New CIA report absolves itself in the Senate computer hacking scandal

    Back in August of last year the CIA admitted it had hacked into the computers of the Senate Intelligence Committee and apologized for the breech. Democrats quickly called for resignations and in my opinion they were right to do so, I just wish they cared as much about what the NSA is doing with its data-mining program. But let that go…

  There were no resignations and much like when the Department of Injustice investigated itself over the Fast and Furious scandal, and just like the IRS investigated itself over the targeting scandal, the CIA has investigated itself in the Senate computer hacking scandal. 

  Care to guess what the CIA found?

An internal CIA panel concluded in a report released Wednesday that agency employees should not be punished for their roles in secretly searching computers used by Senate investigators, a move that was denounced by lawmakers last year as an assault on congressional oversight and a potential breach of the Constitution.

Rejecting the findings of previous inquiries into the matter, the CIA review group found that the agency employees’ actions were “reasonable in light of their responsibilities to manage an unprecedented computer system” set up for Senate aides involved in a multiyear probe of the CIA’s treatment of terrorism suspects.

The agency panel, which was led by former U.S. senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), cited a lack of clear ground rules between the CIA and the Senate, and it faulted CIA workers for missteps including reading e-mails of congressional investigators.

But while such transgressions were “clearly inappropriate,” Bayh said in a statement released by the CIA, they “did not reflect malfeasance, bad faith, or the intention to gain improper access” to sensitive Senate material.

  The CIA cited a “lack of clear ground rules between the CIA and the Senate.” Really! Has anyone in this government read the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States?

  Move along, nothing to see here…

  Let me ask a couple of questions here: First, if the CIA holds the privacy of the Senate in such disregard how do you think the agency feels about you and I and our privacy? And second, do you really feel as if there is still a right to privacy (unless of course you are having an abortion) left in this country today?

  If you answered yes to the second question perhaps you need to study what the NSA has been up to.