Senate Intelligence Committee member Sen. Mark Udall, D- Colo., said Tuesday that John Brennan’s future as head of the Central Intelligence Agency is in doubt after committee chairman Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D- Calif., accused the agency of spying on the committee and trying to interfere with its work.
“The CIA has an important role to play, but if the public doesn’t trust the CIA, if the Senate overseers don’t trust the CIA, I don’t know how Director Brennan can continue to lead the agency,” Udall said on MSNBC.
He said Brennan and his subordinates “need to stop undermining the role of the Intelligence Committee” and President Barack Obama “needs to direct Director Brennan to work with us” -– especially on declassifying and releasing a 6,300 page committee report on harsh interrogation techniques the CIA used from 2002 to 2006 on al Qaida detainees.
Udall, who is up for re-election this fall, was one of 63 senators who voted for Brennan’s confirmation last March.
Brennan said earlier Tuesday in an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell “let me assure you that CIA in no way was spying” on the Intelligence Committee or the Senate.