The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is not happy that the CIA was spying on them. The CIA, specifically, the Obama-appointed CIA Director John Brennan, lied to Congress, said they hadn't spied on it, but has now gotten caught with his intel hand inside the Congressional Secrets cookie jar.
And apparently John Brennan is now so thoroughly cumbaya'd that he publicly apologized, admitting that, yes, the CIA is guilty of snooping on Americans, in direct contravention of the law, but with an explanation, and... wait for it: He's sorry.
"Guilty with an explanation" usually doesn't even cut it in traffic court, and, fortunately, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence member Mark Udall isn't having any of it. According to a statement issued yesterday by his office, authored by Udall spokesman, Mike Saccone, Senator Udall has called for the chief spook's resignation:
"After being briefed on the CIA Inspector General report today, I have no choice but to call for the resignation of CIA Director John Brennan. The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers. This grave misconduct not only is illegal, but it violates the U.S. Constitution’s requirement of separation of powers. These offenses, along with other errors in judgment by some at the CIA, demonstrate a tremendous failure of leadership, and there must be consequences..."
"Consequences" indeed! As it has been and continues to be, quite common with the Obama administration, Brennan has broken the law, and Udall wants Brennan to be even more forthcoming about it:
"The CIA needs to acknowledge its wrongdoing and correct the public record in a timely, forthright manner — and that simply hasn't occurred under John Brennan's leadership. Such an acknowledgment is necessary, whether we're talking about spying on Senate computers or about correcting misleading and inaccurate information about the CIA's detention and interrogation program. An internal CIA accountability board review isn't enough," he said.
Revelations about the spying first surfaced earlier this year with a thoroughly outraged, and apparently alarmed, Senator Diane Feinstein, who publicly expressed her disdain about the matter.
The spying prompted an investigation by the CIA Inspector General, who has released an unclassified summary of the investigation, alleging, that, yep, the bad boys at the CIA targeted the Senators.
Oh and get this: The Department of Justice, (Can you say "Eric Holder") because of a technicality, "...declined to open a criminal investigation of the matter alleged..."
Here are the salient points of that summary:
- Agency Access to Files on the SSCI RDINet: Five Agency employees, two attorneys and three information technology (IT) staff members, improperly accessed or caused access to the SSCI Majority staff shared drives on the RDINet.
- Agency Crimes Report on Alleged Misconduct by SSCI Staff: The Agency filed a crimes report with the DOJ, as required by Executive Order 12333 and the 1995 Crimes Reporting Memorandum between the DOJ and the Intelligence Community, reporting that SSCI staff members may have improperly accessed Agency information on the RDINet. However, the factual basis for the referral was not supported, as the author of the referral had been provided inaccurate information on which the letter was based. After review, the DOJ declined to open a criminal investigation of the matter alleged in the crimes report.
- Office of Security Review of SSCI Staff Activity: Subsequent to directive by the D/CIA to halt the Agency review of SSCI staff access to the RDINet, and unaware of the D/CIA’s direction, the Office of Security conducted a limited investigation of SSCI activities on the RDINet. That effort included a keyword search of all and a review of some of the emails of SSCI Majority staff members on the RDINet system.
- Lack of Candor: The three IT staff members demonstrated a lack of candor about their activities during interviews by the OIG.
And while the outrage and the huffing and puffing about this by Democrats for being targeted by the CIA is definitely appropriate, and, YES, Brennan should not only resign, he should wind up in the slammer for his blatant disregard of the law, there's a huge, and I mean HUGE, significance about this case that is quite conveniently being ignored, like, oh, for example:
WHERE WAS THE DEMOCRAT outrage at the IRS targeting Conservative and Tea Party groups?
Now we have multiple cases of powerful government agencies targeting American citizens, essentially treating the citizenry as ENEMIES of the state. Obviously the people they have targeted are not ENEMIES of the state, so clearly the Obama Government has assumed for itself the status of ENEMY of the people.
Let me point out that the last time a President was even remotely associated with such Constitutional and legal violations, namely Richard Milhous Nixon, he resigned, but his resignation was tantamount to being run out of office on a rail.
It cannot be stated often enough: The IRS AND the CIA have targeted citizens for political purposes. You can mince words all you want, about how one was political and the other was not, but the truth is that the Constitutional violations and the cover-up of such are in plain sight for all to see.
And clearly the lack of coverage in either case makes the media, which continues to be, at the very least, for not pursuing these matters with the same fervor as was the Watergate scandal, in direct collusion with an administration turned dictatorial against its own citizens.
AND this is in the dark shadow of the bright light of a President who has ANNOUNCED, warned us, that he will disregard the Constitution by "acting on his own with a phone and a pen" to grant defacto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, because he's doing it "for the children."
Where are the men and women of integrity that are going to stand up to these travesties and put period to those who would take away the blessings of Liberty from you and your posterity?
Would that be YOU?
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