James Clapper Position Under Fire After Claimed Ignorance — Transcript

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1. 0:00Director of National Intelligence James
2. 0:02Clapper is under Fire for statements he
3. 0:04made before Congress that suggested he
4. 0:06had no knowledge about federal
5. 0:07government programs that collected data
6. 0:10on millions of Americans phone calls and
7. 0:12internet activities
8. 0:14in March Clapper said at a senate
9. 0:16intelligence Committee hearing that he
10. 0:18was not aware that the National Security
11. 0:20Agency was involved in such large-scale
12. 0:22efforts
13. 0:23the questioning of clapper's statements
14. 0:26follow Blockbuster news last week that
15. 0:28the federal government has since 9 11
16. 0:30spent logging Millions perhaps billions
17. 0:32of calls and internet activities and as
18. 0:35the nsa's top official goes before the
19. 0:37same senate committee for a closed-door
20. 0:39briefing on the issue
21. 0:41does the NSA collect any type of data at
22. 0:44all on millions or hundreds of millions
23. 0:46of Americans
24. 0:47Oregon Republican senior
25. 0:50Ron Wyden asked Clapper at the March 12
26. 0:52hearing
27. 0:53no sir Clapper responded
28. 0:57it does not
29. 0:58widen pressed
30. 1:00Clapper recanted and said not wittingly
31. 1:04there are cases where they could
32. 1:06inadvertently perhaps collect but not
33. 1:09wittingly
34. 1:10Wyden one of the staunchest critics of
35. 1:13government surveillance programs said
36. 1:15Tuesday that Clapper did not give him a
37. 1:17straight answer and called for hearings
38. 1:19to discuss the two recently revealed NSA
39. 1:22programs that collect billions of
40. 1:23telephone numbers and internet usage
41. 1:25daily
42. 1:26Wyden was also among a group of senators
43. 1:29who introduced legislation Tuesday to
44. 1:31force the government to declassify
45. 1:33opinions of a secret court that
46. 1:34authorizes the surveillance
47. 1:37the American people have the right to
48. 1:39expect straight answers from the
49. 1:40intelligence leadership to the questions
50. 1:42asked by their representatives Wyden
51. 1:45said in a statement
52. 1:46Wyden said he first asked NSA director
53. 1:49Keith Alexander for clarity about data
54. 1:51collecting
55. 1:52and when he did not get a satisfactory
56. 1:55answer Wyden said he alerted clapper's
57. 1:58office a day early that he would ask the
58. 2:00same question at the public hearing
59. 2:02meanwhile the 29 year old American who
60. 2:07says he's the source of the leaks
61. 2:08remains in hiding
62. 2:10Edward Snowden the former CIA employee
63. 2:13and NSA contract worker was in a Hong
64. 2:16Kong hotel but reportedly checked out
65. 2:18after the release of a video Sunday in
66. 2:20which he claimed to be the source of the
67. 2:22U.S surveillance leaks
68. 2:23the justice department said Sunday it is
69. 2:26considering charges against Snowden days
70. 2:28after the guardian and the Washington
71. 2:30Post published stories about the phone
72. 2:32calls logging and an nsa-led program
73. 2:35codenamed prism that vacuumed email
74. 2:38instant messages and other internet
75. 2:40activities
76. 2:42Snowden has fled to Hong Kong in hopes
77. 2:44of escaping criminal charges as
78. 2:45lawmakers including Senate intelligence
79. 2:48chairwoman senior
80. 2:49Dianne Feinstein of California accuse
81. 2:52him of committing an act of treason that
82. 2:54should be prosecuted
83. 2:56on Tuesday a day after Snowden checked
84. 2:58out of the trendy hotel in the Chinese
85. 3:00territory of Hong Kong large photos of
86. 3:03his face were splashed on most Hong Kong
87. 3:05newspapers with headlines such as deep
88. 3:07throat hides in HK and world's most
89. 3:10wanted man breaks cover in Hong Kong
90. 3:13if and when the justice department
91. 3:14charges Snowden its next step will
92. 3:17likely be to ask the international
93. 3:18criminal police organization or Interpol
94. 3:21for a provisional request to arrest him
95. 3:24pending extradition to the United States
96. 3:27members of Congress said they will take
97. 3:29a new look at ways to keep the U.S safe
98. 3:31from Terror attacks without giving up
99. 3:33privacy protections that critics charge
100. 3:35are at risk with the government's
101. 3:37current authority to broadly sweep up
102. 3:38personal Communications
103. 3:41there's very little trust in the
104. 3:43government and that's for good reason
105. 3:44said Republic
106. 3:47California
107. 3:49who sits on the house intelligence
108. 3:51committee
109. 3:52we're Our Own Worst Enemy
110. 3:55a senior U.S intelligence official said
111. 3:57Monday there were no plans to scrap the
112. 3:59federal data mining programs that
113. 4:01continues to receive widespread if
114. 4:03cautious support within Congress despite
115. 4:05the backlash
116. 4:07the officials spoke on condition of
117. 4:09anonymity to discuss the sensitive
118. 4:11security issue
119. 4:12Clapper has also taken the unusual step
