Senator Accuses CIA of Snooping On Intelligence Committee Computers

An anonymous reader writes "Sen. Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, publicly accused the CIA of inappropriately searching computers used by her committee, violating presidential directives, federal laws and the Fourth Amendment. The computers in question were provided by the CIA at an undisclosed CIA location for use by the members of the intelligence committee. When the committee staff received internal documents the CIA had not officially provided, the agency examined the computers used by the committee and removed the unauthorized documents. The action has been referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution." There were rumors of such a few weeks ago, and now it's official. Read the transcript of her speech.

Comments

I won't hold my breath

[Taco Cowboy]

I say it's time to double-down

You gotta understand that assholes like Dianne Feinstein doesn't think like us.

She thinks she's in the 0.1% elite, and for that, she ought to have the immunity from the same BIG BROTHER that she has thrown her support for.

As for us, asshole Feinstein look at us as if we are peons, slaves for the elites, that we do not have any right to enjoy the protection granted by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and that we ought to be stripped of everything, and kow-tow to her and her kinds.

Re:I won't hold my breath

[mspohr]

Actually, she is in the 0.1% elite and got her money the true American way by inheritance, marriage, and political corruption:
"On January 20, 1980, in San Francisco, California, finance capitalist Richard C. Blum (born in 1936) and the ambitious Democratic Party politician Dianne Feinstein (born 1933) were married in a wedding ceremony at San Francisco City Hall. This marriage created a family economic and political alliance that in a little over a decade would allow them to become the top power couple in the state of California with a place on the national and world stages. They remain at the pinnacle of power today, he as a billionaire financier, speculator, real estate executive and deal maker; she as the senior Senator (California’s highest federal official), from the largest and most powerful state in the United States. They exemplify power as it is now wielded in the higher circles of the class system of the U.S. today, and illustrate well the dismal results of this system. This system is best characterized as a plutocratic kleptocracy, completely lacking in authentic democracy, operated by and for corporate racketeers, in short, a dictatorship of big capital, the top 1% of wealth holders, which makes up a ruling class. "
More background here:
http://www.foundsf.org/index.p... ... and here:
http://www.revolutimes.com/201...

Re:I won't hold my breath

[PRMan]

Because Northern California voters are beyond stupid. They'll unthinkingly vote for anyone who is "Democrat" even if he bankrupted the state twice already or if she has already been a downright awful senator for 3 or 4 terms already.

Re:I won't hold my breath

[RR]

As for us, asshole Feinstein look at us as if we are peons, slaves for the elites, that we do not have any right to enjoy the protection granted by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and that we ought to be stripped of everything, and kow-tow to her and her kinds.

I sometimes wonder how monsters like Feinstein get any votes at all while the likes of Feingold can lose to a climate change denier. We have only ourselves to blame.

I didn't vote for her. I voted for somebody else. Yet Feinstein was just, in 2012, reelected with the most votes any senator has ever received, ever.

I think humans are defective. Democracy works fine for small governments, like a village. It's problematic for a political unit so big that you can't travel from one end to another without special arrangements, like California, the 12th largest economy in the world. Democracy is a terrible idea for a country as large as the United States. It's better than any other idea we've tried so far, but there are just too many voices demanding too much attention for it to work well.

So, humans simplify. Most people stick to the 2 parties that they hear about the most. The media talk about the 2 parties that pay them the most. The major party candidates listen to the donors who donate the most. Larry Lessig hopes that campaign finance reform will fix democracy, but humans still need simplified choices.

I think humans can't reasonably manage something as large as the United States. The federal government needs to be scaled way down, or the United States split up, so more local decisions can be made about local issues. But, again, humans are defective, and for example people in New York are personally offended at the local education decisions made in Texas, so the federal government just keeps growing.

Re:I have no sympathy for that asshole !

[MightyMartian]

I don't think it's at all out of order to take some pleasure in one of the most-pro NSA people in Congress being hoisted by her own petard. Is it wrong to take pleasure from the chickens coming home to roost for Feinstein... well maybe a little, but I just can't help myself.

Re:NOW it's a tragedy, NOW it's so sad to see...

[CanHasDIY]

I have sympathy for her, and her arguments against being spied upon.

Really? I don't - bitch has no right to privacy regarding her job as a public servant. Now, if they were hacking into her personal email... I still wouldn't feel bad about it. Scumbags reap what they sow.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:NOW it's a tragedy, NOW it's so sad to see...

[DarkOx]

Not only that its the same Senator who argued how necessary to national security the NSA surveillance programs are after the Snowden leaks.

Hypocrisy at its finest; curb stop my constituents 4th amendment rights and thats all fine, but violate my rights and look out!

I'd like to think she might learn something from this, but I doubt she will.

Re:NOW it's a tragedy, NOW it's so sad to see...

[CauseBy]

To be clear, they are absolutely hacking her personal email, no doubt about it.

I'm willing to feel bad for anyone who gets illegally wiretapped -- except for people like Feinstein who openly call for practically everyone (except her) to be illegally wiretapped. She deserves it; the rest of us don't.

Re:NOW it's a tragedy, NOW it's so sad to see...

[interkin3tic]

To be fair, she accuses the intelligence community of doing far more than simply spying on her.

said the CIA had searched through computers belonging to staff members investigating the agency’s role in torturing detainees, and had then leveled false charges against her staff in an attempt to intimidate them. “I have grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principle embodied in the United States Constitution, including the speech and debate clause,” she said. “It may have undermined the constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities or any other government function.”

From the intercept.

The intelligence community blackmailing the people who are supposed to have oversight of the intelligence community is probably at least a little more dangerous than the intelligence community spying on it's citizens. If for no other reason that the former prevents the latter from being solved. Pruning the CIA and NSA back to appropriate levels will require congressional action, and that's likely exactly what the CIA and/or NSA is trying to stop with these actions.