In the original 1947 charter for the CIA, it was expressly prohibited for the organization to be used for spying against Americans. And the CIA still maintains to this day that it does not collect any information concerning the domestic activities of US citizens.
However, the organization has been previously found to be conducting massive domestic intelligence gathering on lawful anti-war protesters in the country, along with engaging in some controversial activities throughout the years.
Since the inception of that charter, a number of reforms have been introduced, including an executive order that had been introduced which banned U.S.-sanctioned assassinations of any foreign leaders. There is still a great deal of secrecy surrounding the operations of this agency and there are still accusations being made that the agency is engaged in unjust spying against Americans.
Despite the insistence that they don't spy on Americans, they've previously admitted back in 2014 that they have engaged in improper conduct, after accusations surfaced about the agency conducting surveillance on Senate members.
In 2017, after Wikileaks unveiled thousands of documents relating to CIA hacking tools as a part of their Vault 7 files leak, Julian Assange was asked about whether the CIA had been spying on American citizens, to which he responded that the answer wasn't no. The CIA has previously admitted in a statement that they are legally restricted from conducting any electronic surveillance that might target individuals in the United States and they say that they don't.... Even though they've previously admitted that they have.
The agency has been accused of spying on journalists, citizens, political figures, and others. Aside from spying at home, it's also alleged that the CIA has been involved in efforts to manipulate elections overseas on more than 100 occasions.
It's been alleged that the CIA has helped to overthrow governments in Afghanistan, Ecuador, Venezuela, Iraq, Haiti, Libya, and other regions. Because of the concerns for unchecked spying at home, and considering the history of this agency, it's no wonder that critics have suggested that the organization poses a genuine threat to the people that it supposedly serves.
