Why the CIA needs a complete overhaul

Dear Friends,

The CIA has been caught lying over and over again about its spying, torture and other activities.  Most recently, it has been confirmed (and acknowledged by the CIA) that it hacked into Senate staff computers.  These actions by the CIA and the lies that attempt to cover them up are completely unacceptable and demonstrate a complete lack of respect for the American people, the Constitution and our rights as citizens.

The culture within the CIA that permits this kind of disrespect is condoned by one CIA director after another.  Each in his own way saying trust us, we follow the Constitution and the law.  Of course, they do not.  The most recent example of this culture was obvious when John Brennan, Director of the CIA said that it was absurd that the CIA would hack into the Senate staff computers, but later had to acknowledge that they did.

There is a great interview of John Brennan by Andrea Mitchell on March 11, 2014 on the website of the Council on Foreign Relations (here).  I have quoted the appropriate part of the interview below because the interview is quite long.

MITCHELL: Thank you all very much. And...
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you, Director. We're going to have a conversation here and then, obviously, bring the audience in. First of all, the topic of the morning, which you have addressed here. You said that you want to get the interrogation, the detention past practices behind you, but Senator Feinstein today went to the floor. She said she did this reluctantly, that she has been dealing with you privately, trying to resolve this since January, and only went public today because of events, because of the referral from the inspector general of the CIA to Justice, because a lawyer in CIA had referred a crimes report separately accusing the Senate of going in improperly into CIA computers.
Her claim in this scathing speech, frankly, was that the CIA had hacked into the Senate Intelligence Committee staff computers to thwart an investigation by the committee into those past practices. She also alleges that the Panetta-era report was very similar to the Senate's conclusions about those past practices, but that you, who were involved in that era in the program itself, and the CIA currently was trying to thwart the full review of the harshness of the detention and interrogation practices.
Can you respond to that?
BRENNAN: Yes. Well, first of all, we are not in any way, shape or form trying to thwart this report's progression, release. As I said in my remarks, we want this behind us. We know that the committee has invested a lot of time, money and effort into this report, and I know that they're determined to put it forward.
We have engaged with them extensively over the last year. We have had officers sit down with them and go over their report and point out where we believe there are factual errors or errors in judgment or assessments. So we are not trying at all to prevent its release.
As far as the allegations of, you know, CIA hacking into, you know, Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we wouldn't do that. I mean, that's -- that's just beyond the -- you know, the scope of reason in terms of what we would do. [emphasis added]
MITCHELL: She says that there are potentially illegal and unconstitutional breaches by the CIA.
BRENNAN: Well, there are appropriate authorities right now both inside of CIA, as well as outside of CIA...
MITCHELL: The Justice Department.
BRENNAN: ... are looking at what CIA officers, as well as SSCI staff members did. And I defer to them to determine whether or not there was any violation of law or principle, and I referred the matter myself to the CIA inspector general to make sure that he was able to look honestly and objectively at what CIA did there.
And, you know, when the facts come out on this, I think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong.
MITCHELL: You said at your confirmation hearing you wanted to restore the trust between CIA and the overseers in the Senate. This is a pretty major gulf. If it is proved that the CIA did do this, would you feel that you had to step down?
BRENNAN: I -- I am confident that the authorities will review this appropriately, and I will deal with the -- the facts as uncovered in the appropriate manner. I would just encourage some members of the -- of the Senate to take their time to make sure that they don't overstate what they've claimed, and what they probably believe to be the truth.
These are some complicated matters. We have worked with the committee over the course of many years. This review that was done by the committee was done at a facility where CIA had a responsibility to make sure that they had the computer wherewithal in order to carry out their responsibilities, and so if there was any inappropriate actions that were taken related to that review, either by CIA or by the SSCI staff, I'll be the first one to say we need to get to the bottom of it.
And if I did something wrong, I will go to the president, and I will explain to him exactly what I did, and what the findings were. And he is the one who can ask me to stay or to go.

Of course, as we all know now that it is in fact "with the scope of reason" that the CIA would hack into the Senate staff computers.  Director Brennan has finally issued an apology acknowledging spying by the CIA on the Senate.  There is a great article in The Guardian (here) that also provides some context.

As long as the CIA is led by people whose first reaction is to defend the CIA and to attempt to intimidate its critics, the culture within the CIA that led to all these illegal activities and the lies that tried to cover them up will remain.  President Obama should demand the resignation of Director Brennan and replace him with someone who truly believes in the Constitution and the rule of law.  You can contact the President here.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal