White House Plays Down Data Program

JONATHAN WEISMAN and DAVID E. SANGER | New York Times | June 8, 2013

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration tried Saturday to marshal new evidence in defense of its collection of private Internet and telephone data, arguing that a secret program called Prism is simply an “internal government computer system” designed to sort through court-supervised collection of data, and that Congress has been briefed 13 times on the programs since 2009.

After rushing to declassify some carefully selected descriptions of the programs, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, conceded for the first time that the Prism program existed. But in a statement, after denouncing the leak of the data to The Guardian and The Washington Post, Mr. Clapper insisted it was “not an undisclosed collection or data mining program.” Instead, he said it was a computer system to “facilitate” the collection of foreign intelligence that had been authorized by Congress.

Mr. Clapper also insisted that the government “does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers” of telephone and Internet providers, saying that information is turned over only under court order, when there is a “documented, foreign intelligence purpose for acquisition” of the data.

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Government surveillance programs renew debate about oversight

Robert Barnes, Timothy B. Lee and Ellen Nakashima | Washington Post | June 8, 2013

The disclosure of vast government surveillance programs has renewed the debate about whether the kind of transparent oversight that Americans expect from their government can work if it might compromise efforts to keep them safe from terrorism.

President Obama and his national security leaders have asserted that vigorous oversight of government surveillance of phone calls and Internet data exists and denounced media reports that brought the programs to public attention.

On Saturday, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. called the reports “reckless disclosures,” while also scoring the media for not giving “full context” to the “extent to which these programs are overseen by all three branches of government.”

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Obama Administration Declassifies Phone Records Seizures, Condemns Leaks

Zeke J Miller | TIME Magazine | June 6, 2013

Following more than 24 hours of unrelenting scrutiny and criticism, the Obama  administration moved late Thursday to declassify information on the Federal  Bureau Investigation and National Security Agency blanket seizures of American  phone records.

For years, the administration confirmed, the law  enforcement and signals intelligence agencies have gained access to  telephony “metadata,” phone phone records which detail phone numbers, devices  identifiers, and call locations.

In a statement, James R. Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence,  said he felt it was “important to address the misleading impression” left by an  article published by the Guardian Wednesday, which for the first time  revealed a court order requiring the seizure of Verizon phone records for  another 90 days under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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