two questions and i will ask them both at the same time and asked general clapper to think about the second one. the oversight over all these programs if you would walk us through these various layers of compliance officers privacy civil liberty and each step to make sure we get at the oversight processes and then general clapper if you would give us some sort of guess as to the total manhours and dollars that we would use in that oversight process based on your experience? general alexander? >> congressman thank you and thank you for those words for our people. i'm going to start with the oversight we have an essay. inspector general and general

let me say to general alexander, and to director clapper.'m a new member of the committee, as you know. i have learned so much in this amount of time. i is had the out most respect for not only what you do each and every day but the people and the team you direct each and every day. having said that, i have to tell you that the american people have lost confidence in what we do. i think that at some point per accepting become realty even though reality may be something totally different and not based on the facts as you know it or laid out today. my comment we should ear on transparency. to the extend we can make declassified information so the american people can understand what you do the better off i think all of us will be. where i come from. i think we need to reform the programs not just dismantle the program but i think there are ways question make them much more transparent. it for example, on the fisa court, can you explain how the one goes about getting a warrant and goes before the fisa court currently? and is that an adversarial

moments from now general james clapper and general keith alexander will both be giving their openingtements on nsa programs. over at the white house the obama administration is navigating through rough political waters. joining me now mark mazzetti national security correspondent for "new york times" and chris cillizza nbc contributor and host of "in play." i was talking to congressman schiff on the committee and he said there's going to have to be a narrowing of the nsa's reach of broad metadata as it were. he does not see justification for spying on friendly allies. that is really the flash point that has got europeans and now senator feinstein on the senate side and senator collins on the senate side who say they were not briefed in the senate intelligence community. >> interesting you have a lot more congressional outrage over the listening to foreign leaders than the collection of metadata of american citizens. but there is sort of two controversies at the same time, the foreign and domestic. that's what various communities hearing from intelligence officials about. you're corre

i got two questions, and i'll ask them at the same time and allow general clapper to think about the answer on the second one. opening remarks talked about briefly the oversight that goes over all programs. if you walk us through the various layers of inspector generals, compliance officers, steps going through there to make sure we get at that process, and then, general clapper, give us a guess as to the total man hours and dollars that we would use in that oversight process based on your experience, so general al exapedder? >> congressman, thank you, and thanks for the words for our people. i'll start with the oversight that we have at nsa. we have an inspector general and a general counsel who have responsibilities for overseeing these programs. working with this committee and with the administration, we set up the directer of compliance. this is another separate office that looks specifically at these programs and our other collection programs to ensure that we do this right. we have a few hundred people that actually audit and track what our folks do every step of the way, so wit

because it saves lives not only in america, but as you just pointed out in europe as welt, where general clapper says the threat is much closer. >> and randall, there seems to be a sense of indignation, rye churros otherwise, on the part of both men. megadata that is what you heard. gathering information to see what they see. it is then narrows down to whether it fits into certain categories. does no have the eyes on that particular megadata. >> that would allow the data to be coated. and then another group of people who can then go in and actually listen to the phone calls or read the text messages. a very careful system of rules that protect the selection of the megadata and who has access to it. in other words, they are saying that they are collecting this information, and then for it comes to a terrorism investigation, only a limited number of people would have the ability to go in and get that information and that edward snowden, the leaker as he was called, did not, could not access that information. >> james clapper saying we have been here before, talking about the 1970s and specifically

also the people who are in the cia, 70% according to general clapper, director of national intelligences have been furloughed. >> that's right, andrea. at a hearing of the judiciary committee earlier this week, i was questioning general alexander and director of national intelligence clapper who said more than 70% of the civilian workforce of the intelligence committee is currently on furlough. i heard from a delawarean, a patriot working for the nuclear regulatory commission, he's responsible for proactive training and oversight. there are inspectors in place in our nuclear power plants in the united states today. he wanted to make sure i realized as of next week they will begin furloughing all the folks who do proactive and long-term preventive maintenance then and training. as our teams overseas are at risk, our intelligence community is increasingly unable to look ahead to all the different risks we face around the world. here at home we've got federal agencies like nuclear regulatory commission, which folks may not think of day in and day out, part of what is most irresponsible abo

