WASHINGTON (AP) — CIA Director John Brennan is apologizing to Senate intelligence committee leaders after his inspector general found that CIA employees acted improperly when the CIA searched Senate computers earlier this year.
Agency spokesman Dean Boyd said in an email to The Associated Press that Brennan has convened an accountability board that will investigate the conduct of the CIA officers and discipline them, if need be. The Justice Department has so far declined to pursue criminal charges against the employees, who searched the computers for information gathered in the course of an investigation into the CIA’s interrogation techniques.
The controversy is centered on an investigation of the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks.
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But I thought that there were procedures and guidelines and laws and oversight and watchful unicorns to prevent this sort of thing happening.
Sure there are. Easier to beg forgiveness than ask for permission is what came to mind…
I think if need be is the key. If the CIA officers were doing as instructed then there would be no need to discipline them, n’est ce pas?
Sorry, Senators. I’d be happy to discuss some of what we encountered in an open committee meeting if you would like…
It also works the other way around - the people higher up giving the orders might find the need to discipline these people to make sure it doesn’t seem like the whole CIA is run this way. So they can make the ‘bad apples’ argument and keep on going keeping on.
If this was in fact ordered and/or is a systemic practice that everyone knows is expected without having to be ordered, they definitely want to nip any potential deeper investigation in the bud.