Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Today’s House hearings on the NSA phone surveillance and PRISM

This morning I've been watching representatives of the NSA and FBI describe at Congressional hearings (House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) the details of the NSA phone and Prism programs. It all sounds benign and necessary--claims of 50 attacks thwarted. Deputy Attorney General James Cole, Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce, Deputy Director NSA Chris Inglis, and Robert Litt, general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (addressing misconceptions).

Two questions. Then why were the details so secret and our Congress so uninformed (it's been upgraded and approved twice once under Bush in 2005, once under Obama in 2011) and how can we trust the assurances of any agency after the IRS scandal? Cole says collecting and analyzing phone metadata does not violate the 4th amendment. NSA Director Keith Alexander will bring information on the thwarted attacks on Wednesday. Stay tuned.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/18/live-blog-nsa-hearing/?hpt=hp_c2

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