WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office revealed Wednesday that the Obama administration has yet to show members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence seven additional opinions laying out the legal basis for targeted killing.
Disclosure of the existence of the additional seven opinions from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel came the day after President Barack Obama pledged greater transparency during his State of the Union address.
Feinstein (D-Calif.) said there were a total of 11 OLC opinions related to targeted killing. Senators had already seen two of them and an additional two were made available to senators -- but not their staffers -- last week, leaving seven that haven't yet been disclosed.
Feinstein said the committee "has devoted significant time and attention to targeted killings by drones" and receives "notifications with key details of each strike shortly after it occurs, and the committee holds regular briefings and hearings on these operations—reviewing the strikes, examining their effectiveness as a counterterrorism tool, verifying the care taken to avoid deaths to non-combatants and understanding the intelligence collection and analysis that underpins these operations."
She also said the committee staff has held 35 "monthly, in-depth oversight meetings" with government officials in which strike records, including video footage of the drone attacks, are reviewed.
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