US lawmakers consider regulating drone strikes

Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counterterror adviser, was grilled for more than three hours Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the drone program he leads, as well as on the Central Intelligence Agency's harsh interrogation techniques during the Bush administration, which he denounced, and on leaks of classified information to the media, which Brennan vehemently denied being a part of.

Despite Brennan's wide-ranging testimony and the White House's release of a top secret memo explaining its legal rationale for the strikes just hours before the confirmation hearing began, some senators said afterward it was time to bring the drone program into the open.

The CIA's drone strikes primarily focus on al-Qaida and Taliban targets in the tribal regions of Pakistan, while the military has launched strikers against al-Qaida targets in Yemen and Somalia. The agency also carries out strikes in Yemen, where three American citizens with al-Qaida connections have been killed: Anwar al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son and Samir Kahn.

In a hearing that was interrupted by anti-drone protests that brought it to a brief halt and forced police to empty the room of all but credentialed staff and media, Brennan told the committee that missile strikes by the unmanned drones are used only against targets planning to carry out attacks against the United States, never as retribution for an earlier one.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," he declared.

Referring to one American citizen killed by a drone in Yemen in 2011, he said al-Awlaki had ties to at least three attacks planned or carried out on U.S. soil. They included the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting that claimed 13 lives in 2009, a failed attempt to down a Detroit-bound airliner the same year and a thwarted plot to bomb cargo planes in 2010.

"He was intimately involved in activities to kill innocent men, women and children, mostly Americans," Brennan said.

The committee's Democratic chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein told reporters after the hearing that she wanted to open more of the program to the public so U.S. officials can acknowledge the strikes and correct what she said were exaggerated reports of civilian casualties.

Feinstein said she and other senators were considering legislation to set up a special court system to regulate drone strikes, similar to the one that signs off on government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases.

Speaking with uncharacteristic openness about the classified program, Feinstein said that the CIA had allowed her staff to make more than 30 visits to the agency's headquarters to monitor strikes but that such transparency needed to be increased. Her comments came after the White House, under pressure from the committee, gave senators on the panel a Justice Department memo outlining the legal justification for drone strikes. But senators complained that aides weren't allowed to see it.

"I think the process set up internally is a solid process," Feinstein said of the methods used to decide when to launch drones and against whom, but added: "I think there's an absence of knowing exactly who is responsible for what decision. So I think we need to look at this whole process and figure a way to make it transparent and identifiable."

Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said some members of his panel also had been looking at establishing a "court-like entity" to review the strikes.

"I think the House and Senate ought to put their heads together and come up with some way to require, either initially or after the fact, a review of an operation when it takes the life of an American citizen," Schiff said.

In a long afternoon in the witness chair, Brennan was questioned on other issues, such as the use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques during the George W. Bush administration. He declined to say whether he believes waterboarding, which simulates drowning, amounted to torture, but he said firmly it was "something that is reprehensible and should never be done again."

Brennan, 57, is a veteran of more than three decades in intelligence work. He withdrew his name from nomination to head the CIA four years ago amid questions about the role he played at the CIA when the Bush administration approved waterboarding and other forms of "enhanced interrogation" of suspected terrorists.

On the question of waterboarding, Brennan said that while serving as a deputy manager at the CIA during the Bush administration, he was told such interrogation methods produced "valuable information." Now, after reading a 300-page summary of a 6,000-page report on CIA interrogation and detention policies, he said he does "not know what the truth is."

Brennan bristled once during the day, when he was questioned about leaks to the media about an al-Qaida plot to detonate a new type of underwear bomb on a Western airline.

Sen. James Risch, a Republican, accused him of having leaked classified information in a telephone call with former government officials who were preparing to make television appearances to explain the plot.

"I disagree with that vehemently," the nominee shot back.

On May 7 of last year, The Associated Press reported that the CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner, using a bomb with a sophisticated new design. The bombing would have taken place near the anniversary of the killing by U.S. Navy commandos of Osama bin Laden. The next day, the Los Angeles Times was the first to report that the would-be bomber was cooperating with U.S. authorities.

Risch and Sen. Dan Coats, a Republican, were among those who contended Brennan inadvertently had revealed that the U.S. had a spy inside Yemen's al-Qaida branch when, hours after the first AP report appeared, he told a group of media consultants that "there was no active threat during the bin Laden anniversary because ... we had inside control of the plot."

The panel will meet in closed session next week to discuss classified material.