This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, February 14, 2022.

I'm Caleb Brown.

According to two US senators, the CIA is engaged in holding sensitive data about Americans.

It's not clear what data the CIA has,

but it seems likely the agency has circumvented laws

meant to proscribe the collection and storing

of information about Americans. Cato's Patrick Eddington and Julian Sanchez comment. and

information about Americans.

Cato's Patrick Edington and Julian Sanchez comment.

Pat, I want to start with you.

What have you been asking the federal government for with respect to information about data collection about Americans.

Well in the context of the organization we're going to discuss this morning the

Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board at, we submitted a Freedom Information Act request

to the P-clob a few years back,

looking essentially to get some of these reports

that they had alluded to publicly, but had never released on this thing

called Executive Order 12333 which is probably best thought of as the kind of

day-to-day operating guide for U.S. intelligence community components.

And we essentially got stiff-armed by the P club, which of course led to our lawsuit, which is ongoing. And what we were trying to get at essentially is, you know, who's hiding the ball here and what is this really all about?

What is happening essentially under this broad executive order that's been in place

for over 40 years now that may implicate the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.

And so we have a little bit of a better idea now, as Julian, I think we'll get

...