the rector clapper -- director clapper, the floor is yours. mr. chairman, i will go ahead with our repaired statements on isaiah -- pfizer -- fisa legislation. thanks so much for having us here today. there are continuing dramatic be removed. i asked the officer to remove. if i see one more example of i will ask you all to be removed. >> you said nothing about science. i listen to your opening statement. >> and about the steps we are taking to protect our national security interests. i will began and then transition to general alexander. ofs hearing is a key part the discussion our nation needs to provide the intelligence authority toh protect privacy and civil liberties. all of us in the intelligence committee are aware that unauthorized disclosures have raised serious concerns that you alluded to here in congress and across the nation about our intelligence at the release. the nation wants to know how the intelligence community uses its authority and if we can be trusted to use them appropriately. we believe we have been lawful and the rigorous

. >> after the snowden revelations, clapper apologized, explaining that he'd given the "least untruthful" answer. >> i sitting at my desk certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if i had a personal email. >> so everything from learning all your metadata, with whom you're speaking, who's emailing you, where you are when you do it, how long you speak for, what your network of associations and friends are to being able to target multinational corporations around the world to tapping directly into the servers of the internet companies that the world is now using to communicate, facebook and skype and microsoft and apple, is all about this idea that there should be no electronic communications between human beings that are protected or free from the prying eyes of the nsa. >> meta-data means basic records about a communication: phone numbers, when calls are placed and how long they last. >> you don't have to have done anyting wrong, you simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody even by a wrong call

why did the supreme court in the recent case of clapper very amnesty concerning warrantless wiretapping of american citizens and exactly how has the n.s.a. used cell phone location data to track americans those sort of questions the amendment will also require the attorney general to release any top secret pfizer court rulings that show instances of the n.s.a. breaking the law violating the constitution with its spying activities advise a court in the n.s.a. have already been compelled to hand over several previously classified documents the latest document dump was monday night when a secret court order giving the n.s.a. permission to stay cooped up americans internet data was released for the first time along with a series of pfizer court orders documenting continuous and systematic abuse by the n.s.a. and all of these documents are proving useful for the several organizations that are taking the n.s.a. to court in hopes of putting an end to many of these spying programs just recently revealed by edward snowden course the first revelation back in june concerning the bulk collection of

today is the first one and we're going to hear general alexander and director clapper testify. >> what we do not do is spy unlawfully on americans or for that matter, spy indiscriminately on the citizens of any country. we only "spy" for valid intelligence purposes as authorized by law with multiple layers of oversight to ensure we do not abuse our authorities. >> nsa's programs have contributed to understanding and disrupting 54 terror-related events, 25 in europe, 11 in asia, five in africa, and 13 in the united states. this was no accident. this was not coincidence. that claim was challenged a week later. >> we've heard over and over again the assertion that 54 terrorist plots were thwarted by the use of 215 and 702. that's plainly wrong. these weren't all plots and they weren't all thwarted. the american people are getting left with inaccurate impressions of the effectiveness of the nsa programs. would you agree that the 54 cases that keep getting cited by the administration were not full plots? yes or no? >> yes. >> we're talking about massive, massive, massive collection. we're t

host: let's hear from james clapper.video clip] demo we have alarms go off 11 terrorist communicates -- if we had an alarm when one terrorist committees with another terrorist our job would be easier. over the past month i have declassified and publicly released a series of documents release a series of documents related to both section 215 of the patriot act and section 702 of the foreign intelligence of real impact or fisa. anng that facilitates informed public debate that operate under these authorities. we felt that it might of the unauthorized disclosures, the public interest in these documents far outweigh the additional damage to national security. these documents let our citizens and see the seriousness, the withess, and the rigor which the fisa court exercises its responsibilities. the also reflect intelligence community, particularly in s.a.t.'s commitment to recovering, reporting, and collecting -- the nsa's commitment to recover, reporting, and correcting. particular targets of surveillance, but we will conti

