is that there were a series of phone call records stored from the washington, d.c. area code-- zip code, forgive me, and this was a glitch, essentially, because a switch missed read 202 for 20, which is the country code for egypt. we are allowed to collect a lot of records about foarp communications, but when you start collecting a lot of washington, d.c. phone records, it's another story. >> warner: now, had these violations been reported to the

infrequently, once in a while. >> warner: now, equally startling was your companion poos, what the district court judge, reggie walton, said to you about the fisa court's authority when you asked him about this. explain that a little more. >> so he's the chief judge of the secret spy court, the foreign intelligence surveillance court, that is supposed to be the lynchpin for the checks and balances on our government spying programs. it takes it really seriously. it does everything in a classified, secret skiff, but

foreign powers. and the violations that are documented in this memorandum from the n.s.a.-- remember, we're only seeing a partial window-- we're seeing what the n.s.a. headquarters reported in a year's time, not what all the other n.s.a. satellite offices offered, but in those instances they broke some of the privacy rules, and they broke some other rules that have to do with foreign intelligence gathering. the most striking probably #-r example that people are taken by is that there were a series of

plenty of busy dunkin' donutses themselveses -- reggie walton has a very busy docket himself-- and they have a very busy staff. soso those lawyers receive the information from the compliance allegations, and they elevate to the judge if it warrant it it and that's a very practical reason why it would be impossible to be policing and looking behind the government when they report thousands of violations. >> warner: now, doesn't this compliance or violations of

classified, secret skiff, but it's a diligent careful court. what he essentially said was there are practical limitations on what we can do and we must trust the government to report to us these violation because we can't independently, with our resources, ferret that out. >> warner: and why can't the court fer theatout, verifying the information independently? >> well, there are the obvious issues of resources. i mean, this is a court with a number of judges who all have plenty of busy dunkin' donutses

the idea in a fisa court you need opposing councilility, there needs to be somebody in there other than government lawyers? >> i think this should add fuel that we should be safely assured violations are happening and oversight is robust and full. as for whether a privacy advocate should be added to the court, that's really not my role. that's one of the things that's been mentioned on the hill. there are other people who have raised really good practical questions about how in the dead of night a privacy advocate can be summoned to weigh in on whether or not some collection can take place.

whether or not some collection can take place. that's something for others to hammer out. but it clearly, these two things together, raise questions about the assurances we've received from the administration.

>> it's incliewr from the document because it's really an n.s.a. internal audit is how many of these were reported to the court. a portion them should have been that have to do with fisa authorities, when you're looking into americans' records and we honestly don't have the rest of the chain ton what was reported. what we coknow is there are thousands of them and the obama administration has assured us and the public before this came out that it happens infrequently, once in a while. >> warner: now, equally

they look over it? we don't. i did find it interesting last night when we asked senator feinstein for her comment, ands you know, senator feinstein has been a pretty arch reporter-- >> warner: a member of the intelligence committee. >> exactly, and a very strong ally for the government and n.s.a. in supporting these efforts. she said that she feels the subsector, subsection of violation thereas she doesn't have authority over, she should now perhaps gain authority to review some of those that have to do with foreign