CNN The Situation Room July 31, 2013 22:34:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
snowden has talked before about how the program could be misused. i sit at my desk certainly have the authority to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge, to even the president, if i had a personal email. the national security agency issued a statement saying allegations of widespread unchecked analyst access to nsa collection data are simply not true. that it focuses on foreign intelligence targets. our tools have stringent oversight and compliance mechanisms, built in at several levels, at a conference of computer hackers, the head of the nsa, speaking at times over hecklers talked about the importance of the programs. how do we come up with a program to stop terrorism and to protect our civil liberties in privacy? this is perhaps one of the biggest issues facing our country today. at a hearing, senator dianne feinstein said fewer than two dozen people can access the sensitive information and they
involved as these programs begin shortly after 9/11, when all of us were worried about plots against the nsa agreeing with dianne feinstein who wrote an op-ed in the washington post who said there are still plots being hatched against the united states. why do you think the congressman is wrong? he s wrong because the program doesn t collect data against americans in violation of the fourth amendment. it collects meta data, lists of numbers which can only be accessed after there is an individualized warrant. it has to say, we have probable cause or we have ork latable suspicion that wolf blitzer, that might be true, i m kidding, is connected to some foreign terrorist or foreign terrorist group. and then a federal court, the fisa court, the foreign intelligence surveillance court act has it review the information and decide that yes, it needs the test. congressman, why isn t that good enough for you? meta data is data, it s the
civil liberties and civil rights. i just point out, and say a fisa-related program, it s a fisa-related program that uncovered an al qaeda cell in senator paul s own state of kentucky. so he just makes they charges about spying and snooping. he makes america the enemy. that reminds me of years ago when he had the always blame america first democrats, and we saw what happened to them. they were a losing party. i know ha he s thinking of running for the republican presidential nomination in 2016. i suspect you are as well, maybe governor christie there s a real division among republicans over the heart and soul of the republican party right now, isn t it? wolf, there is, and i think it s a debate we have to have. there are certain things more important than party. that s standing for real principle. the so-called principles of senator paul and senator cruz,
former worker of the intelligence community who has caused so much trouble for his old baosses was adding new fuel to the fire. the latest revelation from confessed intelligence leaker, edward snowden, is almost staggering. how the government, using a program known as x keyscore can access emails, web browsing, private chats, you name it along with what we already knew, the meta data that tell them about telephone calls and other electronic communication. the guardian s len green-week-old told the story. the guardian published slides from what appeared to be an nsa presentation showing how x keyscore works. the government can access massive database of information about an individual s online act difficulties by simply mailing email addresses or other information into a computer-generated form. it suggests that the government can access the internet browsing activities of individuals on facebook, yahoo, twitter, myspace, even cnn.com.