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Senators Demand CIA Director Admit He Lied About Spying On Senate Computers
blottsie writes with a link to a story at The Daily Dot which begins: CIA Director John Brennan lied when he denied ordering agency employees to search Senate computers to trace a leak. Frustrated with his unwillingness to admit the obvious, three Senate Democrats on Friday called on Brennan to admit that his agency crossed the line. The Senate Intelligence Committee was preparing a report on the CIA's Bush-era torture programs when the spy agency discovered that the committee had somehow acquired an internal CIA report on the program. To determine how the report had leaked, Brennan ordered CIA officers to pry into the computers used by committee staffers. The heart of the story is in the letter in which the Senators call for Brennan to 'fess up, also linked from the story. Drawing from that letter: When you were asked publicly about the CIA's search in March 2014, you denied that any improper access had occurred, stating that "As fas the allegations of, you know, CIA hacking into, you know, Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, that's -- that's just beyond the -- you know, the scope of reason in terms of what we could do." The reports of both the Inspector General and your review board demonstrate that this denial was at odds with the facts.
In June 2014, senior officials from the FBI, NSA, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence all testified that it would be inappropriate for their agencies to secretly search Senate files without external authorization. To date, however, there has been no public acknowledgement from you or any other CIA official (outside the Office of Inspector General) that this search was improper, nor even a commitment that the CIA will not conduct such searches in the future. This is entirely unacceptable.
In June 2014, senior officials from the FBI, NSA, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence all testified that it would be inappropriate for their agencies to secretly search Senate files without external authorization. To date, however, there has been no public acknowledgement from you or any other CIA official (outside the Office of Inspector General) that this search was improper, nor even a commitment that the CIA will not conduct such searches in the future. This is entirely unacceptable.
Funny how the spying is only bad when it's done against politicians. Against the plebes, it's perfectly fine. I'm shedding so many crocodile tears for them.
If you have nothing to hide, dear Senators...why worry about it?
Unless he's going to prison, this is just worthless posturing to divert the public's attention from something else.
Well mister vocal congressman, it would be a shame for this (fabricated or not) evidence of your (pick one.. drug use, homosexual activity, pedophilia, adultours wife, illegal contributions), to become public wouldn't it?
Wonder who wins....
Silence is a state of mime.
That sentence is straight from the letter from the Senators. Why is it inappropriate to include the Senators' words?
Yeah, he lied. Why not? Congress is a bunch of spineless whores, there to grub up the money and do what they're told by whichever puppetmaster has his hand shoved up their ass at the moment.
Besides, what are they going to do about it? Make another speech? So what?
LoL, now that an alphabet soup agency has spied on 'real' people, (politicians) I will lay odds that there will be real investigations and laws before the year is up. Say what you will about the ethics or morality of a politician, at least they are very predictable...
starting at 2:1 payout, step up and place your wagers now. Who's money to I get to take first?
Traitors they may be, when he said they didn't "hack" it, he was telling the truth. All depends on how you define "hacking" after all.
Lets not forget, this is from the same kind of scum that consider consider accessing publicly available files over a web server to be hacking. I'd seriously like to see what they want to call unauthorized access of government computers containing classified information.
Because it goes against how I wish to frame this story, duh.
(Actually, I'm a different AC. But that is probably the case. Maybe. I don't know, I'm a little drunk right now, and am commenting without actually understanding what is going on. But hey, what else is new?)
He should fucking resign, as should most of the old retards who occupy the halls of congress. It was their blind eye that led to the situation of torture being used in the first place.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
If they continue to push this, then Brennan will resign and then they'll tell us that everything will be OK.
Then we'll get a new head of the CIA.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
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After he gets a book deal. Then the confessions will fly. Standard procedure...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
That's what the people want. They deserve a lot more than this and I think it's coming.
The world is always changing and always will be. It will always be a power struggle between various groups and if you quit, you loose. Look at German culture in current times. Parliament has many glass windows to represent 'if you want know what we are doing, come and look inside' (as it was described to me when I did a tour of the city). The vast majority praise Snowden for doing the right thing.
There is corruption in all systems and a lot in America. You need to fight it and get behind this call for the truth because things can and will get worse if you dont. You need to chip away at the system and continually try to make it better. The more people who take an interest and talk about issues the better. This one may be a war of words but the outcome will renew an important precedant.
Don't stop at 3-letter agencies. "You can keep your doctor, you can keep your healthcare".
He lied to Congress about spying on Congress. He's still Director of the friggin' CIA? Whether he admits it or not, he should be out on his ass.
