only denied by snowden, it also is contradicted by several investigations, the fbi's been investigating and the nsa's been investigating. and the cia has been investigating. they've all been looking for the possibility that snowden's working with foreign governments. and at the moment, none of them have found evidence. >> were you surprised that dianne feinstein sort of said, i can't rule that out?

has beene nsa issue met with, and there have been absolutely loud credits on the left and right, and my own party, the progressives, hate this, but more so the mainstream of america has dealt with this with a collective shrug, because they understand that they would rather or this president would on the side of providing security for something like 9/11 never happened again, and what this president will outline is what does that look like, and my hope is, and this is what the white house really needs to do is be more transparent. i think the american people can handle the truth. we will have that speech on friday on the c-span networks, and run the gallup organization, a record high. 42% of americans identify as this is at itsd lowest level in 25 years. guest: i think about the nsa thing, it is generally generational. people that are in their late 20's, early 30's, especially looking environment, and knowing that out there whoguy has been listening in on their phone calls essentially since they were in college i think is very unnerving to them, so i think it is largely generational,

that's the type of data that the nsa has been collecting. that what does that tell you? >> the nsa have certainly adopted an attitude that they never saw a piece of data they didn't want to collect. i think it's true, the attitude really does seem to be getting now it may come in handy for something down the road. >> what do you think the president -- i'm sorry, what do

are returning to our continuing coverage of the nsa controversy, the changes the president says he is making to the programs today. david shuster has been here throughout the broadcast listening to the president's speech. david you say there is a loophole big enough to drive a truck through in this case? >> right. the president says he doesn't want the nsa collect these records. he would prefer a third-party. the phone companies has already said we're not going to collect it for you. and there's no solution right now. so the president is saying we'll confer with congress and figure out who this third-party is going to be, but until they can come up with a viable third-party, essentially this data collection continues. and the president is saying we're going to have -- >> kicking the can -- >> yeah, kicking the can, and saying i want to move it away from the nsa, but it's up to congress to help me do that. but the congress doesn't have anymore answers than the president. the president aspires to move this data away from the government, but in terms of a reality there is not place to do that yet. so all he can do is provide more transpare

the judiciary and nsa with full access and full clearance. people who have never been hired by the intelligence community in the past. we need in other words, genuine oversight for the first time in a way the nsa has never had it within or outside of the executive bran very much. >> still you would trust the judgment of a 29-year-old contractor over senators the president of the united states, the oversight from congressional committees that already exist and intelligence officials? >> pardon me, the president's own committee which had the judgment they expressed not only to the president but to congress just two days ago has included the former chief of councilor terrorism in the white house. the former head of cia. another person who was actually the one who hired jeffrey stone who hired obama as a law professor back at university of chicago. his t judgment was that he should edged the collection. he overruled the judgment because i think he has been corrupted by his office right now. not because his judgment in general is worse. >> not because you -- you think he is

after 9/11 the nsa was turned inward, which is against its original organizing rules. it has been that way ever since. dealnk there are a great of people in the united states that are beginning to worry about the nsa. i have been writing about for 30 years. i have seen momentum prior to the snowden revelations. there would have been to people in congress that would have voted to start restricting nsa activities. after his revelations, there were almost the majority. they are five votes short of the majority. i am seeing that progression of american citizens who are beginning to worry about all the surveillance. if you of your books on the subject, "the shadow secrets," tody of name a few. has the nsa surveillance program uncovered any planned terrorist attack? just looking at the different programs, when the nsa came out they said there were 54 programs they helped stop and they keep reducing those. on the metadata program, which is the most controversy oprah program -- program,roversial there has only been one incident that they have been able to detect since 2001, and that was a

been subpoenaed. prying eyes, it's not just the nsa that's capable of learning all about your personal life. >>> a colorado gunman could have been stopped before killing a classmate. one school security guard's blistering critique. >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. here are the top stories. a record dry spell. california officials warned there could be more wildfires, like that burning outside of los angeles. a drought emergency is in effect and the governor is asking californians to conserve water. >>> the company responsible for the chemical spill has filed for bankruptcy. water restrictions have now been lifted for most residents. >>> in a major speech president obama says he is limiting collection of phone data and wants agencies to get correct okay before accessing the data. following leaks of documents describing nsa surveillance programs. >> it was clear to me in observing our intelligence operations over a period, currently in place. >> and the surveillance revelations have caused outrage all over the world and in his speech the president proposed to limit surveil

