Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Who Runs The Government

Whatever one thinks of what they imagine they know about the specifics of our surveillance state, one would hope that a few more people would get upset about who our security agencies think is really in charge. Spoiler: them.

Sen. Ron Wyden says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had a day to prepare his answer to Congress that there was no widespread collection of Americans' phone records.

Clapper, in answer to Wyden's questions in March testimony, denied that any intentional and massive sweep of Americans phone records as part of counterterror surveillance was occurring. It was revealed in the last week that two such programs do exist and were recently renewed.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Wyden said when NSA Director Keith Alexander didn't provide a full answer to questions about the programs, Wyden gave Clapper a day's notice that he would be asked the question at the hearing. Afterwards, he said, he gave Clapper's office another chance to amend his answer, but Clapper declined.