Crescent International
The CIA has always been above the law. As long as it violated the rights of other countries or peoples, it was business as usual. It has now reached into spying on Senators' work as well. With the agency be reined in? Perish the thought. America is truly a police state; in fact it has gone beyond that. It is a fascist state.
Washington DC, Crescent-online
Tuesday August 05, 2014, 13:23 DST
New revelations about CIA surveillance and spying show that even the US Senate has not been spared. The conflict centered on computers that the CIA set up at a secret office in Northern Virginia to enable aides of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the congressional body in charge of oversight of the CIA, to examine records of the agency’s use of harsh interrogation measures on detainees and prisoners after Sept. 11, 2001.
On July 29, CIA Director John Brennan finally admitted before the Senate Intelligence Committee’s heads that the CIA had indeed spied on congressional aides.
The CIA Director’s admission follows a harsh, 40-minute speech by Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein on the Senate floor in March 2014, in which she accused the CIA of secretly accessing her panel's computers that were used to review documents related to the government's torture, detention, and rendition policies deployed during George W. Bush's presidency.
Feinstein berated the CIA for attempting to impede her panel's investigation and charged the agency with possibly violating the Constitution.
At the time, Brennan denied Feinstein’s accusations. He told NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell, that”As far as the allegations of the CIA hacking into Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth . . . That's beyond the scope of reason.”
However after the revelation that CIA spying on Senate committee members had indeed occurred, Brennan backtracked, stating: “Some employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached” between the CIA and lawmakers in 2009, when the committee investigation was launched.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has called for a “public apology” from CIA chief Brennan. “The CIA Inspector General has confirmed what Senators have been saying all along: The CIA conducted an unauthorized search of Senate files, and attempted to have Senate staff prosecuted for doing their jobs,”
Wyden said. “Director Brennan's claims to the contrary were simply not true.” Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado said he has “lost confidence” in Brennan, and urged the administration to appoint an independent counsel to investigate. Senate aides involved in the incident have stated that the CIA used classified “hacking tools” and created a fake user account in an effort to retrieve documents being viewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
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