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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

Barack Obama
President
CSPAN2 08/01/2014
Obama: On Brennan, and the CIA, the RDI report has been transmitted. The declassified version that will be released at the pleasure of the Senate Committee. I have full confidence in John Brennan. I think he has acknowledged and directly apologized to Senator Feinstein that CIA personnel did not properly handle an investigation as to how certain documents that were not authorized to be released to the Senate staff got somehow into the hands of Senate staff and it's clear from the IG report that some very poor judgment was shown in terms of how that was handled. Keep in mind though that John Brennan was the person that called for the IG report and he’s already stood up a task force (to make sure that lessons are learned and mistakes are resolved).
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John Brennan
Director of the CIA
MSNBCW 08/01/2014
Todd: According to unclassified summaries of the report that's going to come out next week, five agency employees, including two attorneys, improperly accessed or caused access to computers of the majority of the senate select committee on intelligence in March. Of course CIA Director John Brennan had vehemently denied that charge when it was first made a few months ago. Brennan: The facts will come out, but let me assure you that CIA in no way was spying on the SSCI or the Senate. Todd: Well, that was March. Now the CIA admits, yes, it was spying on the senate. And in a statement, quote, “The Director subsequently informed the SSCI Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the findings and apologized to them of such actions by CIA officers as described in the OIG report. But senators on both sides of the aisle on Thursday expressed outrage with the agency, calling on CIA leadership to repair trust with Congress, including Oregon democratic Senator Ron Wyden who demanded an apology from the CIA Director himself.
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John Brennan
Director of the CIA
CNNW 08/03/2014
Brennan: it's just amazing. Nothing can be further from the truth. when the facts come out of this I think a lot of people who are claiming there has been a tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong. Crowley: That is CIA Director John Brennan in March saying his agency did not spy on intelligence committee staffers. Turns out yes, they did.
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Mark Udall
Senator (D-Colorado) Member of Select Committee on Intelligence
MSNBCW 08/06/2014
Kornacki: Does president Obama want this report to come out? He's committed to it. You said you want to hold him to it. Do you think he really want this report to come out? Udall: I do. As you know, I called for Director Brennan to step down recently. And I don't relish making that call, but I think we need a leadership change at the CIA. The Director spied, under his leadership, the CIA spied on committee. Then he denied that they had done So. and then he called into account or into question our voracity on the committee. And to me, it just signals that there is a movement to prevent this report from being released in the fullest way possible. I trust us as a country to learn from what we did, and to be better for it. And for the life of me, I can't understand why it would say it wouldn't work with us. And frankly, respect, separation of powers, and our oversight role on the intelligence committee.
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John Brennan
Director of the CIA
CSPAN 12/11/2014
Brennan: I agree that there were times when CIA officers exceeded the policy guidance that was given and the authorized techniques that were approved and determined to be lawful. They went outside of the bounds in terms of their actions that as part of that interrogation process. And they were harsh. As I said, in some instances, I considered them abhorrent and I will leave to others how they might want to label those activities. But for me, it was something that is certainly regrettable but we are not a perfect institution.We're made up of individuals and as human beings, we are imperfect beings.
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John Brennan
Director of the CIA
CSPAN 12/11/2014
Brennan: As I think we have acknowledged over the years, we have brought those mistakes, shortcomings and excesses to the attention of the appropriate authorities whether it be to our inspector general, the Department of Justice and others. the department looked at this for many years and decided there was no prosecutable crimes there.
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John Brennan
Director of the CIA
CSPAN 12/11/2014
Brennan: Finally as far as what happens if in the future there is some type of challenge that we face here, the army field manual is the established basis to use for interrogations. We, CIA are not in the detention program. We are not contemplating at all getting back into the detention program using any of those EITs. So I defer to the policymakers in future times when there is going to the need to be able to ensure that this country stays safe if we face a similar type of crisis.
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John Brennan
Director of the CIA
CSPAN 12/11/2014
Brennan: In many respects, the program was uncharted territory for the CIA and we were not prepared. We had little experience housing detainees and precious few of our officers were trained interrogators. But the President authorized the effort six days after 9/11 and it was our job to carry it out. Over time, enhanced interrogation techniques, EITs, which the Department of Justice authorized at the time to be lawful and which were duly authorized by the Bush Administration were introduced as a method of interrogation. As concerns about al Qaeda's terrorist plans endured a variety of these techniques were employed by CIA officers on several dozen detainees over the course of five years before they ended in December of 2007. The legal advice under which they were authorized subsequently has been revoked.
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John Brennan
Director of the CIA
CSPAN 12/11/2014
Brennan: When the President came into office in January, 2009, he took the position that these techniques were contrary to our values and he unequivocally banned their use. He has consistently expressed the view that these techniques did significant damage to America's standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners. Something I have experienced firsthand. But as the President stated this week, the previous administration faced agonizing choices about how to pursue al Qaeda and prevent additional terrorist attacks against our country. While facing fears of further attacks and carrying out the responsibility to prevent more catastrophic loss of life. There were no easy answers. And whatever your views are on EITs, our nation and in particular this agency did a lot of things right during this difficult time to keep this country strong and secure.
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John Brennan
Director of the CIA
CSPAN 12/11/2014
Brennan: But let me be clear. We have not concluded that it was the use of EITs within that program that allowed us to obtain useful information from detainees subjected to them. The cause and effect relationship between the use of EITs and useful information subsequently provided by the detainee is in my view unknowable. Irrespective of the role EITs might play in a detainee's provision of useful information, I believe effective non-coercive methods are available to elicit such information. Methods that do not have a counterproductive impact on our national security and on our international standing. It is for these reasons that I fully support the President's decision to prohibit the use of EITs.
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