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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  June 10, 2013 10:00am-11:01am PDT

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," he says is the source of the leaks. a 29-year-old government contractor turns the intelligence world inside out. edward snowden's mother dodged cameras this morning in maryland as the hunt continues for her son who claims to be hiding in hong kong. this is someone who, for whatever reason, has chosen to violate a sacred trust for this country. the damage that these revelations incur are huge. >> my exclusive extended interview with national intelligence director james clapper ahead. ripple effect. british foreign secretary william haig cancels a trip to washington today to defend his government's intelligence cooperation with the u.s. before parliament. >> it has been suggested that we use our partnership with the united states to get around uk law obtaini ining information t
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cannot legally obtain in the united kingdom. this accusation is baseless. any data obtained by us from the united states involving uk nationals is subject to proper uk statutory controls and safeguards. in florida today, jury selection begins in the second degree murder trial of george zimmerman for the shooting death of trayvon martin. and worldwide concerns today about nelson mandela. the latest on the 94-year-old's condition as he spends a third day in the hospital. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we can now put a face and a name on the massive nsa leak to "the guardian" and "washington post." 29-year-old edward snowden. he says he was motivated by his hatred for the nsa's surveillance programs, programs vigorously defended by the director of national intelligence, james clapper, in an interview this weekend. >> the notion that we're trolling through everyone's e-mails and voyeuristically
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reading them or listening to everyone's phone calls is, on its face, absurd. we couldn't do it even if we wanted to, and i assure you, we don't want to. >> joining me now, chuck todd, nbc news chief white house correspondent, political director and host of "the daily rundown." nbc capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell. and nbc justice correspondent pete williams. pete, first to you. the justice department, i'm told, you know this better than anyone -- is all over this looking for mr. snowden. i'm told that he was in hong kong. they're not sure in the intelligence circles whether he still is there, and they are also looking at whether he had any conspirators. what do we know about this hunt? >> well, there are two issues here. first of all, the united states has to file charges against him, and they have not been filed yet, i'm told. it isn't enough to base it just on his statements to the press. they have to find some evidence, additional evidence, to get probable cause to arrest him.
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the second point is, as you say, finding him. the third thing is arresting hip and getting him back to the united states. now he said he went to hong kong because he thought that two help him avoid extradition. if that was his logic, wasn't good because the u.s. has a very robust extradition treaty with hong kong. he also talked about going to iceland, and there he might do a little better. politically iceland has shown some reluctance in the past to extradite people to the u.s. if they think it is a political prosecution, whether they would feel that way about this in a country that is very pro freedom, very pro internet. perhaps that was what he was thinking. but there is no guarantee that he could avoid it no matter where he goes. his third option would be to try to seek asylum. he said that he thought about that in iceland as well. but all of that is ahead of the curve. the first thing is charges and we're told they haven't been filed yet. >> chuck todd, there's also a lot of fallout here over the balance between personal privacy
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and national security. one of the questions i asked director claerp was, why do they have to vacuum it all up? i'm told that they are looking at ways to perhaps narrow the telephone aspects of this. >> well, before the disclosure of prison, especially spying on foreign nationals that they think might do harm -- >> under court order -- >> but it is clear in the same way that the cia did it in the '50s and '60s with phone taps, this is what they're doing to potential enemies at this stage. before that was disclosed you didn't see the level of outrage from the intelligence community. behind the scenes the white house was talking about, well, we understand why people think why was this classified. there was this sense that -- we saw very directly clapper declassified some of those things. he he claims did he so reluctantly to explain some of those things.
