Feinstein asks for access to detainee photos

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said she has asked the Obama administration for access to the photos of detainees that President Barack Obama decided to withhold.

Feinstein said she wants the photos as part of the committee’s investigation into the interrogation techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration.

“I have just asked to see if these are the same vintage photographs as the earlier Abu Ghirab photographs were, and I was told that they are,” Feinstein said. “I think the Intelligence Committee should obtain these photographs, because my understanding is that some of them had to do with interrogation techniques, and we want to evaluate them as part of our study. Obviously, they are a useful part of our study, if in fact they deal with conditions of interrogation and detention. And I think we’ve established that we’re going to have to have the information if we’re going to do the study. They would remain classified, with us, but we would at least be able to evaluate them.”

– J. Taylor Rushing