Cia Lawbreaking: What Are The Limits Of Power?

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of breaking the law on numerous occasions. In 1969, CIA Director Richard Helms received an order from Henry Kissinger to spy on leaders of anti-war groups in the US, despite the CIA being prohibited by law from collecting information on US citizens. The CIA has also been accused of human rights abuses, including the use of torture, the funding and training of groups that kill civilians and overthrow democratically elected governments, human experimentation, and targeted assassinations. In addition, the CIA has been implicated in extraordinary rendition, the transfer of suspected terrorists to countries known to employ torture. Following the September 11 attacks, the CIA engaged in the torture of detainees at CIA-run black sites, in violation of US and international law. The CIA has also been criticized for its bulk collection of data and spying on Americans, bypassing privacy protections enacted by Congress.

Bulk data collection on Americans

In February 2022, US Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich revealed that the CIA had been conducting a bulk data collection program that had ensnared Americans. The program, known as "Deep Dive II", was operated under the authority of Executive Order 12333, issued by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981. This executive order has been used to justify the bulk data collection of people in the US, including phone calls, SMS messages, and, until recently, email metadata.

The program did not have congressional approval or oversight, and the CIA's bulk data collection practices have been described as secretly conducted and done "outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection, and without any of the judicial, congressional, or even executive branch oversight".

In response to the revelations, Senators Wyden and Heinrich wrote to the director of national intelligence and the CIA, asking them to declassify a review of the program and disclose details such as the type of relationship the CIA has with its sources, the legal justification for the operation, the types of records collected, how they are stored and accessed, and how many Americans had their records collected.

The CIA's privacy and civil liberties officer, Kristi Scott, stated that the agency "recognizes and takes very seriously our obligation to respect the privacy and civil liberties of US persons in the conduct of our vital national security mission". However, the agency did not deny that it was collecting data on Americans or clarify its legal justification.

The practice of bulk data collection by the CIA raises concerns about Americans' privacy and civil liberties, with critics arguing that it undermines public trust in intelligence agencies and highlights the need for increased transparency and statutory safeguards or judicial oversight.

Human rights abuses

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of human rights abuses, including the use of torture, the funding and training of organisations that have participated in the killing of civilians, human experimentation, and targeted killings and assassinations.

Torture

Following the September 11 attacks, the CIA engaged in the torture of detainees at CIA-run black sites and sent detainees to be tortured by friendly governments. In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the countries of Romania and Lithuania were complicit in torture activities perpetrated by the CIA.

Funding and Training of Organisations that Kill Civilians

The CIA has been involved in the support and training of military and paramilitary units that defend against enemies of US-backed governments in Latin America. Florencio Caballero, a former Honduran Army interrogator, said that he had been trained by the CIA, and that he was instructed to conceal his participation in death squads from CIA advisers. John R. Stockwell, a former CIA officer, has also stated that CIA field officers liaise with the people who run death squads.

In 2019, Human Rights Watch asserted that the CIA was backing death squads in Afghanistan, and that these forces had committed "summary executions and other grave abuses without accountability". The CIA has also been accused of supporting the overthrow of democratically elected governments in Iran, Chile, and Guatemala.

Human Experimentation

Project MKUltra was a CIA human experimentation program (1953–1973) aimed at developing techniques and drugs for interrogation, brainwashing, and psychological torture. The program was conducted without the consent of participants, and used methods like administering high doses of LSD, hypnosis, electroshock, sensory deprivation, and other forms of abuse.

Targeted Killings and Assassinations

The CIA has admitted to involvement in assassination attempts against foreign leaders, and there have been targeted killings of alleged terrorists, typically with missiles fired from drones. The CIA has also been involved in attempted assassinations of foreign government leaders, such as Fidel Castro.

Other Human Rights Issues

The CIA has also been accused of a lack of financial and whistleblower controls, which has led to waste and fraud. In addition, the CIA's recruitment of Nazis in the decades after World War II has been the subject of criticism.

