Senators call on CIA director to resign

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 1, 2014 9:23AM GMT

Some US senators are calling on John Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to resign following the CIA's admission that it spied on members of Congress.

"After being briefed on the CIA Inspector General report today, I have no choice but to call for the resignation of CIA Director John Brennan," said Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colorado) in a statement on Thursday.

The CIA watchdog's report sent shockwaves through US Congress when it revealed on Thursday that the agency's staffers had unauthorized access to the computer network the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee had created to share classified documents as the committee was preparing a report on torture techniques used by the CIA during the presidency of George W. Bush.

"The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers. This grave misconduct not only is illegal, but it violates the U.S. Constitution's requirement of separation of powers. These offenses, along with other errors in judgment by some at the CIA, demonstrate a tremendous failure of leadership, and there must be consequences," Udall, who is a member of the Senate panel, added.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), another member of the committee, also called for Brennan's resignation on Thursday.

"I think that at this point, it would probably be better for the agency, frankly, if he step aside," Heinrich said. "I think that the level of trust between the committee and the director has hit a new low and I think today's revelations largely sorted out who was being accurate in the run-up to this."

Heinrich was referring to a months-long standoff between the spy agency and the Senate panel over spying allegations.

Following the release of the CIA Inspector General report on Thursday, Brennan apologized to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The torture report prepared by the Senate panel is a 6,300-page report detailing torture techniques, including water-boarding, wall-slamming and shackling, used by the spy agency.

The report is not going to be made public and even a small portion of the report approved by the Senate to be made public is under review by the White House for further redaction before disclosure.

ISH/ISH