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then prison happened. i think it's changed a lot of the conversation. >> this is snowden speaking about what he claims he had access to. let's watch. this was with "the guardian" with glen greenwald. >> -- at any time can target anyone, any selector anywhere. where those communications will be picked up depends on the range of the censor networks and the authorities that that analyst is empowered with, not all analysts have the ability to target everything. but i sitting at my desk certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge, to even a presidentfy had a personal e-mail. >> kelly o'donnell, members of congress, leaders of the committees, mike rogers, dianne feinstein have said that that's not possible. there are fire walls there to stop someone like snowden. but he says that he can do this and there are a lot of questions among members -- you talked to senators and house members who
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want to know exactly what is the protection for americans in terms their telephone records and why they will have to be stored so long. >> so many questions that we expect today, some key staffers will get a briefing tomorrow on the house side. members will get a briefing. they have questions and they want members from the intelligence community who can explain some of this to come and have a real face to face with members of congress in a secure setting here on capitol hill. now congress has an oversight function and there's been a lot of discussion about congress knew. what i think has been fascinating to watch is how much congress apparently did not know. there are key members of the senate and house intelligence communities, homeland security, who are at a level of being able to have access and broader read-in on some of these programs than many other members. and then sometimes when members find out some things that raise concerns, they're constrained about how they can talk about it in public, which is why we have
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seen some senators try to use an appearance by someone like the director, clapper, at a hearing to try to ask questions to elicit information. there is a strong feeling that members of congress want to see a prosecution if the evidence lead in that direction with snowden as the self-identified leaker, and also a better understanding of what has been going on. there is some burden on members of congress, to, who have the opportunity to seek out information but have not done so. so not all 535 have been read in on these programs. >> pete, the other piece of the oversight is not just congressional. but it's legal. it's the fisa court. but that's an ex parte function. it is a government lawyer standing in front of an intelligence court's judge asking for a warrant, let's say, for these e-mails, for the foreign e-mails. that many would say does not give the kind of protection -- that's not adversarial. >> that's true.
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that's been controversial about fisa from the beginning. i guess you could say that whenever the police seek a search warrant when someone is under investigation, that's ex parte, too. the police don't say, we're thinking about searching your house, do you want to come down to the court and argue before the judge about whether we get a warrant. so a lot of those things are ex parte as well. going back to the bite you played where he said he has the authority to wiretap anyone in the u.s. now granted, he probably knows a lot more about this classified program than any of us does, but at the same time, i don't think we can assume that because had he his hand on these documents he has a full and complete understanding of all the legal authorities. everyone we've talked to about this said that if in the phone program, if the -- as a result of running a number through and a person in the u.s. was identified, that they then wanted to wiretap, then they would have to go in the normal course, out of the nsa's hand,
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out of the intel community's hand to the fbi to get a normal kind of search warrant or wiretap application that you would need to do any other kind of wiretap. everybody we have talked to has said that the nsa does not have the legal authority to do that. remember, in the bite he said i had the authority to do that. i think that's a real question. >> pete williams, kelly o'donnell and chuck todd, thank you all very, very much. senator john thune is a member of the senate republican leadership and joins me now. senator thune, what do you think should happen to edward snowden if he is charged and extradited? >> good afternoon, andrea. i guess i would number myself among those who believe that we got to follow the law and obviously we have laws on the books. if the laws don't work, we should change the laws. but if this individual, mr. snowden, broke our laws, then we need to go after him, we need to prosecute him. and i think that's what most of the american people would
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expect. whether or not they're sympathetic with what he was doing or not -- i'm sure there will be some who are -- i think that most americans believe that we're a nation of laws, we got to enforce the laws. >> that said, do you have concerns that the sweeping up of all of these phone numbers of americans, every phone call made, separately from the foreign e-mails that can then be pursued through a court warrant if there is a terror threat, do you think it is too broad? do you think it needs to be narrowed? >> i think that's a really good question, andrea. that's one members of congress are going to want to know the answer to. i suspect there will be a real push for congressional oversight of some of these programs. are we overcollecting? have these programs been successful? are members of congress fully briefed? and more importantly, too, the american people. i think those are all very salad questions, many of which are going to be asked this week and i think that hopefully we'll have an opportunity through some additional oversight to get members of congress more fully briefed, to get some of these
