US/Senate/Select Committee/Intelligence
 US/Senate/Select Committee/Intelligence  (United States Senate Committee)    | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Formation | May 19, 1976 |
| Parent organization | US/Senate |
| Leader | US/Senate/Select Committee on Intelligence/Chair |
| Type | select committee |
| Subpage | •US/Senate/Select Committee/Intelligence/Chair •US/Senate/Select Committee/Intelligence/Vice chair |
| Nominal oversight of the United States Intelligence Community. | |
Not to be confused with the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Official narrative
Intended to oversee the United States Intelligence Community. It was formed in 1976 to succeed the Church Committee.
Staffing
Since this committee is charged with overseeing spooks, its members are deserving of particular scrutiny. The majority are system loyalists.
George Tenet was Staff Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for over four years under the chairmanship of Senator David Boren.
CIA spying on committee
In a March 2014 Senate speech, Chair of Intelligence Committee Dianne Feinstein said the CIA had obstructed the committee's investigation of the agency's torture of post-9/11 "terrorism detainees",[1] one of the few times the committee had actually probed into unsavory practices.
CIA director John Brennan, a senior agency official when the "rendition, detention and interrogation" program was established, immediately denied that his officials had spied on their overseers.[1]
In August 2014 Brennan issued an apology to leaders of the US Senate intelligence committee, reversing months of public denials[2], thus in effect closing the case. Asked if Brennan had or would offer his resignation, a CIA spokesman replied: "No."[1]
The CIA acknowledged that agency staff had improperly monitored the computers of committee staff members, who were using a network the agency had set up, called RDINet. Among other measures, the agency officials conducted a keyword search of all and and a spying on their emails.[1] It is not known whether further snooping on the oversight committee members was committed.
