Senators allege CIA collected data on Americans in warrantless searches
The CIA said the nature of the surveillance in question — including the type of data that was collected and the number of US records kept as part of the agency’s activities — must be kept confidential.
The letter contains redactions that obscure the details of the watchdog’s report. An intelligence official said the report related to the CIA’s internal data retrieval systems that analysts use to query existing data repositories – not the actual collection of data – and how those systems work when used for queries involving US information. This person also noted that the collection came from multiple agencies, not just the CIA.
In 2021, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Committee delivered two reports to Congress assessing the impact that two sets of CIA intelligence activities have had on American privacy and civil liberties. , and whether the programs complied with existing laws and policies. Heinrich and Wyden, in their now declassified letter, say the reports showed “the nature and extent of the CIA collection was concealed” from the Intelligence Committee and urged that the documents be made public.
A CIA spokesperson disputed this characterization, saying the committee was fully briefed on both the collection itself and the tools analysts used to sift through the database. The official also noted that the collection came from multiple agencies, not just the CIA.
The agency also released the oversight board’s recommendations for the second, still classified report, including several regarding how analysts query existing databases for information implicating known or suspected U.S. individuals.
For example, according to the watchdog’s recommendations, CIA analysts using the classified program see a pop-up warning them that any information about U.S. persons requires a valid foreign intelligence objective. But, according to the document, analysts are not required to memorize the rationale for their queries. As a result, the board found that “auditing or reviewing US Persons’ (USP) petitions is likely to be difficult and time-consuming.” He recommended requiring justifications to be recorded.
Wyden and Heinrich’s letter is the latest salvo in the ongoing national debate about how to strike the right balance between limiting the ability of intelligence agencies to examine Americans’ data without a warrant or other legal predicate — and ensuring that they are able to connect the dots in time to prevent terrorist threats and other national security issues.
In general, the CIA’s mission focuses on foreign intelligence gathering and it is prohibited from investigating Americans. But massive collection efforts by the US intelligence community often accidentally collect data from Americans in the process. Different spy agencies are bound by a series of policies to minimize the exposure of Americans’ data unless it is relevant to a national security investigation.
But those protective procedures have long raised concerns among privacy and civil liberties advocates about how the U.S. intelligence community handles Americans’ information when it’s obtained through intelligence efforts. foreign intelligence gathering. Wyden, in particular, has long warned that the rules are a “backdoor” loophole that gives foreign-focused spy agencies too much leeway with Americans’ data.
“During any lawful collection, the CIA may inadvertently acquire information about Americans who are in contact with foreign nationals,” the CIA spokesperson said in a statement. “When the CIA acquires information about Americans, it protects that information in accordance with procedures approved by the Attorney General, which restrict the CIA’s ability to collect, retain, use, and disseminate the information.”
The FBI’s domestic intelligence surveillance is largely governed by US law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. But the CIA is governed by an executive order, EO 12333, which is classified, and a series of guidelines put in place by the Attorney General.
That distinction is “the central problem”, according to a source close to the debate, who reviewed the PCLOB report and said Wyden and Heinrich’s letter “generalizes the problem” in a way that implies it is worse. than he is”.
Wyden and Heinrich, according to the source, claim that because the CIA’s collection and analysis programs are operated beyond the confines of FISA, this is problematic.
“FISA is attracting all the attention due to periodic congressional reauthorizations and the publication of [Department of Justice], [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] and the FISA Court documents,” Wyden and Heinrich said in a statement Thursday. “But what these documents demonstrate is that many of the same concerns that Americans have about their privacy and civil liberties are also apply to how the CIA collects and processes information under executive order. and outside the FISA law.”
But, the source familiar with the report said, “Just because some CIA collections are not regulated by FISA does not mean that the CIA is illegally mass collecting Americans.”
A CIA FAQ posted with the documents said the agency is “precluded from collecting datasets relating to American persons who lack intelligence value or are otherwise unrelated to any of the other activities. authorized intelligence from the CIA”.
“The CIA recognizes and takes very seriously our obligation to respect the privacy and civil liberties of American people in the conduct of our vital national security mission, and conducts our activities, including collection activities, in accordance with law. U.S. Executive Order 12333 and our Attorney General’s Directives,” Kristi Scott, CIA Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer, said in a statement, referring to an executive order that broadly governs the activities of the security community. information not covered by US law.
“The CIA is committed to transparency in accordance with our obligation to protect sources and methods of intelligence,” Scott said.
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.