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False testimony to Congress on NSA surveillance programs
On March 12, 2013, during a United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Senator Ron Wyden quoted the keynote speech at the 2012 DEF CON by the director of the NSA, Keith B. Alexander. Alexander had stated that "Our job is foreign intelligence" and that "Those who would want to weave the story that we have millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people, is absolutely false… From my perspective, this is absolute nonsense." Wyden then asked Director Clapper, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" He responded, "No, sir." Wyden asked "It does not." and Clapper said "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly." Notably, while making these statements, he hid his face behind his hand and rubbed his forehead, appearing uncomfortable. Many[who?] have noted that his body language was clearly suspicious, and may have indicated untruthfulness.
On June 6, 2013 Director Clapper released a statement admitting the NSA collects telephony metadata on millions of Americans telephone calls. This metadata information included originating and terminating telephone number, telephone calling card number, International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, time, and duration of phone calls, but did not include the name, address or financial information of any subscriber.
On Sunday June 7, 2013, in an interview with Andrea Mitchell on NBC, Clapper said that he had chosen "I thought was the most truthful or least most untruthful manner" when he testified. On June 12, 2013, United States House of Representatives member Justin Amash became the first Congressman to openly accuse Director Clapper of criminal perjury, and calling for his resignation. In a series of tweets he stated: "It now appears clear that the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, lied under oath to Congress and the American people," and "Perjury is a serious crime ... [and] Clapper should resign immediately," Senator Rand Paul said "The director of national intelligence, in March, did directly lie to Congress, which is against the law."
On June 27, 2013 a group of 26 senators sent him a complaint letter opposing the use of a "body of secret law". On July 1, 2013, Clapper issued an apology, saying that "My response was clearly erroneous – for which I apologize." On July 2, Clapper said that he had forgotten about the Patriot Act and therefore had given an "erroneous" answer.
The journalist Glenn Greenwald accused the media in the U.S. of focusing on Edward Snowden instead of focusing on wrongdoing by Clapper and other U.S. officials. Jody Westby of Forbes argued that due to the revelations, the American public should ask Clapper to resign from office, arguing that "Not only did Mr. Clapper give false testimony to Congress, even his June 6 statement was false. We now know — since the companies identified by the Washington Post have started fessing up — that lots more than telephony metadata has been collected and searched." Fred Kaplan of Slate also advocated having Clapper fired, arguing "if President Obama really welcomes an open debate on this subject, James Clapper has disqualified himself from participation in it. He has to go." Andy Greenberg of Forbes said that NSA officials along with Clapper, in the years 2012 and 2013 "publicly denied–often with carefully hedged words–participating in the kind of snooping on Americans that has since become nearly undeniable." John Dean, former White House Counsel for President Nixon, has claimed that it is unlikely Clapper would be charged with the three principal criminal statutes that address false statements to Congress: perjury, obstruction of Congress, and making false statements. David Sirota of Salon said that if the U.S. government fails to treat Clapper and Alexander in the same way as it did Roger Clemens, "the message from the government would be that lying to Congress about baseball is more of a felony than lying to Congress about Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights" and that the "message would declare that when it comes to brazen law-breaking, as long as you are personally connected to the president, you get protection rather than the prosecution you deserve."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clapper#False_testimony_to_Congress_on_NSA_surveillance_programs
On March 12, 2013, during a United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Senator Ron Wyden quoted the keynote speech at the 2012 DEF CON by the director of the NSA, Keith B. Alexander. Alexander had stated that "Our job is foreign intelligence" and that "Those who would want to weave the story that we have millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people, is absolutely false… From my perspective, this is absolute nonsense." Wyden then asked Director Clapper, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" He responded, "No, sir." Wyden asked "It does not." and Clapper said "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly." Notably, while making these statements, he hid his face behind his hand and rubbed his forehead, appearing uncomfortable. Many[who?] have noted that his body language was clearly suspicious, and may have indicated untruthfulness.
On June 6, 2013 Director Clapper released a statement admitting the NSA collects telephony metadata on millions of Americans telephone calls. This metadata information included originating and terminating telephone number, telephone calling card number, International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, time, and duration of phone calls, but did not include the name, address or financial information of any subscriber.
On Sunday June 7, 2013, in an interview with Andrea Mitchell on NBC, Clapper said that he had chosen "I thought was the most truthful or least most untruthful manner" when he testified. On June 12, 2013, United States House of Representatives member Justin Amash became the first Congressman to openly accuse Director Clapper of criminal perjury, and calling for his resignation. In a series of tweets he stated: "It now appears clear that the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, lied under oath to Congress and the American people," and "Perjury is a serious crime ... [and] Clapper should resign immediately," Senator Rand Paul said "The director of national intelligence, in March, did directly lie to Congress, which is against the law."
On June 27, 2013 a group of 26 senators sent him a complaint letter opposing the use of a "body of secret law". On July 1, 2013, Clapper issued an apology, saying that "My response was clearly erroneous – for which I apologize." On July 2, Clapper said that he had forgotten about the Patriot Act and therefore had given an "erroneous" answer.
The journalist Glenn Greenwald accused the media in the U.S. of focusing on Edward Snowden instead of focusing on wrongdoing by Clapper and other U.S. officials. Jody Westby of Forbes argued that due to the revelations, the American public should ask Clapper to resign from office, arguing that "Not only did Mr. Clapper give false testimony to Congress, even his June 6 statement was false. We now know — since the companies identified by the Washington Post have started fessing up — that lots more than telephony metadata has been collected and searched." Fred Kaplan of Slate also advocated having Clapper fired, arguing "if President Obama really welcomes an open debate on this subject, James Clapper has disqualified himself from participation in it. He has to go." Andy Greenberg of Forbes said that NSA officials along with Clapper, in the years 2012 and 2013 "publicly denied–often with carefully hedged words–participating in the kind of snooping on Americans that has since become nearly undeniable." John Dean, former White House Counsel for President Nixon, has claimed that it is unlikely Clapper would be charged with the three principal criminal statutes that address false statements to Congress: perjury, obstruction of Congress, and making false statements. David Sirota of Salon said that if the U.S. government fails to treat Clapper and Alexander in the same way as it did Roger Clemens, "the message from the government would be that lying to Congress about baseball is more of a felony than lying to Congress about Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights" and that the "message would declare that when it comes to brazen law-breaking, as long as you are personally connected to the president, you get protection rather than the prosecution you deserve."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clapper#False_testimony_to_Congress_on_NSA_surveillance_programs