the nsa has been the whipping boy. there are problems with corporations not taking their own initiative but in the opportunities for leadership and the opportunities for government policy moving things forward in the absence of legislation president obama signing the executive order on cybersecurity i'm wondering what the three of you actually think or hear about its prospects for actually helping enhance the resilience and security posture of the u.s. nation on the global security and starting with u.s. national in u.s. interest. is that executive order move us closer and move us in the direction we need to know in the absence of the legislature? >> so, the core of the executive order is to develop a voluntary framework to implement existing standards for more security so this applies to all the critical infrastructure which is legally defined but we usually think of it as basic essentials like water and things like that. the challenge of this framing, we can think of the government as the good at some things like hit

i have not been writing much on the snowden documents themselves, but i have been writing on related nsa issues in the midst of all the snowden revelations. i found as many people, less inclined to want to share information. there are probably at least as many at this point who now feel -- i do not know if it is emboldened or they just feel it is an issue that will get more attention and it is worth their while to share what they know with reporters, whether context or additional information and detail. i think on balance it has led to a greater amount of information that reporters are learning, even beyond the snowden documents. the government is behaving somewhat differently from the way it did. the nsa is setting up a whole task force to deal with the snowden leaks. that is fairly unprecedented. one could argue they have not been as forthcoming as they should. if you are looking at what their baseline was, it was more than it was. i have also found it fascinating the government is self, the itself,the government the director of national has released documents in huge waves. especially

largely driven by a leaks revealed over the past several months by former nsa contractor edward snowden. >> reporter: there has been no immediate reaction from edward snowden to president obama. but supporters would say changes would happen. edward snowden former nsa contractor, released documents just seven months ago. stating that the national security agency had-collecting the phone records of verizon customers. and then details of an internet surveillance program. nine couples had been giving nsa direct access to all user data. a defiant president obama said the math was simple. >> you can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience. >> reporter: a new days later snowden took to the airwaves and identified himself fueling the now public debate. >> i sitting in my detective certainly had the authority to wiretap anybody even if you're not doing anything wrong you're being watched and recorded. >> reporter: and everything could be held indefinitely. >> the storage increases every year. >> reporter: revelations kept coming. in late june the british version of the nsa had intercepted

he does not consider snowden a whistle-blower at all, saying the nsa has been operating the way it wasto. instead comey simply considers snowden a fugitive charged with espionage for leaking government secret. >>> christmas came a little late for the crew aboard the international space station but it did arrive. on thursday, a rocket launched into space carrying supplies, ants for an on board experiment, and some delayed christmas presents too. >>> time to get to business. according to variety, sales of the everly brother's music spiked 455% since the death of phil everly last week. >>> and mcdonald's finds itself facing a lawsuit over the temperature of its coffee. a los angeles woman is suing the fast food chain saying she was injured. >>> solar power explosion. nbc news.com reporting a new rooftop solar system was installed every four minutes in 2013. that's good, right? well, not according to power companies that are pushing back over being forced to credit solar users at retail prices for electricity. >>> in florida, a jobs fair attracted some 5,000 people in west palm beach. 1500

. >> we could have been more candid with the american people up front. >> the nsa has been collecting nearly 200 million text messages a day. that plus phone records and allegations of spying on world leaders, all leaked by former nsa contractor, edward snowden. >> we are dealing with an agency that didn't have adequate enough safeguards to keep a sub krat tore from stealing millions and millions and millions of files. >> the president is expected to back the spying programs but call for more transparency and oversight. perhaps a public advocate on the secret foreign intelligence court. he makes privacy protections to foreigners and limits spying on world leaders. congress would likely have to deal with what information the nsa can collect and keep. >>> now, the public has actually been pretty split on this issue. we'll see what the president has to say later today. >>> now, to that growing and out of control wild fire near los angeles. flames are burning miles from the famed hollywood sign. three men are in custody from starting that blaze. we begin with miguel almaguer in the fire z

