go through this court called the foreign intelligence surveillance court which was a good idea but the problem is become what became fairly quickly a rubber stamp in the since one thousand nine hundred seventy eight today the court has only turned the government down once and that one time i'm sorry well the one time it turned them down. people i think amazed to know that there is another court higher court than face a court it's called the face of foreign intelligence surveillance court of appeals and that court is sort of the maytag repairman of the of the judiciary in the entire history of that court it's only heard one case. and in that case it turned to the government's approval of the court order but if the government gets turned down by that court they still have another bite at the apple they can go for the media in camera in other words secret session of the supreme court so the odds of the government ever being turned down an order or almost interests of this is a quarter of this face a court that was established by the first branch of government the legislative to act as a c

the senate on both sides of the aisle making excuses for the agency and we see the foreign intelligence surveillance court signing off on surveillance of communications that aren't in any way foreign are in fact wholly. domestic and finally is there any kind of end for information who has this data for instance or want they were looking for we know that this came just a few days after the boston bombings is there any indication what this information is for well this may have come a few days after the boston bombing but what we heard from senator feinstein is that this has been going on for seven years i think that she meant for that to be a comfort to the american people but they shouldn't certainly be comforted by the fact that this program is ongoing and has always been since probably two thousand and six there's no telling looking at the order what exactly it was that they were looking for and that's particularly problematic because if they're going to be participating in this sort of search there should be some particular thing that they're looking for a particular arised investigation a particular pe

on multiple levels at some lawful first there's the question of whether or not the foreign intelligence surveillance court really ought to be in the business of allowing for surveillance of purely domestic communications and if you look at the order this is for not only foreign communications but also wholly domestic communications there's also the question of whether or not this is allowed under the patriot act and we've seen one of the architects of the patriot act come out and say that it is likely not allowed under the patriot act and then there's the fourth amendment or it's permissible under the fourth amendment which we believe it's not looking at this it seems on its face to be in unreasonable search because it is such a dragnet search so this court order refer specifically to verizon wireless but it's possible the risin is not alone and is can you explain that a little bit further it's likely that for us it is not alone in these in fact i've seen news reports that have indicated exactly that the news reports have indicated that eighteen t. and other major cell phone companies have similar orders

the request is then made to the foreign intelligence surveillance court. there's then followal up and there are reports to congress routinely on this activity. so i think it's very constitutional. it involves all branches of the federal government. it's designed to protect americans while protecting their civil liberties. i think it's an extremely well run and constitutional program. >> woodruff: admiral blair, what about another criticism we heard from senator mark udall who said that he has seen nothing that proves that this system works. there's nothing proven that it has actually disrupted a terrorist plot. >> again, with due respect to the senator, that's also flat wrong. there are several plots which were thwarted by the use of this... and i'm going to say this type of program. i don't want to discuss individual programs. but this system of overseas intelligence linked to an american phone number being turned over under court order to american law enforcement companies have thwarted multiple, multiple attacks. i'll just leave it at that. >> woodruff:

court order. they are getting an order from the foreign intelligence surveillance act court. secondly, members of congress have been briefed on this program. so what we have to assume here is that what this order allows the nsa to do is every day update the data base it has basically of all of the calls made by people who are subscribers to this particular verizon. it can then hold and when it wants to then look for information about a specific number, it has that data there. it can then go exploit it rather than having to go ask the court to have verizon dump this huge mountain of data on the government at once. the point that intelligence community has made in the past is that they have no interest or time or manpower to just dive in and see what people are up to. it's only there in response to a specific need to get a number. i guess where the question comes in here is should the government then have to go get another search warrant from the court if it wants to check a specific phone number that it raids a house in london and find that it's someone's cell phone and on tha

the few opinions that has been released by the court , the presiding judge of the foreign intelligence surveillance courte it clear that they will be more deferential to classification and to the executive branch's decision to classify materials. then it would be in the district court, which already has a high standard of deference. we're talking about a court where there is no adversarial proceedings or very few. there are more that are allowed. again it is only at the margins where the executive branch ultimately makes the determination of what the programs are that it is good to be introducing. it is subject to very little oversight. even when senators and congressional members are informed, their hands are tied. we saw senator ron wyden expressing great concern about how the foreign intelligence surveillance act was being used, but he was unable to publicly elaborate on his concerns. to say that the foreign intelligence surveillance act, because it has an article three court attached to it and it is in accordance with legislation passed by congress, so that it adequately reflects the checks and balan

