With help from Nicholas Wu, Andrew Desiderio
SENATORS FLAG SPRAWLING SPYING — A secret program at the Central Intelligence Agency relied on mass surveillance and data collection, including from Americans, according to a newly declassified letter from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). The CIA is largely prohibited by law from engaging in domestic spying.
“It has done so entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection, and without any of the judicial, congressional or even executive branch oversight that comes with FISA collection,” the letter says. “This basic fact has been kept from the public and from Congress.”
Both Wyden and Heinrich are members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Their letter, dated April 2021, urged Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, and William J. Burns, the CIA director, to declassify the warrantless bulk data collection and any internal agency rules about querying the data for information about Americans. The letter was partially declassified and disclosed yesterday, so anyone can now read the (partially redacted) letter and the press release.
IT’S THE CENTS OF CONGRESS— As their other priorities fall by the wayside, vulnerable Democrats are waging a new uphill battle: actually draining the swamp (at least a little bit). They swept into power pledging to clean up government, and now they’re pushing to ban lawmakers from trading stocks, hoping voters will reward them for a different kind of “good government” legislation even if it faces an uncertain future in the narrowly divided Congress.
“I’ve been in rooms full of people who say, ‘Oh and I love that stock bill’ … And everybody’s like, ‘yes!'” said Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), a swing-district Democrat who has pushed the policy since 2020. “I have had people say, ‘Oh, well I didn’t vote for you, but — that stock bill!'”
They face many hurdles in turning the policy into reality. There’s the filibuster, a split among Democrats, several different bills to reconcile and warnings that constraining stock trades could dissuade people from entering public service.
[Photograph: Rick Bowmer/AP]Orange of Specious
Article URL : https://www.politico.com/newsletters/huddle/2022/02/11/senators-raise-red-flag-on-cia-data-collection-00008136