The Senators are a bunch of morons and are the last group that should ever complain about someone lying. They are experts at prevarication and give unambiguous answers that always leave room for them to back track. Only a very select committee of Senators are privy to anything relating to classified US intelligence matters and that committee is responsible for determining what information can be safely released to the entire Senate. Any Senator claiming they did not know about certain intelligence programs or operations should first go after their fellow Senators on the foreign intelligence committee and ask them what they know and then go after the particular intelligence agency. This investigation was not being conducted by this intelligence committee. The vast majority of Senators and staffers do not even have the necessary security clearances needed for access to certain classified information about US intelligence programs. In this particular case the CIA discovered the Senate had possession of an internal CIA report that had not been legally obtained through the proper channels. The CIA could attempt to justify it's actions by claiming there had been a security leak (which there was) and they were investigating how the Senate got a hold of the document in question. The first logical step in the investigation would be obtaining proof the document was actually on the Senate computer system. The Senate constantly wastes time on these types of conflicts while doing nothing that would actually help the country and the people who put them in office. The Senate is more dangerous to the US public than the CIA and NSA combined. And the feckless Senators will do nothing of consequence in this cat fight because they are just barely smart enough not to get into a full blown conflict with agencies capable of destroying their political careers. After all the CIA has had a lot of practice changing governments around the world using subtle and not to subtle means. The Senate and the CIA deserve each other.
I don't see the relevance of your post to mine. The AC was trying to claim that including that sentence was some sort of inappropriate editorializing when it was simply part of a quote of the letter. I was simply informing them of the source of the sentence that got them butthurt.
OMG,
"Senators Demand CIA Director Admit He Lied About Spying On Senate Computers"
What if the senator is demanding the CIA director lie?
If he did lie make a case and charge him.
The senators should simply demand honesty.
However N.B. the senate and congress passed laws with little audit and oversight.
Some senators may in point of fact be legitimate targets of investigations one,
two, three, four degrees of Bacon connection.
OBTW the spying might have been to track back international criminals that had
illegally compromises Senate computers.
This proves that it is turtles all the way down.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
This is relevant. In today's news:
Get that? The goddamn Director of National Intelligence just "forgot" that they're collecting information about millions of Americans. It takes balls to get up in front of a congressional committee and say that shit. "We all make mistakes". Yes, we all make mistakes. I accidentally left my keys in the back door once. But forgetting about data collection efforts on millions of Americans? "We all make mistakes" doesn't quite cover it. But the senators? They're made because they're just figured out that the NSA treats them just like the rest of us. So they're gonna get all up in John Brennan's grill but let the NSA get off with a warning, billions of dollars in increased black budget and maybe a little tug job in the basement of the Capital for the effort.
http://thehill.com/policy/tech...
You are welcome on my lawn.
The precedent that's being renewed here is that it's all well and good to fuck with the common people, but doing the same to VIPs is unacceptable. It's funny that you mention Germany, as this exact same scenario played out there when Merkel was completely fine with German citizens being spied on, but threw a shit fit when it surfaced that she was being spied on as well.
The only outcome of this is the further solidification of our two-tier society where different rights exist for the ruling class and the hoi polloi.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
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The CIA is completely out of control. It's spying on investigations on it by its overseeing body.
It is acting as an enemy of the country and is plainly a threat.
It is time to give the senate limited enforcement capabilities. Put out a warrant for the head of the CIA, dead or alive.
CIA: Hey, MI5.... Can you do me a favour? I'll owe you one.
MI5: Sure, what do you need?
CIA: Can you skim through these PCs and look for evidence of this thing I'd like to know about?
MI5: Sure, no problem.
Just to be picky, that call would be to MI6, not MI5.
I believe they would describe it as "Serving our country."
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Actually the call would go to Canada because it's in the same time zones.
If he lied under oath and there's proof that he did then charge the bastard with perjury and put him on trial and make an example of him to show that you can not lie under oath to congress and get away with it.
Seems like an awfully close correspondence with"To serve Man"?
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
these same senators don't hesitate to trample all over it.
and then back up over the victim, just to make sure.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
US Senate: Liar liar pants on fire! ... Even at that point, it would only be half the battle...
CIA: Pot/Kettle?
The people: You are fired!
So, he should goto prison.
The CIA would not have a foreign power search US Senate computers even for plausible deniability.
"Is that your football?"
"If I say 'no' will you take it away?"
"Yes"
"Ok then, Yes."
Outcome #1
That dickhead and all his compatriots thrown into jail, and an immediate clampdown on CIA/NSA and all other alphabetic agency's spying on the Americans
- - - -----
Outcome #2
Nothing will happen to that dickhead, which translates to the spies getting a blank fucking check to do ANYTHING THEY WANT
- - - -----
Now, dear readers ...
Which outcome do you think will most probably happen?
- - - -----
What is happening, what has happened for the past few decades is telling us one thing, that America is no longer the home of the free
Liberty be damned!
He was given the questions BEFOREHAND, and after lying to Congress he was given the chance to CORRECT HIS ANSWER, he declined.
The 'I Forgot" doesn't work if the committee says "this is a lie, do you want to retract it" and he says no.
He lied to Congress and that was one of the little lies. Congress clearly feared General Alexander, because he told some huge whoppers and they meekly let him get away with them. That's dangerous when the Generals run the Democracy.
Actually cupcake, any forward GOTO is, and has always been acceptable. Dijkstra's paper only condemned backward goto jumps.