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questions answered. this is a very broad, far reaching collection program. granted, a collection that includes "meta data," doesn't include any confidential information other than phone numbers to be matched up maybe at some later time, i still there is going to be a lot of concern across the country and on capitol hill. >> do you think the congressional oversight is meaningful? were you fully aware of what you were vetting for, yea or nay back in december? >> i times this program has been retlid authoriz authorized, intelligence committees are involved and homeland security to some degree but most members of congress are given a piece of legislation to vote on and i don't believe that
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most members of congress perhaps going into this were fully aware of how broad this program was and so yes, you vote because you're obviously concerned about protecting the country. many of these tools have been used and been effective in preventing terrorist attacks and -- but i think now is more these details are starting to come out, there are going to be additional questions raised and asked and hopefully some answers given that will give us a better understanding, not only of how this program works today but how we might proceed with it in the future and the way that protects individual privacy but also gives us the necessary tools that we need to fight terrorism and to protect americans. >> what do you say to rand paul and some of the others who really are deeply concerned about the invasion of privacy? >> well, i think they raise a legitimate and valid concerns. i do think we need to get the facts. i think there is misunderstanding of what's
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involved. far example, meta data that's used is just raw phone numbers, it is just kept for a period of time. it's only used if there is some question about a phone number that needs to be matched up against that database. i think there's perhaps a misunderstanding out there around the country that this is -- this -- you're getting information about people's calls and that sort of thing which just isn't the case. but i do believe that there are a lot of our libertarian folks around the country who, any time you talk about this subject, are going to want to make sure that we're protecting the constitution, protecting people's individual rights and that's a healthy debate to have. it is a difficult debate because we live in a very different time. we got so many forms of technology now that are used by terrorists and we have to, as o a government, protect the american people from potential terrorist attacks. but find and strike that balance that also protects individual liberties. >> before i let you go, want to ask you about the immigration reform legislation that's being worked on. it's already on the floor. the bipartisan plan, as you
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know. kelly ayotte has announced her support. does this mean that you could see the possibility of weakening a filibuster and you joining in fact in supporting immigration? >> i'm going to make that judgment after it moves across the floor and we get an opportunity through the amendment process to see if -- how the bill gets changed, how it might get improved. but i think there is a very real possibility that they'll have 60 -- beyond 60, north of 60, in order to get on the bill and probably ultimately to pass it. the question is can change be made in the bill that might attract even more people to it and make it a larger number. >> thank you very much, senator thune. >> thanks, andrea. and president obama today marking the 50th anniversary of the equal pay act. the president says that, while things have improved, there is still a wage gap between the sexes. >> the day that the bill was signed in law women earned 59 cents for every $1 a man earned,
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on average. today, it's about 77 cents. so, it was 59, now it's 77 cents. it's even less, by the way, if you're an african-american or a latina. i guess that's progress, but does anybody here think that's good enough? >> no. >> i assume everybody thinks we can do better. >> yes. >> we can. >> yes, we can. >> when more women are bringing home the bacon, they shouldn't just be getting a little bit of bacon. your chance to rise and shine. with centurylink as your trusted technology partner, you can do just that. with our visionary cloud infrastructure, global broadband network and custom communications solutions, your business is more reliable - secure - agile. and with responsive, dedicated support,
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the director of national intelligence, james clapper, sat down with me exclusively this
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weekend to dispute reports of government snoopg into telephone calls and e mails. he insists there is a proper balance between personal privacy an national security. can you give me any examples where it is actually prevented a terror plot? >> well, two cases that come to mind, which are a little dated, but i think in the interest of this discourse, should be shared with the american people. they both occurred in 2009. one was the aborted plot to bomb the subway in new york city in the fall of 2009. this all started with a communication from pakistan to a u.s. person in colorado and this led to the identification of a cell in new york city who was bent on a major explosion, bombing of the new york city subway, and cell was walled up and in their apartment we found backpacks with bombs.