. >> now a discussion on the operation of the foreign intelligence surveillance court known as the fisa court. this is wordy five minutes. >> we want to welcome the professor of law from georgetown university and the author of the cost of counterterrorism and liberty. thanks for being with us. let's go back to this law. >> it was a response to the abuses of the collection from american citizens. there were other projects they were developing. we had various agencies at the congress and fisa was 's response to try to get a handle on operations and to prevent them from collecting wholesale intelligence from american citizens. host: explain how this works. guest: the chief justice of the supreme court of points initially 7, now 11 judges given to the court, drawn from around the country by seven different circuits, three have been revived within washington, d.c. because of the increased use of 9/11 emergency orders. it does have particular functions that a service, primarily reviewing applications for four kinds of surveillance. the first is electronic, the traditional use. the second is t

surveillance court. it is no longer about foreign intelligence. it is simply about harvesting millions and millions and millions of phone call records and beyond. this is only just verizon with upwards of 100 million subscribers, what about the other telecoms and the other internet service providers? the government can classify, console, not only the surtax -- that only the facts, but the secret laws that are supporting surveillance. >> thomas drake, what can they do with this information, what is called metadata? they don't have the content of the conversation, supposedly the -- remember, we're just seeing this one for people watching, this one request that is specifically -- i also want ask you, it is the rise in business services. what does it mean to have the length of time and not the names up but where the call originates and where it is going, the phone numbers back and forth? >> you get incredible amounts of information about subscribers. basically, the ability to afford a profile as well as look backwards all activities associated with th

just in the past week that there was an 86-page written opinion from the fisk court, foreign intelligence surveillance courtin 2011, finding that some collection under this program, was unreasonable under the fourth amendment. in other word, illegal. a finding by the fisc court that collections were done in way teas the court found were illegal. now there's been very little explanations of that. one question that i'll be looking forward to seeing is if we get any questioning about that in the hearing today. >> it is likely we will hear a lot of questioning. coming up in the coming hours as we continue to listen in to this house intelligence committee hearing. thank you so much. michael isikoff. that does it for jansing and company pb i'm chris jansing. chris nelson will have more coming up p. safer energy company. i've been with bp for 24 years. i was part of the team that helped deliver on our commitments to the gulf - and i can tell you, safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge safety equipment and technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring cent

the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court reportedly granted the order to the feds back in april but limited the time period to three months. in the ruling obtained by "the guardian," the judge orders them to turn over call logs on an ongoing daily basis. it applies domestically as well as calls taking place between the u.s. and foreign nations but does not include actual conversations. the collection of communication logs is believed to be a major component of the bush administration's program of surveillance that took place without court orders, and it comes as the obama administration is already facing furor over its aggressive tactics in the investigation of government leaks. the white house has not commented. >>> let's go now to immigration reform. bipartisan legislation is expected to hit the senate floor next week. a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll finds a slight majority supports it, but not necessarily right now. and all this as one of the house bipartisan immigration groups gang of eight steps down. nbc's tracie potts is in washington with all of those details.

it's even called a court in the first place the pfizer court was created with the one nine hundred seventy eight foreign intelligence surveillance act to make sure authorities obtained surveillance warrants before they spy on foreign agents within the united states then after september eleventh the patriot act expanded the court's size and scope increasing the number of judges from seven to eleven and lowering the legal standards to obtain surveillance warrants since the new use of the court has exploded and virtually all of these requests are approved by the pfizer court in fact since the court was created only eleven warrant requests have been rejected all more than twenty thousand have been approved so when the n.s.a. and f.b.i. wanted to collect data on millions of verizon users in the united states they went to the pfizer court to get a warrant and it wasn't the first time they have tamed such a secret pfizer warrant and it's a whistleblower bill bennett the fight's a warrant that was issued to the f.b.i. to get data from verizon. that's that's been going on according to the paper anyway since not a two thousand and seven i

regardless of whether any of those people are suspected of any wrongdoing secret foreign intelligence surveillance court order which was first revealed by the guardian was signed on april twenty fifth and it requires of horizon to produce the daily phone records of its customers now the telephone records being handed over to the national security agency indicate the numbers of both parties on every call the location data the call duration unique identifiers and the time duration of all the calls whether they're made in the u.s. or made overseas now the order does not request that the contents. of the contents of the calls be disclosed but for a rise in declined our request for comment and that's probably because the secret court order bans of arisan from disclosing any information to anyone other than their own employees that are needed to comply with this secret surveillance operation under the obama administration now we should also mention that senior officials for the obama administration only made their admission after the guardian newspaper published the story and the classified order on its websi

surveillance. now think about this. they want to force the justice department to declassify court opinions in this instance, court opinions operating under the foreign intelligencelance act or fisa, the foreign intelligence surveillance court, that measure probably won't work but it was worth drafting juut to see this odd pairing of senators lee and franken. don't you think? president obama. well, here he is. looky there. look there the difference between senator obama and 2007 and president obama in 2013. you think this job doesn't carry with it a little weight and burden? well, then senate candidate barack obama accused the bush administration back then of putting forward a, quote, false choice between national security and our civil will liberties an was very fired up about it but i think it's a pretty safe bet that president obama now would not make the same argument because he is caught, is are we all, between a real choice between national security and civil liberties. and snowden? well, snowden right now is still very much a question mark. >> it is simply a disgrace. our veterans forced to wait month, even years for their benefiis. congressman jeff miller

