In March, CIA Director John Brennan swore there hadn't been any hacks into the Senate Intelligence Committee's network. Today, the CIA issued a statement apologizing for his department's use of social engineering to gain access to the committee's computers.
An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has found that its officers improperly penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to prepare its damning report on the C.I.A.'s detention and interrogation program.
The report by the agency’s inspector general found that C.I.A. officers created a fake online identity to gain access on more than one occasion to computers used by members of the committee staff, and tried to cover their movements as they rooted around the system, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation’s findings.
A statement issued Thursday morning by a C.I.A. spokesman said that John O. Brennan, the agency’s director, had apologized to the two senior members of the intelligence committee and would set up an internal accountability board to review the issue. The statement said that the board, which will be led by former Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, could recommend “potential disciplinary measures” and “steps to address systemic issues.”
Wonkette lends a little perspective:
Criminy, you break into another branch of government’s computers, steal their files, deny you did it, and then some time after being caught gigabyte-handed, you eventually apologize for doing it — what more do these raving privacy freaks want? Spies spy, that’s their job, after all. It’s not like they were doing something really against the Constitution, like trying to make sure that 501(c)(3) “charities” actually qualify for a tax break. Now, that’s serious.
The Inspector General's summary can be read here.