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a second example also occurring in 2009 involved one of those involved perpetrators of the mumbai bombing in india, david hedley. we aborted a plot against danish news publisher based on the same kind of information. so those are two specific cases of uncovering plots through this mechanism that prevented terrorist attacks. >> now americans might say, yes, but terrorists succeeded in boston at the marathon. terrorists have succeeded elsewhere and not been thwarted despite all of this information that's gathered by nsa. >> well, that's true. and i find it a little ironic that in several weeks ago after the boston bombings, we were accused of not being sufficiently intrusive. we are -- we failed to determine
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the exact tipping point when the brothers self-radicalized. and then it was we weren't intrusive enough. i don't mean to be a smart guy here, but just this is emblematic of the serious debate that goes on in this country between the two poles of civil liberties and national security and privacy. it is not a balance, it is not either/or. there has to be that balance so that we protect the country and also protect civil liberties and privacy. >> nbc news was told by one of your predecessors, dennis blair, that in fact one digit was inaccurately inputted back in 2009 and it was a completely innocent person whose telephone conversations was actually -- were actually eavesdropped on.
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>> there is no question and i certainly wouldn't want to leave the impression that this process, as complex and voluminous as it is is perfect. certainly it isn't. what we do try to do though is when errors are detected -- and understand, most of this is done through a computer process -- it's not being done directly by human eyes and ears. but the computer processes are directed by humans and when we discover errors, which in all cases that i'm familiar with were innocent and unintended, they are immediately corrected and any of the illbegotten collection is destroyed. this is all done with court oversight and court direction. >> there are people on the hill who support your work strongly, senator feinstein, among others, who say can it be narrowed? should we take another look at this? and in fact, ask the fisa court, intelligence court, last
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december during reauthorization can you report back to the court periodically and the court said no. the court operates without expay tar, without any counterveiling arguments. should that be a cause of concern? >> it certainly should be a cause of concern to americans. it is a concern to us. we have found ways where we can refine these processes and limit the exposure to americans' private communications, we will do that. in fact, senator feinstein has tasked us to look at such an innovation, specifically the nsa. and we owe her an answer in about a month. there are also, of course, people very, very concerned about civil liberties and privacy, among whom is, for example, senator widen, whom i
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have great respect for. he is passionate about civil liberties and privacy and he he is averse to, in this case, the second pat of your question, averse to so-called secret law. well, this gets to the issue of how openly these things are discussed, because while it's trans -- transparency is good for our system, others less ideally motivated are taking advantage of that. >> what do you say to the other senators who are not on the committees, not on the intelligence committees, who have been invited in to read before these laws are reauthorized and now are criticizing? is there enough information available to the rest of the united states senate, and the rest of the members of congress, who are not expert when they go in before they vote? >> well -- >> do they know what they're voting on? >> i trust so. obviously our primary
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congressional interlocutors are two intelligence oversight committees, both in the house and in the senate, so they are used to operating in a classified environment. their staffs are. so that is primarily with whom we do business. but, on a piece of legislation, say in this case the fisa amendment act, we provided detailed briefings and papers on this to explain the law, explain the process it was governing. i can't comment on whether senators or representatives were all able to avail themselves, but that material was made available and certainly if any member, whether on the intelligence committee or judiciary committee or any other committee, would -- who had asked for a specific briefing or follow-up questions, we certainly would have responded. the rest of that will be online.
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meanwhile, in california, authorities have identified the suspected gunman in that deadly rampage in snon anta monica las friday. 23-year-old john zawahiri was heavily armed when he gunned down five people near a college campus carrying an assault rifle and as many as 1,800 rounds of ammunition. law enforcement sources tell nbc news that online postings suggests zawahiri suffered from emotional and psychological problems. those sources also tell nbc that nothing so far in those posts indicate the gunman subscribed to extremist ideologies. two of the dead in friday's rampage, a pair found in a burning home, were identified as his 55-year-old father and his 24-year-old brother. gunman was fatally shot by police. he died at the scene. n househol. but one dark stormy evening... there were two things i could tell: she needed a good meal and a good family. so we gave her what our other cats love, purina cat chow complete. it's the best because it has something for all of our cats!
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guilty saying he shot martin in self-defense. nbc's kerry sanders is live in sanford, florida. kerry, what have you seen so far in court today? >> reporter: it is an indication of how things are going to move, very u dishjudiciously and very slowly. george zimmerman aprifd in court today wearing a bulletproof wife along with his wife. prospective jurors are downstairs in another area of the courthouse. it will be staggered over the week. 500 have been summoned. they've started to give questionnaires to the jurors. they'll thumb through those questionnaires and write out answers. then the questionnaires are brought and they have already done this, over to the clerk's office. they make some copies of them, though questionnaires are then brought into the courtroom for both defense attorneys and prosecuting attorneys to go through them, sort them out and see what answers are there. this is a process of picking which six jurors will sit on the jury and decide guilt or innocence here.