i raise this today with general clapper. i think there has to be a real discussion about the intelligence community's obligation under a -- national security act of 47 to inform congress of significant intelligence activities like these that have such tremendous blowback potential. i'm not confident in light of these recent allegations that we are getting those full briefings, we do know the full scope of what is going on overseas. we have a lot more visibility of what happens here at home. we all have more safeguards in domestic surveillance because we have the fiza court as well operating and that can be improved. we have lot less visibility overseas and plainly, that's going change in the intelligence committees and has to change. >> congressman, you sit on the house intelligence committee. how much have you learned from edward snowden as opposed to from u.s. government sources that should be briefing you and your fellow members of the intelligence commit i don't the nsa programs? >> you know, some of these programs i don

the head of national intelligence general clapper testified last week that 70% of the cias analysts areaid off, furloughed, rather. how do you have an intelligence community where 70% of the analysts are furloughed. >> you've got these fundamental basis of american power, military, homeland security and our diplomats. all of them need to be out working and deployed. you can't afford to have 800,000 federal employees out of work and expect this country to help americans overseas, to run those embassies, to be effective militarily. so if this shutdown taught us anything and i went through the last shutdown when i was in the state department in the clinton administration in the '90s it's that we have to be present every single day. i hope it will end. i think president obama is trying to do the right thing here to keep the american government front and center but it's a difficult thing to do when congress doesn't give you the money to fund the government. >> nick burns from harvard. thank you very much ambassador nick burns. >> thank you. >>> up next grammy award winner sharing his latest

director clapper, general alexander.do don't you think it underscores the need for greater transparency about our surveillance programs? >> absolutely, sir. it does. senator franken, and a couple of comments and the bill. -- in the total number of target arvegged by those orders. and we're fine with allowing the providers to release annually the total number of government request or -- about their customers and the total number of targets affected by the orders and certifications. what we are concerned about to be upfront here is that the stipulation on a company by company basis. it gives adversary the terrorist the prerogative of shopping around for providers that aren't covered. i do agree with you about doing all we can to ensure the public of what a small proportion of these records actually looked at. case in point went to 215 only 288 qir rei that were actually made which was actually in the total scheme of things the minuscule part of the record. >> that's sort of the point. i want to response to this a. those ar

alexander and general clapper toes explain to the american people what we are and are not doing. there iser incredible amount of misinformation being reported particularly when the things are early reported. a lot of mistakes made. some honest and i think for sensational value, an awful lot of misinformation in the public arena what the nsa is doing and not doing particularly with respect to u.s. citizens. having general alexander to explain the differences between the programs out there and what we can and can not do with respect to things within the united states and against u.s. citizens just to continue to try to get that record straight so when we do decide to make a decision with respect toto poliy issues we're basing it on facts rather than just the innuendo in the newspaper article or the misinformation that these journalists continue to put out, again, sometimes by honest mistakes. other times i think by design. >> host: how will you vote on what the "washington post" says are dueling pieces of nsa leg shun? jim sensenbrenner, republican of wisconsin, teamed up with patr

we also heard general james clapper, the director of national intelligence testify today that the intelligencemunity is currently staffed at about 30%, harris. >> harris: thanks for helping all of us work on our political correctness. apparently you can't say someone is nonessential. they are non-excepted. >> how would you feel. >> i know my place. james we hear the environmental protection agency has sent some 93% of its staff home, don't we have to store to wonder if the federal government is too big to begin with? >> to many americans for sure. the sky remains aloft. but in the case of the e.p.a., which you raised its office of air and radiation is taking a major hit. meaning the office that writes and implements major policy for air pollution is effectively grounded. and that agency, officials will tell you, will have an impact on the number of asthma cases each year still the editor and chief of exec.com acknowledged to fox news that ours is an age in which the reservoir of goodwill for federal employees is running low. >> government doesn't do a great job of measuring things like the pro

we will ask the kind of questions that allows general alexander and general clapper to explain to themerican people what we are and are not doing. made,is a lot of mistakes some honest and some for sensational value. there is enough misinformation as to what the an essay is and isn't doing, particularly with u.s. citizens. having general alexander explain the differences between the programs that are out there, what we can and can't do with respect to things in the united states and u.s. citizens, just to continue to try to get that record straight so when we do make a decision with respect to policy issues we are basing it on facts rather than just the innuendo that is in the newspaper articles or the misinformation that these journalists continue to put out. sometimes they are honest mistakes. host: how will you vote on what the "washington post" says are dueling pieces of legislation? a legislation would've rein in what the nsa is doing with its records onollecting americans. you have mike rogers on the house side and dianne feinstein on the senate side wanting to have more transpa

