Archiv: Gang of Eight (US Congress)


15.02.2024 - 17:43 [ RT.com ]

Kremlin responds to rumors of Russian space nukes

Western media reports claiming that Russia could place nuclear weapons in space are nothing more than a ploy by the White House to convince US lawmakers to approve further military aid to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Citing sources, several US media outlets reported this week that American intelligence had obtained information on purported Russian plans to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space, although the idea supposedly remains at the developmental stage.

14.02.2024 - 20:15 [ Fox News ]

House Intel Chair Turner warns of ‚serious national security threat,‘ urges Biden to declassify

Fox News Digital obtained the notice sent to congressional members Wednesday, which pointed to „an urgent matter with regard to a destabilizing foreign military capability that should be known by all Congressional Policy Makers.“

Turner‘s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital‘s request for comment and more information.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Wednesday at the White House press briefing that earlier in the week, he reached out to the Gang of Eight to offer himself for a personal briefing on the matter.

04.12.2023 - 09:35 [ Newsmax.com ]

Kirby: US Intel Not Aware of Hamas Plan to Attack Israel

(03.12.2023)

“The intelligence community has indicated that they did not have access to this document,” Kirby said in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

04.12.2023 - 09:24 [ Vanity Fair ]

Israel Didn’t Give US Intelligence About Hamas Attack Plans: White House

(03.12.2023)

“Intelligence is a mosaic, and sometimes you know you can fashion things together and get a pretty good picture,” Kirby replied. “Other times, you know that there’s pieces of the puzzle that are missing.”

Kirby also declined to say whether Hamas’ incursion into Israel should be seen as a failure of Israeli intelligence.

04.12.2023 - 08:46 [ Politico.com ]

‘No indicators’ Israel shared Hamas war plans with U.S.

(01.12.2023)

On Capitol Hill, members of the Senate and House intelligence committees have received several briefings about the Oct. 7 attack, according to a congressional aide familiar with the matter.

In at least one of those closed-door conversations, members were told that Israel had been aware about the potential for a Hamas attack from Gaza. But those readouts did not include the specific details of the Jericho Wall document, said the aide.

28.02.2023 - 10:35 [ theGuardian.com ]

Dianne Feinstein statement on CIA torture report ‚cover-up‘ – full text

(March 11, 2014)

Let me say up front that I come to the Senate Floor reluctantly. Since January 15, 2014, when I was informed of the CIA’s search of this committee’s network, I have been trying to resolve this dispute in a discreet and respectful way. I have not commented in response to media requests for additional information on this matter. However, the increasing amount of inaccurate information circulating now cannot be allowed to stand unanswered.

The origin of this study: The CIA’s detention and interrogation program began operations in 2002, though it was not until September 2006, that Members of the Intelligence Committee, other than the Chairman and Vice Chairman, were briefed. In fact, we were briefed by then-CIA Director Hayden only hours before President Bush disclosed the program to the public.

A little more than a year later, on December 6, 2007, a New York Times article revealed the troubling fact that the CIA had destroyed videotapes of some of the CIA’s first interrogations using so-called “enhanced techniques.” …

28.02.2023 - 10:03 [ Daniel Neun / Radio Utopie ]

C.I.A.-Affäre: Der Offenbarungseid von Dianne Feinstein – Video, Zusammenfassung, Einschätzung

(12. März 2014)

Die Rede von Senatorin Dianne Feinstein vor dem Senat der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika über die Sabotage der verfassungsmäßigen Kontrolle des Parlaments über die Central Intelligence Agency durch die Central Intelligence Agency ist vielleicht das Erbärmlichste, was ich in meinem Leben je gesehen und gehört habe. Es ist nicht nur der Offenbarungseid eines Ausnahmezustands, eines über sich selbst und die Welt verhängten Kriegsrechts des mächtigsten Imperiums auf dem Planeten, in seinem Krieg „on terror“, weltweit geführt mit seinen „Einflussgebieten“, „Alliierten“, Ablegern, schlechten Kopien und Kolonien. Es ist der Offenbarungseid seiner bis auf die Knochen korrupten, feigen, abgetakelten, unfähigen Zuträger, Mitwisser, Kollaborateure und Funktionäre.

