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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

Al Franken
U.S. Senator, D-Minesotta
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Litt: continued: We’ve been processing these as quickly as we can. You’ll note that the documents that were released contain some redactions of information that remains classified. It’s a rather time-consuming inter-agency process to reach a consensus on what can safely be released. Franken: my time is up. I think that we should create a strong permanent set of public reporting requirements that will empower the public to reach their own conclusions
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Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator, Majority Whip
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Durbin: In 2012, there were 300 queries that resulted in a search of records. We are told that there are three hops. In other words, If i was the subject matter of the search and i called Senator Feinstein they would accumulate all the records of my telephone calls to her and others. And then all of the records Senator Feinstein’s
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Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator, Majority Whip
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Durbin continued 1: telephone calls which may have include chairman Leahy. And now you have included all of his records as well. Mr. Jaffer, of the ACLU, will testify, at least speculate later that if i had an average of 40 contacts, that would mean that for my name, my query, you would accumulate 2 million phone records. 2 million.
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Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator, Majority Whip
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Durbin continued 2: For one inquiry. Now Multiply that in the year 2012, by 300. We're talking about 600 million phone records. Now Multiply that times seven years. So What has been described as a discrete program, to go after people who would cause us harm, when you look at the reach of this program, it envelops a substantial number of Americans. So can somebody help me with the math?
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Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator, Majority Whip
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Durbin continued 3: Have i missed something along the way? Or perhaps minimize that number? Inglis: Sir, if I could start apologizing for the format, the unclassified format. I’ll be discreet in my remarks but happy to follow up in any detail that you would prefer either here or at NSA. Now first and foremost, the are analysts charged to provide information that is truly useful to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And so in that regard, they try to be judicious about choosing when to do a second or under the court’s authorization, a third hop. Those aren’t always exercised.
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Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator, Majority Whip
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Durbin: It comes down to this, once establishing that number with al Shabab, this operative from al Shabab, you could certainly go after that person’s telephone records and all of the contacts that that person has made and his telephone records. The basic question we are faced with is, do you need five years worth of data on everyone in America and their telephone records so that the haystack which is pretty big -- Inglis: that’s a fair question.
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Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator, Majority Whip
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Inglis continued: if you don’t have the person’s records in the past then you can’t determine Durbin: The point that has been raised repeatedly is if we required the phone companies to retain the records for 5 years Inglis: that’s a very fair point and that is possible. Durbin: it would not be in the grasp of the government, but access by the government which serves the same purpose Inglis: I agree. But under the current legal framing the phone companies are not required to retain that for the benefit of the government. Durbin: how hard would it be? Inglis: I think it would require a legal change. I don’t think that’s hard. I don’t think that you can get there from here. You have to then
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Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator, Majority Whip
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Inglis continued 2: think about the rest of the attributes that are necessary to make this a useful venture. Durbin: Sen. Feinstein said ask him about the expense. Inglis: I would say in a classified session, i can give you chapter and verse on the expense. The expenses are different depending upon whether you chose the current implementation and you chose the implementation or you leave it at the providers. The govt. requires the providers to retain those records should bare that expense.
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Mike Lee
U.S. Senator, R-Utah
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Lee: We were unable to speak about this publicly because we have secret procedures being under taken pursuant to secret law. It has been a bit of a problem. What would you say -- getting back to you –Mr. Cole to my constituents. I understand what you are saying that we are collecting it but we’re not looking at it. We're closing our eyes. So don’t worry about it. What do you say to my constituents would say, i don’t want the government having this information.
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Mike Lee
U.S. Senator, R-Utah
CSPAN 07/31/2013
Lee continued: It’s not the government’s information. It still doesn’t make it relevant under the law. It still doesn’t meet what many of my constituents believe to be within their reasonable expectation of privacy. For the government to collect that much information, potentially information of 300 million Americans. Cole: i would say two things. First of all we have had 34 separate times
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