had a column in which you had an interview with james clapper, director of national intelligence, let me read a line. the white house is generally deferred to clapper, letting him broker deals within the intelligence community rather than try to impose its own management. on redaction of nsa documents, for example, the white house left most decisions with clapper. so what do you think? does he get too much leeway? >> i think that clapper is trying to fill what is a bit of a policy vacuum and that's good. somebody should take charge and clapper's an experienced person. wolf, the simple point i would make is that, most of the u.s. government response, including by clapper to the nsa scandal, has focused on domestic reaction in the u.s. americans who say, wait a minute, you know, we don't want our data, our met ta data, saying who we called on cell phones, whatever, we don't want that collected by the nsa. clapper's responded to that he's pushed back against nsa and says you have to disclose more than you're comfortable with. u.s. officials sometimes say things like, look, sorry, the fourth amendment against unnecessary search and

director and deputy director of the nsa and along with the director of national intelligence james clapper and general james cole all testifying this afternoon. law makers want to know how long it is going on and who knew about it. the white house said president obama did not know that the nsa was monitoring the phone calls. >> lou dobbes makes a good point. you wonder how much of that sebelius will talk about tomorrow? >> you wonder if they know? >> or her answer every time they badger her with a question. >>> law makers looking to the answer to so many questions of what the government knew and web site. what do the web site delays mean for the implementation of the law. >>> one year ago today a monster storm settled over the northeast affecting millions of people and the recovery and progress made since super storm sandy. >>> and bringing terrorist to justice on benghazi. we'll talk on a law makers looking for that exact answer, next. >> every time i see this on tv, i see bloody finger prints crawling down the wall and i keep asking everybody. do they belong to my son? and no one has told me anythin

general clapper, the leaders in our intelligence-gathering information around the world have stated that 72% of people who work in our intelligence agencies are home watching tv, reading a book. they're not at work protecting us from the bad people around the world ... and there are lots of them. we've talked about our national parks here. it's really been bad for people coming to nevada who want to do things in our parks. but not only for them, it's hurt business in nevada, as it has around the country. n.i.h. -- mr. president, we all understand how important it is that people who are sick and ill have the ability to have the best care in the world. if you're at the end of the line and you're fortunate enough to be able to say, well, maybe there's still another chance; they're doing something back in washington at one of the national institutes of healths, maybe they can help you. well, not now. can't do it now because of the republicans. centers for disease control -- not a very glamourous-sounding name, but that's what it is about, controlling disease. most of them are furloughed. sen

testifying today, james clapper, deputy attorney general james cole and the dreker of the nsa, keith er. in a prepared statement, mr. clap clapper insisted the programs are legal. >> we do not spy indiscriminately on the citizens of any country. we only spy for valid foreign intelligence purposes as authorized by law with multiple layers of oversight to ensure we don't abuse our authorities. >>> the director of the nsa also strongly defended the agency's program. take a listen. >> we see the threats that come into this nation. we see that a foreign agency is intended to see. prior to 9/11, we had no way of connecting those dots. everything we do on this program is auditing 100% on the business report fisa. 100%. >> the chair of the senate intelligence committee dianne feinstein been a lawyer defender of the nsa broken ranks with the agency and now calling for a full review of all of their surveillance programs. she quote, totally opposed to spying on u.s. allies and adds congress has not been kept in the loop. feinstein's counterpart, republican susan collins agrees in a statement she

super secret fisa courts to protect privacy rights but director of national intelligence james clapper and general keith alexander told the schmidt the content of phone calls remain secret in a virtual lockbox unless there is a link to possible terrorism and that, they say, is rare. >> there wiat would only be loo when we had reasonable and articulable suspicious that we had connection to a foreign al-qaeda or related terrorist group and look into that box. in 2012, we had 88 such selectors that we could go and look into that. >> that's it. of the billions of records, only 28 yeah. >> at the committee hearing, there was relatively little discussion about allegations the u.s. had spied on america's allies but at the whitehouse, it was still a hot topic. press secretary jay carney says president obama assured german chancellor angela merkel there is not and will not be any spying on her. but this was the reaction when carney was asked about leaders of france and japan. >> i just don't have anything more specific about specific alleged operations or conversations the president may or may not have had