filed a lawsuit against the director of national intelligence james clapper calling for an end to this domestic spying as it by lates numerous constitutional rights again that lawsuit was filed one week after the first edward snowden disclosure back in june and tomorrow on friday that suit will receive its stay in court when government lawyers will have to square off with the a.c.l.u. in a federal courtroom in new york city and for the first time the usa will have to defend in public court the n.s.a.'s telephone metadata spying program and what comes out of that hearing could have enormous impacts on how the n.s.a. currently operates joining me now to talk more about the case and its consequences is bred max kaufman legal fellow with the american civil liberties union national security project welcome to the show thanks for having me so break it down for us what's at the core of what the a.c.l.u. will be arguing in court tomorrow. so we're in court tomorrow challenging the section to fifteen bulk phone record collection program as you just described it was the first revelation by edwar

james clapper, the head of national intelligence, clearly lie to congress when he said he was wasn'tying on americans. the white house is still pushing for the prosecution of snowden nsayet no prosecutions of officials or intelligence officials like clapper have been discussed. what about that? >> there is clearly a big contradiction that has not been resolved between president obama saying that he welcomes the debate that we are now having about nsa, about surveillance domestically, overseas, and the prospect of a long prison term for edward snowden if he comes back to the united states. clear, it is pretty think it is fair to say that snowden broke the law. it is also pretty clear to a lot of members of congress that he started a debate that is quite the futureo sort of of the intelligence agencies and to american democracy. , you know,t that out i guess we will find out over the next months and maybe even years. >> scott shane, thank you for joining us. he says, edward snowden says, he was exposing the fact the u.s. government itself was breaking the law. scott shane is national s

[inaudible conversations] >> national intelligence or james clapper and nsa direct or general keith allen discussed the nsa surveillance program and spying on foreign governments before the house intelligence committee hearing earlier this week. >> i never expected to write an entire book on cancer until i was diagnosed at a relatively young age. i was diagnosed at 36. i was astonished at how different i thought it was -- how different i was going through treatment than what i had heard about cancer and what i expected cancer be. and i sort of expected it -- i expected it to run like a well oiled machine in which cure wasn't obviously guaranteed, but people knew about my particular cancer at be followed and what i found was being really, really different. i couldn't help but i started to write about it. >> the head of the wrecks on trans next round of talks, george washington university hosted regional experts were monday. a farmer winning presidential candidate and former official at the american embassy in a rant to our commenting on prospects for the agreement. the impact of president

part of the plan focuses on saving six threatened species including california clapper rail, salt marsh mounts which lost most of the habitat, and sassoon thistle. this is the second biggest wetlands restoration in the united states behind only the ever glades. >> high school seniors busy working on college applications and parents worrying about the debt and loans. >> it's more he expensive every year. consumer reports partnered with seven on your side to reveal problems to be aware of when going into debt for school. >> new student debt tops $1 trillion. loans exceeding all other consumer loans aside mortgages. two thirds of the graduates carry a debt burden. consumer reports says it's twisting lives of young people and creating a drag on the economy. krista is proud of hefr college and graduate degrees but says 100,000s ndz loans are crushing her. >> sometimes wondering can i afford to go food shopping today? do i need to wait until the next check. sitting here feel like what was the point? >> she says the loans take a quarter of her pay, leaving barely enough money for living expens

there's whistles and hand clappers, adding pain to covering the protests, i must say. there has been clear instructions from the leaders that there are not to be any weapons by protesters. having said that, and given the history of the street demonstrations in thailand anything could happen. violence could break out at any time. they have security guards dressed in black, who are not slow to react if they see threats and they are very careful to protect the leader, who has been issued with an arrest warrant for rebellion because of his activities over the last few days. >> al jazeera's veronica pedrosa reporting from bangkok. on wall street investors go into the holiday with thanks for a record-breaking day. the dow jones closed above 16,000. investors were encouraged by reports showing a drop this claims for unemployment benefits. it's the 44th record close. the s&p closed as an all of time high. >>> a merger creating the world's biggest airline is on track. american is emerging from bankruptcy. the deal takes effect next month. the ruling comes next week after an ant

there are whistles and land clappers aplenty.t has added a new measure of pain to covering these protests, i must say. there has been very clear instructions from the leaders that there are not to be any weapons for protesters. having said that, and given the history of the street demonstrations in thailand, anything could happen. violence could break out at anytime. they have security guards dressed in in black who are not slow to react if they see threats, and they are very careful to protect the leader who has been issued with an arrest warrant for rebelian because of his activities over the last few days. >>> as many as 20,000 people in indonesia are fleeing the area after more than 20 volcano eruptions in the last few days. >> reporter: harmless for four centuries, it is now showing its dangerous side. it has been erupting nearly non-stop for the past two months. government authorities have ordered villages to evacuate homes within 5 kilometers of the volcano. but this is what we found inside the evacuation zone. >> translat

