WASHINGTON—Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), a longtime defender of U.S. intelligence efforts, criticized the Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday, saying its actions undermined lawmakers' ability to oversee the administration.
Breaking her recent silence on an expanding dispute, Ms. Feinstein said the CIA, without any prior notification, had searched Senate committee computers in a secure location in northern Virginia that aides were using to securely review CIA documents on its post-Sept. 11 interrogation program. The CIA also searched a separate network drive containing the Senate staffers' work and internal messages, she said.
"I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the U.S. Constitution" and undermined Congress' ability to effectively oversee the administration, Ms. Feinstein said in a long and detailed speech on the Senate floor Tuesday. "How this will be resolved will show whether the Intelligence Committee can be effective in monitoring and investigating our nation's intelligence activities, or whether our work can be thwarted by those we oversee."
As previously reported, the fight between the committee and the CIA traces to the Senate committee's highly critical, 6,300-page, classified report on the CIA's interrogation program. While preparing that report, the committee and agency locked horns over a request by congressional staffers for an internal CIA review that had been compiled under former CIA Director Leon Panetta.
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