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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

Margaret Warner
Senior Correspondent, PBS News Hour
KQED 12/13/2013
Warner: Today, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported that one advisory group has drafted a host of recommendations, including new rules for collecting and storing phone data and tighter standards for spying on foreign leaders.
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Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-Oregon), Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
KQED 12/13/2013
Wyden: on this whole matter of collecting millions and millions of phone records, on law-abiding Americans. Now this country wants to be safe. And all of us in the intelligence committee know it's a dangerous world. But the evidence does not support the proposition that there is a significant measure of safety that's added as a result of collecting all these record on law-abiding Americans.
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Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-Oregon), Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
KQED 12/13/2013
Warner: the head of the NSA Keith Alexander said in testimony that 50 terrorist plots had been foiled by this exhaustive surveillance. You don't buy that? I mean you're a member of the intelligence committee. Wyden: Congressional testimony doesn't support that proposition. In fact, John Inglis, one of the deputies there when he was asked to actually asked to unpack that assertion, that really found when he had to address it specifically, that it was at most a couple. And part of this is that there has been, what I call a culture of misinformation among the intelligence, you know, leadership. Consistently over the last few years, the intelligence leadership has said one thing in public and then quite another in private.
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Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-Oregon), Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
KQED 12/13/2013
Warner: Do you think the NSA has been given license to collect data overseas in too aggressive a manner? Is the technology outstripping the policy? Wyden: There's no question that the technology has dramatically changed this debate. For example, it used to be that because there were technological limitations, those technological limitations provided a measure of privacy for Americans. Now with essentially no technological limitations, the technology can do practically anything, the only way to strike the appropriate balance between liberty and security is to embed that balance in the law.
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Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-Oregon), Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
KQED 12/13/2013
Warner: What did you make of the eight big U.S.-based internet giants this week, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft coming out and actually saying they thought the balance between the power of the state and the rights of individuals has gotten out of whack. Wyden: The statement from the companies has enormous implications. One very thoughtful technology organization, which Intel belongs to, an important employer in my state, estimated that the damages in terms of lost revenues result of these NSA practices would approach, $35 billion between now and 2016. And I think it is going to be bad for the country, bad for their customers here. Bad for their brand overseas.
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Anderson Cooper
Host of CNN Anderson Cooper 360
CNNW 12/16/2013
Judge Leon a George W. Bush appointee called the program almost Orwellian and says the founding father James Madison would be aghast at the scope of it. All the same, he hold off shutting the program down giving the government 6 months to make a case for continuing it. The Justice Department had little reaction beyond saying they are studying the opinion and believe the program is in fact constitutional.
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Edward Snowden
Whistleblower
CNNW 12/16/2013
Cooper: There is this from leaker Edward Snowden today. A statement, “I acted on my belief that the NSA’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts. Today” he goes on, “a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights. It is the first of many.
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Glenn Greenwald
Journalist, lawyer, bolumnist, Blogger, author
CNNW 12/16/2013
Cooper: Should this vindicate Ed Snowden in the eyes of those who still believe he’s a traitor? Greenwald: how could it not vindicate him? Let’s just use common sense for a minute. Here is an American citizen working inside of the government who discovers that the United States government is doing things without the knowledge of the American people that is so illegal, so against the core constitutional guarantees of the constitution that a George Bush appointed judge today said that it's not even a close call. He said James Madison would be aghast if he knew that the U.S. government would be collecting extremely invasive data on every single American without any remote suspicion, let alone probable cause. And I think it’s not only the right but the duty of an American citizen, and Edward Snowden’s situation to come forward at great risk to himself and inform his fellow citizens about what it is that their government is doing in the dark that is illegal.
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Judge Richard Leon
D.C. District Court Judge
CNNW 12/16/2013
Cooper: A court ruling that deals a body blow to the NSA mass surveillance program. Once a top secret program until Edward Snowden revealed it. A program that can collect phone records on each and every call that Americas make. D.C. District Court Judge Richard Leon ruling the program likely violates fourth amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. He writes “I can not imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval.” Judge Leon, a George W Bush appointee called the program “almost Orwellian” and says that founding father James Madison would be aghast at the scope of it. All the same, he did hold off shutting the program down giving the government six months to make a case for continuing it. The Justice Department had little reaction beyond saying they are studying the opinion and believe the program is in fact constitutional.
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Jan Crawford
CBS Political Correspondent and CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent
KPIX 12/17/2013
Crawford: ruling yesterday for the first time a judge said this surveillance program, which collects telephone data from hundreds of millions of people is probably unconstitutional. In a 68-page ruling Federal Judge Richard Leon described the government surveillance program as “…almost Orwellian…,” “…a dragnet.” and what once would have been considered “…the stuff of science fiction.” He even invoked the founding fathers.
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