Feinstein Too Emotional for CIA Torture Report, Says Ex-CIA Director

Sen.
Dianne Feinstein is one of the bigger cheerleaders for the
government’s massive surveillance programs. Michael Hayden, former
director of both the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), is usually an ideological
bosom buddy to her. Yesterday, though, he accused her of being

too emotional for questioning the CIA’s detention and
interrogation activities.

Feinstein is the chair of the Senate select committee, which
recently voted to declassify a 500-page portion of a 6,300-page
study that
indicates CIA torture has been an ineffective tool in the war
on terror. Intelligence officials aren’t happy this information is
going public. So Hayden
took a shot at Feinstein on Chris Wallace’s Fox News show:

WALLACE: But the report says that more prisoners were
abused than we had previously known and that the enhanced
interrogation produced little intelligence of significance.

HAYDEN: Yes. I read an article by David Ignatius earlier
this week. And he said –

WALLACE: He’s a columnist for The Washington
Post.

HAYDEN: Right. He said that Senator Feinstein wanted a
report so scathing that it would ensure that an un-American brutal
program of detention interrogation would never again be considered
or permitted.

Now, that sentence, that motivation for the report, Chris, may
show deep emotional feeling on part of the senator. But I don’t
think it leads you to an objective report.

WALLACE: I mean, forgive me, because you and I both know
Senator Feinstein. I have the highest regard for her. You’re saying
you think she was emotional in these conclusions?

HAYDEN: What I’m saying is — first of all, Chris, you’re
asking me about a report. I have no idea of its content. No one
responsible for that report has spoken a word of this to me, to
George Tenet, to Porter Goss, to anyone else that is involved in
these events. But it’s very hard for me to make a judgment.

Techdirt‘s Mike Masnick, no apologist for Feinstein,

argues that the former CIA director misconstrues the senator’s
motivation. “Rather than being emotionally motivated to create the
report (as Hayden falsely claims), Feinstein realized that the
report was so damning that it needed to be made public to stop
future CIA torture and abuse.” If nothing else, she may want to get
back at the agency for
allegedly spying on her office.