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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

Zoe Lofgren
U.S. Representative, D-CA
CSPAN 07/24/2013
Lofgren: I want to talk about the much ballyhooed oversight. Every year there's a report to the judiciary committee, annual report on section 215. This year, the report was eight sentences, less than a full page. To think that the Congress has substantial oversight of this program is simply incorrect. I cannot match Mr.. Sensenbrenner's brilliant remarks but I do
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Zoe Lofgren
U.S. Representative, D-CA
CSPAN 07/24/2013
Lofgren continued: agree that when we wrote the Patriot Act, relevance had a meaning and I would ask unanimous consent to place in the record a letter to Mr.. Sensenbrener from the department of justice that basically says because 300 inquiries were made the records of every single American became relevant. That’s a joke.
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Zoe Lofgren
U.S. Representative (D-CA)
CSPAN 05/22/2014
Lofgren: I must oppose The Freedom Act that’s on the floor today. This is not the bill that was reported out of the judiciary committee unanimously. I voted for that bill, not because it was perfect but because it was a step in the right direction. After the bill was reported out, changes were made without the knowledge of the committee members, and i think the result is a bill that actually will not end bulk collections, regretfully. As Mr. Scott has said, our job is not to trust but to codify, and if you take a look at the selection changes made in the bill, it would allow for bulk collection should the N.S.A. do so.
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Zoe Lofgren
U.S. Representative (D-CA)
CSPAN 05/22/2014
Lofgren: The transparency provisions have also been weakened. The 702 Section would no longer be reportable by companies who receive orders, and instead of the attorney general noting decisions that change the law, it's now sent over to the director of national intelligence. Regrettably, we have learned that if we leave any ambiguity in the law, the intelligence agency will run a truck right through that ambiguity. i think that's why all the civil liberties groups have withdrawn their support from this bill. The ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation, CDT, Open Technology. I would add freedom works and other libertarian groups have also pulled their support. Companies like Facebook and Google have pulled their support of the bill. Now, I hope that we will defeat this bill and come back together, because we do work together well here in the judiciary committee, and fix the problems that were created.
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Zoe Lofgren
Representative (D-CA) member, House Judiciary Committee
CSPAN 06/19/2014
Lofgren: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it's important to know that the Director of National Intelligence has confirmed publicly that the government searches vast amounts of data, including the content of emails and telephone calls without individualized suspicion or proximate cause when it comes to U.S. persons. Last week the director of the F.B.I. testified under oath before the judiciary committee that this information is used for prosecution and without a warrant.
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Zoe Lofgren
Representative (D-CA) member, House Judiciary Committee
CSPAN 06/19/2014
Lofgren: This amendment is simple. It allows us to get the bad guys but it also says use probable cause and the fourth amendment. It also closes a back door to a, technology holes. The broad support for this, I think, shows why it's important for Mr. Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, myself, Mr. Conyers of Michigan, Mr. Poe of Texas, Ms. Gabbert, Mr. Jordan of Ohio, Mr. O'Rourke, Mr. Amash, Mr. Massie, Mr. Holt, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Petri, Mr. Delbene, Mr. Farenthold, Mr. Sanford, Mr. Butterfield, this is all over this house of representatives, right to left, saying, yes, we need to protect our country but we also need to honor our constitution and especially the fourth amendment.
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Zoe Lofgren
Representative (D-CA) member, House Judiciary Committee
CSPAN 08/13/2015
Lofgren: Last year the house voted 293-123 to close these back door loopholes, but the rules committee would not allow the house to vote today to put these fixes into this bill.
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Zoe Lofgren
Representative (D-CA) member, House Judiciary Committee
CSPAN 08/13/2015
Lofgren: I believe this bill makes meaningful reform to a few of the surveillance programs but it in no way stops all of the bulk collection of U.S. person communications currently occurring. This bill won't stop the most egregious and widely reported privacy violations that occur under section 702 and executive order 12333. In a declassified decision, the FISA court said NSA had been collecting substantially more U.S. person communications through it’s upstream collection program than it originally told the court. With upstream collection, the N.S.A. directly taps into international internet cables to search through all of the communications that flow through it looking for communications that map certain criteria. Four years ago, the court found that the government is collecting tens of thousands of wholly domestic communications a year. Why? Because all your data is everywhere.
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Zoe Lofgren
Representative (D-CA) member, House Judiciary Committee
CSPAN 08/13/2015
Lofgren: No accurate estimate can be given for the even larger number of communications collected where a U.S. person was a party to the communication. The Director of National Intelligence confirmed the government searches this vast amount of data including the content of email and telephone calls without individualized suspicion, probable cause and without a warrant. The Director of the F.B.I. says they use information to build criminal cases against U.S. persons. This is an end run around the fourth amendment and it has to stop. Now, this bill did not create those problems. However, this bill doesn't correct those problems. Chairman Goodlatte stated during the markup of the bill that these issues would be next, but we can't afford to wait until the final hour of expiration to take action like we did with this bill. To do so would mean at least another two years of mass surveillance of Americans, which is unconscionable.
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