CIA Accidentally Releases Apology Letter It Wrote, But Never Sent To The Senate For Illegally Spying On It

from the sorry-not-sorry dept

Thu, Aug 13th 2015 11:33am — Tim Cushing

Jason Leopold -- terrorizer of FOIA staffers throughout the US government -- has again obtained documents many would have expected to remain out of reach for years to come. Certainly, the CIA thought one of the documents would remain its little secret for the rest of whatever.

On July 28, 2014, the CIA director wrote a letter to senators Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss — the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee (SSCI) and the panel's ranking Republican, respectively. In it, he admitted that the CIA's penetration of the computer network used by committee staffers reviewing the agency's torture program — a breach for which Feinstein and Chambliss had long demanded accountability — was improper and violated agreements the Intelligence Committee had made with the CIA.

The letter was never sent. Instead of an apology, the Senate received accusations of impropriety after the CIA threw out its Inspector General's report on the breach and performed an in-house "investigation" clearing the CIA of wrongdoing.

The letter was never signed by Brennan or sent. It was filed away somewhere in the CIA's archives, hopefully never to be seen again. But it was mistakenly handed over to Jason Leopold much to the CIA's chagrin. Additional chagrinment ensued.

After VICE News received the documents, the CIA contacted us and said Brennan's draft letter had been released by mistake. The agency asked that we refrain from posting it.

We declined the CIA's request.

So, the CIA has yet to officially admit any wrongdoing (as in a document -- such as the one it didn't want released -- entered into the public record), and yet, there's an admission of guilt in the public's hands. Makes it a bit harder to defend actions Senator Feinstein claimed violated pretty much everything that could be violated in a single act.

Feinstein wrote to Brennan on January 23, 2014 and told him she consulted with the Senate's legal counsel, who informed her that the CIA's search of the Senate's computer network "may have been inconsistent with the separation of powers principles embodied in the Constitution and essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities."

"Second," her letter continued, "the search may have violated the Fourth Amendment, the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution, various statutes (including federal criminal statutes, such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Executive Order 12333," which says it's unlawful for the CIA to conduct domestic spying.

In short, it appears that while some in the CIA knew what it did was clearly wrong (and potentially illegal), top management so insisted on denying it, that it wouldn't even send an apology letter -- and that would have stayed completely secret if someone hadn't slipped up and handed over the unsigned letter accidentally in a FOIA response dump.

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Filed Under: apology, cia, foia, jason leopold, senate, spying

22 Comments

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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 13 Aug 2015 @ 11:40am

I Wonder
Did they accidentally release it, or did they accidentally write it?
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- Sheogorath (profile), 13 Aug 2015 @ 12:07pm
  
  Re: I Wonder
  Both, obviously. ;)
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- JoeCool (profile), 13 Aug 2015 @ 12:22pm
  
  Re: I Wonder
  I imagine that it wasn't so accidental, and that some staffer is looking at treason charges if they find whomever included the apology with the rest of the docs.
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  - FOIAfactor (profile), 13 Aug 2015 @ 11:04pm
    
    Re: Re: I Wonder
    No, these records were divulged to attorney Jeffrey Light, representing the name plaintiffs here, as a result of protracted litigation. There was no mid-level staffer involved at this stage of the process, not even the reporters themselves had anything to do with getting the records freed.
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- limbodog (profile), 13 Aug 2015 @ 12:30pm
  
  Re: I Wonder
  I think it was like the two speeches written about the lunar landing. They prepared one in case they decided to admit guilt, but then they ended up going the other way.
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That One Other Not So Random Guy, 13 Aug 2015 @ 11:42am

Reminds me of PeeWee Herman in nice dreams:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA8PXbTb7OQ

I'm sorry.... I'm so sorry... I'm terribly sorry. I"M NOT SORRY I TOOK THE MONEY!!!! HA HA HA HA!!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Aug 2015 @ 12:04pm

Very thoroughly researched!
That article did an amazing job of thoroughly explaining (to the extent that it can be) the CIA/SSCI debacle. Every other press-secretary parroting reporter out there take note - this is how Journalism is done. Whatever VICE is paying Jason Leopold, it isn't enough.
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Sheogorath (profile), 13 Aug 2015 @ 12:09pm

See, this kind of thing of thing is why FOIAs are so important, and also why Tony Blair is saying he wishes he hadn't created the UK's.
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withheld, 13 Aug 2015 @ 1:40pm

