Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/356696
ByKenDilanian The Associated Press WASHINGTON CIAofficers improperly accessed Sen- ate computers, read the emails of Senate staff, and exhibited a "lack of can- dor" when interviewed by agency investigators, ac- cording to a declassified CIA inspector general's report. The document, released Thursday by the CIA, is a summary of an internal CIA investigation that prompted CIA Director John Brennan to abandon his defiant posture in the matter and apologize to Senate Intelligence Com- mittee leaders. Brennan has convened an internal accountabil- ity board chaired by for- mer Sen. Evan Bayh, D- Ind., that will examine whether the CIA officers should be disciplined, said his spokesman, Dean Boyd. The agency officers searched Senate comput- ers without permission for information gathered in the course of a Sen- ate investigation into the CIA's interrogation tech- niques. The summary of a classified report on post- 9/11 detentions and inter- rogations that accuses the CIA of misconduct is ex- pected to be made pub- lic soon. Five agency employees improperly accessed Sen- ate computers in an ef- fort to track down certain documents, the inspector general found. Then, after Brennan ordered a halt to the review, the CIA office of security began a "lim- ited investigation" that led to surveillance of Sen- ate emails, the report said. Three information tech- nology staff "demonstrated a lack of candor about their activities" in inter- views with CIA investiga- tors, the report said. The CIA inspector gen- eral shared his findings with the Justice Depart- ment, which has so far de- clined to pursue criminal charges against the CIA employees, officials said. The inspector general concluded "that some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understand- ing reached between" the Senate Intelligence Com- mittee and the CIA in 2009 regarding access to a shared classified com- puter network, Boyd said. The shared network had been used by Senate aides to access classified files on CIA interrogations. The CIA penetration oc- curred after the aides got ahold of documents that the CIA claimed were in- ternal, but which showed that some CIA officials shared misgivings about the treatment of al Qaida detainees. Brennan informed Sen- ate Intelligence Commit- tee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the senior Repub- lican on the committee, "and apologized to them for such actions by CIA of- ficers as described in the (inspector general's) re- port," Boyd said. Feinstein said the probe proved what she had an- nounced in an unusual, long speech on the Senate floor in March, that the computers were searched "in violation of an agree- ment we had reached, and I believe in violation of the constitutional separation of powers." The apology was a turn- about for the CIA direc- tor, who until this week had dismissed the notion that the CIA did anything wrong. WASHINGTON Re po rt : CI A offic er s read Senate emails By Erica Werner The Associated Press WASHINGTON Short on votes, House Republicans abruptly abandoned a bill Thursday to address the im- migration crisis on the U.S.- Mexico border after last- minute maneuvering failed to lock down conservative support. An hour later, they called an urgent meeting to plot their next moves. The surprise develop- ments, coming on Congress' final day of action ahead of a five-week summer recess, were an embarrassing set- back for Speaker John Boehner and his leader- ship team as a small group of tea party lawmakers once again upset their plans. Even if Boehner suc- ceeded in reviving the bor- der bill, there was no chance it could be reconciled with a very different version await- ing action in the Senate in time to send to President Barack Obama before Con- gress heads on its summer recess Friday. The developments were also a disappointment for the majority of House Re- publicans who were eager to produce a legislative so- lution to the situation on the border, where tens of thousands of unaccompa- nied children have been showing up from chaotic Central American nations and crossing illegally into the United States. Many Re- publican lawmakers were reluctant to return to their districts to face voters with- out having acted. "It can't wait, it's a hu- manitarian crisis," Appro- priations Committee Chair- man Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said before the vote on the $659 million measure was can- celed, as he pleaded with fellow Republicans to sup- port the legislation to send resources to the border and send the arriving youths back home faster. "This bill is an urgently needed bill," Rogers said. But it was unclear if such sentiments could prevail and pull the GOP confer- ence back together. "There are still members who are convinced that they're going to be endan- gered back in their districts if we don't, quote, do some- thing, unquote," said conser- vative Rep. John Fleming, R-La., who said he opposes any extra border spending. "I completely disagree with them on that. I think by doing something, all we're doing is taking Obama's nightmare for our- selves. He created it," Flem- ing said. Significant concessions by leadership failed to se- cure support from a small band of tea party lawmak- ers reluctant to give money to Obama without taking steps to rein in his execu- tive authority on immigra- tion. Those lawmakers were goaded on by firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who summoned them for pizza Wednesday evening to strategize against the bill. As conservative opposi- tion mounted, GOP leaders agreed late Wednesday to schedule a separate vote on legislation to block Obama from extending deportation relief to more immigrants here illegally, beyond the 500,000 that have already benefited from a program he created. That seemed to win over some lawmakers by Thurs- day morning, but as the day progressed conserva- tive lawmakers and out- side groups declared the measure insufficient. Then, just before the vote on the border bill was to begin, there was an un- explained pause in action on the House floor, and suddenly the reading clerk called up an unrelated high- way bill instead. Minutes later, the bor- der bill disappeared from the House schedule for the day, and Boehner and other House leaders issued a statement saying: "This situation shows the intense concern within our con- ference — and among the American people — about the need to ensure the secu- rity of our borders and the president's refusal to faith- fully execute our