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The Central Intelligence Agency has secretly collected information on Americans that is being held at an undisclosed location, according to two Democrat members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico sent a letter to top intelligence officials calling for more details to be revealed about what they described as a classified program being hidden from the public and congress, NBC News reports.
The letter was initially sent out in April 2021 and declassified on Thursday (February 10) and included several parts having been blacked out, along with documents released by the CIA.
Sens. Wyden and Heinrich accused the program of having worked “outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection,” NBC News reports.
Many Americans have long been concerned about having their personal information collected by government agencies, which have spawned from previous violations of civil liberties.
The CIA and National Security Agency are supposed to focus on foreign missions and are usually prohibited from investigating Americans or U.S. businesses, however, spy agencies looking into foreign communications sometimes incidentally obtain domestic information, according to NBC News.
U.S. Intelligence agencies are required to take steps in protecting domestic information such as redacting names of Americans included in reports unless proven to be relevant to an investigation, while removing redactions is referred to as "unmasking."
“CIA recognizes and takes very seriously our obligation to respect the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. persons in the conduct of our vital national security mission,” Kristi Scott, the agency’s privacy and civil liberties officer, said in a statement obtained by NBC News. “CIA is committed to transparency consistent with our obligation to protect intelligence sources and methods.”