one, we actually did a brief in support of the case to the court clapper. it was an empire kl brief. it was experts in the field of signals intelligence and the capabilities that the national security agency. we basically outlined for the court in support of the aclu contention that people had good reason to believe that their communication was stownlt interception. we provided and based on public records what we could detail about the nsa's capabilities. which turned out to be we didn't have access to the downtowns that mr. snowden subsequently made available. and then, of course, still waiting that and opening joke on our case and ending toward the end to talk about the significance of the fiscal order which established without a question how the authority was being used. but i just wanted to come back to bob's use of the term dragnet. and it strikes me almost precisely correct in the application to 215. because what you do when you got telephone companies is you literallily collect all the data that you're able to gather. determine what is of interest to

. >> reporter: and it was a director of national intelligence james clapper and nsa chief general keith alexander fielding the tough questions about surveillance and spying in another congressional meeting this week. >> some of this reminds me a lot of the classic movie "casa bank can, my god, there is gamble going on here. it's the same kind of thin thing{^l" ^}. >> reporter: does the president know as much as he should, and is he in control of his administration. as he reaches for the legacy of a successful second term, is he staying above the fray. here to discuss president obama's second term and the rosenberg. he was an adviser to former president bill clinton. in new york, jeff lefkowitz isn't to president obama, and served as bush administration envoy to north korea. and author of recent book "jockeying for the american presidency: the political opportunism." you worked in the white house, how bad was this past week? >> i would say this is as bad as it's been for president obama. coming off the heels having stared down john boehner the government shutdown and debt limit issue, i

i'm with clapper on this issue as well. i mean, i think because of the technological advances and the fact that we can now, you know, look in on people's cell phones, that you know, there has to be some more guidelines brought into this thing. but overall, friends spy on friends, it's not going to stop. >> what do you think of that? >> i think, well, i'm not enough people, clearly. there's no doubt that this has been going on for ever in one form or another. you can't tell me that the administration didn't know about it, because they were given reports about all of this. this came from -- this is ridiculous. so we all knew it was going on. they have been doing it in europe for decades and centuries. and this is being a part of life in the world and alas, everybody had to be protesting. >> congratulations on this book. do you think that a tip was monitoring the phone calls? >> i tell you one thing. it isn't like today in that you are blessed at 3:00 in the afternoon and say what time is it over there? changes our watch to si

they and clapper, the director of national intelligence, that is who is defending this major function that protects the united states and believe me, we would not have had no serious attack on the united states in all of these years, these 12 years since 9/11, without this agency doing just incredible work, lou, in protecting us. and yet they stand there having to take all these fuselage of assaults on them by themselves with the director trying to protect them. and it's just not right. the administration should put their arms around this, tell them to go back to work and we'll take care of this. but that's not happening. >> general, thanks for being with us. general jack keane. >> always good talking to you, lou. >>> up next, he was endorsed by tea party favorite senator rand pull, but will it be enough to overcome the political money machine? virginia's attorney general and gubernatorial candidate ken cuccinelli joins me here next. we're coming right back. >>> a week until the virginia gubernatorial election, president bill clinton on the campaign trail or democratic candidate terry

alexander for one and then clapper who. was the head of the intelligence apparatus who is it made it to lying to the congress felony that they are to sort of try to defend themselves by telling everyone they told the president every i don't know whom to believe because both sides have been very sparing with the truth and in its search for the truth about america's spying germany's reached out to the person behind the global scandal of course that of edward snowden a green party m.p. has met with the fugitive who supply we're here in moscow to discuss his assistance in a potential investigation into the n.s.a.'s operations he says the words of the u.s. now can no longer be trusted. actually. i think it's important to work together with mr snowden rather than putting him in prison we'd like more clarity on these allegations and we want to make sure something like this doesn't happen again snowden worked for many years for the cia and n.s.a. so i'm sure he can tell us everything we need to know about the leaked documents becau

