7/31/14, "The C.I.A.’s Reckless Breach of Trust," NY Times Editorial Board
"In
March, John Brennan, the C.I.A. director, was indignant when Senator
Dianne Feinstein charged that the agency had broken into computers used
by staff investigators from the Senate Intelligence Committee, which she
leads. “As far as the allegations of C.I.A. hacking into Senate
computers,” he said, “nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we wouldn’t do that. I mean, that’s just beyond the scope of reason.”
But
reason seems to have little to do with the C.I.A.’s operations, as Mr.
Brennan apparently discovered far too late. On Thursday, the Central
Intelligence Agency admitted that it did, indeed, use a fake online identity
to break into the Senate’s computers, where documents connected to a
secret report on the agency’s detention and torture program were being
stored. Mr. Brennan apologized privately to Ms. Feinstein and to Senator
Saxby Chambliss, the vice chairman of the intelligence committee, and
promised to set up an accountability board to determine who did the
hacking and whether and how they should be punished.
The
accountability and the apologies, however, will have to go much
further. It’s not just two senators that the C.I.A. has offended by this
shocking action. It is all of Congress and, by extension, the American
public, which is paying for an intelligence agency that does not seem to
understand the most fundamental concept of separation of powers. That
concept means that Congress is supposed to oversee the intelligence
community and rein in its excesses. It cannot possibly do so effectively
if it is being spied on by the spy agency, which is supposed to be
directing its efforts against foreign terrorists and other threats to
national security.
The
committee has been working since 2009 on a comprehensive history of the
agency’s antiterror program during the George W. Bush administration,
which involved illegal rendition to other countries, detention, and
torture of suspects, all producing little useful intelligence. It has
been frustrated at many points by stonewalling from the agency, which
provided misleading information, hid important facts inside a blizzard
of excess documents, and forced endless delays in the declassification
process. The 6,300-page report
still has not been made public, though parts of it may be released
later this month, and it is expected to undercut the Bush
administration’s claims that its actions were both legal and effective.
Late
last year, the agency suspected that Senate investigators had obtained
an internal C.I.A. review of the torture program. Senate officials said
the review was in a database they were allowed to see, but realized that
the C.I.A. had broken into a private Senate computer server and found
the review. A summary of an agency inspector general’s report,
released Thursday, said C.I.A. hackers even read the emails of Senate
staffers. Then they exhibited a “lack of candor” to agency
investigators.
In
an extraordinary speech on the Senate floor in March, Ms. Feinstein
accused the agency of having “undermined the constitutional framework
essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence
activities or any other government function.” The institutional affront
even drew Republican criticism. If the charge was true, said Senator
Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, “heads should roll, and people should go to jail.”
One
of those heads may need to be Mr. Brennan’s. If he knew about the
break-in, then he blatantly lied. If he did not, then apparently he was
unaware of the lawless culture that has festered within the C.I.A. since
the moment it was encouraged by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to
torture suspects and then lie about it. That recklessness extended to
the point where agency officials thought nothing of burglarizing their
own overseer. Senator Mark Udall of Colorado said the action was illegal
and required the resignation of Mr. Brennan.
The
C.I.A. needs far more than a few quiet personnel changes, however. Its
very core, and basic culture, needs a thorough overhaul."
"A version of this editorial appears in print on August 1, 2014, on page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: The C.I.A.’s Reckless Breach of Trust."
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