it is not that edward snowden has exposed to secrets of the nsa, he is exposed the lies of the nsa. director of national intelligence james clapper testified to congress the nsa was in collecting information about millions of americans and it turns out they were. the solicitor general told the supreme court the nsa was providing notice to criminal defendants who had been surveilled. it turns out they weren't. it is all of these misrepresentations about the nsa's activities that edward snowden has exposed and i think that is a great public service and a travesty that edward snowden is in russia. we are hopeful he will be able to return to the united states -- not to face criminal charges, but rather with the kind of amnesty that he deserves. >> i want to thank you both for being with us. jameel jaffer from the aclu and glenn greenwald who broke the story about edward snowden, speaking to us from brazil. now creating a new media venture with laura poitras and jeremy scahill and ebay's founder. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. way, to

there is one that the nsa. but if you believe the director of the nsa is at least in part a call. wrongdoing, that ig for him. if you really want to put the director of the nsa on report, it has to be high-level decision and you must go above the director of the nsa, which is the ig resident with the u.s. department of defense. did.is what we we did the 2002 complaint to the dod ig, even though the report was heavily classified and really very few people saw it. it was designed to be buried because it was very embarrassing to the nsa. function was really no function. if you think snowden had a path through the ig, he didn't. these things are there. they're almost cosmetic. there are investigations, lots of reports written, but they are buried and hidden from public review when they don't cannot favorably. >> ben wizner, the little time we have left, on edward stone's request for permanent asylum in brazil and his options right now, could you talk about that? >> i think the press got away in -- got carried away. snowden has been getting requests from brazilian senators and in fact,

couldn't breathe at points because of excitement and shock. >> the source was edward snowden. >> the nsa specifically targets the communications of everyone. it ingests them by default. it collects them in it's system and it filters them and it analyzes them and it measures them and it stores them. >> up to that point, the director of national intelligence, who oversees nearly 20 u.s. intelligence agencies, had been telling the public a different story. >> does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans? >> no sir. >> it does not? >> not wittingly. there are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly. >> 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 yo

they seem to be working with the nsa too. don't know as much about how closely, and we haven't heard much from them. >> i think that's an important distinction, isn't it? earlier on in the time line we hard that a lot of companies of all different types both service providers and the ones that provide the pipelines you might say, were responding to warrants, responding to requests, responding to channels through which the government attempted to obtain this information. and now even when they are not being asked -- i guess even when the federal government does it, it's a hack, isn't it? >> in many cases these cable -- the -- the people who have -- who run the tubes for lack of a better word that the internet runs on are willingly cooperating with the nsa, and there's not been much accountability for them. i think in -- in large part because they are not really consumer facing, and you or i don't really have a choice when it comes to who's pipe or tube our data is being sent over. >> i think that's an important juncture in our

major league baseball rule >> in many ways, the nsa surveillance story can seem abstract. in the stream of new revelations from the snowden documents, it can be hard to grasp. sure, the government is collecting information, but what does that really mean for someone's life? to find out, we went to a meet a group of people who definitely know they're being spied on. >> after 9/11 it wasn't just the nsa that increased surveillance on u.s. citizens. here at the city level in new york, the nypd actually brought in two senior officials from the cia to help run a program to spy on its own citizens. >> the program, which was uncovered by the associated press, is targeting one community: muslims. secret documents show that the nypd is conducting surveillance of entire muslim neighborhoods and infiltrating dozens of mosques and muslim student groups. >> they visited bookstores, they visited cafes, they visited hookah joints, and of course they visited mosques... >> informants record conversations using hidden microphones, collect the names and phone numbers of congregants and even p

clearly, they are part of the target of the nsa. as far as the internal procedures and exhausting them, mr. stood in explained that he had -- mr. snowden explained that he had. he was dismissed. therest important point is that the intelligence committee of the united states was aware of the wrongdoing, and were trying to warn the public, but were constrained by law by telling anyone about it. they were rendered impotent. they were barred from speaking about it or doing anything about it. there was no recourse running a public. system forl whistleblowers is really a farce, an illusion designed to suppress the information and not to bring it to light. hq, theas the on the gc u.k. is the closest ally. there is another level of cooperation. b, where theyier cooperate with the nsa on a case-by-case basis. germany, france, norway, sweden, denmark, are among the countries that have participated most extensively. that.lish documents about and as far as using it against political averages, i described a story a couple of weeks ago in which th