james clapper. some time ago. and so i think the guys the people that are in charge and are going to give evidence today the chief. and i five and i sixty believe they're in trouble i believe that they are in trouble but i would say that's all of the trouble i mean i think that is much is our security services have a responsibility to make sure that we're safe and secure i think that our politicians have an even greater responsibility in having oversight and i think that most definitely many politicians will be expecting. you know some serious answers to the questions of why did they have greater oversight and do you think there will be serious actions against than then or will list just be a dressing down do you think. i think there will be serious i think there will be serious questions but whether or not we get to see the serious questions in terms of how do we take this forward will be another question and i think that in fact what we're going to see is much more of the dressing down in fact at this is very mu

alexander for one and then clapper who. was the head of the intelligence apparatus who is it made it to lying to the congress felony that they are to sort of try to defend themselves by telling everyone they told the president every i don't know whom to believe because both sides have been very sparing with the truth. did it so it's for the truth about america's spying germany's reached out to the post and behind the global scandal that of edward snowden a green party m.p.'s met with the fugitive whistleblower here in moscow to discuss his assistance in a potential investigation into the n.s.a.'s operations he says the words of the u.s. can no longer be trusted. basically you will because i think it's important to work together with mr snowden rather than putting him in prison we'd like more clarity on these allegations and we want to make sure something like this doesn't happen again snowden worked for many years for the cia and n.s.a. so i'm sure he can tell us everything we need to know about the leaked documents because

clapper they keep repeating this long to justify the bulk collection program by saying you need the haystack to find the needle. does that make any sense to you well it would make sense if finding the needle were a purely random process in which the best way to find a needle was to scatter about in the as much as possible this is not a good analogy for how efficient intelligence processes work the most effective form of intelligence and this this isn't for me this comes from intelligence professionals themselves comes from following known liens known associations with people who are suspected to be terrorist but we were police marketers and in fact according to the n.s.a. they don't even search this database until they have reasonable suspicion so what's the harm in requiring them to wait till they have reasonable suspicion and then requests just those records from the telephone company is just the last thirty seconds here or there reforms particular reforms you see coming out of congress that are worthwhile that people should be paying attention to and have saluted i think the usa freedom a

what do you make in capitol hill testimony this week the director of national intelligence james clapper indicated that surveillance of leaders was not significant enough to require congress to know about it. well i had a fairly heated exchange over this very topic yesterday because i think plainly it is the kind of significant intelligence activity that must be briefed to congress in the area in an analogous area of covert action when the administration wants to undertake a covert action and there's the possibility that that covert action could blow back on us if it was discovered those are the things that are routinely briefed to the intelligence committees and for good reason but this similarly you have that potential as we're seeing you know very much manifest right now so that's precisely the kind of thing that should be briefed to the committees and i wasn't confident with the answer i got from the director yesterday that the intelligence community sees it the same way i asked very specifically would the tapping of a foreign leader be a significant intelligence activity that would

on friday they will be arguing clapper in the southern district of new york. this has been the first laws to the foreign intelligence surveillance act. there is a lot going on. there is perhaps no better panel one could assemble than the one we have today. introduce ouro panelists to you. this houses the national security project in the privacy and technology project. testified numerous times on congress. since 2004 he has been a monitor for guantanamo bay. book which was a published by columbia university press. clerk joining the aclu he for the court of appeals. he is a graduate of williams college. welcome. an age of a divided congress it is no small that our next panelists was confirmed by unanimous consent. this was in june of 2009. want to take a moment to unanimous consent. he has brought experience in criminal law and national security matters. he was deputy assistant attorney general of the criminal division. he started his career as a clerk for the judge edward wind field. from 1978-1984 he was assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new

special order you're likely not to find out too much in fact director of national intelligence james clapper was questioned in october about violations of the program at a senate judiciary committee hearing here's experience change with minnesota senator amy closer shark. because you can see and i was the senator is that the subject matter of the hearing was to fifteen and seventy two and these twelve eilish and over ten years the curd under the foreign collection under them on under the auspices of executive order twelve triple three is this we are that we were kind of broadly asking questions and it would have been nice to have heard about it there. senator dianne feinstein who's been a vocal supporter of the n.s.a. says that more transparency is needed over this order and she's encouraging the passage of a bill that would require increased congressional oversight including a full breakdown of the guidelines that govern its use. and this week the white house correspondents association along with thirty seven news organizations called out the obama administration for its heavy restrictions