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as you know, george zimmerman has said that he is not guilty, that he was acting in self-defense on that february night when he admits he shot and killed 17-year-old trayvon martin. the attorneys believe many times, and here, that picking the jury in many cases are where they win or lose the case because it is ultimately the jury that make the decision on guilt or innocence. it is a very intense process and it will be very slow. maybe two weeks. could even take three weeks. >> it is critically important, as you point out. thank you. george zimmerman has sued nbc universal for defamation and the company has strongly denied his allegations. drama on the court at yesterday's french open final. not talking about nadal's serve. a shirtless masked protesters with a lit flare jumped all the way on to the court interrupting play as rafael nadal and david
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part of our goal to inspire more than three million people to rediscover the joy of being active this summer. see the difference all of us can make... together. we are following the latest developments from south africa for news on health of former president nelson mandela. he's currently listed in serious condition. nbc's keir simmons is live for us in johannesburg. what do we know from the hospital about his health? >> reporter: hi, andrea, good afternoon. well, we have seen his former wife arrive at the hospital, winnie mandela, who of course was with him through much of the antiapo antiapartheid struggle. she was there to see him at the hospital where he is being treated. as well we've seen cars come and go with family members inside. we're toll only the very closest
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able to go and see him at this point. his doctors describe him in a serious condition but stable. today the update was that his condition remains unchanged. perhaps we don't reflect enough on how much of a sacrifice for his family it was when he was in prison for 27 years, they were without him. now of course they are with him in the hospital. this father of the nation surrounded by children and grandchildren. today south africa's president called on the country to pray for nelson mandela and to pray for his family. andrea? >> thank you so much, keir simmons. when i sat down with the director of national intelligence this weekend, james clapper talked about the leaker. this was 24 hours before edward snowed didn't reveal himself to be the source of the top-secret documents, but watch his take. >> this is someone who, for whatever reason, has chose ton violate a sacred trust for this country.
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so we all look upon it, no matter what his or her motivation may have been, the damage that these revelations incur are huge. and so i hope we're able to track down whoever is doing this because it is extremely damaging -- and it affects the safety and security of this country. >>ky assume from that --ky infer that there has been a referral to track down the leak? >> absolutely. nsa has filed a crimes report on this already. is there and some people would regard this person, he or she, as a whistle-blower and hero for letting the american public know that their e-mails are being tapped into and that their privacy has been invaded. >> there are legitimate outlets for anyone within the intelligence community who feels that some law is being violated for reporting fraud, waste an
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abuse, and there are legitimate mechanisms for reporting that, both within the executive and to the congress without damaging national security. and for whatever reason, the person or persons doing this chose not to use those legitimate outlets. >> how do these programs work? some of the internet providing deny that they're cooperating. so they seem to not be knowing or -- >> the internet -- the service providers -- i'll speak generically -- are doing this, but it is done under a court order and under legally mandated -- legislatively mandated procedures, and it's -- these are very precise, they're not indefinite. they have to be renewed and the court has to approve them. >> the president and you and the others in this top-secret world are saying trust us. we have your best interests, we're not invading your privacy. we're going after bad guys. we're not going after your
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personal lives. what happens when you're gone, when this president or others in our government are gone. there can be another white house that breaks the law. there could be another dni who does really bad things. we listened during the water gate years to those tapes with the president of the united states saying firebomb the brookings institution. what do you say to the american people about the next regime who has all of these secrets? do they live forever somewhere in a computer? >> no, they don't live forever. that's a valid concern, i think. people come and go, presidents come and out, dnis will come and go. but i think what is important about our system is our system of laws, our checks and
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balances. i think the founding fathers would actually be pretty impressed with how what they wrote and the organizing principles for this country are still valid and are still used even in -- to regulate technology that they never foresaw. so that's timeless. those are part of our institutions. are there people that will abuse those institutions? yes. but we have a system that sooner or later -- mostly sooner, these days -- those misdeeds are found out. >> and the data that are collected, do they live forever? >> no, they do not. there are strict retention period limits which are overseen -- well, first by me an the attorney, by the court system, and by the congress, to ensure that the data that is collected is not held in perpetuity. >> jeremy bash was chief counsel