Was Senatorin Feinstein hier zeigt, was sie da zeigt, ist so unbeschreiblich, das sogar mir die Worte fehlen um es zu beschreiben. Ich will hier den Inhalt ihres Statements nur deshalb zusammenfassen, weil ich davon ausgehe dass die ganzen Feinsteins der deutschsprachigen Presse dies alles weder hören, lesen, geschweige denn darüber berichten wollen, genauso wie deren KundInnen.

28.06.2021 - 12:01 [ Ilhan Omar, Abgeordnete im US Repräsentantenhaus / Twitter ]

This constant cycle of violence and retribution is a failed policy and will not make any of us safer. Congress has authority over War Powers and should be consulted before any escalation.

28.02.2021 - 09:15 [ Steve Herman / Twitter ]

There was congressional notification prior to the US airstrike on #Syria, @PentagonPresSec tells reporters.

(26.02.2021)

„The Department of Defense briefed Congressional leadership before the action last night,“ confirms @PressSec
. „The administration has been briefing the Hill at the Member- and staff-level today. There will be a full classified briefing early next week at the latest.“

28.02.2021 - 08:55 [ theHill.com ]

Biden administration to give Congress full classified briefing on Syria strikes by next week

(26.02.2021)

“The Department of Defense briefed Congressional leadership before the action last night. The Administration has been briefing the Hill at the Member- and staff-level today. There will be a full classified briefing early next week at the latest,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

26.12.2020 - 01:47 [ US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ]

REPORT of the SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE STUDY of the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY’S DETENTION AND INTERROGATION PROGRAM

The Committee makes the following findings and conclusions:

#1: The CIA‘s use of its enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.

(…)

#2: The CIA‘s justification for the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness.

(…)

#3: The interrogations of CIA detainees were brutal and far worse than the CIA represented to policymakers and others. (…)

At least five CIA detainees were subjected to „rectal rehydration“ or rectal feeding without documented medical necessity. The CIA placed detainees in ice water „baths.“ The CIA led several detainees to believe they would never be allowed to leave CIA custody alive, suggesting to one detainee that he would only leave in a coffin-shaped box. One interrogator told another detainee that he would never go to court, because „we can never let the world know what I have done to you.“ CIA officers also threatened at least three detainees with harm to their families— to include threats to harm the children of a detainee, threats to sexually abuse the mother of a detainee, and a threat to „cut [a detainee‘s] mother‘s throat.“

#4: The conditions of confinement for CIA detainees were harsher than the CIA had represented to policymakers and others.

Conditions at CIA detention sites were poor, and were especially bleak early in the program. CIA detainees at the COBALT detention facility were kept in complete darkness and constantly shackled in isolated cells with loud noise or music and only a bucket to use for human waste.10 Lack of heat at the facility likely contributed to the death of a detainee. The chief of interrogations described COBALT as a „dungeon.“11 Another senior CIA officer stated that COBALT was itself an enhanced interrogation technique.“ At times, the detainees at COBALT were walked around naked or were shackled with their hands above their heads for extended periods of time. Other times, the detainees at COBALT were subjected to what was described as a „rough takedown,“ in which approximately five CIA officers would scream at a detainee, drag him outside of his cell, cut his clothes off, and secure him with Mylar tape. The detainee would then be hooded and dragged up and down a long corridor while being slapped and punched.

26.12.2020 - 01:43 [ ZeroHedge.com ]

„We Tortured Some Folks“: CIA Lied To Congress, Senate Torture Report Reveals

(Dec 09, 2014)

The drilldown from Bloomberg:

– CIA provided inaccurate information about effectiveness and scope of interrogations of suspected terrorists, and mismanaged a program that was far more brutal than represented, according to 6-year investigation by Democrats on Senate Intelligence Cmte.
– Interrogation techniques weren’t effective, didn’t produce key information that led to killing of Osama bin Laden and were significantly different from procedures authorized by Justice Dept, report says
– CIA provided inaccurate information to White House, Congress, DOJ, CIA Inspector General, media and the public
– “This document examines the CIA’s secret overseas detention of at least 119 individuals and the use of coercive interrogation techniques – in some cases amounting to torture,” Senate Intelligence Cmte Chairman Dianne Feinstein says in statement