government use secret foreign intelligence surveillance court to gather an extension of our extensive range of information from the phone service provider of arise and he also revealed how both mainland china and hong kong have been victim of hundreds of cyber attacks by u.s. hackers and according to the latest leak the u.k. is collecting and storing vast amounts of sensitive personal data from online and phone traffic and sharing it with the u.s. norman solomon author and co-founder of the civil action group roots action systems revelation uncovers the u.s. the people's fundamental struggle for civil liberties. well he's really a hero to so many americans but rather than the labels the cheap crime is that he has brought truth to the necessity of a democratic process and is a curse people in the white house and many in congress are not happy about the illumination of they have been engaged in surveillance which is direct violation of civil liberties of the citizens of the united states as well as a violation of the privacy of people around the we're all so naturally the obama administ

surveillance. think about this. they want to force the justice department to declassify court opinions in this instance. court opinions operating under the foreign intelligenceillance act are the foreign intelligence surveillance court -- well, that measure probably will pass, but it was worth drafting just to see this odd pairing of senators lee and frank and. don't you think? president obama -- heee he is. look. the difference between senator obama in 2007 and president obama, 2013. you think this job does not carry with a little weight and burden? senator -- then senate candidate barack obama accused the bush administration of putting forward a false choice between national security and our civil liberties. he was very fired up about it. at think it is a pretty safe bet that president obama now would not make this same argument. because he is caught, as are we all, and a very real choice between national security and civil liberties. and edward snowden -- well, edward snowden right now is still very much a question mark. at tough day on wall street. investors looking for direction. chase investment council's tells us what direction this market is headed.

google has filed a motion with the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court. the company wants to divulge how often it was asked to turn over customers' data in the name of national security. >>> and in afghanistan, the taliban agreed to hold peace talks with the u.s. and afghan government and then claimed responsibility for killing four u.s. troops. the taliban opened a political office in qatar yesterday. preliminary peace talks could begin as early as tomorrow. speaking in northern ireland yesterday, president obama says the talks will not be quick or easy. >> we anticipate there will be a lot of bumps in the road, but the fact that the parties have an opportunity to talk and discuss afghan -- the afghanistans' future, i think, is very important. >> the four americans were killed during a rocket attack on the main u.s. base outside kabul. now, the white house says a vote by the republican-controlled house to ban most abortions after 20 weeks is a direct challenge to roe v. wade. susan mcginnis is in washington with more on this. susan, good morning. >> anne

i think the front page story in the "washington post" with respect to the foreign intelligence surveillance court probably put more transparency on that court than anything in history of a secret organization and it's all out there now, pictures of the judges who appointed them to the federal bench-- i think we need to enable people to see the process that's followed. how we do that, i need to think out. i'd like to talk to chairman leahy of the judiciary committee and see if we can't do together some work to really take a good look at the process that's involved in this. on friday, the 50 cases-- and i just spoke to general alexander before he went on television-- the 50-plus cases of where this information was helpful came this weekend to the intelligence committee. it's classified, but we will be taking a good look at that as early as tuesday. >> schieffer: do you believe, senator feinstein-- we know and we have learned a lot about the capabilities of the u.s. government. do you-- have you at this point come to any conclusion about whether those capabilities and that power was abused by these

government use the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court to gather an extensive range of information from phone service provider of arisan also revealed that the both the mainland china and hong kong have been the victims of massive amounts of cyber attacks by u.s. hackers and the latest details here the u.k. is collecting and storing huge amounts of sensitive personal data from online telephone traffic and then they're sharing it immediately with washington d.c. now british human rights activist peter tatchell he believes is the u.s. government and not mr snowden who should at the end of the day be punished. but she will deny the states will be doubling its efforts to try and intercept him and to get an extradition from whatever country they can i think the context of this is that the united states spies on its own citizens it also spies on the citizens of millions of other countries i mean millions of people in other countries and this is done without the permission of those countries it is technically illegal and what is extraordinary is that it would snowden was employed by the u

government has used the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court to gather extensive data from phone service provider verizon and he told china hundreds of targets there were being hacked and according to his latest leak the u.k. is collecting and storing huge amounts of personal sensitive data from online and telephone traffic and sharing it with america well u.k. investigative journalist tony gosling believes the revelations a bigger than many think. the real impact of what he's done here is only now starting to be realized it's not only is he exposing criminality the signals intelligence part of the british intelligence services also the national security agency but he's also showing that much of that intelligence contains information which may bring criminal prosecutions for example of war crimes criminal criminal prosecutions against for example bankers but this is what people don't necessary understand is there will be information that edward snowden has that can actually bring some of these people to trial eventually and that's why the west is so afraid if britain was re