this is the mission of the nsa. one of the ways that you see this mission manifest is that there are numerous programs that the nsa envelops and pursues that have no real purpose other than to identify the few pockets of communication that still exist on the planet that the nsa hasn't yet quite successfully invaded. the nsa is obsessed institutionally with the idea that there are still places in methods that exist that are impervious to their invasion, and they work every day to try to rectify what they see as the problem am of the problem being that there are still places on the planet that human communication can take place without their collecting, storing, monitoring, and analyzing that communication. there are documents delivered, for example, to trying to understand how better to invade the wi-fi systems on airplanes based on the concern that human beings can still go on airplanes and use the internet or mobile phones for a few hours in their lives and not be accessible to their surveillance net. there are docu

the nsa stacking the phone data is likely to be unconstitutional latest on this new development just that. can transfer up to one tonne of a defeat for salary of raytheon has given new hope the detention camps closure of the obama administration pushing forward on the transfer of war detainees is this really the end and get out more on that coming up. in mexico politicians and trying to contact and send your detail in the spirit will allow foreign companies to plunder the nation's twelveth or since. the u s that dominates mexico's oil and an update on this growing opposition leader in the shop my the sixteenth i am in washington d c i m lopez and you love watching our team selected st mesa top story starting off with our landmark ruling could pave the way for more regulations of the national security agency us this far judge richard leon role that the nsa spying program violates the fourth amendment prohibition o unreasonable searches and seizures decisions as well. the court concludes that plaintiffs have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the government's book collectio

we'll have much more on that story with the reporter who broke these nsa disclosurers, glen greenwald. but we begin with congress. the house has gone on holiday, the senate in session for the final week this year with the big question looming, will they get the votes needed to pass the so-called bipartisan budget bill that would promise us two years without a shutdown? as is typical for a monday, the senate will hold its first vote at just 5:30 p.m. to confirm jeh johnson to lead the department of homeland security. but everything we have come to think of as typical for the senate ends there. the upper chamber is now bogged down in the rancor and contentious partisan politics normally reserved for the house. with a vote to limit debate on the bill expected tomorrow morning, majority whip dick durbin described the challenges. >> but we need bipartisan support to pass it, and the problems we have are two-fold. a handful of members of the senate are vying for the presidency in years to come and thinking about this vote in that context. and others are frankly afraid of this new force, the

then the nsa is holding a mirror of the data. this would eliminate the nsa holding the data. private come of pane would be holding the same data. >> one thing to recognize, is that the data we are talking about today is phone record. not internet records. there had been a program, president obama discontinued. your internet records. talking phone records. there is something different about having for five years all american phone calls in one place. you are not sure what is happening. and companies keeping phone record. we say shouldn't be more than two years. a shorter time. different centralized database that wouldn't exist the same way as what you are trying to move towards. think it is pretty different. >> were you concerned on the committee with the concern the nsa has raised about, if they need to go to the pfizer court each time they want to search this data, they could be in what is their version of a hot pursuit and they may lose opportunities as a result of that? >> i think two things. one is a series of emergency powers where you get to do things in the first 48-72

of the nsa. one of the ways you see the mission manifest is there are numerous programs that the nsa develops and pursues that have no real purpose other than to identify the few pockets of communication that still exists on the planet that the nsa has not quite successfully invaded. the nsa was obsessed institutionally that exist that are impervious to the invasion and they work every day to try to rectify what they see as this problem. the problem being on the planet that human communication can take place by collect, storing, analyzing the communication. they're devoted to the example of trying to understand how better to invade the wi-fi systems on the airplanes, based on the concern they can use the internet, mobile phones for a few hours in their lives and not be susceptible to their surveillance set, there are documents that discuss ways to circumvent holes in the means to be able to communicate to one another privately in the nsa. it was not just the creation of the most pervasive in histo

