Spying on the Senator

The revelations from WikiLeaks showed that even the best kept secrets may be disclosed by information technology. The Snowden case later showed that these same technologies allow for massive spying on citizens and organizations. Now a public denunciation by a respected U.S. senator, Democrat Dianne Feinstein, has revealed that not even the computers of the Senate Intelligence Committee are safe.

Feinstein has claimed that CIA agents infiltrated the computers of the committee that she chairs to spy on their content, even taking the liberty of removing some incriminating documents. Since 2009 the commission has been investigating the secret program of interrogating suspected terrorists that was started by the CIA under President George W. Bush. The existence of these interrogations and their methods cast a long shadow over the activities of the agency; Barack Obama ordered the program suspended in 2009. But the effects continue. The Senate investigation found that the methods used entered into areas that could be defined as torture and went far beyond, according to Feinstein, what the agency had stated.

Although the current director of the CIA, John Brennan, has denied the allegations, Feinstein’s accusation has put President Obama in a bind. The problem for the CIA is that, as noted in The New York Times editorial, the senator provided “convincing evidence” and the allegations also come from a person who is known for being a strong advocate for the agency, who supported the expansion of its powers after 9/11.

The plaintiff therefore enjoys a great deal of credibility, which puts the government in an awkward situation. The report on the counterterrorism program, [which is] over 6,000 pages, was completed in 2012 but has not been made public. The president had the power to keep it hidden, but after the row between the senator and the CIA, it will be difficult to avoid the disclosure that the press and various human rights organizations are now demanding. A new storm hovers over the White House.