Top Headline Comments 8-5-14

Happy Tuesday.

Just one link this morning because I really want you to click and read it. I've been frustrated at the wild inaccuracies thrown about by both the news media (who naturally have sided with Senate Democrats to mislead about CIA activity both now and during Bush 43's presidency) and by conservative media (who, for some reason, have decided that CIA is the problem instead of, say, an Administration that operates a CIA kill list from the White House basement).

Now, I disagree with Fleitz that Brennan's head should roll because giving Senate Democrats a scalp over this will only bolster their false, hack-job of a "torture" report. The whole reason the CIA and the Senate are fighting is because the Senate Democrats have decided that the report must say that enhanced interrogation produced no usable intelligence, something the CIA fiercely disputes. Notably, the Senate investigators never even interviewed anyone who authorized or oversaw the interrogation programs.

Anyway, what was the so-called CIA "spying" on the Senate? Actually, it was the CIA checking up on Senate staffers who were using the CIA's own network, in a CIA-operated building. Those Senate staffers had agreed not to use their access to CIA's network to obtain documents they were not supposed to have (read: classified and irrelevant to the torture report) or remove documents from the CIA facility. CIA then checked to see if the staffers had broken the agreement. Surprise, surprise, they had.

Then, because everyone is gullible as hell, Sen. Feinstein accused the CIA of spying on her staffers who had pilfered the CIA network in violation of their access agreement.

The rest, as they say, is a sad history of everyone repeating Sen. Feinstein's allegation as if it were fact. Instapundit himself claimed yesterday that the CIA was "hacking" the staffers computers, which is utter bullshit. They were CIA's own computers at a CIA facility with access to CIA's own network. CIA agreed to let the Senate staffers use them for its investigation pursuant to an access agreement that the Senate staffers violated.

DOJ investigated and says there's not enough evidence to charge either side, the Senate staffers who snooped through the CIA's network or the CIA officers who checked up on the Senate staffers snooping, with a crime. Mmmhmm.

Anyway, keep your eye on the ball. Senator Feinstein is going to get her $50 million torture report to say whatever she wants. Don't lend her a hand by uncritically repeating everything you hear her claim about the CIA. Yes, there was "improper access." But this was far from the spying or hacking event the media are calling it.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 06:54 AM

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