CIA bulk collection of data allegedly goes beyond what is authorized
The Central Intelligence Agency has used a "secret" program to collect data on American citizens in "bulk," according to a letter that was partially declassified on Thursday.
What are the details?
Two Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee — Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (N.M.) — wrote CIA Director William Burns and National Intelligence Director Avril Haines in April 2021 expressing concern over the apparent unlawful data collection on American citizens.
The letter was released on Thursday with significant redactions.
The data collection is reportedly connected to counterterrorism intelligence, Bloomberg reported, and the program is being operated under Executive Order 12333. That executive order was signed by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
But according to Wyden and Heinrich, the CIA "has secretly conducted its own bulk program" and "has done so entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection, and without any of the judicial, congressional or even executive branch oversight that comes with FISA collection."
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There is more.
The CIA's mission is foreign intelligence that has an impact on national security. When Americans get caught in their net, I think they are supposed to turn relevant information over to the FBI or other law enforcement. It is not clear what they are doing with this data.
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