19.12.2020 - 11:07 [ theIntercept.com ]

The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads

While CIA officers run the operations, most of the ground support during strike force unit missions, including the control of air power, is provided by fighters loaned out by Joint Special Operations Command. Variations on this arrangement have been used by the CIA since the Church Committee clamped down on agency excesses at home and abroad in 1975. Originally dubbed “Omega” in Afghanistan, the program temporarily strips special forces of their regular military designation — a process known as “sheep-dipping”— and places them under CIA command. This enables the CIA to circumvent the restrictions placed on fighters who ordinarily operate under regular wartime Title 10 authority, placing them instead under the agency’s Title 50 authority for covert actions.

25.11.2020 - 17:49 [ Politico.com ]

Intelligence disputes fuel rare public acrimony among Gang of Eight

(29.07.2020)

The public spat between the Democratic and Republican sides of the so-called Gang of Eight, less than 100 days before Americans go to the polls, is highly unusual for the group, whose obligations normally rise above the political fray and rarely descend publicly into the partisan squabbles that define Capitol Hill.

25.11.2020 - 17:36 [ Radio Utopie ]

C.I.A.-Affäre: Der Offenbarungseid von Dianne Feinstein – Video, Zusammenfassung, Einschätzung

(12. März 2014)

Die Rede von Senatorin Dianne Feinstein vor dem Senat der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika über die Sabotage der verfassungsmäßigen Kontrolle des Parlaments über die Central Intelligence Agency durch die Central Intelligence Agency ist vielleicht das Erbärmlichste, was ich in meinem Leben je gesehen und gehört habe. Es ist nicht nur der Offenbarungseid eines Ausnahmezustands, eines über sich selbst und die Welt verhängten Kriegsrechts des mächtigsten Imperiums auf dem Planeten, in seinem Krieg „on terror“, weltweit geführt mit seinen „Einflussgebieten“, „Alliierten“, Ablegern, schlechten Kopien und Kolonien. Es ist der Offenbarungseid seiner bis auf die Knochen korrupten, feigen, abgetakelten, unfähigen Zuträger, Mitwisser, Kollaborateure und Funktionäre.

Was Senatorin Feinstein hier zeigt, was sie da zeigt, ist so unbeschreiblich, das sogar mir die Worte fehlen um es zu beschreiben. Ich will hier den Inhalt ihres Statements nur deshalb zusammenfassen, weil ich davon ausgehe dass die ganzen Feinsteins der deutschsprachigen Presse dies alles weder hören, lesen, geschweige denn darüber berichten wollen, genauso wie deren KundInnen.

21.10.2020 - 11:01 [ theHill.com ]

Democrats seem unlikely to move against Feinstein

Any decision to remove Feinstein from serving as chairwoman or ranking minority member in the 117th Congress, which convenes in January, would have to be approved by a vote of the entire Senate Democratic Caucus. And the support for such a move does not appear to be there.

29.08.2020 - 05:55 [ theHill.com ]

Democrat asks intel agencies if they‘re surveilling members of Congress

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asked two intelligence agencies on Friday if surveillance has been conducted on members of Congress in the last decade.

In a letter to the heads of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Eshoo raised alarm over allegations in a book published earlier this year by journalist Barton Gellman.

13.01.2020 - 19:44 [ theHill.com ]

Esper: Gang of 8 ‚did not think‘ further intelligence on Iranian threat should be shared with Congress

Esper said that he was not in the room briefing the top intelligence lawmakers, but said he spoke to one of the briefers afterward.

“His assessment was …

13.01.2020 - 06:09 [ theHill.com ]

Administration officials defend Trump claims, Soleimani intelligence as senators push back on briefing

Esper also said the so-called Gang of Eight, the top members of Congress’s intelligence committees, did not believe further intelligence on Iran should be shared with Congress.

Esper told CBS’s Margaret Brennan he spoke to one of the officials who briefed the Gang of Eight and that “his assessment was most if not all the members thought the intelligence was persuasive and that the Gang of Eight did not think it should be released to the broader members of Congress.”