nsa from collecting phone records. the privacy and civil liberties overstate board will make the recommendation today. it's been reviewing the nsa's surveillance programs for the last four months. president obama said last week that most of the spy agency's phone collection program would continue for now. >>> a u.n. negotiator will try keep syrian peace talks going this morning by meeting with both sides separately. face-to-face negotiations between the syrian government and opposition forces were supposed to be to see begin in switzerland tomorrow. but already a disagreement is threatening to derail them. the u.s. and syria's western-backed opposition want president bashar al assad to be removed from power. the government says that is not an option. today the negotiator hopes to find some common ground. >>> negotiations on a final nuclear agreement with iran could begin as early as next month. a six-month temporary agreement went into effect this week. it calls for iran to slow down enrichment programs and open sfoilts more inspections. in exchange, some tough financial sanctions have been lifted. a more perma

of americans it's been the nsa. and quite frankly i don't know who made rand paul an expert on the constitution. i mean, i read judge bill paulie's decision last week in new york. if i listen to that and listen to rand paul, i'll go with bill paulie. one out of 38 different opinions written only one said it's unconstitutional. and he again is talking about possible violations in the future. he was not able to point to any violations happen thus far. >> well, three of these panelists, three of the five panelists, now agree with rand paul, it is constitutional. so the debate i assume you agree as well will continue. the stakes as you well point out, congressman, are pretty significant. >> again, this board was not there to judge constitutionality. they're not judges, they're not federal judges and they're not in the justice department, nor are they in congress. they're there to discuss privacy and apparently didn't find any privacy violations. >> i think one was a former federal judge, maybe two of them were former ju

quiet has been quite about the nsa scandal where her own cell phone had been tapped by the u.s. but she mentioned it in the speech today. >> yes, absolutely. angela merkel has been criticized in the past for not reacting strongly to the nsa surveillance scandal which shocked and horrified germany. but she did address it towards the end of her speech could she said the german government was working to increase data protection in germany to ensure that further spying didn't happen and was insisting that this happened on the european level. in terms of holding the u.s. accountable, angela merkel said talks with the usa on the subject would continue ritchie has been walking a diplomatic tightrope on the issue because, of course, germany treasures its friendship with the usa. she would be pressing the usa for more answers whilst also underlining that they usa -- the relationship between the usa and germany is very important. saltz reporting from berlin. the government and the u.k. could decide to grant amnesty to jailed activists. the government in the ukraine could decide to grant a

some of its decisions have been made public has disapproved some things and nasa has -- nsa has deleted data that was collected not in compliance with the program but this program has been looked at a number of times. federal courts have looked at it. there was a conflict between two courts right now, the d.c. circuit court thinks the program is unconstitutional and other the district court and another district court thinks it is constitutional. so probably this thing will go back up to the supreme court.

nsa. >>> and there has been a surprise concerning nsa whistleblower edward snowden. he has now be asked to speak before a european parliamenty committee. the belgian based committee voting to have snowden testify through a live video link. no date has been set for that testimony. snowden is living now in russia. >>> we will be right back. ♪ >>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters, here are today's top stories, the governor of new jersey firing one of his top staffers saying she lied to him. comes after emails suggesting they caused a major traffic jam on purpose. >> i had no reason to believe they weren't telling me the truth. it is heart breaking to me that i wasn't told the truth. i'm a very loyal guy. and i expect loyalty in return. >>> president obama set to unveil the first of five economic promise zones today. those zones will focus on eliminating poverty, and creating jobs. that initiative was announced in last year's state of the union address. ♪ >>> taking a look at business news, wall street seems to be having trouble gaining momentum in 2014

or by the nsa that's been -- that anyone has found. and i don't think that's very significant. with all of the billions pieces of data that they have, not one abuse and also we have not been attacked in 12 years. so i really wonder why people like snowden and greenwald and others of the congress and senate are so intent on making the nsa the enemy when all they are doing is trying to protect us and doing it within the strictest constitutional guidelines. >> wasn't there an example from an nsa inspector general report where individuals were using some of the surveillance methods to spy on ex-girlfriends, ex-wives, that sort of thing? >> there were five or six people and people were spying on girlfriends and other employees. when you take any police department, you take any government agency, you take any private corporation and if if you can't find five or six incidents over the years where somebody has abused their power, that's one thing. but here's a case where nothing was done to the general public, nothing done politically, nobody

