{"id":7088,"date":"2015-04-04T07:09:20","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T12:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7088"},"modified":"2015-04-04T07:09:20","modified_gmt":"2015-04-04T12:09:20","slug":"in-new-video-congressman-explains-why-his-fellow-lawmakers-couldnt-be-trusted-with-nsa-oversight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7088","title":{"rendered":"IN NEW VIDEO, CONGRESSMAN EXPLAINS WHY HIS FELLOW LAWMAKERS COULDN\u2019T BE TRUSTED WITH NSA OVERSIGHT"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/firstlook.org\/theintercept\/2015\/04\/03\/property-insurance-companies-flooded-dark-money-groups-tied-gop-cash\/\" target=\"_blank\">IN NEW VIDEO, CONGRESSMAN EXPLAINS WHY HIS FELLOW LAWMAKERS COULDN\u2019T BE TRUSTED WITH NSA OVERSIGHT<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Congressmen who asked about oversight of NSA mass surveillance and domestic spying in 2013 could have \u201ccompromise[d] security\u201d and were denied the records they sought because of concerns they lacked formal government security clearance, a former member of the House Intelligence Committee says in a newly-released video.<\/p>\n<p>The footage, from an August 29, 2013 town hall meeting, sheds new light on why lawmakers were denied key rulings and reports from the secret courts overseeing the National Security Agency\u00a0\u2014 even as the Obama administration and intelligence officials claimed that all NSA programs were subject to strict congressional oversight and therefore could be held accountable.<\/p>\n<p>In the video, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., then a member of the House\u00a0Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, discusses why Rep.\u00a0Alan Grayson, D-Fla., and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., should not and did not receive information they sought from the committee. The committee had previously declined to explain why the information was withheld, going so far as to tell Grayson that even its discussion of his request was classified. Because the committee, like its Senate counterpart, tends to be particularly sympathetic to the intelligence community, getting information to non-committee-members like Grayson and Griffith is potentially crucial to reforming U.S. spy agencies. And in late 2013, following revelations of mass surveillance by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, there were any number of reform bills pending.<\/p>\n<p>At the time,\u00a0President Obama defended bulk collection of telephone metadata,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2013\/06\/07\/statement-president\">claiming<\/a>\u00a0in a press conference that \u201cthese programs are subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate. And if there are Members of Congress who feel differently, then they should speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IN NEW VIDEO, CONGRESSMAN EXPLAINS WHY HIS FELLOW LAWMAKERS COULDN\u2019T BE TRUSTED WITH NSA OVERSIGHT Congressmen who asked about oversight of NSA mass surveillance and domestic spying in 2013 could have \u201ccompromise[d] security\u201d and were denied the records they sought because of concerns they lacked formal government security clearance, a former member of the House [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4619,4620,483,551,577,4618,765,1796,1237],"class_list":["post-7088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-domestic-spying","tag-jim-langevin","tag-liberty-2","tag-national-security-agency","tag-nsa","tag-oversight","tag-surveillance","tag-us-congress","tag-us-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7089,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088\/revisions\/7089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}