The Facts Clapper has long indicated his discomfort about addressing confidential matters in public, particularly in response to questions from lawmakers. At the beginning of the hearing involving the exchange with Wyden, Clapper made the following observation: “I have serious reservations about conducting open hearings on the worldwide threat, especially the question-and-answer sessions. While I believe it’s important to keep the American public informed about the threats our nation faces, I believe that can be done through unclassified opening statements and statements for the record. As you also know, we’re ready to answer any and all of your questions in closed session. But an open hearing on intelligence matters is something of a contradiction in terms.” But Wyden’s statement indicated that the question should not have been a surprise and that Clapper should have been prepared for it. Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Clapper, did not respond to two days of inquiries. But in weekend interviews, Clapper indicated that he skated close to the line. In an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, he said that “I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner, by saying no,” though he also called his answer “too cute by half.” He indicated that his response to Wyden turned on a definition of “collect:” “There are honest differences on the semantics of what -- when someone says ‘collection’ to me, that has a specific meaning, which may have a different meaning to him.” One wonders why Clapper or his staff did not seek a clarification, given the apparent heads up by Wyden. Clapper apparently thinks the NSA “collects” only on specific targets — what he called, in the interview with NBC, “taking the book off the shelf and opening it up and reading it.” But that is a rather slippery answer. In an interview with the National Journal, Clapper said: “What I said was, the NSA does not voyeuristically pore through U.S. citizens’ e-mails. I stand by that.” But neither Clapper nor Wyden referred to e-mails during the exchange. Wyden in fact referred to “any type of data at all” — which presumably would also cover the phone records in the other classified program that has been the subject of media reports. It is important to remember that broad hints of these programs have already been in the media. In 2006, USA Today ran a major story titled “NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls.” The newspaper said that the NSA “has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans” and that “the NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren’t suspected of any crime.” Our colleague Bob Woodward, in his 2010 book titled “Obama’s Wars,” reported on three NSA code-word operations, SHARKFINN, RT10 AND RTRG (Real Time, Regional Gateway) that were “designed to speed the acquisition, storage, dissemination and availability of intercepted communications, including cell phone calls and e-mails.” RT10 made it 10 billion times faster, and RTRG “meant there was a way to capture all the data, store it, make it instantly available to intelligence analysts and operators, allowing the U.S. to react quickly in response to the enemy.” Woodward’s disclosures about this “breakthrough eavesdropping capability” are not hard to find, as they appear on page 7. And Wired magazine, in an article in March by NSA expert James Bamford, reported on the NSA’s new center in Utah: “Stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails — parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital ‘pocket litter.’” President Obama “certainly believes that Director Clapper has been straight and direct in the answers that he’s given and has actively engaged in an effort to provide more information about the programs that have been revealed through the leak of classified information,” spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:39:52 +0000