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Senate Report On CIA Abuses Delayed By Fight Over Classified Data

Senate Report On CIA Abuses Delayed By Fight Over Classified Data

By David Lauter, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — A long-awaited Senate report on the CIA’s harsh interrogation of prisoners during the Bush administration will wait a while longer. The Senate and the White House can’t agree on what to release to the public.

Last week, after months of review, the White House gave the Senate Intelligence Committee its list of what portions of the report’s executive summary needed to be withheld to avoid disclosing classified information. But Tuesday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the committee chair, rejected the White House position.

“The redactions eliminate or obscure key facts that support the report’s findings and conclusions,” Feinstein said in a statement. “Until these redactions are addressed to the committee’s satisfaction, the report will not be made public.”

Several Senate colleagues joined Feinstein in a coordinated assault on the White House position. Senate Armed Services Committee chair Carl Levin (D-MI), for example, said the redactions the administration wanted include “information that has already been publicly disclosed.”

Feinstein said she was sending the White House a list of changes that would be necessary and that “the White House and the intelligence community have committed to working through these changes in good faith.”

But, she warned, “this process will take some time.”

In truth, the report already has been in process for five years. Officials who have seen it say it sharply criticizes the CIA’s interrogations, documenting the abuse of some terrorism suspects in grisly detail. Written by the staff of the committee’s Democratic majority, the report concludes that the interrogations violated human rights and did not provide important intelligence that made the country safer, the officials have said, speaking anonymously to discuss classified information.

Many current and former CIA officials bitterly reject those conclusions and the criticisms the report makes of the spy agency’s actions.

The controversy has put President Barack Obama in a difficult spot, between prominent senators of his own party and an intelligence agency that he relies on. His CIA director, John Brennan, was a senior official in the agency during the Bush years although he was not directly involved in the interrogation program.

Obama has been critical of the Bush-era practices. “We tortured some folks,” he bluntly said in a news conference last week. But the White House has also backed the intelligence agency in insisting that some parts of the report cannot be publicly released.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that Obama has been “trying to be as transparent as possible with the American public about what exactly occurred and with the international community about what exactly occurred so that we can prevent it from happening again.”

He defended the redactions, saying that “more than 85 percent of the report was un-redacted, and half of the redactions that occurred were actually just in the footnotes.”

But, he added, the White House and intelligence agencies “have indicated a willingness to sit down” with the committee members “to try to find some common ground here and satisfy their concerns so that we can get this report released as quickly as possible.”

Feinstein, by contrast, indicated in her statement that she believes time is on her side.

“The bottom line is that the United States must never again make the mistakes documented in this report,” and the report’s documentation will help ensure that, she said.

“That is why I believe taking our time and getting it right is so important, and I will not rush this process.”

AFP Photo/Saul Loeb

Bergdahl Prisoner Exchange Sparks Bipartisan Backlash In Congress

By Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday battled a bipartisan storm of criticism over President Barack Obama’s decision to order the exchange of Taliban leaders for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.

Senior lawmakers from both parties are questioning the administration’s justification for acting without first consulting members of Congress and whether the deal put the nation’s security at further risk.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said in a statement Tuesday that members of Congress had not been briefed on the possibility of such an exchange with the Taliban since January 2012, and that there was “every expectation that the administration would re-engage” if diplomatic negotiations rekindled. The White House was aware that “it faced serious and sober bipartisan concern and opposition” to the idea, Boehner said.

“The administration has invited serious questions into how this exchange went down and the calculations the White House and relevant agencies made in moving forward without consulting Congress,” Boehner said.

Republican aides are promising “rigorous” oversight, particularly in the House when it returns from recess next week. House Armed Services Committee chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) has invited Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to testify before the panel on June 11.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) defended Obama’s action, saying Wednesday that the president “acted honorably in helping an American soldier return home to his family.”

“Unfortunately, opponents of President Obama have seized upon the release of an American prisoner of war — that’s what he was — using what should be a moment of unity and celebration for our nation as a chance to play political games,” he said in remarks on the floor. “The safe return of an American soldier should not be used for political points.”

But other Democrats are among those expressing serious concerns. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned the administration’s justification for not notifying members of Congress before the exchange, casting doubt upon its contention that Bergdahl’s deteriorating health justified quick action.

“As I understand, he was undernourished — not necessarily malnourished,” Feinstein told reporters after a closed briefing of the committee. “Unless something catastrophic happened, I think there was no reason to believe that he was in instant danger. There certainly was time to pick up the phone and call, and say, ‘I know you all had concerns about this.'”

Feinstein also said she had received an apology from White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken for not contacting her until after the mission was successfully completed.