business and how much harder or easier it is then to report on the nsa and the intelligence community as a result? siobhan you have been covering the nsa ford -- too long. >> too long. it has cut loath ways. i haven't been writing so much on the snowden documents themselves but i've been writing on sort of related nsa issues in the midst of all of this and i've actually found that as many people might feel a little bit less inclined to want to share information about it, there are at least as many that now feel, i don't know if it's emboldened or if they just feel that this is an issue that is going to get more attention now so it's worth their while to share what they know with reporters whether it's by way of context or additional information and details. i think how bubbly on balance it has led to you know a greater amount of information that reporters are learning even beyond the scope of documents. in addition to that obviously the government is behaving somewhat differently from the way it did. i would say setting up a task force to deal the snowden lakes is an unprecedented thing for them to dilma can obviously

>> there has been a handful of cases, literally a handful where nsa employees have looked in to the database inappropriately. looked at boy friends or girlfriends and everyone of those cases they were dealt with appropriately and i believe actually some of them may have been fired. but that's the limited abuse that has taken place. there has been no systematic abuse, there has been no political abuses, has been minor, very minor. >> schieffer: why did your panel recommend that this great trove of telephone numbers, this giant phone book that the nsa has, why did you recommend that be put in private hands? i ask that in light of the recent messes of target and also with neiman-marcus where all of this information has been hacked in to. why isn't the government better capable of protecting this stuff than private? >> government in the nsa case showed it was not capable of protecting classified information. and i happen to know some industries in the private sector who do a phenomenal job of protecting their data, financial institutions, for example. i think the government actually has some thi

we know that a wide range of people have been involved in that session. the fbi, the nsa, the cia, has publicly declared that he's been involved in an investigation. 12 u.s. government agencies. it has been the largest investigation into a publisher ever. it has gone on for more than three careers and continues, it's a disgrace, a threat to journalists, a threat to my staff. thanks to our lawyers, we're fighting it. but thus far, it continues. in relation to the swedish matter, i have not been charged in sweden. there are allegations. the ecuadorian government has asked that sweden not expedite me to the u.s. if i go to sweden, unfortunately, sweden has refused and also refuse to say come here to speak to me and thus, unfortunately, we're at an impasse. >> so you remain where you are in the ecuadorian embassy in london. julian assange, thank you so much for your time, for your perspective. we really appreciate your taking the time this afternoon. >>> and thanks for watching "around the world." "cnn newsroom" starts right after this. >>> right now, too far, not far enough.

the united states with the snowden material and have those outlets publish accounts of what the nsa has been up to in their country. in the stretch of three days ple monde in paris, including france's political and corporate elite. then der speigel revealed that chancellor merkel's phone could have been tapped including enrique pena nieto, and others spied on by washington. when journalists get exclusives most keep the material to themselves and publish their scoobs in one outlet. greenwald and his partner laura did the opposite. to maximize the impact. >> when we first started bidding into that material we saw that, well, if you see the european union, we saw wow that was really a big thing. then united nations, then we had the spying on the mexican government and we were this as well and the definite highlight of this whole thing is that the nsa spied on the engineer than chancellor angela merkel which is in a way insane because germ my ha -- germany has been a tremendous good friend to the united states. >> what this has effectively done for the public is keep the issues of privacy, keep

been evacuated and schools closed. fire tore through more than 1700 acres. >>> british media reports that the nsa has been collecting textmessages and cdc details. >>> the mill tri is investigating its third fatal chopper incident in the past eight days. e

. >> welcome back, we have been talking about the nsa and glenn, you have an impressive resume, it is a new year and what is next? >> well, i mean, there's definitely a lot of documents that have been given to us and we are working with and not yet reported on and working on the stories and being accurate and there is definitely a very good number of stories that are very significant that will continue to be reported and shaping on how we think about the programs in profound ways. >> so two things, a lot of documents, quantify that is and what is trigger and when are you going to release the next round of information? >> i never counted the documents, you know, i have said before they number in the tens of thousands. i don't know the exact number. but a very large number of them. they are taking a lot of time to read through and report and piece together. the trigger is that when we find documents that are interesting and important stories, we are work on them as quickly as we can and when the story is ready, we'll report on them. >> the community is waiting, if in more revelations to

