Report: CIA Drawn Into Widening Domestic Surveillance Debate

New revelations have surfaced that the intelligence agency is secretly collecting bulk records of Americans’ money transfers

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The Central Intelligence Agency is conducting a mass surveillance program of its own, gathering up in bulk records of international money transfers through companies like Western Union, including some into and out of the United States, according to a new report.

The CIA’s mass surveillance program for financial records is authorized under the Patriot Act and overseen by the FISA Court, the same law and secret court the National Security Agency uses for its controversial mass phone and computer surveillance programs. The program was revealed Friday by The New York Times, citing unnamed officials, and the CIA has not confirmed the program’s existence through official channels.

Several unnamed officials said that more than one other mass surveillance program has yet to come to light in the widening privacy debate sparked in the United States by leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the Times reports.

[The New York Times]