If it’s not OK to spy on senators, is it still OK to spy on citizens?

By Ashe Schow  July 31, 2014

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan admitted Thursday that agency officials acted improperly when they hacked Senate computers, according to the Associated Press.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the CIA, said, the officials “acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between [the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence] and the CIA in 2009.”

Brennan is now apologizing to senators, including Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who accused the CIA earlier this year of possibly violating the Constitution.

“The director … apologized to them for such actions by CIA officers as described in the [Office of Inspector General] report,” Boyd added.

Brennan had initially denied the notion that the CIA was spying on members of Congress, telling NBC host Andrea Mitchell in March that “nothing could be further from the truth.”

At issue is the fact that in January, the CIA hacked into computers used by staffers on the Intelligence Committee to remove documents relating to the committee’s review of government torture policies under President George W. Bush.

The situation brings up another question for civil liberty-minded Americans: Why can’t innocent Americans get the same agreement with the CIA – or the National Security Agency – that the Intelligence Committee received?

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