Glenn Greenwald: James Clapper lied to Congess when asked if NSA is collecting data on Americans — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00So he does not intend to return to the
- 0:03United States. He intends to fight
- 0:04extradition. What else does he intend to
- 0:07do? You have been in contact with him.
- 0:09Is there additional information he is
- 0:11prepared to leak to bolster his and your
- 0:14claim that he is actually a
- 0:16whistleblower and not a criminal
- 0:18responsible for espionage?
- 0:24Sure. I think the the key definition of
- 0:26whistleblower is somebody who brings to
- 0:28light what political officials do in the
- 0:30dark that is either deceitful or
- 0:32illegal. And in this case, there's a New
- 0:34York Times article just this morning
- 0:35that describes that one of the
- 0:36revelations that he he enabled that we
- 0:39reported is that the director of
- 0:41national intelligence, James Clapper,
- 0:43went before the US Congress and lied
- 0:45outright. When asked whether or not the
- 0:47NSA is collecting any form of data on
- 0:50millions of Americans, his response,
- 0:51Director Clapper's response was, "No,
- 0:53sir." As the New York Times uh said
- 0:56today, even Clapper has had to say that
- 0:57that statement was absolutely false. And
- 1:00the very first conversation I ever had
- 1:02with Mr. Snowden. He showed me the
- 1:04folder in which he had placed the
- 1:05documents and labeled it NSA lying to
- 1:08Congress. That proved, as we reported,
- 1:10that the NSA is bulk collecting the
- 1:13phone records of millions of Americans
- 1:15indiscriminately. Exactly what Clapper
- 1:17denied to the Congress was being done.
- 1:20As for illegality, um the New York Times
- 1:22also said today that the bulk buying
- 1:25program exceeds the Patriot Act. And
- 1:27there's a living FISA court opinion that
- 1:30says that the US government that the NSA
- 1:34um engaged in unconstitutional and
- 1:36illegal spying on American citizens.
- 1:38that court opinion is secret, but he
- 1:40showed me documents discussing
- 1:42internally in the NSA what that court
- 1:43ruling is.
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