Senate intelligence head says CIA 'searched computers'

[Forever_frost]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26533323

The head of the US Senate intelligence committee has publicly accused the CIA of improperly accessing computers used by congressional staff.

Senator Dianne Feinstein said on the Senate floor that such activities "may have undermined the constitutional framework" of government oversight.

The Senate panel was investigating allegations of abuse during a CIA detention and interrogation programme.

A CIA internal watchdog has been tasked with looking into the alleged hacking.

"I am not taking it lightly," Ms Feinstein said of the matter on Tuesday, adding that the CIA may have violated federal laws in its alleged conduct.
'No way'

But CIA director John Brennan rejected the Senate allegations.

"The CIA was in no way spying... on the Senate," he told MSNBC on Tuesday.

The agency is accused of secretly removing documents from computers used by the Senate intelligence committee during an investigation into alleged CIA abuse.

Those computers were provided by the CIA to congressional members of staff at a secure site so that Senate investigators could review millions of pages of top secret documents.

The alleged CIA abuse stemmed from a detention and interrogation programme under former President George W Bush.

Ms Feinstein has previously said that the committee's 6,000-page "comprehensive review" - completed in 2013 and encompassing six million pages of records - found that the CIA programme had yielded little or no significant intelligence.

On Tuesday, the Senate intelligence committee chairwoman reportedly said such improper access to congressional networks, if true, amounted to attempted intimidation of investigators.

She also said she had requested an apology from the agency and an acknowledgment that the search was inappropriate, but had "received neither" despite sending letters to the agency requesting information on 17 and 23 January.

Ms Feinstein noted that CIA inspector general David Buckley had been tasked with looking into the alleged actions.

She said he had already referred the matter to the Department of Justice, "given the possibility of a criminal violation by CIA personnel".

[Baron Von Crowder]

I find that humorous.

[helosailor]

I still get a disgusted chuckle out of her heading anything with "intelligence" in the title, unless it is prefaced with "lack of". Of course, with this Senate, that is a given.

[bcoop]

Fuck em. They can spy on citizens, but can't spy on Congress? Just another example of them thinking they fall in a different class than the people they represent. DC needs an enema.

[BP]

I'm sure the AG will jump right on investigating this, as soon as he's done hiring a special prosecutor to look into the IRS's targeting of conservative 501cs.

[matts5.0]

I'm sure the AG will jump right on investigating this, as soon as he's done hiring a special prosecutor to look into the IRS's targeting of conservative 501cs.

Right after they finish looking at Benghazi, but before that they will finish up with fast and furious, yeeeeaaahh.. They will get right on it.

[Forever_frost]

The CIA inspector general has asked the Department of Justice to consider launching a criminal investigation of possible CIA spying on Senate staffers.

The White House is trying to minimize its role in the possible domestic spying scandal, in which CIA employees allegedly electronically spied on staffers in the Senate’s intelligence oversight committee.

Several Democratic senators — led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the committee — have publicly denounced the alleged spying, which was intended to discover if Senate aides had a copy of a classified document about the CIA’s jihadi-interrogation practices.

“Obviously the president is generally aware of the dispute… [but] I’m not going to characterize his point of view on allegations that are under investigation,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said March 11.

President Barack Obama is the head of the administration, which includes the CIA and the Justice Department. He nominated the heads of both agencies. In both of his inaugurations, he swore to uphold the laws of the land.

“If there is any inappropriate activity… he would support getting to the bottom of it,” Carney told reporters during the Tuesday White House briefing.

“The [CIA] IG is conducting a review, and there is a referral to the DoJ… that’s the appropriate avenue for by which these things can be investigated and reviewed,” he said.

“When it comes to an investigation or a review… that’s for the IG,” not for the president, to conduct, Carney insisted.

“We are not making an assessment publicly… we are interested in making sure the proper authorities review and investigate them,” he said.

The president still has full confidence in the head of the CIA, John Brennan, Carney said. “The president has great confidence in Director Brennan,” he said.

The scandal exploded March 11 when Feinstein publicly complained about the CIA’s activities.

“The CIA just went and searched the committee’s computers… [and] I have grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied by the United States Constitution, including the speech and debate clause,” she charged.

“It may have undermined the Constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activity or any other government function,” as well as the Fourth Amendment’s curb government searches, a government computer-security law and an White House executive order restricting prohibiting domestic searches by the CIA, she said.

CIA director Brennan quickly offered a partial denial. “There’s never been an effort by the CIA to thwart the SSCI’s investigation,” Brennan told NBC News March 11.

“We weren’t trying to block anything, and the matter is being dealt with in the appropriate way, being looked at by the right authorities, and the facts will come out,” Brennan said.

Brennan did not deny the Feinstein’s charge that the CIA looked through the Senate’s computers. “We greatly respect the separation of powers between the executive branch and the legislative branch, and we’re going to do everything possible to work with the committee,” he added.

“We support what the director said about getting to the bottom of it,” Carney said.

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http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/11/justice-department-considers-investigation-of-cia-spying-on-senate/