you can argue that the nsa has lost in sweat. the collected all method industries using today that you need a haystack to find the needle philosophy as far as we know as the portal of a single plot but it has led to the secret doctrines are shown to a lot of the overload of tennessee databases. this led to the construction of an extremely expensive massive clincher old spice center in utah. bands. this led to perhaps the greatest threat to constitutional person for the many rights that are nation as seen in quite a long time. then it's a really really wants to call snowed in a traitor. nguyen's. he just might be their savior in washington d c sam socks argent. the inside on this we actually talked to the journalist who broke this story barking down and he just got back recently from talking to study and a fourteen hour interview which she conducted in moscow dallin is the first journalists to speak in person was stabbed and sunscreen to russia to lifers asked him why he thought stunning granted in this interview. and why now. will

put the nsa to work. sure they are listening in on the conversations that dennis rodman is having with kim jong-un. >> if you had a magical ear pose in his head, what would you want him to ask the leader of north korea? >> mr. kim jong-un, are you also talking to the iranians about the nuclear program or chinese or anybody or are you just busy executing all of your political oppons and even the uncle who put you in power? >> maybe dennis rodman is listening. >> thank you. >> think about the point? rodman having more face-to-face contact than anybody. >> putting the wrong pedal to the floor. sent the driver crashing through a store window, did you so that? >> megamillion jackpot is $700 million. how would you spend all of the dough. >> getting everything paid off. i like to travel and i wouldn't mind going somewhere warm like hawaii or the bahamas. i am ready for warmer weather already. . . . . . . . . . . . ♪ for auld lang syne >> where will you be on new year's eve this year? >> we start at 11:00 eastern

and there's far more scrutiny of the nsa. considering the nature of the threat against us, when you balance out the equities, it's clearly on the side of the nsa. >> i don't think any americans want to be unprotected when it comes to terrorist threats, but the issue is how do you go about that fairly and have people feel like their liberties are not being fringed upon. the district court judge said this, surely such a program infringes on that degree of privacy that the founders enshrined in the fourth amendment. so how do you do both? >> i think everyone's rights are being protected. no one's phone calls are being listened to by the nsa. there are no names or addresses. we have a list of phone number to phone number. the only time the nsa goes further than that is if an overseas terrorist has made a phone call into the united states. then you track down who that terrorist has spoken to. then they have to go to the justice department to go to court to get a warrant to tap conversations in the future. so the nsa cannot do anyth

some of the people proposing bills to restraint nsa spying. include the very opposite the patriot act james sensenbrenner republican from wisconsin leahy senator from vermont on the other side of chamber and they teamed up to propose very very significant restrictions on nsa spying. i do hope that the usa freedom act that says given the dysfunction visible across congress. that's really the leasing companies joining in the mix earlier this week when is the calculation of capital makes this legislation more likely that a supreme act ice i certainly hope so and that the sec companies abandoned their other issues or that accompanies the bin barry i lied on privacy concerns in yet not been able to secure congressional reforms even around with more to meet their proposals the electronic communications privacy act for instance has been an object of attention of the tech companies for over a year now. this is a bill that hasn't been a lot now that has adapted to thirty years getting on the nsa. while local police and the fbi in every other one forced

so i'm perfectly happy to criticize the nsa. when i was in government 20 years ago i had my criticism. i'm not, other than the -- i'm not saying they couldn't tweak certain things, bull i'm not terrified that a bunch of people are conspiring to abuse people's privacy here in the united states. >> let's hope it's not filled with a lot of edward snowdens. we have an example. we only know about this because we have an example because of someone in the nsa sharing all of this information. why is the not a likely possibility in the future? >> there's two levels of kiran. one is whether people are using it inappropriately, doing the things you talked about that the fbi did and cia did in years past. the other is whether they're using it without adequate supervise. the fourth amendment says warrants shall not issue. it's up to both us as individuals, and to the cords to decide what is reasonable and what's not? it's always a balance. the judge said it was partly -- >> we'll see where that gets in higher courts. >>> containing the nsa, t

