WASHINGTON: The CIA said on Thursday its director had apologised to leaders of the US Senate Intelligence Committee for monitoring computers that committee investigators were using as they looked into the CIA’s use of interrogation and secret prisons.

In a statement, Central Intelligence Agency spokesman Dean Boyd said the agency’s inspector general had determined that “some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent” with an understanding between the agency and the Senate panel.

CIA searches Senate computers, says legislator

Boyd said CIA Director John Brennan had informed Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Senate committee’s chair, and its senior Republican, Senator Saxby Chambliss, of the finding and apologised.

The Senate committee has been investigating excesses allegedly committed by CIA officers who used harsh interrogation methods, including simulated drowning, to question captured militants following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

The White House is expected to deliver a declassified version of a summary of the committee’s report to Congress by the end of this week.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014