Skip to main content

Curated research library of TV news clips regarding the NSA, its oversight and privacy issues, 2009-2014

Click "More / Share / Borrow" for each clip's source context and citation link. HTML5 compatible browser required

Primary curation & research: Robin Chin, Internet Archive TV News Researcher; using Internet Archive TV News service.

Speakers

Saxby Chambliss
U.S.Senator R-Georgia, Vice-Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
Chambliss: Do we need to modify it? You bet. And Senator Feinstein and I did a good job of that considering 10 amendments within our committee, voting on all 10 of them, some of them passed, some of them didn't, and the bill came out of our committee on a bipartisan vote -- bipartisan vote. This amendment of Mr. Leahy has not even gone to the judiciary committee to give the members of the judiciary committee the opportunity to review it, to file amendments on it, to debate it in committee, and vote on it. That's not the way this institution has ever worked and it's not the way it should work here in a lame-duck session with time running out and particularly on this controversial and sensitive and important program as the 215 FISA amendment program.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Ted Cruz
U.S. Senator, R-Texas
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
Cruz: Many months ago the American people were astonished to learn that the federal government was collecting bulk metadata of personal cell phones from millions of law-abiding citizens. This legislation protects the constitutional rights of privacy under the fourth amendment while maintaining important tools to protect national security and law enforcement. This is bipartisan legislation that enjoys the support of the intelligence community and also the tech community. The bill is not perfect, but in my view we should take it up and consider reasonable amendments on the floor to make it better but it is imperative that we stand together united protecting the bill of rights.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator (D- Vermont), Judiciary Committee Chairman
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
The presiding President of the Senate: On this vote, the yeas are 58, the nays are 42. Three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. Leahy: Mr. President? Pres. Of Senate: The Senator from Vermont. Mr. Leahy Leahy: Mr. President, obviously I'm disappoint by tonight's vote. I'm not new to this fight. I mean, we've had six hearings on this issue. We had the interesting testimony of the head of the N.S.A. who talked about 50-some-odd terrorist activities that have been thwarted by what was in the law. But when he had to testify in public, it came down to possibly one. I mention that because people ask whether we had hearings. We had six.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator (D- Vermont), Judiciary Committee Chairman
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
Leahy: But the reason I say I'm not new to this fight, the very first vote I cast as a United States senator in 1975 was in favor of the senate resolution that created the Church committee. I've worked ever since to ensure a strong oversight of surveillance authorities. We found the Church committee that administrations of both parties had so badly misused the tools they had in the intelligence community and we tried to put in restrictions that would balance our constitutional rights and our security we needed as Americans. And we tried to do that and I think we did.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator (D- Vermont), Judiciary Committee Chairman
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
Leahy: It's why over the past decade I've consistently opposed extending the U.S. Patriot Act and FISA amendment sunsets without including meaningful reforms. The first sunsets were put in place by the republican leader of the house, Dick Armey, conservative republican and myself here in the senate. We joined together for the same thing, saying that if you don't have an ability to look at these issues on a periodic basis, then they'll be -- they'll go out of hand. I've fought the status quo every step of the way in these efforts but the broad coalition we built in favor of the U.S.A. Freedom Act shows we're gaining ground.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator (D- Vermont), Judiciary Committee Chairman
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
Leahy: And while I'm critical of those republicans who failed to answer the call of the American people who elected them to stand up and work across the aisle, those who reverted to scare tactics rather than working productively to protect America's basic privacy rights and our national security, I want to acknowledge the hard work and principled stance of several republicans Senator Heller, Senator Lee and Senator Cruz, as well as other republicans in the other body, including my initial partner in this effort, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. They've been true partners in this reform effort, like Senators Franken and Blumenthal, Feinstein and others who worked with me on transparency and the FISA court reforms in here.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator (D- Vermont), Judiciary Committee Chairman
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
Leahy: 13 years ago this week a letter was sent to me, addressed to me, it was so deadly with the anthrax in it that one person who touched the envelope addressed to me that I was supposed to open, they died. They died from that. And we still don't -- haven't caught all the people involved with that. But notwithstanding that, Mr. President, when people came to me and said, well, maybe we should do away with some of our search and seizure, maybe we should do away with our laws and wiretap, after all, somebody tried to kill you, and if you had touched that envelope, would you have died. I said no. This is more than one senator, more than one person, more than one individual. This is the constitution of the United States.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator (D- Vermont), Judiciary Committee Chairman
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
Leahy: And if we, the 100 members of this body, do not protect our constitution, we do not protect our country, and we do not deserve to be in this body. Mr. President, I will continue to fight, and whatever years I have left in this body, I will continue to fight to preserve our constitution and our rights as Americans.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator (D- Vermont), Judiciary Committee Chairman
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
Leahy: And I would say to those both in this chamber and outside who went at this issue by fomenting fear, fomenting fear stifles serious debate and constructive solutions. That the carefully drawn reforms in this bill, And doing it at the last minute is all the more regrettable. This nation deserves more than that. This nation should not allow our liberties to be set aside by passing fears. America will always face the threat of terrorist attacks both outside our borders and inside.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator (D- Vermont), Judiciary Committee Chairman
CSPAN2 11/18/2014
Leahy: We didn't do away with all our civil liberties after the Oklahoma City bombing, even though that was an American who did that, someone who had served in our military, churchgoing, so forth. No more should we do it if the attacks come from outside our country. We talk about 9/11, we had all the evidence necessary to stop 9/11 before it happened. Everybody who has looked at that now agrees, that bothered to translate the material we had, if had bothered to listen to people in Minnesota who tried to warn about it, we could have stopped that. But because mistakes were made then, let's not take away the liberties of 325 million Americans
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Showing 1471 through 1480 of 1708