WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s choice to head the CIA faces a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing just hours after lawmakers are expected to receive a classified report providing the rationale for drone strikes targeting Americans working with al-Qaida overseas.
John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief and Obama’s nominee to run the nation’s spy agency, helped manage the drone program. The confirmation hearing today sets the stage for a public airing of some of the most controversial programs in the covert war on al-Qaida, from the deadly drone strikes to the CIA’s use of interrogation techniques like waterboarding during President George W. Bush’s administration.
Obama directed the Justice Department to provide access to the secret document to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees, an administration official said Wednesday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the Senate committee’s chairman, said the legal opinion would be provided to her committee by this morning.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a committee member who had pressed the administration to provide the opinion, left open the possibility he might still try to block Brennan’s nomination. He said turning over the opinion was a good first step.
“I’m committed to making sure that we get all the facts,” Wyden said on NBC’s “Today” show. “Early this morning, I’m going to be going in to read the opinion. We’ll go from there.”
Wyden said “there are still substantial questions” about how the administration justifies and plans drone strikes. “The Founding Fathers thought the president should have significant power in the national security arena. But there have to be checks and balances,” Wyden said. “You can’t just skirt those checks and balances if you think it’s inconvenient.”
An unclassified memo leaked this week says it is legal for the government to kill U.S. citizens abroad if it believes they are senior al- Qaida leaders continually engaged in operations aimed at killing Americans.
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