the nsa is setting up a whole task force to deal with the snowden leaks. argue they have not been as forthcoming as they should. if you are looking at what their baseline was, it was more than it was. i found it fascinating the , the directorself of national intelligence has released huge waves. especially in the beginning, and recent ones. we have seen a lot of court opinions from the surveillance court that in a lot of ways were more condemning of nsa practices than anything noted that out. i do not think it cuts one way or the other. add that iagree and think there are three different elements of this to think about. the first is that even before the snowden leaks happened him thatf us would say reporting on these topics has not been easy in washington. i could recite for you all of the cystic about the number of by thisations underway administration, including against many people on this on stories they wrote. even beyond that, these topics have all been topics on which the obama administration, i have found, has been wet -- less willing to discuss than the bush administration

everything that's been done by the nsa has been overseen by congress and by the judiciary and the executive branch also has been known. and there are no violations of anybody's constitutional rights proven or even alleged in a serious manner. you mentioned 9/11 which we did not stop, after that people said we need to connect the dots. greg, you don't connect the dolts unless you first collect the dots. and metal data is electrons, the nsa is now listening to people's conversations, not reading your e-mails, it's looking for patterns in communications, only if those patterns are established, do they go to the fisa court. the u.s. constitution is a contract between u.s. citizens and their government, it does not apply to foreigners on foreign soil. let's get over that idea. >> kennedy, that makes -- >> there are a number of problems with that, by the way, when you talk about dots, how many dots should we be keeping track of? what kind of dots should we be collecting and as people talk about dots as they are an innocuous package, they have no understanding of what metal data is, you can be tra

so the big challenge to the nsa, charlie, always has been what do you do about these computers that are separated from the internet which probably have the data the nsa is most interested in. >> rose: we continue this evening with sir james dyson, the inventor and engineer, you may know him because of the dyson vacuum cleaner. >> i can guarantee the point we start at is simply unrecognizable by the time of the finished product and that is the whole point about invention, invention is something that couldn't have been devised by one skilled in the art. so it is a process of discovery of accident, happen chance, it is the most wonderful journey. >> rose: we conclude with adam gopnik of the new yorker magazine on the president of france's private life. >> france is not a puritanical society as britain and we are to some degree still, which is not to say it is not an immoarl society, it comes from a different, that is catholic and tolerant in different ways, i have lived in france for a long time and my general sense is that the french attitude about sex in privacy is, why? when it cocomes

but he claims it's been a great step forward. i don't see it. the nsa practical bridge across the world when you compare this i can attest to the full scan a spin on to the cold war era. because pumping all of them into their similarities will know. . on finding and that the united states attempt to private mobile phone and a local confronted president diploma this claim the formal offices in the east june and secret police which was known as the stasi of the warning for the nsa if they think maths surveillance is the solution to a nation's problems. who wouldn't if that even the best qualified and most of them secret service cannot save the state we showed you that away from the professed chill of the politicians that the nsa spying ability to compare with the actions of the east german secret services during the cold war the canal if indeed this is exactly as illegal as some of the tactics that the stasi to employ. it is a breach of human rights of the government machine is so powerful that you can stop it it would snow to news leaks about the shape a

stop spying on diplomats nothing about the nsa bridging encryption standard supports that the nsa has been breaking into the data links on google and yahoo servers. well some specific reforms were introduced. how exactly they will be implemented moving forward remains to be seen especially since the state government agencies that have overseen a massive growth of the surveillance tape another one's past. with a rain event in washington as the sensex part in. michael kong president and general counsel for the national whistleblower center says many she has alot of an end to the press and speech the real thing that the american people are looking for is what are you going to do when you have a whistleblower like mr snowdon who has critical information that america the above or right to know. he did not address that issue. it's being swept under the rug instead i think in a fair view of what's going on. it is to merely window dressing covering up the abuses that have been identified. who's to say there are lot more abuses have occurred that have been identified. cos there's no chapel for it t

