article, actually the most senior official i've ever interviewed who has gone on the record is bill benny. he was a very, very senior official who was basically the person who designed the entire worldwide eavesdropping network for nsa. he automated the worldwide eavesdropping network for nsa. and he left nsa soon after nsa began illegally eavesdropping on americans. he had been there almost 40 years, then he couldn't be there while they were doing what he considered illegal. illegal eavesdropping so he left and he told me that, well, he explained basically how nsa was doing all of this eavesdropping. and where it was doing it from and methods and how many i think he said there were something like 320 million calls a day they were intercepting. so he explained the enormous capability of nsa, and he said at the end you know, we're this far away, put his two fingers together, about an inch apart, said we're this far away from a turnkey totalitarian state. this from somebody who was a senior official, equal to a general at nsa, had been there nearly 40 years. >> james bamford, investigative

. >> well, i've interviewed a lot of sources at nsa, including bill bennie. i think i would have found out if there was some massive terrorist operation that they stopped. i never heard of one yet. >> nsa's infringing on freedom of speech and association. what constitutional authority grants them this power? >> well, they have this -- let me back up for a second. nsa is a very unusual agency. it's extremely unusual. every other agency in the u.s. government was formed in congress. many there were bills creating the agency, there were hearings whether this should happen, when the cia was created. there was a bill before congress, they debated it. it was created in law. nsa was never created in law. it was created by a top secret memorandum signed by harry truman in 1952. it was created in absolute secrecy. even congress wasn't allowed to know about it. even its name was supposed to be secret for years until it began leaking out. nsa was created in a secret method unlike any other agency. since then it has lived in this unique world where very few people are al

bill. sispa shortened version of the name there are lot of privacy and are liberty concerns. privacy and civil liberties group and democrats and ranking member bennieraised concern about it because partially of information-sharing that can happen between the private sector and nsa there is some concern that the information being given will go straight to the intelligence agencies and that essentially you're creating a opportunity to create surveillance on domestic citizens that nsa and others are not allowed to do. >> host: how are the concerns being followed up upon? >> guest: there have been some adjustments to the bill over last month or last week i should say including trying to strengthen the privacy and civil liberties provisions within the bill. there are attempts to make sure that it relates to civil to cyber security as opposed to any other purpose. that hasn't been backed by any of the critics out there. >> host: one headline in cq, democrats to shape agenda at cybersecurity bills head to the house floor. action begins tomorrow, maybe wednesday? >> guest: the rule begins tomorrow. >> host: watch it live here on c-span. we'll touch on the