the nsa is a military intelligence organization. not so long ago here in washington, there was not even a street sign that pointed to the national security agency, even when there was, the nsa no such agency, now there's a recognition that the ns ark is reaching deep into civil society. in terms of profound effect, not only with the society. but also within the u.s. economy. >> from both the recommendations from the review group and the opinion of judge leon, a few days earlier, is that both recognized that all of this scooping up data really did not thwart any terrorist attack, because if you are looking for a needle in a hay stack, why do you want to make the hay stack bigger? i don't think it's helped, and i don't think any of these two bodies that have looked a this helped, i think it violated the rights of a number of innocent people, who were there was no probable cause or even a reasonable suspicion that hay had done anything wrong. so the scooping up that has been going on over the last 12 years has been a huge problem. just

but the meeting was about nsa. tech companies, apparently the founder of zinga, asked the president to pardon edward snowden, who's the consultant who leaked a lot of the documents and who's the reason why we're all here talking about it. but they really asked for reforms. and they have five things they want. including they want to be able to be a check on the system. they want to be able to say when they get asked by the government. so this is an important meeting where some tough things were said to the president about kind of the economic impact of the story. >> and what is been the economic impacts? >> we actually don't know. that's been a great question. what the companies have said is the trust. people's trust in us has gone down. they measure trust. and so trust with american consumers, but particularly international consumers. people don't believe that their messages and their information is safe. they might not have always believed it and that's one thing i want to ask cindy. do the tech companies have an i

. >>> the startling advice being given to the white house over the nsa spying programs. that advice -- stop it, at least stop doing it like you are. a panel of outside experts hand-picked by the white house is urging the president to rein in the nsa's wide ranging data dragnet and restructure how the nsa is collecting logs of phone calls. all told, 46 recommendations in their report. chief national security correspondent jim sciutto has a look at what the panel said and the potential impact. >> reporter: the headline here is one of the panel members told me is accountability and that is accountability for the nsa to congress, to the white house, and to the public. you see that reflected in these 46 recommendations. for instance, they recommend that congress pass legislation to move all of that phone data from the nsa's hands back to the phone companies to private hands where the nsa can access it when they need to, but they don't hold it all the time. in terms of the white house, they recommend that at the highest there level there must be improolve when the nsa is listen

it is the nsa themselves. throughout the documents there is a recognition that collecting that a data is the supreme priority of the agency, because it'd name owes the nsa to invade people's privacy more effectively than the interception of content. i think it is difficult to understand that in the abstract, but it is easy to understand with concrete examples. if you can imagine an example where a woman decides she wants to get an abortion, if you're listening in on her phone call what you will hear his her calling the clinic. the clinic will answer with a generic name. like eastside clinic or that. you will hear the woman who you decided to target for surveillance ask for an appointment tuesday at 2:00. get an appointment tuesday 2:00, and you'll have no idea why she called or even what the purpose was. but if you are collecting her metadata, you will see that she called. you will be able to identify it as an abortion clinic. you will know how many times she called the clinic. and you'll have exactly the infor

the nsa's collection of meta data may be over. don't know who will collect it or where the database will be stored in the future but a federal judge saying the program is unconstitutional and his own advisers, let's be honers, are most mostly -- this means the nsa won't be doing this anymore. if it operates, how will it operate in the future. it will be a private entity. members of congress will have questions about this, what are the controls on it, but it's a big blow to the nsa that they are no longer -- both a federal judge and a white house panel are saying we don't trust the nsa to collect the data anymore because the privacy points are too often. >> what does it say about edward snowden? wouldn't be having the kwugs quite frankly because -- this is about the nsa looking forward, not back, in terms of what edward snowden did. what's interesting. some of the invasion have been ignored. one is to change to the sieve of cyber command. it is interesting when you talk about the courthouse. look at this. rich plarkd in the white ho

