A new surveillance scandal is shaking the American political class. Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich have just revealed that the CIA has a secret surveillance program that also collects data on American citizens. This is contrary to its mission which relates to foreign intelligence.
Senators Wyden and Heinrich got wind of this program somewhat by chance, through a report from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an agency that verifies respect for the protection of personal data and civil liberties in American laws and administrations.
In a letter sent to the director of the CIA, the two senators demand more information on this program. In particular, they would like to know the nature and extent of the data collected, as well as its legal framework.
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The collection of data from American citizens is a very sensitive subject across the Atlantic. In 2013, Senator Wyden asked James Clapper, the director of intelligence agencies, if there was a mass collection of data from American citizens. The latter had answered “no”, but it was a lie, as the revelations of Edward Snowden were to show later.
Source : The Washington Post