News reporting on Tuesday revealed that the Inspector General's office, the agency tasked with CIA oversight, has asked the Department of Justice to investigate claims that the spy agency monitored computers used by Senate aides preparing what is believed to be a "searing indictment" on the CIA's secret detention and interrogation program.
In what McClatchy news characterized as an "unprecedented breakdown in relations between the CIA and its congressional overseers," members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are saying the alleged CIA spying violates provisions of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
McClatchy continues:
In response to the news, Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU, and independent journalist Glenn Greenwald noted the irony of the investigation:The committee determined earlier this year that the CIA monitored computers - in possible violation of an agreement against doing so - that the agency had provided to intelligence committee staff in a secure room at CIA headquarters that the agency insisted they use to review millions of pages of top-secret reports, cables and other documents, according to people with knowledge.
Lawmakers who sanctioned unlawful #NSA spying were target of unlawful #CIA spying. http://t.co/a8lfqNf75h #torture #SSCI
- Jameel Jaffer (@JameelJaffer) March 5, 2014
Ironic: Senate Intel Comm - which endorses vast NSA spying on ordinary citizens - gets angry when they're spied on http://t.co/zHnWQcD9Rr
- Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 5, 2014
Comment: "America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests":
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