it is also a question with kathleen sebelius, it becomes more of a question with general alexander, with director clapper, the figures in the national security element, as well. the confluence of the two makes this a bigger and more glaring issue for the president's credibility. >> right, unfortunate, but also a coincidence. i don't think we connect these two things and say oh, this white house, this president wants to be in the dark about things -- so hands -- >> i'm just trying to imagine what charles would say about this confluence if george w. bush were in the white house. >> i think these two things were actually separate things. they're completely different agencies and completely different timelines. the nsa situation has been happening over a very long time. the website issues happened over a much shorter period of time when they were rolling it out. the government was shut down. the president was distracted by the idea of trying not to let the country go into default. >> ah. >> there is no ah, come on, ross. >> sorry. >> but they're kind of separate things. i think you're right. you take your lu

> front and center in a rare public hearing with the head of the nsa, general keith alexander and head of intelligence james clapper. he did not denial gas stations that the u.s. lived in on the private phone of germany's chancellor angela merkel, but in an emotional opening statement where he spoke as he said from the heart general alexander explained his view that n sa counter terror efforts are keeping america safe. >> let me give you thoughts here. i think this is important for our country to think about this. if you look at the trends in the ct arena in 2012 it was the highest globally it has been ever, over 15,000 people killed. in just this last month , 2,336 people were killed, 1510 injured in pakistan, afghanistan, syria, iraq and nigeria, yet there has not been a mass casualty in the u.s. since 2001. that's not by luck. they didn't stop hating us. they didn't say they were going to just forgive this. they continuing to try. it is the great members of the intelligence community, our military, our law enforcement, that have stood up and said this is our job. and we do it with our partners and our allies. an

the government just ball collecting all the data itself yes a chief general keith alexander and d.n.i. director clapper kind of push back against. seems likely just last sam sachs but we will come back to him begin get that up and working again and just today r.t. sat down with ecuadorian president rafael correa during his visit to moscow korea isn't russia not to talk about the n.s.a. but rather to boost the friendly relations that already exists between the two countries the relationship between ecuador and russia gain new momentum this year as the two countries align their support behind former u.s. government contractor edward snowden r t s alexey you're a chef he has more from the president korea. is now in moscow the very same city where edward snowden they whistleblower now resides on the his political asylum the breaking revelations of who infuriated the leader of ecuador back this summer and he's still pretty much angry especially in the light of the latest revelations on high profile politicians in europe being wiretapped by the n.s.a. . but at least they said it was necessary for fighting ag

general keith alexander now testifying. earlier you heard james clapper support the nsa surveillance programs. we'll take a quick break. more special coverage right after this. my asthma's under control. i don't miss out... you sat out most of our game yesterday! asthma doesn't affect my job... you were out sick last week. my asthma doesn't bother my family... you coughed all through our date night! i hardly use my rescue inhaler at all. what did you say? how about - every day? coping with asthma isn't controlling it. test your level of control at asthma.com, then talk to your doctor. there may be more you could do for your asthma. humans -- even when we cross our "t's" and dot our "i's," we still run into problems. that's why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness with our auto policies. if you qualify, your rates won't go up due to your first accident. because making mistakes is only human, and so are we. we also offer new car replacement, so if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. call liberty mutual insurance at..

