The CIA wants to destroy thousands of internal emails covering spy operations and other activities

[UglyGreed]

Proposal draws bipartisan fire from Congress, but agency officials say the criticism is overblown

A CIA plan to erase tens of thousands of its internal emails — including those sent by virtually all covert and counterterrorism officers after they leave the agency — is drawing fire from Senate Intelligence Committee members concerned that it would wipe out key records of some of the agency's most controversial operations.

The agency proposal, which has been tentatively approved by the National Archives, "could allow for the destruction of crucial documentary evidence regarding the CIA's activities," Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein and ranking minority member Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., wrote in a letter to Margaret Hawkins, the director of records and management services at the archives.

But agency officials quickly shot back, calling the committee's concerns grossly overblown and ill informed. They insist their proposal is completely in keeping with — and in some cases goes beyond — the email retention policies of other government agencies. "What we've proposed is a totally normal process," one agency official told Yahoo News.

The source of the controversy may be that the CIA, given its secret mission and rich history of clandestine operations, is not a normal agency. And its proposal to destroy internal emails comes amid mounting tensions between the CIA and its Senate oversight panel, stoked by continued bickering over an upcoming committee report — relying heavily on years-old internal CIA emails — that is sharply critical of the agency's use of waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques against al-Qaida suspects in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.


https://news.yahoo.com/the-cia-wants-to-destroy-thousand-of-internal-emails-covering-spy-operations-and-other-activities-144303528.html

[woo me with science]

1. Not. Acceptable.

[CJCRANE]

2. If they've got nothing to hide...

[merrily]

4. DUzy!

[merrily]

3. John 3:19-20 (KJV)

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.


20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

I rest my case (or the case of whoever wrote the above).

[Diclotican]

5. UglyGreed

UglyGreed

I do not think CIA should be allowed to destroy this thousands of emails - mostly because it would be a grave injustice for everyone who might had been hurt by this emails - and also it would destroy documents who might show lights on CIA operatives and their actions - for historians of the future..

I wonder what is in this emails - who is so dangerous - that CIA want it destroyed.... I suspect many want their actions erased..

Diclotican

[Orrex]

6. In other words, they already destroyed them

[blackspade]

7. Exactly.

[Ed Suspicious]

9. I would have presumed.

[cascadiance]

8. If they are harmless and useless in terms of importance, and there's so much of it...

... then the question should be asked WHY they were gathered in the first place? If they were deemed important when they were gathered to justify gathering that much data, then perhaps it would be valuable to know what it was they gathered and why too to justify that expense that they now in effect is claiming was a wasted expense.

[Octafish]

10. Destruction of Evidence is Obstruction of Justice.

Destruction of Communication in a Government Agency is Obstruction of Democracy.

When Congress can be ignored, who runs CIA?

[woo me with science]

11. Kick for corruption and coverup