laws. ... We will continue to work on so- lutions to the border crisis and other challenges facing our country." CONGRESS Ho us e le ad er s ab an don border immigration bill CONNORRADNOVICH—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Faith leaders and activists participate in a demonstration in front of the White House in Washington on Thursday, asking President Barack Obama to modify his deportations policies. By Scott Bauer The Associated Press MADISON, WIS. The fight over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's signature pol- icy achievement, a law ef- fectively ending collective bargaining for most public employees, ended Thurs- day with the state Supreme Court declaring it to be con- stitutional. Passage of the law in 2011 put Wisconsin at the center of a nationwide battle over union rights and fueled Walker's rise to national prominence as he entered the mix of possible 2016 presidential candidates. Anger over the law led to Walker being forced to stand for recall in 2012; he won, making him the first governor in U.S. history to withstand such a vote. Walker is up for re-election this November, the third time he will be on the bal- lot in four years. The 5-2 state Supreme Court ruling is another ma- jor victory for Walker as he heads into the statewide election. Federal courts twice said the law, which limits public workers to bargaining only over base wage increases no greater than inflation, constitu- tional. "No matter the limita- tions or 'burdens' a legis- lative enactment places on the collective bargain- ing process, collective bar- gaining remains a creation of legislative grace and not constitutional obligation," Justice Michael Gableman wrote for the court's con- servative majority. The law also requires public employees to con- tribute more toward their health insurance and pen- sion costs, bars automatic withdrawals from mem- bers' paychecks and re- quires annual elections to see if members want their unions to go on represent- ing them. In a two-sentence state- ment issued Thursday, Walker praised the ruling and claimed the law has saved taxpayers more than $3 billion — mostly attrib- utable to schools and lo- cal governments saving more money because of the higher contributions. "Today's ruling is a vic- tory for those hard-work- ing taxpayers," Walker said. Walker's opponent for re- election, Democrat Mary Burke, has a nuanced posi- tion on the law, which has upset some in her party who want it to be repealed entirely. Burke supports the higher employee contribu- tions, and has said she does not want to repeal the full law, but she does support restoring collective bar- gaining. The high court ruled in a lawsuit filed by the Madison teachers union and a union representing Milwaukee public workers. They had argued that the law, which came to be known as Act 10, violated workers' constitu- tional rights to free assem- bly and equal protection. Attorney Lester Pines, who represented the teach- ers union, said the decision was not unexpected given the conservative makeup of the court and critical com- ments the justices made during oral arguments. But Pines said the length of the legal fight gave unions time to prepare for operat- ing in a post-collective bar- gaining environment. "The governor's desire to destroy the public em- ployee unions has failed," Pines said. "We'll just see new approaches to deal- ing with employers by the unions. Those will be- come evident as we go for- ward." Walker introduced the proposal shortly after tak- ing office in 2011, a move that was met with fierce resistance from teach- ers, other public workers and their supporters who flooded the Capitol for weeks in an effort to block the bill's passage. LABOR Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds 2011 anti-collective bargaining law JEFFREY PHELPS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker speaks in Milwaukee on May 3. By Eric Tucker The Associated Press WASHINGTON More than 3,300 federal inmates have applied to have their prison sentences cut short in the months since the Justice Department rolled out a new clemency initiative, ac- cording to data provided to The Associated Press. That figure represents nearly five times the num- ber of inmates, 702, who applied for sentence com- mutations during the same period last year, the depart- ment said. The surge of petitions since late April followed the Justice Department's announcement that it was broadening the criteria for inmates seeking clemency. The goal of the new cost- cutting initiative, officials have said, is to reduce the nation's bulging prison pop- ulation and grant leniency to nonviolent drug offend- ers sentenced to double- digit terms at the height of the 1980s-era crusade against crack cocaine. The clemency effort is not limited to drug offend- ers, who comprise about half of the roughly 216,000 federal prisoners, but its half-dozen criteria make clear that those inmates are the target population. To be eligible, inmates must have already been behind bars for at least 10 years, have a nonviolent his- tory, have no major criminal convictions, have a good be- havior record in prison, and be serving a sentence that, if imposed today, would be substantially shorter than what they were given at the time. "These older, stringent punishments that are out of line with sentences im- posed under today's laws erode people's confidence in our criminal justice sys- tem," Deputy Attorney Gen- eral James Cole, the depart- ment's second-ranking offi- cial, said in announcing the new criteria in April. Months earlier, he urged lawyers around the coun- try to help drug prisoners prepare clemency petitions. .The Clemency Proj- ect 2014, a coalition of de- fense lawyer groups and prisoner advocates, said this week that more than 20,000 federal prisoners have returned surveys seek- ing to have a lawyer during the clemency process. That number includes some of the inmates who have al- ready petitioned the Jus- tice Department for clem- ency, the department said. None of the petitions have yet been forwarded to President Barack Obama for his approval, though law- yers are in the process of re- viewing the applications to see which ones have merit. It's not clear how many of the petitions that have been received will fit the criteria. JUSTICE 3,300+ inmates have sought clemency PHYSICIAN REFERRAL AFREESERVICE PROVIDED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE 888-628-1948 New physicians arriving every month | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2014 8 A