CIA secret surveillance program collected data on Americans, US senators reveal
India Today
US Central Intelligence Agency has been accused of running a secret program that somehow collected data on the citizens of the country. The intelligence agency has since denied any wrongdoings on these parts.
The Central Intelligence Agency has been running a secret surveillance program that even comprises data of American citizens, if two US senators are to be believed. In a heavily redacted letter that has been released to the public recently, the senators mention that the intelligence agency has a “bulk collection” of such data, which even includes records on Americans, despite it having no jurisdiction to do so.
The secret program first came to the attention of congressmen Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich through their seats on the Senate Intelligence Committee. At the time, they had urged CIA officials to declassify the details of the secret program to the committee. The program was then revealed to the committee last year, in a classified report by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) that overlooks the U.S. intelligence community.
As mentioned by Gizmodo, the report was titled “Deep Dive II,” and contained mentions of a “secret bulk collection program" run by the CIA. It event stated that the intelligence agency hid the program from the public eyes as well as from Congress for years.
The news has finally hit the public limelight as a letter by Wyden and Heinrich, written previously to the heads of U.S. intelligence, was declassified in part recently. In the letter, the senators ask Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and CIA Director William J. Burns to make the US citizens aware of the secret program.
In their joint letter, the senators described the program by the CIA as something “entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection." It also found that the program was being run without any oversight. Wyden and Heinrich warned that "these documents reveal serious problems associated with warrantless backdoor searches of Americans."
While the CIA denies any wrongdoings outside of US law, other agencies have started pointing fingers at the CIA for its program. The American Civil Liberties Union commented that the letter by the senators raises serious questions about how the agency is exploiting the privacy of Americans.
