Lawmakers Say Lack of Candor on Surveillance Weakens Oversight


Official portrait of Director of National Inte...

Official portrait of Director of National Intelligence . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Peter Wallsten | The Washington Post | Reader Supported News | July 11, 2013

Lawmakers tasked with overseeing national security policy say a pattern of misleading testimony by senior Obama administration officials has weakened Congress’s ability to rein in government surveillance.

Members of Congress say officials have either denied the existence of a broad program that collects data on millions of Americans or, more commonly, made statements that left some lawmakers with the impression that the government was conducting only narrow, targeted surveillance operations.

The most recent example came on March 12, when James R. Clapper, director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the government was not collecting information about millions of Americans. He later acknowledged that the statement was “erroneous” and apologized, citing a misunderstanding.

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