Democrats, led by Feinstein, are engaged in a war of words with the CIA. Dems have votes to open CIA report

The Senate Intelligence Committee is poised to send a long-awaited report on the CIA’s interrogation practices to President Barack Obama’s desk for his approval — or redaction.

Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says she has the votes on the narrowly divided panel to publicly reveal the executive summary and key conclusions of a 6,300-page report on Bush-era interrogation tactics, a move sure to fuel the Senate’s intense dispute with the CIA over how the panel pieced together the study. That vote is likely to happen sometime this week.


But rather than a strong bipartisan signal from Congress, a vote to unveil the study appears set to divide along party lines because of that dispute.

All of the committee’s Democrats, except Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, said in interviews or through aides that they will bless the public release of the document. Warner has not publicly indicated how he will vote, but he supported approving the final classified report on the same subject in December 2012. The committee has been bickering with the CIA ever since over the report’s accuracy, as well as Feinstein’s insistence that the study’s key findings be released publicly.

( Also on POLITICO: Another Obama reset: Europe)

The panel’s swing vote could be freshman Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, who has taken a measured approach to revelations over NSA data-mining and the flare-up with the CIA.

“I’m inclined to vote to support [release]. But I still want to think about it,” said King, who caucuses with the Democrats. “I’m going to review the CIA’s response once more. I want to be sure the report is accurate.”

A vote to release the report is not the end of the committee’s work, according to sources familiar with the process and committee rules. The full Senate doesn’t have to approve the report before it hits Obama’s desk for him to review the conclusions. But it’s Obama who will ultimately decide whether the document needs to be further redacted, as the CIA will likely recommend.

Obama says he is “absolutely committed” to releasing the Senate report and has urged the committee to proceed — and Senate Democrats aren’t letting up until details of the CIA’s use of secret prisons and interrogation techniques are in the hands of the public.

( Also on POLITICO: Feinstein-CIA feud in uncharted territory)

“The American people deserve a proper and and accurate accounting of the history, management, operation, and effectiveness of this program,” Intelligence Committee member Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) wrote in a letter to Obama on Thursday. “We can finally correct the record, move past this dark chapter in our history and become a stronger nation for confronting our mistakes.”

Democrats, led by Feinstein, are engaged in a war of words with the CIA over their five-year effort to assemble a comprehensive look at the interrogation of terrorist suspects. Feinstein has leveled explosive charges that the CIA interfered in the panel’s investigation by removing access to an internal review of CIA interrogation techniques, which is believed to contain myriad criticisms of CIA procedure.

The CIA asserts that committee staffers committed wrongdoing by removing that internal review from a CIA facility and storing it on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has instructed the Senate sergeant-at-arms to unilaterally investigate and strongly backed Feinstein last week, telling CIA Director John Brennan in a letter it was “absurd” to conclude that Senate staffers could hack into a classified network to acquire the internal document.

Feinstein has described her committee’s report as containing “startling” and “brutal” revelations about the effectiveness of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques — which when released publicly are sure to embarrass the CIA and Director John Brennan, who served in the top rungs of U.S. intelligence during the first half of George W. Bush’s presidency.

Meanwhile, Feinstein is barreling toward a vote on releasing the key findings of a report that top committee Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia refuses to comment on and has previously said contains significant errors. While most Democrats are eager to reveal the 300-page executive summary this month, most Republicans want to resolve the panel’s problems with the CIA before voting to release documents that have the potential to further damage public opinion about the U.S. intelligence apparatus.

These tensions could lead to a straight party-line vote when the panel’s roll call is held sometime in the next week during a secret session in a secure, nondescript Capitol Hill office. A party-line vote to release the report would very likely precipitate extended arguing over the accuracy of the report, rather than a Senate-wide repudiation of the CIA’s tactics as desired by the committee’s Democrats.

“It may well be,” Feinstein said of a possible partisan split. “It conceivably would not be. But a vote is a vote.”

Most committee Democrats are overwhelmingly supportive of releasing the report’s key conclusions to the public, particularly the panel’s civil-liberties wing of Udall, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.

“I’ve spent a considerable amount of time with it, and I’m very much convinced that it’s consistent with national security and with further redactions is very much in the public interest,” Wyden said. “I think the CIA is very fearful of this report.”

And Intelligence Committee Republicans? Well, they aren’t saying much.

“I need to give some more thought to it, there’s certain implications to doing so,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, referring to the timing of the vote and the ongoing investigation. “There’s competing interests involved there.”

Rubio’s remarks are the most expansive of the committee’s seven Republicans, nearly all of whom declined comment and would not say whether they will approve release of the study.

“Still undergoing this internal effort here. With all that’s going on, I can’t comment anymore,” said Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana.

The panel voted to finalize the document in December 2012. Retired Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine was the lone Republican to join with Democrats in the vote — a sharp contrast to the overwhelming 14-1 committee vote to begin the investigation back in 2009.

Another potential swing vote is Maine Republican Susan Collins, though a spokesman said it would be “premature” to reveal her stance. Most familiar with the committee’s politics believe the remaining Republicans lean against release of the report given ongoing tensions with the CIA.