CIA apologises for spying on Senate computers
3 Aug 2014 5:04 AM IST
The chief of the CIA on Friday apologised for the US spy agency’s surveillance of computers used by lawmakers and their staffers involved in investigating the organisation’s harsh interrogation techniques.
In a statement, the CIA said its employees had ‘acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached’ between the agency and lawmakers in 2009, when a Senate committee started an investigation into the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques.
‘This is appalling and deeply threatening to the system of checks and balances,’ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.
‘Congress has a constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight and the CIA’s actions were an attempt to undermine that responsibility,’ he added.
‘What is even more disturbing is that the unauthorized CIA actions come in the context of the Senate’s effort to complete a report of the CIA’s interrogation program. The deeply troubling CIA actions show to what lengths some in the CIA are willing to stoop in order to prevent the report’s release and to avoid accountability,’ Reid said.
In a statement, the CIA said its employees had ‘acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached’ between the agency and lawmakers in 2009, when a Senate committee started an investigation into the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques.
‘This is appalling and deeply threatening to the system of checks and balances,’ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.
‘Congress has a constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight and the CIA’s actions were an attempt to undermine that responsibility,’ he added.
‘What is even more disturbing is that the unauthorized CIA actions come in the context of the Senate’s effort to complete a report of the CIA’s interrogation program. The deeply troubling CIA actions show to what lengths some in the CIA are willing to stoop in order to prevent the report’s release and to avoid accountability,’ Reid said.
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