Open intelligence hearings on Capitol Hill are never completely open. Lawmakers and witnesses try to stick to what’s safe to say in public, without disclosing details on espionage operations or what’s happening behind the scenes in Washington.
But a bit of that backdrop was exposed on Tuesday, when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and CIA Director David H. Petraeus mentioned their meetings last week with the head of Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad.
The disclosures came up during an annual threat assessment hearing held by the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the subject was, of course, Iran.
Feinstein, chairman of the committee, followed up her reference to Mossad chief Tamir Pardo by saying that she thought the public deserves to know what inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency uncover in their examination of Iran’s nuclear program.
A facts-based debate is critical, Feinstein said, “when you have a situation where one country views this as an existential threat. They believe it’s their survival. They are determined not to let it happen.”
Petraeus replied that he too had met with Pardo, and has been in dialogue with other senior Israeli officials “almost on a monthly basis in the nearly five months that I’ve been in the job.”
