CIA director admits Senate computer network spying, extends apology

We are so sorry. That seemed to have summed the Central Intelligence Agency's response despite the official-sounding statement the federal agency released this week when they acknowledged the US Senate Intelligence Committee leaders' accusations that their computer network has been breached by them.

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said in the written statement, "Some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between SSCI (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence) and the CIA in 2009."

Endgadget said that the bad blood between the said Senate committee and the CIA dated back in 2009 in a form of an agreement between the two parties. The agreement was forged in lieu of the US Senate's investigation about the CIA's detention practices. The agreement would grant the Senate committee access to classified CIA files via a special database that can only be accessed by the Senate. Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein had said to have realized that the very network CIA has allowed the chamber to have access to has been monitored when CIA director John Brennan raised concerns to the committee privately about the matter.

When Feinstein took the matter on the Senate floor, the CIA went on the offensive and denied her accusations. Brennan later then said, "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."

Feinstein said on Thursday that the internal CIA report regarding the computer network breach had affirmed her statement she said in March. The chairwoman said, "Director Brennan apologized for these actions and submitted the IG report to an accountability board. These are positive first steps. The IG report corrects the record.''

USA Today noted that despite the admission, it is most likely that the CIA will not be prosecuted with the offense. A Justice Department official has mentioned earlier this month that there would be no criminal probe launched regarding the monitoring of the congressional database by the CIA.

Justice spokesman Peter Carr said then, "The department carefully reviewed the matters referred to us and did not find sufficient evidence to warrant a criminal investigation."

Tags

Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, Senate Intelligence Committee, Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency interrogation and detention programs, CIA Senate computer network monitoring

© 2023 Lawyer Herald All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.