it's done by the justice department, not the nsa. this is the most carefully monitored constitutional program we have. edward snowden has spread fear and hysteria and to me is an absolute disgrace. >> congressman, last week, president obama was asked directly for evidence that nsa programs had stopped another 9/11. he didn't name a specific one. has there been a single terrorist threat that you say has been stopped by this program? >> well, in his opinion today, judge pauley refers to three of them. i am virtually with one of them, that's the attempted attack by zazi in 2009 on the new york city subway system. i was actually there with commissioner kelly when this was unraveling, when the plot was unraveling and the nypd and fbi were on to it. this came in large part because of the efforts of the nsa. they were absolutely instrumental in that. there is any number of others. the nsa has given examples of over 50. the judge today cites three of them in his opinion. judge leon last week, you have the president of the united states, direc

program resulted in only 12 tips last year to the fbi and no record of successful cases. >> the nsa has run amok because it's been systematically violating the right of privacy of millions of innocent americans. >> reporter: the review panel was formed in the wake of the revelations of edward snowden and his supporters say today's report shows the importance of his actions. >> it's a complete vindication of everything that he said and what caused him to come forward as a whistle blower. >> reporter: the tide seems to be turning in public sentiment about the nsa program. this parody christmas video produced by the aclu mocking the nsa has been seen almost a million times online in just six days. ♪ the nsa is coming to town >> reporter: of the 46 recommendations, the president has already rejected one of them, that a civilian, not someone from the military should run the nsa. the president says he will decide on the others by next month, now on the spot over whether to kill a program that he said many times has saved american lives. diane? >> we'll have the answer by the end of next m

it means the nsa can read the time off your [ bleep ] wristwatch. >> that was gene hackman portray agex-nsa agent. that film came out in 199 , way, way back in 199 . evan perez, justice reporter is with me now. evan, let's talk about this because you see the headline, it's like oh, my gosh. they're looking at my iphone. tell us exactly what we're talking about here. >> the nsa has developed software called dropout jeep. and it apparently this magazine german magazine called "der spiegel" published slides apparently came from edward snowden, the former nsa contractor leaking documents. and they described this program whereby the nsa can insert or can load up software on to iphones in order to access voice mails, to access is pretty much everything inside it, your camera phone, even activate the microphone and the phone. so these slides refer to an older version of the iphone, the newer one we don't know whether or not the nsa has the same capability, but it is pretty intriguing stuff to be able to take control of your entire device without even holding on to it. >> but two things, one is we

and he said the nsa's actions are likely unconstitutional. we will speak with sascha meinrath, and advisor to the obama's innocent review panel which wants to leave the nsa's controversial book spying intact. the selling of attention deficit disorder. >> if you look at the preponderance of add in north america now and then millions of ons in the states that are medication and half a million who are in antipsychotics, what they are really exhibiting is the effects of exchange stress, increasing stress in our society on the parenting environment. >> as the number of add diagnoses soar amidst a 20 year drug marketing campaign, we will speak with dr. gabor mate, "new york times coast reporter alan schwarz, and jamison monroe, who is addicted to add prescription drugs as a teenager and went on to found the newport academy treatment center for teens. all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a federal judge has struck a historic blow to the national security agency's bulk col

the panel said to urge nsa curbs. we've seen some reporting on it. that panel? are you expecting anything meaningful initiated by the white house itself in response? >> i think the white house will. i think barack obama knows politically he needs to. probably he knows as a lawyer and human being that something needs to be done. on the other hand, he gets access to all that material, and sometimes the presidency, just like the chairman and ranking members of the committees, kind of get taken over by the establishment. maybe it's because they hear the data and the information and they think we've got to do this for the country, and maybe they've been snowed, snowdened. i don't know which, but it happens. and i don't know, you know, i just -- committee, it could go to their committee or my committee judiciary, and i don't think chairman goodelot will give a hearing anyway, so we have a problem getting a hearing. >> i think what we saw today is the judicial decision, now that the standing has been overcome, we'll see a lot more decisions like this. congre

