Wow. Just wow. CIA spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee that provides oversight for it. Outrageous. I’m amazed that no one at CIA seemed to consider that at the very least this was a Phenomenally Bad Idea.
While at times, it’s appeared that the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Dianne Feinstein, serves more to prop up the intelligence community than to handle oversight, it has actually clashed quite a bit with the CIA. We’ve discussed a few times how the Committee has been pushing to release a supposedly devastating 6,000 page report about the CIA’s torture program, which cost taxpayers an equally astounding $40 million to produce. However, the CIA has been fighting hard to block the release of the report, arguing that it misrepresents the CIA’s actions.
However, things are getting even more bizarre, as the NY Times is reporting that the CIA is now accused of spying on the Intelligence Committee and its staffers in its attempt to keep that report from being released.
via CIA Accused Of Spying On Senate Intelligence Committee Staffers | Techdirt.
Update: Here’s the McClatchy story.
I really don’t see much “Wow” here.
This is not remotely the first indicator that the Federal Government has almost completely lost it’s mind in the wake of 9/11.
The CIA and NSA are working hard to achieve a complete lack of accountability outside of their own walls, and will justify their behavior any any way they can. You can argue whether or not their behavior is within the lines of recent legal rulings, but I am hard-pressed to justify that their behavior is completely against the principles of the Constitution.