Senate still at odds with CIA, White House over torture report
Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are still at odds with the CIA and the White House over the so-called "CIA torture report," even after a meeting on Capitol Hill between Democratic senators and White House chief of staff Denis McDonough.
According to a source with knowledge of the Thursday meeting, the CIA report came up after Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-California, read a statement that lasted for about five minutes. About five other Democratic senators spoke in support of Feinstein, who is ready to publicly release the report. There is one main sticking point remaining: The Obama administration and the CIA want to black out all CIA pseudonym references in the report, citing concerns that revealing the pseudonyms could endanger lives. This meeting did not resolve that issue.
The Intelligence Committee took five years to produce the torture report, which examines the CIA's now-defunct detention and interrogation program, and it voted earlier this year to declassify it.
McDonough's meeting with lawmakers was not the first time he's traveled to Capitol Hill to discuss the issue. The White House and the committee members have been negotiating over redactions for months.
Earlier in the week, Feinstein said, "We're down to one redaction issue. And I think if we get that solved, we'll be able to move ahead."
The chairwoman said she hoped the report could be released sometime after Thanksgiving.
"It's got to happen," she said. "You know, five-and-a-half years have gone into this."
On Thursday afternoon, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said that he talks to Feinstein often about the report.
"The White House has redacted way too much, in her view. She is negotiating with the White House," he said. McCain added that he "absolutely" agrees that the CIA and the White House are trying to redact too much information.
The report has led to profoundly tense relations between the CIA, and the Senate Intelligence Committee, the congressional body tasked with overseeing the agency. In March, Feinstein went to the Senate floor to charge that the CIA was spying on committee staff members who were working on the report.
CBS News' John Nolen contributed to this report.