[governance] Sen Feinstein open to hearings on surveillance program

[Riaz K Tayob]

[Feinstein is "open" to hearings but prosecute Snowden!]



June 9, 2013, 1:13 pm


      Feinstein 'Open' to Hearings on Surveillance Programs

By BRIAN KNOWLTON 
<http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/author/brian-knowlton/>

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.

"I'm open to doing a hearing every month, if that's necessary," she said 
on the ABC program "This Week."

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."

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.

Other lawmakers who appeared on the Sunday talk shows were largely 
supportive of the surveillance programs, often outspokenly so.

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."

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.

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.

"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."

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."

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."

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.

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.

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."

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.



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