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[Feinstein is "open" to hearings but prosecute Snowden!]<br>
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<span class="timestamp published"
title="2013-06-09T13:13:37+00:00">June 9, 2013, <span>1:13 pm</span></span>
<h3 class="entry-title">Feinstein ‘Open’ to Hearings on
Surveillance Programs</h3>
<address class="byline author vcard">By <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/author/brian-knowlton/"
class="url fn" title="See all posts by BRIAN KNOWLTON">BRIAN
KNOWLTON</a></address>
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<p>Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee and a defender of the phone and
Internet surveillance programs that have come into public view
in recent days, said on Sunday that she would consider holding
hearings about them.</p>
<p>“I’m open to doing a hearing every month, if that’s
necessary,” she said on the ABC program “This Week.”</p>
<p>But, she added, “Here’s the rub: the instances where this has
produced good — has disrupted plots, prevented terrorist
attacks, is all classified, that’s what’s so hard about this.”</p>
<p>Ms. Feinstein’s remarks came two days after President Obama
commented on news reports, based on leaked government
documents, that revealed details about the surveillance
programs run by the National Security Agency. The president
said he welcomed a debate over the right balance between
security and privacy.</p>
<p>Other lawmakers who appeared on the Sunday talk shows were
largely supportive of the surveillance programs, often
outspokenly so.</p>
<p>Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said he was not
bothered by the surveillance. He said on the CNN program
“State of the Union” that the threat of terrorism was growing
steadily amid turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, but
that further Congressional and executive review of the
programs was “entirely appropriate.”</p>
<p>But Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, for years a vocal critic
of the government’s electronic surveillance programs, said he
was not convinced that a program to collect huge amounts of
information about Americans’ phone calls had led to the
foiling of any terrorism plots. He also called for a renewed
debate over the Patriot Act, which authorizes much of the data
collection.</p>
<p>Mr. Udall, a Democrat and a member of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, appeared to be distinguishing the results of that
program — which uses “metadata” associated with phone calls,
including numbers called and the duration of conversations —
from those of the newly revealed Prism program, which analyzes
data collected from foreigners who use Internet services like
Facebook and Skype. Several officials have said Prism has been
effective.</p>
<p>“It’s unclear to me that we’ve developed any intelligence
through the metadata program that has led to the disruption of
plots that we couldn’t have developed through other data and
other intelligence,” Mr. Udall said on the CNN program “State
of the Union.”</p>
<p>Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who is the
chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, spoke with
barely disguised anger about Glenn Greenwald, whose articles
in the newspaper The Guardian last week described the
surveillance programs. He added: “The National Security Agency
does not listen to Americans’ phone calls, and it is not
reading Americans’ e-mails. None of these programs allow
that.”</p>
<p>Mr. Greenwald “says that he’s got it all and now is an expert
on the program,” Mr. Rogers said on the ABC program “This
Week.” “He doesn’t have a clue how this thing works. Neither
did the person who released just enough information to
literally be dangerous.”</p>
<p>On Sunday, The Guardian identified the leaker as Edward
Snowden, a 29-year-old technical assistant who has worked at
the National Security Agency for the last four years as an
employee for various defense contractors. He most recently
worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, according to the newspaper,
which said Mr. Snowden asked to be identified after being
cited anonymously in earlier reports.</p>
<p>Before Mr. Snowden was identified, Mr. Rogers said of the
leaker: “I absolutely think they should be prosecuted.” Ms.
Feinstein, Democrat of California, said she agreed.</p>
<p>One lawmaker, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, called the
surveillance programs unconstitutional and said he would
organize a class-action lawsuit against the government through
Internet and phone companies. “If we get 10 million Americans
saying we don’t want our phone records looked at, then
somebody will wake up and say things will change in
Washington,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”</p>
<p>Ms. Feinstein cited two declassified cases in which
electronic surveillance data had been used against terrorism
suspects, in one case before a plot was carried out: that of
David C. Headley, an American who scouted targets in Mumbai,
India, in preparation for a deadly attack there, and that of
Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan immigrant who pleaded guilty to
plotting to set off backpacks full of explosives in the New
York subway. The Mumbai attack killed more than 160 people;
the subway attack was foiled.</p>
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