I suggest you first read what you intend to quote.
... John Brennan serves at the pleasure of one Barack Obama, and has in some capacity or other for the last six years.
Any chance we could hold him accountable too? Or did he read about this in the papers like everything else?
And all he had to do is to call the FBI. But no, pride and ego requires that such things are dealt in house.
Senators, if you believe he committed a crime, have him arrested and take him to court.
We have a legal system. This is what it's for.
If you don't think it will achieve the goal, accept that the system needs reform and start reforming it.
Check this out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... . The needle in the haystack is made up of people, when will we learn ?.
That would be one funny-looking fish.
I don't see the relevance of your post to mine. The AC was trying to claim that including that sentence was some sort of inappropriate editorializing when it was simply part of a quote of the letter. I was simply informing them of the source of the sentence that got them butthurt.
I think the original poster got confused because the quote block is a few paragraphs tall with one line of text in the middle.
I'm not sure if this is better than the link soup style submissions we sometimes get..
This is why people don't read the articles or summary most of the time.
Aww, look at them get so outraged about *their* computers getting snooped on.
But, hey, when it comes to spying or curtailing any due process for innocent Americans over *anything*, these same senators don't hesitate to trample all over it.
I'm pretty sure these were CIA computers setup by the CIA, for the purpose of allowing Senate staff to view sensitive documents.
While investigating a leak, they searched these computers. I think they also removed documents that they felt should not have been provided to the Senate staff.
This is all what I remember reading when this shit actually happened, so it's a little foggy now. Anyways, it's annoying to see so many revisionists on here today making it out to be like the CIA was tearing up a Senator's computers.
The Third Reich took place in Germany, the Fourth Reich is not extant in Amerika!
Time to cut the crap --- CIA has never been formally audited (I suspect the same applies to the NSA, DIA and others) --- time to audit them and shut them down as they have nothing to do with national security and EVERYTHING to do with supporting the Fourth Reich.
Recommended reading: Expulsions, by Saskia Sassen (she's the daughter of a Nazi, so she should know)
Only the little people have to obey the law. Snowden, Manning, etc. Big wigs like James Clapper, John Brennan, and David Petraeus never get charged with crimes.
What did you think when you authorized them to spy on the rest of us? That you would be exempt? Now feel the power of the dark side of the force that you helped create with your homeland security and your patriot act. Now they have all our power and yours too.
Fools!!!!!
Nonsense. Utter Nonsense.
RE: And since these people live in a world of constantly seeing and reviewing mounds of conflicting information,
Then the correct, true answer is either "I don't know" or "My best information points to X, but there is information that indicates Y", or "Maybe" or "We could have, I will investigate and get back to you." or a hundred thousand variations that are not a flat-out denial or weaselly way of denying while leaving open a lawyer's excuse (ie Clinton's 'is' definition bullshit.)
He flat-out denied, albeit with the twisted wording all politicians use that they think immunizes them.
We need clear questions and clear answers, and we the people need to know when there is doubt and conflicting information, and what the options are (in broad terms) otherwise we can not properly exercise the power that is ours in this supposed republic-democracy.
If these fucks can lie and prevaricate with impunity then they all have to be tossed out, jailed or even executed for treasonous abrogation of their constitutional responsibility to be accountable to the people.
CIA: Hey, MI5.... Can you do me a favour? I'll owe you one.
MI5: Sure, what do you need?
CIA: Can you skim through these PCs and look for evidence of this thing I'd like to know about?
MI5: Sure, no problem.
Hate to ruin a joke, but the computers we're talking about were the CIA's. The data on them was provided by the CIA, in a facility run by the CIA.
Couple of things.. the Senate Committee made copies of sensitive documents and removed them from that CIA run facility.
CIA staff erased some documents that they felt they should not have made available to the Committee, and they searched the computers to determine how the information left the facility.
It's easy to argue both sides were doing their jobs, as expected. The dispute is all office politics.
I won't judge either side in this, but I will point out that if you morons are really upset about the CIA searching these computers, you are overlooking the bigger picture that money was wasted on this facility in the first place because they didn't use existing CIA or Senate resources, and it only housed information the CIA spent even more money on sanitizing.
That the committee ever saw any documents that the CIA didn't want them to says everything about this whole situation. This whole thing is just dumb on all sides, including the spectators.
Not going to happen as long as Snowden and his conspirators are fugitives from justice.
No amount of willful lack of understanding of security clearance work, which thrives in Snowden supporters, will change that fact.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The so called prying was an access audit on CIA terminals supplied by the CIA for staffers to access the CIA network.
Which only happened after some clearly inept and unethical student staffers pilfered stuff they weren't authorized to access as part of their access program.
Look, I'm all for civil liberties, but we can't even begin to have a conversation about those if one agency is refusing to even be accountable to its overseers. This is/was a bigger deal. This is "dad beat me, and when I told mom, he killed her." You don't say "boo hoo" to that, you say "holy shit."
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
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