Computer Searches at Center of Dispute on CIA Detentions

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Senior lawmakers contend that Central Intelligence Agency officers conducted unauthorized searches of the computers used by Senate Intelligence Committee staff members in an effort to learn how the committee gained access to the agency’s own 2009 internal review of its detention and interrogation program.

A chorus of Democratic senators said the CIA had thwarted Congress’ constitutional role as overseer, suggested that federal laws may have been broken, and demanded answers from the Obama administration. But other officials, not speaking publicly, have implied that it was the committee that acted improperly by penetrating parts of the CIA’s computer network it was not authorized to access, and rejected the accusations. Emerging as a central question in the dispute is whether the CIA had any authority to search the computers at the Virginia facility. In a filing made as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, a CIA official said that the agency had gone to some lengths to ensure that committee investigators could do their work independent of any CIA monitoring.


Computer Searches at Center of Dispute on CIA Detentions