sanctions evaders and sanctions people who are not paying attention to the sanctions as the dni said, general clapper, the other day has been devastated as well. more than 60% reduced during the shutdown. so we will do our best to enforce these sanctions, to stop sanctions evaders, but i sincerely hope that the shutdown ends soon to so that we are truly able to do so in the runup and as these negotiations proceed. as we move forward, it will be critical that we continue to move together and take no steps that a signal decision tws to iran -- divisions to iran that it could and likely would exploit. further, as the effect of our sanctions on iran depends in part on the actions of our partners, we must insure that our sanctions do not place an undue burden on those countries. it is not in our interests to create fissures within the international coalition facing iran as the impact of our pressure comes from the steps these countries take. we will also continue to raise our other concerns including iran's sponsorship of terrorist organizations and destabilizing activities across the region. and we will

general keith alexander calls the reports false. the claims false. alexander and clapper defended the data-sweeping program as lawful and aimed at foreign terrorists and successful in saving lives. a german member of the european parliament tells nbc news that confidence is destroyed. today a german delegation is expected at the white house to meet with security officials. >>> overnight a domestic dispute in south carolina ends in an apparent murder-suicide with six people shot dead including two children. police say a man called 911 tuesday night telling operators he was feeling edgy b and wanted to harm himself. as deputies responded, a neighbor said she found a gunshot and that children from a nearby home were fleeing to hers. police confirmed the gunman had released four children before the shootings. >> it is a situation that just takes your heart. it is sad. it is horrific. your heart has to go out to everyone involved. >> police treated the incident as a hostage situation but when the s.w.a.t. team entered the home it was too late. >>> a massive dust storm leads to

general alexander said. >> perhaps he could elaborate back -- >> a little back and forth. they're asking questions of james clapperder, head of the nsa and also the head of national intelligence. so a couple questions back and forth. bob, let me bring you back in. part of the questioning clearly about the crux of this is what did the president know, how much did the president know. you could hear congresswoman bachman asking about those briefings. was the president in attendance? who was there if he wasn't? what did you make of that back and forth? >> i think they were pretty good questions by congresswoman bachman. there were a lot of questions that remain here. i think the administration, and you saw it with james clapper today, is starting to say, listen, everyone spies here. the problem is you can't get caught. somewhere in russia edward snowden is smiling right now, coming up in congressional testimony like we've heard. so this has really thrown off the -- thrown the white house off balance. at first, the president was saying the nsa is not spying on americans. now they've have to deal with spying on foreign

the director of national intelligence, james clapper, the head of the nsa, the national security agency, general keith alexander and others who lawmakers want to ask, how extensive are these surveillance programs? why are they necessary? and particularly as we've learned of late, why are we tapping cell phones and other conversations of our allies, of world leaders like angela merkel, the german chancellor. the germans are really upset about this. they're calling for an investigation. even some democrats are saying it's over the top to tap cell phones of our allies like senator dianne feinstein. her senate intelligence committee may also be looking into this. in a statement, she said "with respect to nsa collection of intelligence on leaders of u.s. al allies, let me state unequivocally, i am totally opposed. i do not believe the united states should be collecting phone calls or e-mails of friendly presidents and prime ministers." like merkel. that's why the eu, the european union, has people here in washington asking questions, and now am a senior administration official says they may phase out

other hearings to mention, this afternoon, national intelligence director, james clapper along with nsa director general keith ellison xander will testify about the nsa surveillance program following recent revelations that the agency spied on foreign leaders and that will be live on c-span three afternoon at 1:00 30. -- at 1:30 p.m.. the mother of trayvon martin is one of the ones testifying on stand your ground defense laws calling for states to qualify their standards which vary and are applied inconsistently. this is live coverage on c-span. >> young trayvon martin sought to defend himself because i strongly suspect that mr. zimmerman could not apprehend any lawful reason for a young black male to walk through his middle-class neighborhood. to mr. zimmerman, the blackness served as a crude roxy for criminality. this unfortunate outcome sends a twofold message. first, it tells floridians they can incorrectly profile lung -- young brack -- young black children, kill them, and be protected by standard ground laws. it sends a more ominous message to young black children for it consider myself fortunate

the younger generation without whom government surveillance and intrusive techniques cannot happen unless they fold unless they just kind of give up the fight the people like james clapper and keith alexander are in deep trouble because they can't function they can't possibly fulfill what they see as their mission that is to snoop on everyone on the planet without the help of highly technical people who alas also have a conscience witness edward snowden you know bonnie you know we've we've heard before all this happened with snowden i think all of us with more on it to believe that our privacy was being respected by facebook google microsoft eccentrics cetera and they give this whole story broke they were very timid about talking about their relationship with the n.s.a. and now they come out and say we want to protect your privacy why should we believe them now. well actually the whole thing is the public doesn't understand and most people i work in supercomputing when we start talking about how the data is collected people have a misconception about. the government listening to individual telephone calls you know they're doing data analytics and they're doing things li

