CIA Secretly Collected ‘Bulk’ Data on American Citizens, Senators Say
February 11th, 2022Via: Bloomberg:
Two U.S. senators said the Central Intelligence Agency has been secretly collecting “bulk” information on American citizens without congressional oversight.
The senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, expressed alarm in an April 13 letter to Avril Haines, the director of National Intelligence and William Burns, the director of the CIA.
The agency said the programs involved “counterterrorism intelligence-related activities” that operated under Executive Order 12333. It also announced that portions of reports on the programs were being declassified, according to a statement on Thursday.
The senators, members of the Intelligence Committee, say that the agency “has conducted its own bulk program” and “has done so outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection.” The letter, which was heavily redacted, did not indicate how long, exactly, the surveillance had unfolded, how widespread it had been, or what sort of information was collected and from whom.
