spring wife's
with those people who say Congress has no right to complain about this now they
have known
about all of this Sarah wyden had this to say: clip number five
the defenders at this deception
have said that members of congress
have the ability to get the full story what the government is doing
on a classified basis so they shouldn't complain when officials make misleading
statements
even in a congressional hearing this
is and apps third argument sure members of congress
could get the full story in a classified setting
but that doesn't excuse the practice of half-truths and misleading statements
being made on the public record when did it become
alright in America for government officials public statements
and private statements to differ so
fundamentally the answer is it's not alright mincing pick it up I'm
Ave much larger culture %uh
miss information that goes beyond the congressional hearing room
and into the public conversation writ large and
another way of saying that is that they're lying and here
a he explains I the process he undertook
to force James clapper
to tell the truth about the NSA surveillance capacities
the steps Eve she took to the
to basically give clapper the opportunity to tell the truth
and how clapper refuse to it take those
a.m. those opportunities here's number six a few months ago
I made the judgment that I would not be responsibly carrying out my
oversight powers if I didn't press intelligence officials to clarify
what the NSA director said repeatedly
about data collection so I decided it was necessary to put the question
to the Director of National Intelligence so I had my staff
send the actual question over a day in advance
so that the director would be prepared to answer
the director unfortunately said the answer was no
Yenisei does not knowingly collect data on millions of Americans
she's obviously not correct after the hearing I had my staff call the
director's office
on a secure line and urged them to correct the record
but disappointingly his office decided to let
this inaccurate statements spam my office made it clear
my staff said clearly
that this was wrong and that was unacceptable to leave the american
people
misled and I continued to warn
the public about the problem secret surveillance law
over the following weeks in effect until the June
disclosures and those June disclosures he's talking about of course came from
Edward snowed in
via the Washington Post and The Guardian now
then asere wide goes on
to talk about the argument that these programs in were
you know in this instance he's talking about essentially the two
major programs that have been revealed one is prism
this deals with who bring up all over our
online information the other
is the mass surveillance the Hoover ring up above the meta-data
and the content a phone calls and simply banking them
he says that prism
has had some love a been somewhat effective
he still calls for more privacy protections regarding prism
but he points out that the NSA
has been combining when they refer to these two programs
together as a way of hiding the fact that the
phone surveillance as far as he has seen
and as far as he is a aware of has provided
nothing have intelligence value
here's that number seven now
even after those disclosures there's been an effort by officials to
exaggerate the effectiveness
the BOC phone records collection program
one way they do that is to conflate yet with the collection
Internet communications under section 702
the five the statute this collection which
involves the prism computer program has produced
some information real value I will note that last summer I was able to get the
executive branch
to declassify the fact that the fight the court
can actually ruled in on at least one occasion the diff collection
violated the Fourth Amendment in a way that affected
undisclosed number of Americans and the court
also said that the government had violated the spirit
above the law as well so I certainly think section 702
need stronger protections for the privacy %uh law-abiding Americans
and I think those protections could be added without losing
value the statute and the collection
meanwhile I haven't seen any indication that the BOC phone records program
yielded any unique intelligence that with
not also available to the government through left intrusive means
when government officials refer to these programs collectively
and we have seen that on a number of occasions
and say that quote these programs provide unique
intelligence without pointing out that one program
is doing all the work and the other one is basically along for the ride
in my judgment that is also misleading state
lived in a number misleading and inaccurate statements made about
section 702 the president programming if collection as well
last month senator Udall and I wrote to the NSA director to point out
that the NSA's official fact she
contain some misleading information in a significant inaccuracy that made
protections
for the privacy of our people sound much stronger
then they actually are the next day the fact sheet was taken down
from the front page the MSA website
with the misleading factually still be up there senator Udall and I hadn't
pushed
to take it down I
undoubtedly it would have been still up there and then the other question is
what they have taken that action
I'll were it not for the revelations that we have seen
I am from these unauthorized leaks from Edward snowed
sir what goes on to talk about some a
some victories they have had in creating more transparency and in shooting down
some uva
the administration's attempts to punish whistle-blowers
any speaks a a growing concern
in the senate and the house as to these issues which i think is
a we are seeing actually play out today with this Amish
conyers amendment
also in maybe not coincidently Thomas Keenan lee hamilton
those who sat a on the top at the 9/11 Commission
wrote a op-ed today I believe it was in the
from in Politico
yes they wrote in part
the NSA's meta-data program was put into place with virtually no public debate
a worse impression it made worse by erecting unnecessary barriers to public
understanding
via denials and misleading statements from senior administration officials
when the congress in the courts work in secret when massive amounts of data are
collected from Americans in enterprises
went government's power intrusion into lies the ordinary citizens
augmented by the awesome power advanced technologies
is hugely expanded without public debate or discussion over seven years
then our sense of constitutional process and accountability is deeply offended
officials insist that the right balance has been struck between security and
privacy
but how would we know when all the decisions have been made in secret
with almost no oversight