David Petraeus

Feinstein, Petraeus Say Wartime Contractors Must Go

Susan Crabtree | September 13, 2011, 12:46PM

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

After the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the intelligence community, consisting of everything from the CIA to the Homeland Security Department, is outsourcing too much of its work to private contractors and is breaking a pledge to reduce the number of private contractors hired to help conduct, collect and analyze information.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who chairs the Intelligence Committee, pointed out the broken promise at a hearing Tuesday, noting that the intelligence community is not living up to a commitment to reduce private contractors by 5 percent a year.

"We had an agreement in 2009 to reduce [intelligence community] contractor numbers by 5 percent a year, but it's clear that progress has not been maintained and sufficient cuts are not being made," Feinstein told a joint-hearing of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to assess progress in U.S. intelligence gathering and analysis over the last ten years.

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Dianne Feinstein

Sen. Dianne Feinstein 'Wiped Out' by California Finance Scandal, Too

Igor Bobic | September 12, 2011, 7:20PM

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Long-time California campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee not only "nearly wiped out" Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) campaign funds, but it appears she has "wiped out" Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) war chest as well, Politico's Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan report.

"I was wiped out too, we don't know how much," said Feinstein, who is up for reelection next year. According to Feinstein, the company headed by Durkee handled her campaigns in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2006, and her gubernatorial campaign. "I trusted her implicitly."

Durkee, arrested this month on mail fraud charges for allegedly using money from campaign funds she managed for personal expenses, was ordered to be released on $200,000 bond on Friday.

Sen. Feinstein is the latest victim in what is amounting to one of the largest finance scandals in California history, one that has already ensnarled a California state assemblyman, Jose Solorio (D), and Reps. Susan Davis (D-CA) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA).

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