going to the nsa tnd the companies nomt wants the nsa to snoop into the customers of facebook and googleen and we may not know for some time. i mean keep in mind the president appointed an advisory group to basically give him some recommendations on what to do about what is happening over at the nsa and some pretty big names are involved in that group. former white house official richard clark among others. that report was delivered to the president last friday. he's rue viewing it. that report will not be relea released, carol, until potentially late january and that is when the president is expected to issue some recommendations. it's unclear whether or not there will be settle restraint or whether or not the president will order some kind of change over there, but keep in mind. there's a lot of people calling for changes, not just the executives of these tech companies, not just a federal judge who says that these collections of phone records may be unconstitutional. you have lawmakers up on capitol hill. the entire spectrum from bernie sanders all the way over to rand paul saying som

i'm not convinced the nsa's database has ever truly served the purpose.here's a ruling that said phone customers have no privacy interest in their calling records. the judge said that's been eclipsed by technology. >> it's ultimately going to be a decision for the court of apeels of the supreme court to decide anyway. what this one judge decides today is a conversation starter not a stopper. >> but it's a victory for a washington, d.c. lawyer. >> meta data is information which allows the government to be able to tell who you are associating with, whether it's your doctor, your lawyer, your accountant, whoever. it's extremely intimidating. >> as for edward snowden the obama administration rejected any idea that he be given amnesty in return for ending the leaks. >> he should be returned to the united states as possible where he will be accorded full due process and protections in our systems. >> wow. okay. willie? >> katty kay, interesting thing about this it had only been argued in secret before, in a secret court with only one side arguing that being the

>>> this week on "the journal editorial report," a federal judge slams the nsa surveillance program. an obama appointed panel calls for major changes. how will the white house respond? will america's safety suffer? plus, pope francis is "time" magazine's man the year making some waves for his economic views. why some conservatives aer s ar happy. an op-ed in our very own paper exposes a nasty rift in the democratic party. it urn it turns out republican the only ones divided. >>> welcome to "the journal editorial report." i'm paul gigot. a federal judge ruled this week that the national surveillance agency likely violates the constitution. just days before the white house appointed panel released its own critique of the nsa and its activities and made some potentially dangerous recommendations for reining it in. joining the panel this week, "wall street journal" columnist and deputy editor dan hettinger. for your sins, read this opinion and the nsa report. tell us first about the opinion. how powerful is it, as a legal document, taking on the constitutionality of this program? >> well,

maybe there is a logical reason why the nsa is spying on millions of gamers playing world of warcraft and dungeons and dragons. with us right now on the dry side, to put all of this in perspective are jonathan windel who is called the world's most accomplished gamer with us tonight from kansas city. well, from miami, dave is a former nsa, he's not a space guy. he's a spy guy. a former scientist that runs his own hacking company right now called immunity incorporated. so you first. why would they be looking at gamers? why are they probing gamers? >> you know, i don't really think there's you really a big reason why they would follow us gamers. it doesn't make a lot of sense. if i were a terrorist i would find way better ways to communicate and think of bad things to do. so for me it's kind of a joke. >> so a joke it may be but do you feel that they're looking over your shoulder? they are digitally spying on your every move? even who you're playing with and, you know, how you play the game? >> well, i mean, i think -- you know, i think as long as they're not doing anything, any terroris

a federal judge rules the nsa's collection of our phone records is likely illegal. expect the case to reach the supreme court. mega maenaa, could we be headed for a $1 billion christmas eve jackpot? we have details. and rock 'n' roll hall of fame welcomes a whole new class of great artists and bands. plus, it's just another day for a couple of french dare devils getting a better view of the alps. frightening just to look at. good morning, everyone. all right. so tens of millions of people are in the path of yet another winter storm. and remember, the season doesn't officially begin until this saturday. in toledo, ohio, though, you're looking at a preview of what's moving east on its way to the i-95 corridor. the nasty snow, sleet and ice koim pact millions of travelers today and into wednesday morning. and timing is critical here. especially when et comit comes h hour traffic. bill karins is here tracking this storm. i see lots of colors there. >> that means it is cold. one to two inches of snow doesn't sound like a big deal. when you have the issues, it's 28 in fill

