More than 200 CIA employees who were involved in the torture program are still employed at the CIA

Patrick Toomey ?@PatrickCToomey 2h
12 Years of #CIA Lawlessness: More than a decade after the Torture Memos, America still awaits accountability. https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-human-rights/happy-anniversary-cia-12-years-lawlessness … @ACLU


____ Incredibly, more than 200 CIA employees who were involved in the torture program are today still employed at the CIA. The acting general counsel of the CIA until this past March was the very same person who had been one of the CIA's top torture lawyers a decade ago. And in something more reminiscent of organized crime than good government, current CIA leadership met this spring with Bush-era CIA leadership to brainstorm how to undermine a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's use of torture.

The lawlessness seems to be coming to a head this year. The CIA's internal watchdog, its inspector general, just gave a report to the Senate Intelligence Committee that found that the CIA spied on the computers used by the Senate committee to investigate the CIA torture program. CIA officials created a false online identity, tracked the Senate staff's queries, and manipulated the Senate staff's files. The CIA then falsely accused the Senate staff of wrongdoing by filing a criminal referral with the Justice Department that was based on false information.

When the CIA spying was initially discovered last winter, CIA Director John Brennan publicly blasted anyone criticizing the CIA. But the CIA inspector general is now essentially saying that CIA officials spied on Congress and then lied about it.

How can the Constitution's system of checks and balances work if the CIA spies on the computers used by the very staffers carrying out the Senate's constitutional duty of overseeing the executive branch? An uncontrolled – and seemingly uncontrollable – CIA threatens the very foundations of our Constitution.

Twelve years of CIA lawlessness should be enough . . .


read more: https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-human-rights/happy-anniversary-cia-12-years-lawlessness