nsa has been doing this to computers around the world. the way, won't terrorists change their tactics, now that we know this. >> this is why leaks are dangerous. i'm really glad nsa is on our side. they are using our tax dollars because they are really busy. cyber is a big threat. look at target and having our credit cards compromised. we want them doing what they are doing. what we're seeing is international. internationally what this is like, sonar detection for earthquakes. it's a way of detecting potential cyber threats before they happen. again, i want them to do what they are doing. i want them to be monitoring because it protects all of us. >> the more we know, right or wrong, the more terrorist change their tactics and come up with something else. >> you're right. i hate seeing leaks about the nsa programs. the fact is quantum, which is the name of this computer program keeps the american people safe. it's a way to combat cyber security attacks from the chinese as we saw with the pentagon. alexander hamilton wrote powers to protec

on the other hand, he didn't dive into issues that the technical community, the nsa has been in charge of securing systems. now it appears they have engaged in compromising the security systems that are available, used to defend themselves or security technologies that all of us use daily and now it appears they can't be trusted. >> no matter how many doors and locks they put up, there is a threat the government may be able to pick them all? >> on some level, that's a good thing. the nsa should be able to attack secure systems because that's how it finds information that's vital to national interests. the question is: who is whose? do they break other people's codes in their own house or take the fight to the world and make everyone else a little secure? >> a losing battle fwi make our own codes less secure, we are not only hurting our own security, hurting america technental cal companies but we might make it easier for foreign intelligence. >> we are going to take a short break. when we return, we will talk in greater detail about the president's specific proposals. can data be colle

there are documents that have been released from the british part of the nsa that talk about the need to keep the documents secret because the public would not like when they have done. they would be upset by them. and we don't know what documents they have. but if they were confident that the public would approve of what they're doing, they would do it on their own, and they wouldn't need an edward snowden. but they know that the public would be shocked and alarmed to see the time line. >> give us the timeline for your next report as we end the program tonight. when will it be? >> i'm working on several, and in the next several weeks, there should be a couple. >> glen, thank you for joining us, and "the streaming" community, you're the third host of this show. until next time, raj and i will see you online. >> good evening everyone, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. >> the challenge is getting the details right and that is not simple. >> nsa spy reforms, the president says he wants to make changes in the way the government spice. for civil libber tairn

three palestinians who planned the attack have been arrested. >>> former nsa contractor edward snowden is answering questions online today. he remains in russia where he was granted asylum but snowden denies he was working for the russians when he released those surveillance records. a just repoleased poll finds 58 don't believe it and 47% believe it's necessary in order to stop terror attacks. marlie hall is here in new york. good morning, marlie. >> good morning, anne-marie. snowden will almost certainly address questions about the top secret information he's revealed so far. edward snowden will answer questions from the public online today about his role in exposing secret u.s. surveillance programs. one question u.s. officials want to know is how much help did he receive from foreign intelligence sources. >> my questions about his work with chinese and russian intelligence begin once he arrived in hong kong and then when he moved on to moscow. >> wednesday snowden denied he had any help telling the "new yorker" magazine the claims are absurd. a cbs news poll shows 61% polled think

. >> the nsa has been violating the constitutional rights of all californians. we are trying to get the ns a. to change its ways. >> reporter: a familiar rallying cry that began when edward snowden leaked classified documents to the media blowing the whistle on how the agency spies on all americans looking for possible security threats. the bipartisan bill introduced tuesday at the state capital would deny nsa facilities in california access to electricity and water from public utilities, would slap sanctions on companies that try to fill that void, and would outlaw nsa partnerships with state universities. but that's not all. >> the bill bans california agencies and officials from cooperating with the nsa when they seize electronics and metadata on our citizens unless nsa can produce a warrant. >> reporter: the proposed legislation comes at a time when president obama plans to sit down with intelligence officials and congressional leaders to take a closer look at how the u.s. spies on americans that's collected unconstitutionally. >> it's important for the stat

nsa. >>> there has been a handful of case, literally a handful, where nsa employees have looked into the database inappropriately, looked at boyfriends be or girlfriends. in everyone of those cases they were dealt with appropriately and i believe actually some of them may have been fired. >> when it comes to the leak of that classified information there is new speculation that edward snowden had help from russia. house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers is one of the people who believes it might be true. two of the reasons, snowden had his travel plans booked before he left the u.s. and he used very advanced technology. >> i believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms of an fsb agent in moscow. i don't think that's a coincidence. number one. number two dnchts do you think the russians helped ed snowden? >> i think there are questions to be answered there. i don't think it was a gee whiz good luck. >> government investigators tell nbc news there is no evidence to suggest snowden had help from another country. >>> a disturbing new video is raising concerns a