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at the house intelligence committee and chief of staff at both cia and department of defense, jeremy, thanks very much for coming back. because you know so much about how this works and there is a lot of confusion. now that snowden has come out, there is a lot that's sitting on the table that has to be rebutted or responded to. first of all, what is the fbi doing now? you had someone who we understand from our sources was in hong kong, may have left, may have check out of that hotel. is there a global hunt for him? >> the fbi is probably working on multiple tracks, andrea. first they want to know, did he steal other documents? is this all there is or does very more? second, i would say they want to know does he have accomplices? what about that girlfriend? what about other family members? are there other people who may have helped him in stealing, copying, them disseminating this classified information? and third, what does the chinese government know at this hour, because obviously we'd be concerned if some of that very sensitive information that he has would fall into the hands of a foreign government.
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>> now the chinese government which controls hong kong, even though we have an extradition treaty with hong kong. but hong kong does belong to china now since 1999. so can china now leverage that? they have access to him or -- nobody leaves china without the chinese knowing it. >> i think this is a decision that will probably be made at the highest levels of the chinese government and it may come into the bilateral relationship between china and the united states. i think the argument that the united states is going to make, he's not a whistle-blower because there was nothing to blow the whistle on. programs were legal, they were tli authorized, carefully overseen by the courts and carefully overseen by our congress. you don't copy classified documents and make a run for the border. that's not whistle blowing. >> you say they were carefully overseen by congress but more and more house and senate members are saying, and even members of the intelligence committee saying we couldn't bring our staffs in, we're not expert enough to know what's
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going on. is that oversight? >> 40 years ago in the 1970s when congress set up the two select committees on intelligence in the house and senate, they made basically a special bargain and said we'll give two committees in congress, one in each chamber, cleared spaces to look at sensitive information. staff will go through security clearances and those committees will in effect be a prom zi for the rest of congress. there are other members that look at these programs -- leadership, appropriators, armed services members, judiciary members. there is a vantage point into some of these programs by many, many members of congress. >> how does a 29-year-old man named edward snowden get access to these top secrets? he's very young, he's only been with boozal len, they say for less than three months? >> we do have in our intelligence community and military some very young people, many of whom have access to highly sensitive information. the question of how he slipped in, how he went through the
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polygraph, his background investigations, made copies of the documents, then slipped out, that's a question investigators will want to know, that the nsa will want to know. >> for instance, he says in his online video yesterday with glen greenwald"the guardian" he became disenchanted. how does he get past the polygraph -- >> there's a lot to have disenchanted with life, andrea. the response is not to go break the law. response to work through the process. >> how does he pass the polygraph and get hired. >> that's a question our security professionals have to have answer and explain to leaders of the agencies. but there is a process for blowing the whistle if you think there's been something inappropriate. this is the website from the nsa. it makes the clear contractors are bound by this as well. if you have a complaint, you go through this process. talk to your supervisor, if you don't trust him, go to the
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inspector general. you don't trust the inspector general, go to congress. there are multiple ways to make your concerns known. running for china is not one of them. >> we'll be right back. join us at projectluna.com
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joining me now, expert on national security and privacy. where do you think the balance rests right now? we keep being reassured by intelligence officials that personal privacy is not violated here. what is your experience? >> there is a balance that's established in the statute and in particular, if we're talking about the domestic telephone records, the balance is struck with the need to have some reason to believe that this information is relevant to an existing terrorist or counterespionage investigation. and the problem in what we've heard about the reports of this program is that the government appears to have gone beyond the balance that's struck in the
