Nelson

:eyes:

Interesting article thanks for posting. Just another instance of how bush privitized another agency.

[dailykoff]

2. It's taken them five years to figure out torture is not a good idea?

Yet they're forking over $45 billion of our money to keep this completely criminal operation going?

Who the hell is on this committee, anyway?