one of the things that it cost president obama, a lot of support among young people has been the entire nsas to snowden is almost irrelevant to the fact that it plays into what i keep finding is a major fear in this country is the government has become the enemy of the people and therefore not to be trusted. and this is -- this has lent itself to that. and all of the attacks in washington, the truth of the matter is the american people have not been dealt with on the up and up and even the president's commission has said there needs to be reform. we all want to be safe, but none of us like to have big brother in our lives. >> doug? >> i must tell you, to me, snowden is a criminal. he betrayed his country, he betrayed his oath. but pat is right to say, this points out how the citizenry is basically being taken advantage of by our government being intruded upon and the image of us being weak overseas but intruding -- overreaching at home is a difficult pill for me to swallow. >> you know what is interesting, pat, that you said, is that an issue like this could color a group of people and thei

after 9/11 the nsa was turned inward, which is against its original organizing rules. it has been that way ever since. dealnk there are a great of people in the united states that are beginning to worry about the nsa. i have been writing about for 30 years. i have seen momentum prior to the snowden revelations. there would have been to people in congress that would have voted to start restricting nsa activities. after his revelations, there were almost the majority. they are five votes short of the majority. i am seeing that progression of american citizens who are beginning to worry about all the surveillance. if you of your books on the subject, "the shadow secrets," tody of name a few. has the nsa surveillance program uncovered any planned terrorist attack? just looking at the different programs, when the nsa came out they said there were 54 programs they helped stop and they keep reducing those. on the metadata program, which is the most controversy oprah program -- program,roversial there has only been one incident that they have been able to detect since 2001, and that was a

. >> could have been a lot more candid with the american people up front about this program. >> reporter: new this week, reports that the nsa has been collecting nearly 200 million text messages a day. that's with phone records and allegations of spying on world leaders, all linked by former nsa contractor edward snowden. >> we're dealing with an agency that didn't have adequate enough safeguards to keep a subcontractor from stealing millions and millions and millions of files. >> reporter: the president is expected to back the spying programs, but call for more transparency and oversight, perhaps a public advocate, on the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court. he may send privacy protections to foreigners and limit spying on world leaders. but congress would likely have to deal with what information the nsa can collect and keep. and the public has weighed in on this. the public is actually split on this issue. that records, that phone records program is set to be reauthorized in march. brian? >> tracie, thank you very much, live for us in washington, d.c. >>> the next chapter in the new jersey bridgegate saga is h

there has been a virtual avalanche of stories and reports over the last six months regarding espionage and electronic surveillance by the nsa each of these stories has been extremely important, but i think that the quantity of them have sometimes endangered the ultimate point from being obscured. i just want to spend a little bit of time discussing what i think is the primary revelation, the crop of all these stories that ties them together and i think is the most important thing for us to realize. and that is what the ultimate goal of the nsa is, along with its most loyal, one might say subservient junior partner, the british agency gchq, when it comes to the reason why the system of suspicion or surveillance is being built. the objective of this system is nothing less than the elimination of individual privacy worldwide. and at first glance that might seem like a bit hyperbolic, like it's a little bit melodramatic, but it isn't. it's a literal description of what the nsa and its survey on its partners are attempting to achieve. and the reason that i know that's what they're attending to achieve is because this is what the

nsa. that it has been spying on foreign companies too. >> reporter: does the nsa spy on siemens, on other successful german companies, for example, to have the advantage of knowing what is going on in the scientific and economic world? >> i don't want to preempt the editorial desessions of journalists. but -- decisions of journalists. but i will say there is no question the u.s. is engaged in economic spying. if they think things will be interesting to the national interest of the under the circumstances they'll go after that. edward snowden said he is no longer in possession of nsa documents. what he had he has already given out to a few, select journalists. his legal adviser said it is unlikely edward snowden will return to the u.s. to face felony charges, but attorney general eric holder says while the u.s. is open to negotiations, he said granting edward snowden amnesty would be going too far. charlie d'agata, cbs news, london. >> edward snowden has said he is convinced u.s. officials want him dead. he added he has no plans of returning to the united states because he believes he has