“I strongly believe that we should have been consulted, that the law should have been followed. And I very much regret that that was not the case,” she said.

A Boehner aide said that when the Defense Department called Saturday morning to notify the speaker — a call that came less than an hour before Bergdahl’s recovery was announced publicly — it was acknowledged that they were “acting inconsistent with the law.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he got a heads-up call Saturday from the White House. Reid was notified Friday, making him perhaps the only senior lawmaker given advance notice.

The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said he received a call Monday expressing regret.

“I haven’t had a conversation with the White House on this issue in a year and a half,” he said Tuesday. “Now, if that’s keeping us in the loop, then, you know, this administration is more arrogant than I thought they were.”

Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) said he recalled briefings with the administration about possibly releasing senior Taliban leaders from Guantanamo as part of an effort to begin political reconciliation talks — an idea he said he strongly opposed. But, he said, those briefings did not include a discussion of Bergdahl.

Levin, who said there was an attempt to notify him about the operation Saturday, said his colleagues should not be surprised that the administration acted as it did, because Obama “put us on warning” last December with a statement he issued after signing the defense authorization bill. In the signing statement, Obama said he intended to exercise his powers as commander in chief and, if necessary, “to act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers.”

“Does that change the law? No. But does that assert that he has authority under the Constitution? Yes,” Levin said.

An administration official said the White House, State Department, Defense Department and the office of the Director of National Intelligence have “been in close touch with members of Congress and congressional staff” since Bergdahl was recovered.

“Over the coming days, our engagement with Congress, both at a member level and staff level, will continue,” the official said.

In addition to the Intelligence Committee briefing Tuesday, House staff will receive a formal briefing Wednesday, with others planned for both members of the House and members of the Senate Armed Services Committee next week.

Senate Democrats And Republicans Divided On Caterpillar’s Tax Avoidance

Senate Democrats And Republicans Divided On Caterpillar’s Tax Avoidance

“Caterpillar is an American success story that produces phenomenal industrial machines, but it is also a member of the corporate-shifting club that has shifted billions of dollars in profits offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes,” Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wrote of American manufacturing giant Caterpillar Inc. on Monday. “Caterpillar paid over $55 million for a Swiss tax strategy that has so far enabled it to avoid paying $2.4 billion in U.S. taxes.”

That incendiary charge is detailed in a report from Levin’s subcommittee. In it, the senator explains that Caterpillar paid PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP $55 million to design a tax strategy that involved the company shifting its supposed foreign profits to a wholly controlled Swiss subsidiary, called CSARL, rather than to its parts business in the U.S. The strategy is not illegal – but only if Caterpillar can prove that the income is, indeed, foreign and not domestic.

The Illinois-based company argues that the income funneled through Switzerland is foreign because the source of the profit is the company’s international parts-distribution division. But Caterpillar has no reported business activities in Switzerland, and the majority of its parts business remains based in the U.S.

Defending the company’s use of the Swiss tax strategy, Julie Legacy, who oversees Caterpillar’s tax operations, argued that “we cannot remain competitive, we cannot create jobs, and we cannot increase exports by incurring unnecessary expenses.”

She added, “And as an American company, we pay the taxes we owe, not more.”

Levin, however, is not buying Caterpillar’s argument. He claims that a “paper change” occurred between Caterpillar and Switzerland that allowed the company’s profits to be subject to a meager 4 percent Swiss tax rate – significantly less than the 35 percent corporate income tax the U.S. imposes on profits made overseas.

Though the committee report questions the tax strategy and its domestic effects, it does not accuse Caterpillar of having broken any laws.

Senate Democrats maintain that it ultimately is up to the Internal Revenue Service to determine whether or not Caterpillar violated a U.S. law.

Meanwhile, their GOP colleagues are standing behind Caterpillar, with some saying the violations are not as serious as those committed by other companies in the past.

Among Caterpillar’s top defenders in the upper chamber is Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who dismissed Levin’s concerns and even suggested rewarding the country for avoiding U.S. taxes.

“I think rather than having an inquisition, we should probably bring Caterpillar here and give them an award,” Paul said on Tuesday. “You know, they’ve been in business for over 100 years. It’s not easy to stay in business.”

“It is a requirement that you try to minimize your costs. So rather than chastising Caterpillar, we should be complimenting them,” he added.

Paul and others in his party instead blame the U.S. tax code. Ironically, Levin has attempted to address the tax code by introducing legislation that would restrict U.S.-based corporations to shift profits overseas for the purpose of avoiding taxes, but the bill has stalled in the Senate.

Photo: Rrrrred via Flickr