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.

Comments

Boohoo, crocodile tears.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Boohoo, crocodile tears.

[amiga3D]

You've got to realize though, that those congressmen are our constitutional representatives. They represent the power of the people in this democracy. If the CIA can get away with spying on Senate computers then that's it. They really are above the law. They can literally do any damn thing they want to. It's kind of like Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon. The CIA director should get his dick stomped on. In fact 2 or 3 years in jail for him would do the country a world of good. If no one gets in trouble for this then you can mark it as official. The Republic is dead, all we have is a farce.

Re:Boohoo, crocodile tears.

[chihowa]

They're putatively our representatives, but it's becoming more and more obvious that they actually aren't in any way representing us. Perhaps it's time for us to all stop pretending that the emperor is wearing clothes and get about fixing our system.

Anyway, they're currently in the process of renewing a law which supposedly authorizes spying on US citizens (while simultaneously complaining about being spied on), so the constitutional basis of any of this is questionable. Pretending that throwing a bureaucrat in jail, even if he is high ranking, will save our republic is a little silly.

Re:Boohoo, crocodile tears.

[Lunix Nutcase]

You at least have the option of voting out a bad Senate, how do you vote out a bad CIA?

I can? Since when? Big money and incumbent advantage makes this highly unlikely in almost all but very few cases.

Re:Boohoo, crocodile tears.

[hairyfeet]

You want facts? Challenge accepted!

How about Lobbyists Now Spend More on Congress Than the Government Does, think that is for shits and giggles? Or Study shows revolving door of employment between Congress, lobbying firms, or even better you can go and see the sellout of the week right here!

You see THAT is why your "vote" is nothing but a sham, its because if you "herp derp, vote the bums out" they just walk across the street and become the lobbyist that buys the guy you just voted in! Saying you can do squat with voting, or blaming the public for how things are is like making you try to "win" your weekly paycheck by being forced to play 3 card monty with a street hustler and then blaming YOU for not getting paid because "if you tried real hard you should find the lady!"...no you won't, the game is rigged, and playing a rigged game and expecting to win? Its a suckers bet.

Re:Boohoo, crocodile tears.

[rahvin112]

You might not like Congress, hell you might not even like your representative but most people do. Individual senators and rep's have approval ratings in the 60-90% (very high) range with their constituency. The overall congressional approval rating is so low because everyone doesn't like the people everyone else picked, not because they hate their own.

This is something pretty scary. The CIA basically violated the separation of powers and ignored and actively opposed congressional oversight. These are prime tenets of our system. Throwing those checks and balances and oversight out and we are one step away from a dictator running things out the CIA office. Government leaders can't just decide they are going to stop worrying about those constitutional limits on power and doing whatever they want.

The most infuriating part of this is that Congress already has the power to punish him. They CAN hold him in contempt and refer him for prosecution for lying under oath. The problem is they won't, because that could endanger national security or some such bullshit. So they write a stupid letter and ask him to admit he broke the law while they wag their finger at him when they should be voting to hold him in contempt.

In summary, though this is a huge concern I have a hard time getting worked up about it when Congress won't use the power it already has to punish him for lying and breaching the separation of powers. Hell, they could de-fund his position and bar the government from paying him a salary if they wanted to be real dicks. They have numerous ways to punish him but they won't and that's the scariest thing of all. Someone breached a basic tenet of our government, lies to Congress and invalidates congressional oversight and the people with the power to punish him won't do it.

Re:Boohoo, crocodile tears.

[Endymion]

enhanced interrogations

Stop using the CIA's euphemisms - it's called torture.

Re:Boohoo, crocodile tears.

[dbIII]

Torturing people is something you'd think is unforgivable but the only one jailed for anything related to that was the whistleblower who refused to torture anyone. So unforgivable has had the bar shifted to somewhere around the ninth circle of Hell, and this thing that should not be forgiven already has been.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Liars and traitors.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't stop at 3-letter agencies. "You can keep your doctor, you can keep your healthcare".

memory

[PopeRatzo]

This is relevant. In today's news:

Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper wasn’t lying when he wrongly told Congress in 2013 that the government does not “wittingly” collect information about millions of Americans, according to his top lawyer.

He just forgot.

“This was not an untruth or a falsehood. This was just a mistake on his part,” Robert Litt, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said during a panel discussion hosted by the Advisory Committee on Transparency on Friday.

“We all make mistakes.”

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...

Re:

[chihowa]

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.

Of course the CIA didn't spy on Senate computers..

[grnbrg]

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.

Re:Charge him and prosecute him...

[NormAtHome]

There may be practical problems prosecuting people who have obviously lied to congress but the fact is that if people do and there are no consequences then that sends a clear message to anyone in the future that they can lie and there will be no repercussions.