Spying on Congress...

[American Patriot]

LOL

Senator: CIA improperly searched computer network

USATODAY 9:47 a.m. EDT March 11, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee says the CIA improperly searched a stand-alone computer network established for Congress as part of its investigation into allegations of CIA abuse in a Bush-era detention and interrogation program.


Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California defended her committee's work and challenged the CIA on Tuesday as she sought to set the record straight amid various reports of disputes between Congress and the agency.


The California Democrat said the CIA searched the network this past January.


At issue is whether the CIA violated an agreement made with the committee about monitoring the panel's use of CIA computers. The CIA provided the computers to congressional staffers in a secure room at its headquarters so that the committee could review millions of pages of top secret documents.

[American Patriot]

Someone needs to slap the shit out of this bitch.

It's BAD for the CIA to spy on Congress, but it's fucking OK for the NSA to spy on citizens?

Go fuck yourself Feinstein.


Feinstein claims CIA may have violated law, Constitution in allegedly spying on staffers

Published March 11, 2014FoxNews.com


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FILE: April 18, 2012: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., head of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington.AP





The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, launching a rare challenge against the CIA, claimed Tuesday that the agency may have committed a crime by allegedly spying on committee staffers.


Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., addressed the controversy in a scathing address on the Senate floor. She claims the CIA improperly searched a stand-alone computer network established for Congress as part of its investigation into allegations of CIA abuse in a Bush-era detention and interrogation program.


The California Democrat said the CIA searched the network this past January, an act she claimed may have violated the Constitution and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

She confirmed that the matter has been referred to the Justice Department by the CIA inspector general.


"Based on what Director [John] Brennan has informed us, I have grave concerns that the CIA search may well have violated the separation of powers principles 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."


The controversy stems from an agreement between the committee and the agency to allow committee aides to review millions of sensitive documents at a CIA-leased secure location in northern Virginia. The CIA allowed the committee to use a search tool to comb through the material -- in doing so, she said staffers came across an internal review of the agency's practices. She stressed that staffers did not hack into the network to obtain it. At this point, she claims, the CIA searched the network -- including the committee's internal network -- and removed the documents.


"The CIA did not ask the committee or its staff if the committee had access to the internal review or how we obtained it. Instead, the CIA just went and searched the committee's computers. The CIA has still not asked the committee any questions about how the committee acquired" the review, she said.


News reports last week first revealed the allegations against the CIA. In response, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said the alleged spying, if true, "would be an extremely serious matter" and could "violate federal law."


But CIA Director John Brennan has pushed back on the speculation. He said last week he was "deeply dismayed" that some Senate members made allegations that "are wholly unsupported by the facts."


"I am very confident that the appropriate authorities reviewing this matter will determine where wrongdoing, if any, occurred in either the executive branch or legislative branch," Brennan said in a statement. "Until then, I would encourage others to refrain from outbursts that do a disservice to the important relationship that needs to be maintained between intelligence officials and Congressional overseers."

[American Patriot]

Here she is talking out of the other side of her fugly face:

Published on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 by Common Dreams Sen. Feinstein Defends NSA Spying as 'Major Tool' to Stop 'Terrorists'

Issues defense following groundbreaking ruling by federal judge that the NSA's bulk collection of phone data "almost certainly" violates constitution

- Sarah Lazare, staff writer


Senator Dianne Feinstein (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite)Just one day after a federal judge ruled that the NSA's bulk collection of phone data "almost certainly" violates the U.S. Constitution, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) publicly defended the spying program as a "major tool in ferreting out a potential terrorist attack."


Appearing Tuesday in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, the Democratic Party powerhouse and Senate Intelligence Committee Chair stated, “It is my belief we live in a world with serious jeopardy to this nation. And those of us on the intelligence committee see this frequently. Therefore, this program, in conjunction with other programs, helps keep this nation safe."


“I’m not saying it’s indispensable,” Feinstein said of the spying. “But I’m saying it is important."


In the interview, as well as a statement released by Feinstein on Tuesday, the senator asserted her support for the program while calling for the Supreme Court to review its constitutionality. She emphasized other federal cases in which the spying was ruled constitutional in what appeared to be a bid to cast doubt on Monday's ruling.


“Only the Supreme Court can resolve the question on the constitutionality of the NSA’s program," asserted Feinstein in her official statement.


“Those of us who support the call records program do so with a sincere belief that it, along with other programs, is constitutional and helps keep the country safe from attack," she added.


Feinstein's statements counter the ruling of U.S. District Judge Judge Richard Leon, who found Monday that NSA spying on nearly every call made within or to the United States violates the Fourth Amendment's ban on unlawful searches and seizures and does not demonstrate any provable role in protecting from "terrorist" attacks.


“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying it and analyzing it without judicial approval," wrote Leon in a 68-page statement released Monday.


While Leon's ruling will not be immediately implemented, pending a government appeal, it constitutes the first successful legal challenge to NSA spying and is being widely vaunted as a potentially pivotal challenge.


Feinstein has been a fervent defender of NSA spying, despite its vast unpopularity and rolling scandals across the globe.


She is currently championing a bill that would expand NSA powers to mass collect phone data—legislation that stands in direct competition to legislative efforts to reign in NSA spying.

[American Patriot]

Senator says CIA spied on Senate panel, possibly broke law

By Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle
Tue Mar 11, 2014 12:29pm EDT

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1 of 2. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) (C) returns to her office after a floor speech aimed at the CIA's handling of documents related to the Senate Intelligence Committee, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington March 11, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst




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(Reuters) - A dispute between the Central Intelligence Agency and a U.S. Senate committee that oversees it burst into the open on Tuesday when a top senator accused the agency of spying on Congress and possibly breaking the law.
Senator Dianne Feinstein delivered a scathing critique of the CIA's handling of her panel's investigation into a Bush-era interrogation and detention program that began after the September 11, 2001, attacks but was only made public in 2006.
"I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the Constitution," Feinstein said in a highly critical speech on the Senate floor by a traditionally strong ally of U.S. intelligence agencies.
She said the CIA searched committee computers to find out how staff obtained an internal agency review that was more critical of the interrogation program than the official CIA report.
"Besides the constitutional implications, the CIA's search may also have violated the Fourth Amendment, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as Executive Order 12333, which prohibits the CIA from conducting domestic searches or surveillance," Feinstein said.
CIA head John Brennan denied the allegations.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," he said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
Feinstein's comments were the latest salvo in a long-running and bitter dispute between the intelligence committee and CIA over the agency's detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, a program that was phased out when inmates were transferred to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
The Senate Intelligence Committee's own 6,300-page report criticized some of the harsh interrogation measures used by the CIA, and Feinstein has been pushing to make its findings public.
Feinstein said the internal CIA review mirrored some of the same concerns outlined in her staff's report, unlike the official CIA assessment of the program.
However, as the panel moved close to declassifying some of the information - a move she said was backed by the White House - the CIA acting general counsel went to the Justice Department to complain about committee staff.
"I view the acting general counsel's referral as a potential effort to intimidate this staff - and I am not taking it lightly," she said.
The California Democrat bristled at suggestions her staff had obtained information improperly, and said the CIA itself provided her committee with more than 6.2 million documents.
"The committee clearly did not hack into CIA computers to obtain these documents, as has been suggested in the press," Feinstein said.
After the speech, Senator Patrick Leahy, the senior member of the Senate, said he had never heard a more important speech in the chamber.