the younger generation without whom government surveillance and intrusive techniques cannot happen unless they fold unless they just kind of give up the fight the people like james clapper and keith alexander are in deep trouble because they can't function they can't possibly fulfill what they see as their mission that is to snoop on everyone on the planet without the help of highly technical people who alas also have a conscience witness edward snowden you know bonnie you know we've we've heard before all this happened with snowden i think all of us with more on it to believe that our privacy was being respected by facebook google microsoft eccentric cetera and they when the whole story broke they were very timid about talking about their relationship with the n.s.a. and now they come out and say we want to protect your privacy why should we believe them now. well actually the whole thing is the public doesn't understand and most people i work in supercomputing when we start talking about how the data is collected people have a misconception about. the government listening to individual telephone calls you know they're doing data analytics and they're doing things like

the younger generation without whom government surveillance and intrusive techniques cannot happen unless they fold unless they just kind of give up the fight the people like james clapper and keith alexander are in deep trouble because they can't function they can't possibly fulfill what they see as their mission that is to snoop on everyone on the planet without the help of highly technical people who alas also have a conscience witness edward snowden you know bonnie you know we've we've heard before all this happened with snowden i think all of us with more on it to believe that our privacy was being respected by facebook google microsoft eccentrics cetera and they this whole story broke they were very timid about talking about their relationship with the n.s.a. and now they come out and say we want to protect your privacy why should we believe them now. well actually the whole thing is the public doesn't understand and most people i work in supercomputing and when we start talking about how the data is collected people have a misconception about. the government listening to individual telephone calls you know they're doing data analytics and they're doing things lik

the younger generation without whom government surveillance and intrusive techniques cannot happen unless they fold unless they just have to give up the fight the people like james clapper and keith alexander are in deep trouble because they can't function they can't possibly fulfill what they see as their mission that is to snoop on everyone on the planet without the help of highly technical people who alas also have a conscience witness edward snowden you know bonnie you know we've we've heard it before all this happened with snowden i think all of us with more on it to believe that our privacy was being respected by facebook google microsoft eccentric cetera and they could this whole story broke they were very timid about talking about their relationship with the n.s.a. and now they come out and say we want to protect your privacy why should we believe them now. well actually the whole thing is the public doesn't understand and most people i work in supercomputing and we start talking about how the data is collected people have a misconception about. the government listening to individual telephone calls you know they're doing data analytics and they're doing things

>> whether he intended to or not james clapper seemed to give the president cover here because he said the president in general would know about the output of the intelligence gathering but might not know the source of it. when he is reading these intelligence reports. he did say the white house, national security council, would know in general the targets of this kind of intelligence gathering but it is possible the president would not know that a particular report he was reading said it was sourced from one of angela merkel. >> listening in on millions of phone conversations of europeans p. >> on this one there was no question from clapper and al alexand alexander. those reports completely pauls and said it was not the nsa or u.s. in any form that was gathering this data. it was, in fact, european countries doing so. european intelligence services. two, the data was not the content of phone calls or phone calls themselves. this was part of a joint operation, the u.s. and nato allies that have nothing to do with the countries, spain and france, but had do with military operations abroad. >> we will speak to m

this is a very important hearing and i would just note the house has repeatedly passed funding general clapper to restore the de . .

evaders and sageses -- sageses people not paying attention to the sanctions as the dni and said general clapper the other day has been devastating as well. more than 60% reduce during the shut down. we'll do our best to enforce these sanctions. to stop sanctions invaders. i hope the shut down ends soon so that we are truly able to do so in the run up and as these negotiations proceed. as we move forward it will be critical that we continue to move together and take no step that signal decision to iran that could and likely would exploit further as the effect out of sanctions on iran depends in part on the action of our partners, we must ensure that our sanctions do not place an undo bushed on those countries. it's not in our interest to create phis sure within the international coalition facing iran as the impact of our pressure comes from the steps these countries take. we will also continue to raise our other concerns. human rights abuses and destabilizing activity across the region. we will remain absolutely dead candidated to the return of u.s. citizens robert lev stoun. every day their fam