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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

Jason Chaffetz
U.S. Representative, R-Utah
CSPAN 07/17/2013
Chaffetz and Cole Part 7: Chaffetz: on private property. Cole: In general, I think the courts are saying that there’s a trespass theory that gives you a reasonable expectation of privacy depending on who’s property it is, whether it’s your own or somebody else's, how many other people are there. These are all of the types of issues that would go into that. Chaffetz: My time has expired, Mr. Chairman, this is something we have much more thoroughly understand. There is guidance out
Jason Chaffetz
U.S. Representative, R-Utah
CSPAN 07/17/2013
Chaffetz and Cole Part 8: Chaffetz: there and I think the committee should be able to see it. I yield back. Chairman: We will have another hearing and you can ask even more questions and a classified manner about questions you could not get answered here. We thank the gentleman.
Jason Chaffetz
U.S. Representative, R-Utah
CSPAN 07/17/2013
Chaffetz and Cole Part 4: Chaffetz: What other bits of information fall in this gap between metadata and content? What is this third category that you’re talking about? What’s the right word for it? Cole: I’m not sure it’s just a third category, Mr. Chaffetz . I think there’s metadata that was described by the court in Smith vs. Maryland. Which is the telephone records we were talking about and were covered by the 215 program that we’ve been discussing today. There’s content, which is the
Jason Chaffetz
U.S. Representative, R-Utah
CSPAN 07/17/2013
Chaffetz and Cole Part 5: Cole: actual, the conversations themselves, that people have, and there are any number of things that may fall in between those and it is not just a third category it’s probably a continuum. Chaffetz: What else would be in that continuum? Cole: Sorry? Chaffetz: What else would be in that continuum? Cole: it's hard for me to just hypothesize about all the many different things that could be out there and fall in the continuum. Chaffetz: There’s a report out there today about license plates and that information that’s being collected
Daniel Ellsberg
Author of
KQED 07/17/2013
Ellsberg: my concern is that the very existence of this capability chills free speech in a disastrous way. I can not see how there can be investigative reporting of the National Security community, when the identity, the location, the metadata, and really the contents of every communication between a journalist and every source, every journalist, every source is known to the executive branch. Especially one that has been prosecuting twice as many sources as any President before.
Daniel Ellsberg
Author of
KQED 07/17/2013
Ellsberg: Moreover, my even larger concern is: I don't see how democracy can survive when one branch, the executive branch, has all the personal communications of every member of congress, and every judge, every member of the judiciary, as well as the press, the fourth estate that I've just been describing. I don't see how the blackmail capability that's involved there can be -- will not be abused as it has happened in the past, including to me, by the way, and to other -- and to journalists. I think without that freedom to investigative -- bring checks and balances we won't have a real democracy. That's my concern.
Michael Mukasey
Former Attorney General under President George W. Bush
KQED 07/17/2013
Mukasey: That is a hysterically inaccurate portrayal of what information is available to the government. What is available are two kinds of information. One is so-called metadata which is simply a pile of numbers, numbers called and times. They’re not associated with particular people and the only purpose of having that is to have a database against which to check suspicious numbers from abroad that are documented to belong to suspected terrorists under the supervision of a court. And to query that database. That database consists of millions and millions of numbers, that's all. And it -- in 2012 it was queried 300 times by the 15 people who are authorized to query it. That is a microscopic amount of use. Although an important amount of use.
Michael Mukasey
Former Attorney General under President George W. Bush
KQED 07/17/2013
Mukasey: So far as surveillance conducted abroad, our friends spy on us, and we spy on them. That is an open secret. And has been for years. And I seriously doubt that any of them would be either surprised or actually disturbed to hear it. And to say that the Russians and the Chinese would like to have access to these techniques is to prove my point. The Russians and the Chinese now do have access to them thanks to there having access to Mr. Snowden's computer whether he likes it or not because he was in China. The Chinese were perfectly capable of taking what was in his computers and I’m sure the Russians ready as well.
Daniel Ellsberg
Author of
KQED 07/17/2013
Ellsberg: If I'm a whistleblower he’s a whistleblower (Snowden). I'm glad to hear by the way that there’s some dispute about that because in my day whistleblower was not an honorific term, it was more usually equated with traitor. So there’s been progress in that way. Now it’s something to argue about, about whether this person is really a whistleblower . And I would say there’s no question that he is and I'm confident that he is not a traitor any more than I am and I'm not or Mr. Mukasey. By the way when Mr. Mukasey says that the Russians now have access to what he has, I believe actually, what Mr. Edward Snowden has told as of today, former Senator Gordon Humphrey, he assured them that the people are wrong, he used to teach computer security to DIA and he was confident that even our own NSA was not capable of getting the secrets. I think it's mistaken to say that it was intentionally or inadvertently given that away.
Daniel Ellsberg
Author of
KQED 07/17/2013
Ellsberg: but in terms of the question of why we're spying on our friends I don't think we're spying on the Chinese in order to find Muslim terrorists may I suggest. I think that what has been revealed about the degree of listening in we're doing to the rest of the world is that that's hardly a major purpose in spying on France, or Germany or elsewhere, any more than it is here. The benefit to the government, the executive branch, it's not a benefit to us as a public. a finding out, in the case of the Chinese trade negotiations but any kind of negotiations they want, any kind of dissent, I want to say very specifically what doesn't seem to have come out. Russell Tice, a 20 year veteran not only of DIA and CIA but of the NSA, has stated, as have every other NSA whistleblower, William Binney, Thomas Drake, Kirk Weibe, have all stated that this is the tip of the iceberg, and that in fact NSA has not only has the capability but is now collecting and storing all the content of all these communications.
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