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Comment by 794CD01 | Hacker News Reader

The spying agencies are as accountable as any other agencies. They do what they do at the behest of the public's elected representatives.

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Did the Senate ask the CIA to spy on them?

"An internal investigation by the C.I.A. has found that its officers penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its damning report on the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation program. "

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/world/senate-intellige...

Congress can vote to get rid of the CIA, or stop them from spying. The CIA exists because of an act of Congress and at the pleasure of Congress, which consists of elected representatives .

You just gave a non-answer to try to avoid answering it. Public agencies such as the CIA are politically armoured against any attempt to get rid of it. These organizations aren't accountable nor are they at the service of the US congress.

The CIA was created by an act of congress, and can be disbanded by an act of congress. That is ultimate accountability. Any other level of accountability is at the will of congress. These are basic facts of how the government works.

Maybe we'll know 50 years after everyone involved is dead. As your own article points out, the senators certainly had the power to hold the CIA accountable. The fact that they did not do so despite making angry noises in public can only be properly responded to with the thinking face emoji.

Exactly. Sure you don't directly elect them but they still face public scrutiny because nobody wants to be the swamp that some senator makes campaign promises to drain. Every few years (not nearly often enough IMO) an agency learns that lesson the hard way.

ICE is currently that swamp, CIA, NSA, FBI, and the VA are still dealing with the fallout of that loss of face.

>accountable

You do know they have the worst dirt on everyone right?

A downside of constantly electing dirty politicians.

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