‘Heads should roll’

  • Monday, March 17, 2014 6:09pm
  • News

THERE’S A FASCINATING — AND HISTORIC — dynamic playing out right now in Washington, where U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has accused the CIA of snooping on Senate staffers who were investigating the spy agency’s interrogation techniques during the Bush era.

What’s stunning is not just that Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, made the allegations public during a remarkable speech on the floor of the Senate. What’s even more alarming is that Feinstein has long been an ardent supporter of the nation’s intelligence community.

At root, Feinstein alleges that the CIA provided documents about interrogation techniques to Senate investigators on a secure computer, and then secretly removed some of the documents it had turned over from the computers being used by Senate staffers.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

According to an Associated Press timeline of the matter, “the committee complains to the CIA, which first denies that anything was taken from the system and later contends that removal of the documents was ordered by the White House. Officials at the White House deny in such order. Feinstein complains to the White House and gets an apology from the CIA and assurances that it won’t happen again.”

But, according to Feinstein, it did happen again, though it was fascinating to hear CIA Director John Brennan deny Feinstein’s allegations.

“We wouldn’t do that,” Brennan told NBC News.

For those who think phraseology has meaning, that’s a telling choice of words; not “we didn’t,” but “we wouldn’t.”

In fact, our first thought — even before we heard from Brennan — was that it sounds exactly like the kind of thing the CIA would do.

We think Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is right. “Heads should roll, people should go to jail, if it’s true,” said Graham, who called it “Nixon stuff.”

And scary stuff, at least for anyone who cares about principles like democracy and privacy and separation of powers.

The Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph,

March 13

More in News

Rep. Andi Story (D-Juneau), Rep. Rebecca Himschoot (I-Sitka), and Rep. Sarah Vance (R-Homer) watch the vote tally during a veto override joint session on an education bill Tuesday, May 20. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Dunleavy outlines priorities for special session

The Senate and House majority say the Legislature plans to consider two veto overrides.

Mount Marathon, seen July 4, 2022, in Seward, Alaska. (Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Swiss hiker rescued near Mount Marathon in Seward

The hiker said he’d climbed a mountain and gone beyond his ability

tease
‘All the kids are grand champions’

Kenai Peninsula 4-H shows off at Agriculture Expo

Soldotna City Council member Jordan Chilson and Soldotna Mayor Paul Whitney grill hot dogs at the Progress Days Block Party at Parker Park in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Progress Days block party keeps celebration going

Vendors, food trucks, carnival games and contests entertained hundreds

Children take candy from a resident of Heritage Place during the 68th Annual Soldotna Progress Days Parade in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
‘It feels so hometown’

68th Annual Soldotna Progress Days parade brings festivity to city streets

Kachemak Bay is seen from the Homer Spit in March 2019. (Homer News file photo)
Toxin associated with amnesic shellfish poisoning not detected in Kachemak Bay mussels

The test result does not indicate whether the toxin is present in other species in the food web.

Superintendent Clayton Holland speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education in Soldotna, Alaska, on Monday, July 7, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Federal education funding to be released after monthlong delay

The missing funds could have led to further cuts to programming and staff on top of deep cuts made by the KPBSD Board of Education this year.

An angler holds up a dolly varden for a photograph on Wednesday, July 16. (Photo courtesy of Koby Etzwiler)
Anchor River opens up to Dollies, non-King salmon fishing

Steelhead and rainbow trout are still off limits and should not be removed from the water.

A photo provided by NTSB shows a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, that crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska, Sept. 12, 2023. The plane was weighed down by too much moose meat and faced drag from a set of antlers mounted on its right wing strut, federal investigators said on Tuesday.
Crash that killed husband of former congresswoman was overloaded with moose meat and antlers, NTSB says

The plane, a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska on Sept. 12, 2023.

Most Read

You're browsing in private mode.
Please sign in or subscribe to continue reading articles in this mode.

Peninsula Clarion relies on subscription revenue to provide local content for our readers.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? Please sign in