WASHINGTON The U.S. government needs to re-examine how far it can legally go in its search for terrorists, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall said after media accounts of the Obama administrations collection of telephone data and Internet communications.
On CNNs State of the Union program, the member of the U.S. Senates Intelligence Committee called for a reassessment of the USA Patriot Act. Udall, D-Colo, said he has seen no evidence the programs are worth the sacrifice of civil liberties.
Its unclear to me that weve developed any intelligence through the metadata program thats led to the disruption of plots that we couldnt have developed through other data and other intelligence, he said.One program collects hundreds of millions of U.S. phone records. The second gathers audio, video, email, photographic and Internet search usage of foreign nationals overseas, and probably some Americans in the process, who use major providers such as Microsoft, Google, Apple and Yahoo.The Democrat from Boulder County has raised the issue of rights and security for some time. The war on terrorism should not come at the expense of Americans rights, he said.I come from this at the start acknowledging terrorism is a real threat, that we have to protect the American people, Udall said on the Sunday morning news show. At the same time I also believe the Bill of Rights is one of the most powerful tools, or even weapons, we have in this fight.The snooping programs were first reported in a series of articles published by The Guardian newspaper. On Sunday, it identified Edward Snowden, 29, an American who works as contract employee at the National Security Agency, as the source of the disclosures.
Udalls questioning of the program came as the Obama administration faced fresh anger at home and abroad over U.S. spy programs that track phone and Internet messages around the world in the hope of thwarting terrorist threats. But a senior intelligence official said there are no plans to end the secretive surveillance systems.Snowden, an employee with government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, whose identity was revealed at his own request, has fled to Hong Kong in hopes of escaping criminal charges.Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee and supports the surveillance, accused Snowden of committing an act of treason and said he should be prosecuted.
Coolly but firmly, officials in Germany and the European Union issued complaints about two National Security Agency programs that target suspicious foreign messages potentially including phone numbers, email, images, video and other online communications transmitted through U.S. providers. The chief British diplomat felt it necessary to try to assure Parliament that the spy programs do not encroach on U.K. privacy laws.
And in Washington, members of Congress said they would take a new look at potential ways to keep the U.S. safe from terror attacks without giving up privacy protections that critics charge are at risk with the governments current authority to broadly sweep up personal communications.
Theres very little trust in the government, and thats for good reason, said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who sits on the House Intelligence Committee. Were our own worst enemy.
Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was considering how Congress could limit the amount of data spy agencies seize from telephone and Internet companies including restricting the information to be released only on an as-needed basis.
Its a little unsettling to have this massive data in the governments possession, King said.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said there are no plans to scrap the programs that, despite the backlash, continue to receive widespread if cautious support within Congress. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive security issue.
National Intelligence Director James Clapper has taken the unusual step of declassifying some of the previously top secret details to help the administration mount a public defense of the surveillance as a necessary step to protect Americans.
One of the NSA programs gathers hundreds of millions of U.S. phone records to search for possible links to known terrorist targets abroad. The other allows the government to tap into nine U.S. Internet companies and gather all communications to detect suspicious behavior that begins overseas.