the order was issued by the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court and granted the government unlimited authority to collect data over a three-month period, which ends on july 19th of this year. "the guardian" report said the actual contents of the calls are not recorded but the government does track the phone numbers, location data and the length of conversation. i want to point out, nbc news does not have independent confirmation of this report or the legitimacy of the document. now, the order falls under a pretty controversial section of the patriot act, which allows the government to make these types of requests from telephone carriers. however, "the washington post" reports, this appears to be a so-called rubber-stamped order, one that is "reissued routinely every 90 days," and it's essentially ongoing, so we have to figure out when it started and it's a complicated story. the white house, justice department and verizon have declined to comment on this story. >>> we also have new information this morning about the military's controversial drone program as classified intel

from a top secret court order this is the document the guardian obtained from the foreign intelligence surveillance court on april twenty fifth the data audit to lessen the data specifically the numbers of the parties of the phone calls both those calling and receiving the call the location data and also the time and duration of the calls the content of those calls is not asked for by the government but you could imagine how authorities could look in on that and find out who is calling who when where and for how long that's a lot of data that you could really use if you wanted to. every day this data has been ordered to be given on an in a daily format for around three months ending on july the nineteenth so this saying that the content of the phone calls is not being monitored but the phone numbers the exchange but also tracking the location of the people where they are at the moment they're making those phone calls as well what about in the world if you're an american but rising customer over there in the u.s. you might be slightly perturbed about this indeed you would and on top of recent scandals inv

government used the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court to gather an extensive range of information from phone service provider verizon he revealed also . how both mainland china and hong kong have been victims to hundreds of cyber attacks by u.s. hackers and according to his latest leak the u.k. is collecting and storing huge amounts of sensitive data personal data from online and telephone traffic and also sharing it with america peter tatchell who is a u.k. human rights activist says that u.s. surveillance tactics are outrageous and go beyond all legal boundaries and she will deny the states will be doubling its efforts to try and intercept him and to get an extradition from whatever country they can i think the context of this is that the united states spies on its own citizens it also spies almost a distance of millions of other countries i mean millions of people in other countries and this is done without the permission of those countries it is technically illegal and what is extraordinary is that what snowden was employed by the united states as a spy yet now they are seekin

citizens are the equivalent of foreign nationals there is no foreign intelligence surveillance court it's simply a rubber stamp surveillance court we're going to find that this that citizens that are supposed to have rights including citizens in other countries are simply subjects of a surveillance state and we just need the data. particularly interesting that the n.s.a. was tapping the civilian infrastructure is in other countries i mean unbeknownst to the governments i how is that even possible it's just unbelievable. as they can you know why is it you know it's very deeply tapping a hospital or a school or something like that i mean information is the currency of power and getting more and more information is the name of the game particularly in this very secretive regime we've put in place under bush and only grown and expanded under obama so the flip side. i love the leaking is all the overclassification and this secret ing of everything in america and when she made that statement that was before this weekend's revelations there prism is one of four programs that are gathering j

is largest telecoms providers there this order coming from a top secret court the foreign intelligence surveillance court on april twenty fifth and the data itself telephony metadata that's the numbers of both parties in a phone call the location data of that call also the time and duration of all those calls the contents of the conversations are not included but you can imagine how anyone is looking at that could find out who is talking to who where they are when they call and how long before you can really zoom in and pinpoint someone from that kind of kind of data and this state has been given every day for around three months up until july the nineteenth this is unbelievable you're talking about the u.s. national security agency using a secret court to secretly steal everybody's phone records from the biggest mobile network provider in the united states one would only imagine that when it comes to the average american finding out about this they're going to be appalled horrified and downright angry if you could indeed be like that two u.s. senators who. have perhaps been hinting about this is not sur

ofn a look at the operations the foreign intelligence surveillance court known as the court. after that, the senate hearing to the duplication of federal information technology programs. tomorrow i'm reporters .oundtable with ian swanson the former deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism discusses in a safe surveillance programs and the case against edward snowden. -- discusses nsa surveillance programs in the case against edward snowden. >> going as far back as abigail adams and marcia washington -- martha washington you find firstly displayed an important role in the white house. abigail adams was basically a campaign strategist for her husband. she helped advise him on who to woo to win election. they would talk excessively about politics and legislation that needed to be passed emma which senators and which congressmen he could count on, what he needed to do to win more support. >> if we continue our discussion on first ladies, john roberts takes a look at our nation's first ladies as political partners with their husbands rather than wives and mothers. >> d