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statute and has instead been collecting all americans' information, telephone records, and deciding later whether those records are relevant. so that's the concern. >> their argument is that the phone companies refuse to keep the records for more than 90 days. so if they can't force the phone companies to spend the money to store all these data, that the government has to do it so that then they have something to look back at if they see a subsequent threat. >> sure. so then the government needs to make a public case for why needs to have this conversation going so far back and it needs to push to change the law so that it has that authority. under the statute as wristen, i don't think it does have that authority and tweaking with the statute in secret is not the way to deal with limitations in the statute that are problematic. >> do you see this as two separate issues, the telephone issue and also the separate prism which is, as i understand it, just a tool, an internet
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tool that was developed but it is really the 702 authority under the fisa act which permits e-mails and other data of foreigners to be looked at. >> it is actually not as different as you might think. telephone records issue is concerning because it sweeps th. the telephone issue concerns u.s., americans' information. the prism program is intended to target foreign nationals. >> you think it doesn't? >> well, even on its own face, apparently there's a tremendous amount of what they call incidental collection of information about u.s. persons. apparently the standard for how confident the government has to be that this is a foreign national is 51%. so given the volume of data we're talking about, that's a lot of very sensitive information about u.s. persons that's being collected. >> and what do you think the fix is? >> well, i could say that the fix is to adhere to the law as written and that would be in the case of section 21537 -- 215.
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in the case of other foreign intelligence program, they pretty much invited this to happen. i think we need to have, as president obama said, a public debate over whether or not we're sacrificing too much of our privacy. we need better information about what these programs are. >> thank you so much. thanks for being here today. and we want to welcome hillary clinton to twitter. she tweeted for the first time today. her husband bill clinton welcome here with this tweet. does twitter have a family share plan? great to be here wi with @hillaryclinton a and @chelseaclinton. looking forward to tweets from hillary. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] for dad's first job as dad.
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and a quick note before we leave you. we're following a developing story. no comment from the state department so far. earlier today cbs news reported it had uncovered documents that could show that the state department has coffered up
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allegations of illegal and inappropriate behavior within their ranks. the claims involve the diplomatic security service known as dss. basically, the secret service, the security force that protects the secretary of state and ambassadors around the world. they're also in charge of investigating any case of misconduct. cbs news' john miller reports according to an internal state department memo, several recent investigations were influenced, manipulated, or simply called off. among the allegations, sexual assault and the solicitation of prostitutes. the inspector general is apparently continuing to investigate whether that cover-up took place. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show on twitter. >> hi, andrea. in our next hour, the justice department now searching for the former cia contractor who admits
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he leaked information about the government's controversial surveillance program. who is edward snowden, and what do we know about him, including why he was discharged from the army. if he is charged, how will the united states get him back? plus, jury selection is underway in the trial against george zimmerman. we'll hear from trayvon martin's father and the brother of george zimmerman. and winnie mandela pays a hospital visit to her former husband. updates on nelson mandela's condition next on "news nation." [ female announcer ] it's simple physics...
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in parks across the country, families are coming together to play, stay active, and enjoy the outdoors. and for the last four summers, coca-cola has asked america to choose its favorite park through our coca-cola parks contest. winning parks can receive a grant of up to $100,000. part of our goal to inspire more than three million people to rediscover the joy of being active this summer. see the difference all of us can make... together. hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. news nation is following the first day of the murder trial against george zimmerman. this is heavy security outside the sanford, florida, courthouse. the high-profile nature of this case drawing this security, which sparked national conversation on race, guns, and
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florida's controversial self-defense law. right now jury selection is underway. george zimmerman was in the room as the first of the 500 potential jurors filed into the sanford, florida, courthouse. george zimmerman had pled not guilty to the murder of trayvon martin, claiming he shot the teenager in self-defense after martin attacked him. martin was unarmed. the shooting struck a major social media campaign which led to protests in cities around the country. it also ultimately led to the resignation of the sanford police chief. george zimmerman has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in online donations for his legal defense fund. this morning at the courthouse, trayvon martin's family called for calm. >> we also seek a fair and impartial trial. we ask that the community continue to stay peaceful as we place our faith in the justice system. we ask that the community do the same. >> and a short time later, george