however, if an interview earlier this year, james clapper, the director of national intelligence saidres very deeply about our privacy, and civil liberties, adding i think a lot of what people are reading and seeing in the media is hyperbole. the persons don't end with the fact that private information is being stored in a database. there is also concern about how that information is actually being used. those fears were heightened when it was recently revealed that the nsa has been turning over information to domestic law enforcement agencies. john shipman is a reporter who broke the story. >> the information that the nsa provides to law enforcement they send it to a special operations unit in virginia. and that sends information out to the dea, the irs, the atf, the fbi, and use that information to make cases against americans. >> like most everything involving the nsa the special operations division is cloaked in secrecy. according to one document, it strictly forbids those who receive nsa information from revealing its true source. shipman describes one scenario. >> it will pass t

, clapper be amnesty and the supreme court.hat was a sad a challenge to 702 and the government's theory in that case with our client lacked standing because they couldn't show their communications had been collected under the law. we made the argument that the law allowed the collection of prior clients communications, that they had to take costly and burdensome measures to protect its medications from the possibility of surveillance and that gave our client standing. but that was an argument that the court rejected. but the important point of that case is that the government's argument was the complaint in black standing because they couldn't show collection. now we are back in court, arguing that the call records program be constitutional in a court order that shows their communications were collected because the aclu is a verizon subscriber and a set turn over all your records. there is no doubt our communications were collected. we satisfy the standards of the government said we hadn't satisfied and clapper v. amnesty. ther

. >> maybe they got a clapper in there. >> the individual looking out the window. and off. kind of made you believe somebody was coming. after a while the lights just went off. >> then things suddenly heat up. >> minivan. heading toward the target location now. >> here we go, guys. copy? >> he's just moving it. got a white minivan coming up the street. >> white minivan coming at you. >> got another suv, too, man. this is grand central. >> looks like a jeep. >> you know what the ci said about the jeep, right? that's the one doing the trafficking. >> the driver of the white minivan is out on foot walking into the driveway. there's a lot of people walking around the front. >> these pick ups and drop offs are quick, two, three minutes tops which is what the ci told us happens. >> he's pulling up. >> that would be the jeep. >> it's got michigan plates. it has michigan plates. >> that's the main target vehicle. we just got to roll the dice. >> follow him out. give him some distance. >> all right. the jeep is southbound 83, southbound 83. >> he probably don't know what to

general clapper and general alexander commented in their appearance before the house intelligence committee the national intelligence priorities framework. you huddle in the west wing in the sit room at the cabinet level every six months hammering out intelligence priorities. countries down the side, topics across the top. where those two vectors meet, you put a number. if the number is one or two, that's a really high priority. so everyone knows what's going on. if you give a requirement like that a high priority, you're telling the intelligence community to embrace some measure of risk in order to get that intelligence for you. >> all right. final thought, michael hayden, what would you do now? >> right now i think we have a necessary -- i don't mean to demean this. we have a fair amount of political theater. our good friend, the chancellor, is and has to act enraged and our president really and for the benefit of the public has to go and in essence step back. fareed, we have to be careful here not to overachieve. we had a crisis of conscious in the '90s and we told our human intelligence

number three, we had a response from director clapper they will start coordinating with the irs. well, most people would say, that ist kind of a no-brainer. that would be one of the things you want to check. you have a form. it is in the form, have you paid your taxes but looks to me like s referencedcros that with thk.e irs. nobody ever checked to see if the data was accurate. all that is computer check. so i guess my question to you is, and my final point is this. creating the expectation that your clearance is tentative on the basis of you passing some type of renewal, and not knowing when that's going to be. the cia used to have random polygrapho tests. they don't even have random polygraph tests now. you're noticed. i can pass any polygraph tests with two drugs in me and you won't ever know it. so the fact is, we need to create an environment where, numberou one, we lessen the numr of people that need a clearance. we do a whole lot better clearing. we need tohe create a expectatin that is you will be randomly checked to see if in fact you still deserve to have that clearance