4 Times When the Intel Community Violated the Trust of American Citizens

I write a great deal about “big government” and how our elected politicians have expanded the government far beyond its Constitutionally approved limits.  That’s why I noticed an article in The Hill called “10 times the intel community violated the trust of US citizens, lawmakers and allies.”

Honestly, my first thought was, “really?  Just ten?”

The author, Sharyl Attkisson, clarifies that she specifically she was writing of times when our government used the tools of the “intelligence-gathering and law-enforcing” (meant to protect us) to instead spy on us and gather information that isn’t the government’s business (at least not without a court’s approval).  She writes, “And, in some instances, it appears, to punish or silence those with whom they disagree — personal and political foes, in and out of government — rather than to pursue and protect Americans from the country’s real enemies.”

I’m glad she’s tackling this subject, which — obviously — affects both political parties.  If the past couple of years has taught us anything, it’s that the government is corrupt and can’t be trusted.  Here are just a few of the times that the government used the power entrusted to them wrongly:

Olympic spying

In 2002, the NSA reportedly engaged in “blanket surveillance” of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, collecting and storing “virtually all electronic communications going into or out of the Salt Lake City area, including … emails and text messages” to “experiment with and fine tune a new scale of mass surveillance.” NSA officials had denied such a program existed.

Spying on Congress

In 2005 intel officials intercepted and recorded phone conversations between then-Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Calif.)  and pro-Israel lobbyists who were under investigation for espionage. In 2009, someone — exactly who was never revealed — leaked Harman’s “unmasked” name to the press. In 2011, intel officials captured private communications between then-Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and a Libyan official. The wiretapped recordings were later leaked to the press — again, by unknown sources.

More spying on Congress

CIA officials improperly accessed Senate Intelligence Committee computers, according to an Inspector General report in July 2014, contradicting denials by then-CIA Director Brennan. Meantime, Obama intel officials secretly captured communications of a half-dozen members of Congress and organizations in the U.S. while wiretapping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

NSA privacy violations

In fall 2016, the government confessed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court “significant non-compliance” of crucial procedures designed to protect privacy rights of U.S. citizens. The judge accused the NSA of “institutional ‘lack of candor’” and declared: “This is a very serious Fourth Amendment issue.”

Hat Tip: The Hill

Image Credit: President Barack Obama holds a meeting with National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice; John Podesta, Counselor to the President; and Phil Reiner, Senior Director for South Asian Affairs, aboard Air Force One en route to New Delhi, India.