The CIA Abides

Once again, the CIA has been exposed engaging in illegal collection of data from US citizens inside the United States.

This is, of course, explicitly illegal, but they are the CIA.  They don't care, they don't have to:

Two US senators have gone public with evidence of what they assert is a previously secret bulk data collection effort by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), conducted outside the law and without oversight.

Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich, of Oregon and New Mexico respectively, on Thursday announced that in April 2021 they sent a co-signed letter [PDF] to director of national intelligence Avril Haines and CIA director William Burns, seeking expedited declassification of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board's (PCLOB) review of two CIA counterterrorism programs – named "Deep Dive I" and "Deep Dive II".

The Deep Dives were made possible by Executive Order 12333 – a Reagan-era order that allows widespread data collection, and data-sharing with the CIA, in the name of national security.

The senators wanted a review of the documents' status because they felt the CIA had conducted a bulk information collection effort that harvested data on US citizens – probably illegally. Declassifying the documents, they argued, was necessary as the public has a right to know what the CIA gets up to, and to ensure Congress could exercise oversight of the agency. 

Absent aggressive oversight by both their nominal civilian bosses in the executive and by Congress, this will always happen.

It is the case with intelligence agencies (and law enforcement) everywhere: If they not kept on a tight leash, they will violate the privacy and civil rights of those they are supposed to protect.