CIA Officials Who Allegedly Snooped on Congress Won't Be Charged

By The State Column

22 December 14

nvestigators have been told not to seek a penalty for the Central Intelligence Agency’s search of a computer network used by Senate Intelligence Committee staff members who were investigating the agency’s torture practices, according to reports.

The panel singled out five CIA officials who allegedly improperly ordered and carried out computer searches. The officials defended their actions, saying that they were lawful and performed at the behest of CIA director John O. Brennan, according to the New York Times.

The alarming allegations will not have any consequences for the officials, however, as the panel intends to criticize the agency for its actions but not seek any sort of charges against the officials.

This decision is likely to anger the Intelligence Committee, who are furious that the CIA was attempting to interfere in an investigation of wrongdoing on the part of an agency. The searches are believed to have occurred late last year as the committee was working on a report that slammed its detention and interrogation practices.

The revelations created a tremendous public rift between intelligence agencies and the Senate committee, which is charged with oversight of those agencies and conducts its business in secret for the most part. It led to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the committee, to rebuke the agency publicly.

Three CIA officers and two layers were facing possible punishment but they argued that documents and a phone call with Brennan exonerated them, according to the Times report.

The panel, which is chaired by a former Democratic senator who served on the Intelligence Committee, is still finalizing its report, which could be weeks away from being presented to the CIA, but the five employees in question won’t be charged by the panel, according to the report.

Although such reports aren’t usually released, because of the public nature of the situation and the volatility of the issue, some of the conclusions are likely to become public.

Brennan, who originally defended the CIA, later apologized when the agency’s inspector general found that they had improperly monitored committee activities by reading emails of agency investigators.

The controversy centered around the CIA’s snooping as committee Democrats were researching a “torture report” on the agency, which was released this past week and found that the CIA used brutal techniques against alleged terrorists with questionable effectiveness.