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Curated research library of TV news clips regarding the NSA, its oversight and privacy issues, 2009-2014

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Primary curation & research: Robin Chin, Internet Archive TV News Researcher; using Internet Archive TV News service.

Speakers

Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-Oregon), Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN 07/28/2013
What we have done, and we have been very specific about this, is that we would like the government to describe what is the unique value of the collection of all of these phone records of all these law-abiding Americans that you can’t get with the existing and quite sweeping emergency authorities and court warrant processes?
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Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-Oregon), Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN 07/28/2013
The government will not state clearly what the rules are with respect to tracking Americans on their cell phones. I have asked this repeatedly at public hearings and the intelligence committee. The government’s official position is: first, they have the authority to do it. Second, they said they are not doing it now, but they will not spell out what the rules are today with respect to the rights of Americans, law abiding Americans, with respect to cell phone tracking.
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Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-Oregon), Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN 07/28/2013
The fact of the matter is that there has been a dramatic shift of something like a half of the country feels that, particularly the bulk collection of these phone records, is a violation of their liberty. I think that is what you saw on the floor of the House of Representatives this past week. I think it is especially important to note that A. there would not even have been a big debate on the floor of the House of Representatives eight weeks ago; B. you would not have had 200 votes, bipartisan vote, for fundamental changes; and C. this debate is (definitely going to continue. )
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Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-Oregon), Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN 07/28/2013
(Democrats and) Republicans trying to revise section 215 of the Patriot Act to ensure that when you try to spy on a person you have got to have some evidence that they are suspected of terrorism. That really is the bottom line. To do otherwise, to have just a dragnet surveillance where you vacuum up every one of the phone records, who people called, when they called where they called from, on millions and millions of law abiding Americans, I think will become increasingly unpopular.
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Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-Oregon), Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN 07/28/2013
I will indicate, as I did this week, that having that computer in your pocket (smart phone) increases the potential that certainly people could be tracked 24/7. And when the FBI director says in public forums when we have asked, and asked repeatedly, what are the rights of law-abiding Americans with respect to cell phone tracking, you can’t get an answer. Yes, I think there is reason to be concerned.
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Glenn Greenwald
Guardian Reporter
KGO 07/28/2013
Greenwald: right. George. One of the most amazing parts of this episode have been that top level national security officials like James Clapper really did get caught red handed lying to the American Congress, which everyone now acknowledges, about what the NSA is doing. It's amazing he not only hasn't been prosecuted but still has his job. And what that does is It lets national security officials continue to lie to the public, which happened in that exchange you just referenced. The way that I know exactly what analysts have the capability to
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Glenn Greenwald
Guardian Reporter
KGO 07/28/2013
Greenwald continued: do when spying on Americans, is that the story I'm working on for the last month, publishing this week, very clearly sets forth what these programs are that NSA analysts, low level ones, not just those who work for the NSA but private contractors like Mr.. Snowden, are able to do. The NSA, has trillions of telephone calls and emails in their database that they have collected over the last several years. And what these programs are, are simple screens like the ones that supermarket clerks or shipping and receiving clerks use, where
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Glenn Greenwald
Guardian Reporter
KGO 07/28/2013
Greenwald continued 2: all they have to enter an e-mail address or IP address and it does two things. It searches that database and lets them listen to the calls or read the e-mails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories, or Google search terms that you’ve entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to the e-mail address or IP address do in the future. And it's all done with no need to go to court. With no need to even get supervisor approval from on the part of the analyst. . There are legal constraints for how you can spying on Americans, you can't target them
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Glenn Greenwald
Guardian Reporter
KGO 07/28/2013
Greenwald continued 3: without going to the FISA court. But these systems allow analysts to listen to whatever e-mails day want. Whatever telephone calls, browsing histories, Microsoft word documents. It's an incredibly powerful and invasive tool exactly of the type that Mr. Snowden described. And NSA officials are going to testifying before the senate on Wednesday, and I defy them to deny that these programs work exactly I just said. Stephanopoulos: do we have any evidence that capability -- pretty explosive capability, that it was used? Greenwald: there's lots of evidence
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Glenn Greenwald
Guardian Reporter
KGO 07/28/2013
Greenwald continued 4: there’s been abuse on the part of the NSA. There was a report actually by your network, ABC news and Brian Ross, from several years ago, where NSA analysts, low level ones, got caught eavesdropping on the telephone conversations between soldiers and their girlfriends who were stationed in Iraq and America. There have been reports in the New York Times that the NSA has wildly exceeded the scope of the legal limits that the law allows. There are all sorts of admissions, including this week in a letter to Senator Wyden by
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