Senate Accuses CIA of Spying

 

That headline should be funny

 

But it isn't:

 

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of secretly removing documents, searching committee-used computers and attempting to intimidate Congressional investigators by requesting an FBI probe of their conduct — charges that CIA Director John O. Brennan disputed vigorously within hours of Feinstein’s extraordinary appearance on the Senate floor. Washington Post

"I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied by 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 activity or any other government function.  The search may also have violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and an executive order that prohibits the CIA from conducting domestic searches or surveillance.

No Shit? 

 

The American intelligence community violating the Constitution?  Who'd have thunk?  A better question for Senator Feinstein may be, given all of the revelations about the American intelligence community's activities, why does this surprise you?

Who us?

"We weren't trying to block anything," Brennan said. "The matter is being dealt with in an appropriate way, being looked at by the right authorities, and the facts will come out," he added.  "But let me assure you the CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate." NBC News

Meanwhile:

USN Vice Admiral Mike Rogers who has been tapped by Obama as the next head of the NSA responded to Senate questions for his confirmation hearing with:

"The telephone metadata program under Section 215 was designed to map the communications of terrorists so we can see who they may be in contact with as quickly as possible.  I believe that we need to maintain an ability to make queries of phone records in a way that is agile and provides results in a timely fashion. Being able to quickly review phone connections associated with terrorists to assess whether a network exists is critical.  I welcome dialogue"

Dialogue? How about "No"!