120. 4:15of declassifying some of the previously
121. 4:17top secret details to help the
122. 4:19administration mount a public defense of
123. 4:21the surveillance as a necessary step to
124. 4:23protect Americans
125. 4:25in other developments one of the
126. 4:27reporters who exposed the classified
127. 4:29surveillance program said Tuesday he is
128. 4:31planning on disclosing more significant
129. 4:33Revelations soon
130. 4:35Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian said the
131. 4:38paper is deciding when to release the
132. 4:40next story based on information in
133. 4:42documents reportedly given him by
134. 4:44Snowden
135. 4:45Greenwald claims dozens of stories can
136. 4:48be generated from the documents and that
137. 4:50the guardian plans to pursue all of them
138. 4:53Snowden faces decades in jail for the
139. 4:55disclosures if the U.S can extradite him
140. 4:58he says his sole motive was to inform
141. 5:01the public
142. 5:02in a video that appeared on the
143. 5:04guardian's website Snowden said the
144. 5:06surveillance programs are wide open to
145. 5:08abuse
146. 5:09any Analyst at any time can Target
147. 5:11anyone
148. 5:13any selector
149. 5:14anywhere he said
150. 5:17I sitting at my desk had the authority
151. 5:20to wiretap anyone from you or your
152. 5:22accountant to a federal judge to even
153. 5:24the president if I had a personal email
154. 5:27Snowden worked for defense contractor
155. 5:29Booze Allen Hamilton and says he was a
156. 5:31CIA technical assistant
157. 5:33Booz Allen released a statement Tuesday
158. 5:36saying Snowden has been fired and that
159. 5:38he was paid 122
160. 5:40000 annually not 200 000 as widely
161. 5:44reported
162. 5:45Snowden had worked for Booze Allen as a
163. 5:48contractor in Hawaii for less than three
164. 5:50months
165. 5:51company officials have promised to work
166. 5:53with investigators
167. 5:55Snowden told the guardian he believes
168. 5:57the government could try to charge him
169. 5:59with treason under the Espionage Act
170. 6:01but Mark Zaid a national security
171. 6:04attorney who represents whistleblowers
172. 6:06said such a move would require the
173. 6:08government to prove he had intent to
174. 6:10betray the United States
175. 6:12Snowden has said his sole motive was to
176. 6:14inform the public and spur debate
177. 6:17in a note accompanying the first set of
178. 6:19documents he provided to the guardian
179. 6:21Snowden wrote I understand that I will
180. 6:24be made to suffer for my actions but I
181. 6:26will be satisfied if the Federation of
182. 6:28secret law unequal pardon and
183. 6:30irresistible executive powers that rule
184. 6:33the world that I love are revealed even
185. 6:34for an instant
186. 6:36Snowden told the post he was not going
187. 6:38to hide
188. 6:39allowing the U.S government to
189. 6:41intimidate its people with threats of
190. 6:43retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is
191. 6:45contrary to the public interest he said
192. 6:48in the interview published Sunday
193. 6:50Snowden said he would ask for Asylum
194. 6:52from any countries that believe in free
195. 6:54speech and oppose the victimization of
196. 6:56global privacy
197. 6:58Snowden wants to seek Asylum outside the
198. 7:00United States possibly in Iceland the
199. 7:04guardian reports
200. 7:05Washington officials have acknowledged
201. 7:07all branches of the federal government
202. 7:09Congress the White House and federal
203. 7:11courts knew about the collection of data
204. 7:14under the Patriot Act
205. 7:16prism allows the federal government to
206. 7:18tap directly into the servers of major
207. 7:20U.S
208. 7:21internet companies such as Google Apple
209. 7:24Microsoft Facebook and AOL scooping out
210. 7:28emails video chats instant messages and
211. 7:31more to track foreign Nationals who are
212. 7:33suspected of terrorism or espionage
213. 7:36the chief Executives of Facebook and
214. 7:38Google have said their companies were
215. 7:40not aware of the data grab
216. 7:42officials say the government is not
217. 7:44listening to any of the phone calls only
218. 7:46logging the numbers
219. 7:48President Obama Clapper and others also
220. 7:51have said the programs are subject to
221. 7:53strict supervision of a secret Court
222. 7:56Obama said Friday that the programs have
223. 7:58made a difference in tracking terrorists
224. 8:00and are not tantamount to Big Brother
225. 8:03the president acknowledged the U.S
226. 8:05government is collecting reams of phone
227. 8:06records including phone numbers and the
228. 8:09duration of calls but said this does not
229. 8:12include listening to calls or gathering
230. 8:14the names of callers
231. 8:15you can't have 100 security and also
232. 8:18then have 100 privacy and zero
233. 8:21inconvenience he said
234. 8:23we're going to have to make some choices
235. 8:26as a society
236. 8:27however the president said he welcomes a
237. 8:30debate on that issue