Extraordinary rendition

The process involves clandestinely moving a prisoner from where they were captured to an interrogation centre in a country not subject to US law regarding extreme interrogation methods. The CIA has been accused of employing extraordinary rendition to circumvent laws mandating due process and prohibiting torture, with critics labelling the practice "torture flights".

The Bush administration freely admitted to the practice, stating that they had specifically asked that torture not be used. However, this could still occur, and much documentation exists alleging that it did. In these instances, the initial captor allows the possibility of torture by releasing the prisoner into the custody of nations that practice it.

Under the Bush administration, rendered persons were reported to have undergone torture by receiving countries. Journalists, civil and constitutional rights groups, and former detainees have alleged that this occurred with the knowledge or cooperation of the US and UK administrations.

The European Court of Human Rights has condemned the governments of Poland and Romania for participating in CIA extraordinary rendition, ordering them to pay restitution to men who had been abducted, tortured and held in CIA black sites. Torture is banned under the European Convention on Human Rights, which 46 nations, including Poland and Romania, have pledged to uphold.

The United Nations Convention Against Torture, which the US Senate ratified at the urging of then-President Ronald Reagan, and a 1998 federal statute both explicitly prohibit extraordinary rendition.

The CIA's Inspector General has reportedly investigated a number of "erroneous renditions", where innocent people were captured and transported.

Domestic wiretapping

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of domestic wiretapping, or spying on American citizens, which is prohibited by its 1947 charter. In the 1960s, the CIA conducted "Operation Chaos", in which it spied on as many as 7,000 Americans involved in the peace movement.

In 2013, a programme of data collection using extensive internet and phone surveillance by American intelligence was disclosed to the public by Edward Snowden, an NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower. A Washington Post analysis of the Snowden leak found that around 90% of those being monitored were ordinary Americans "caught in a net the National Security Agency had cast for somebody else".

In 2022, a CIA domestic surveillance program was uncovered that had not been subject to congressional oversight. Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich raised concerns that the CIA was "again spying upon unwitting Americans" through a newly disclosed programme. They called for the declassification of details of the programme, which they said was "undermining democratic oversight".

The CIA has also used National Security Letters to demand Americans' personal financial records without prior court approval. The history of the CIA's abuse of power and the continuing lack of public accountability over CIA operations have raised concerns among civil liberties advocates.

Covert programs hidden from Congress

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been involved in numerous controversies, including covert programs hidden from Congress. On July 10, 2009, House Intelligence subcommittee Chairwoman Representative Jan Schakowsky announced the termination of an unnamed CIA covert program that had been kept secret from Congress for eight years. This program was reportedly very serious in nature, and the decision to withhold information from Congress was made by several CIA directors and administrations.

The exact nature of the program remains unknown, but it was rumored to be an assassinations program. This prompted an investigation by the House Intelligence Committee, which sought to determine whether there had been a decision or direction to withhold information from the committee. The investigation also addressed other issues, such as the CIA's involvement in the downing of a missionary plane in Peru in 2001 and the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping and detention programs.

The CIA has also been accused of human rights abuses, including torture, funding and training groups that participated in the killing of civilians and the overthrow of democratically elected governments, human experimentation, and targeted killings and assassinations. One notable example is the CIA's involvement in the 1973 coup in Chile, which overthrew the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende. Additionally, the CIA has been criticized for its use of a vaccination program in Pakistan in 2011 to obtain DNA samples from individuals suspected of being linked to Osama bin Laden, which undermined trust in medical workers.

Furthermore, the CIA has been accused of domestic wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, and counterintelligence failures. The agency has also faced scrutiny for its recruitment of Nazis after World War II and its involvement in narcotics trafficking. These controversies have led to external investigations, such as those led by the Church Committee, Rockefeller Commission, and Pike Committee, and the declassification of many documents.

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