I'm doubting this scenario
What if the letter was purposefully released to Jason Leopold but the follow up call that it was accidentally released was bogus to generate additional interest in publishing it? I can't fully wrap my brain around the motive here, but this is seemingly more likely than a FOIA slip up at the CIA. The CIA has a history of manipulating the media and the "oh PLEASE don't publish it" line doesn't exactly pass the sniff test.
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- TheConspiracyGuy, 13 Aug 2015 @ 10:29pm
  
  Re: I'm doubting this scenario
  I like your shade of tinfoil. :)
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- FOIAfactor (profile), 13 Aug 2015 @ 10:59pm
  
  Re: I'm doubting this scenario
  This is an accurate read. Another essential omitted from the story was that these documents were not obtained by the reporter but were actually secured by attorney Jeffrey Light following protracted litigation. Sometimes government attorneys handling release at the litigation level are not as mired in political drama as the agency's bureaucrats.
  
  So, they will sometimes let slip records that embarrass the agency as punishment for being needlessly obstreperous. Other times, the agency lets a document slip to take the heat off some other brewing story, here Hillary or Iran.
  
  While FOIA hacks salivate over who did or did not get an apology in the Senate a million years ago, everyone takes their eye off State Department's missed deadline for production following the Democratic presidential frontrunner's destruction and possible dissemination of classifieds records trafficked through an insecure home-based computer network.
  
  The reporting universe on both stories overlap. Sadly, this natsec/opengov subculture has proven easily and reliably distractable.
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Ambrellite, 13 Aug 2015 @ 1:48pm

Just to add context, we're talking about a mistakenly-released apology for spying on Senate staff in an attempt to interfere with an investigation of the most secret, incompetently managed, cruel, and criminal program administered and overseen by the Bush administration, and that's saying a lot.

Yet no one has been held responsible (except for revealing the program). Some of the officials who ran the program were even promoted. All three branches of government have agreed to act like it never even happened.

This constitutional crisis was resolved long ago. The government won.
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- Village Idiot (profile), 17 Aug 2015 @ 4:31pm
  
  Re:
  I voted insightful, but I really wanted to vote depressing.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Aug 2015 @ 2:44pm

They should be subjected to the full force of the CFAA and so should the NSA for infiltrating US networks.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Aug 2015 @ 3:12pm

Just in case...
This sounds like one of those 'just in case' scenarios. A staff puke prepared this letter 'just in case' the Director or other senior officer wanted one. Since nobody wanted it, the letter got filed away 'just in case' somebody wanted it later. It was never intended to be released, so there is a concern whereby if that document was accidently released what other documents of a more sensitive nature might accidently be released.

FWIW newspapers do this all the time with obituaries. Many are already written and filed away for the time when the subject actually passes away. Bob Hope was a victim of an accidently released obit; that release was premature by a few years.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Aug 2015 @ 3:49pm

anyone else did what the CIA have been caught doing and they would be sent to prison. When those responsible get off scott free how on earth can you expect a fair due process for anything in that country
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AC, 13 Aug 2015 @ 7:01pm

:(
It will make me sad to read about the entire staff of Vice simultaneously crashing their cars into palm trees at extremely high speed, tomorrow.
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- TheConspiracyGuy, 13 Aug 2015 @ 10:31pm
  
  Re: :(
  Nah. They will all just end up on the same plane together that will crash.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2015 @ 12:49am

Bravo Jason Leopold, bravo. You have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that the CIA is full of shit.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2015 @ 11:05am

So with this the Attorney General is going to file charges, right?

Oh wait, I forgot they aren't 'citizens' and are subject to different 'laws'.
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GEMont, 14 Aug 2015 @ 3:08pm

To err is human, so we need robots.
Internal Five Eyes Memo
=======================

For Our Eyes Only:

As the number of hidden public spies (HPS agents) increases among the employees of the Federal Governments of the Five Eyes Coalition (5EC), more "accidental slip-ups" of sensitive information will occur at every opportunity during FOIA releases.

Since it is almost impossible to root out these infiltrators prior to their active dissemination, and our robotic employee program is still in its infancy, it now behooves each of the federal governments of the 5EC to eliminate altogether, the ability of the public to demand/receive access to any/all classified/unclassified documents, permanently.

Sweetheart Director of Kind Public Goodness
Bartholamue P. Shittywhitehead III, Esq.

---
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Village Idiot (profile), 17 Aug 2015 @ 4:29pm

Fixed
"...the CIA knew what it did was clearly wrong (and certainly illegal)"

FTFY
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