administration defended the nsa disclosures. sources have come out from the government defending the nsa for six months now. it's not like the government hasn't been getting its point across. the government has been getting its point across for a variety of ways for six months. >> there was a we're going inside the nsa and this is how they do their story and look at this drone. the public likes that. we look at the news in such a different way than the general public. >> that's a good point. stay with us. we'll talk next about the tweet heard around the world. how should we feel about the how should we feel about the internet's mob mentality next. ne your smile. thanks for inspiring me. thanks for showing me my potential. for teaching me not to take life so seriously. thanks for loving me and being my best friend. don't forget to thank those who helped you take charge of your future and got you where you are today. the boss of your life. the chief life officer. ♪ life with crohn's disease ois a daily game of "what if's". what if

then ever since the scandal began, the nsa's position has been the same.at we do these things to stop terrorist attacks. and a month ago, three democrats on the senate intelligence anytime committee who have access to all the data said there's no evidence this program stops terrorism. the judge, the federal judge three days ago said the same thing, that there's no evidence that the nsa can point to that it stops terrorism. now you have this white house panel saying the same thing, which is essentially the nsa should not be believed when they go before the american public and try and scare them by yelling terrorism over and over. there's no evidence that this helps them stop terrorism in any way. i think it's crucial. >> so jeff, i got to put a question to you which i put to you the other day in the wake of the court ruling. a, it's now this judge -- federal judge says it's unconstitutional. you now have this panel from a wide variety of backgrounds of people saying that it didn't really do anything to stop terrorism. do you think this further vindicates ed

whether the nsa is afraid or not is not for me to say. as launched a global debate and an american debate about what the limits, boundaries should be of surveillance in a democratic society. that's ongoing. >> garrett: to think about conceptually this is a box, you might regard it as reporter as a treasure chest, michael hey done and others like pandora's box full of all sorts of damaging disclosures of what america surveys, why, how it accomplishes that. the box is in your hands, in the hands of others. more things may come out of that box but edward snowden will not be providing them. that's a finite amount he's given you and that's all it is. >> that's exactly right. >> garrett: what is his frame of mind? you spent a good deal of time with him, he had practical engineer's mind. is he afraid, does he have a sense of high emotion about being either chased or pursued by the federal government? what are his thoughts of coming back and facing trial? >> he takes the kinds of reasonable precautions that a person would take when he knows he's o

the nsa is collecting billions of cell phone locations. they are gathering communication information for online gaming sites. the story suggests that these activities are directed abroad. we know the nsa was making plans for gathering site location information. we know the nsa engaged in bulk collection of internet metadata under the fifo register statute. that suggests to me an unequal interpretation. they can collect massive amounts of information domestically, but not abroad. maybe i should direct this question to you. i know the program authorized people collection of the program. -- people collection of data. under current law, would the nsa be able to restart the bulk collection of internet data? >> if the nsa and the department of justice were able to make a showing to the five the court that the collection of internet metadata in bulk, which is a category of information that is not protected by the fourth amendment, if they were relevant to an authorized investigation, and we could convince the five that court of that -- fisa court

the nsa has been running these programs on their own. they do all the electronic eavesdropping. the cia does more obviously human intelligence, covert programs. they run the drone program. i don't think that's been a major issue. i think what's so interesting about the court case today is that for the first time, a federal judge said that this idea that you can collect information before you have suspicion of a crime is a major problem. and if that's upheld by the next level, and i think a lot of people think this is headed to the supreme court, that's a big change and that will lead to forcing the nsa to shut down this program that edward snowden revealed. >> let me bring mark mazzetti into this conversation, a writer for "new york times." what's your reaction to this court decision today? >> well, like others, i think it's extraordinary. i think to have a federal judge say what he did about the program, a program that the administration has vehemently defended and for the judge to call it orwellian is extraordinary. obviously this isn't the last step but it's a major victory f

a judge says the nsa data vacuum is likely unconstitutional. so what will a white house do today with its spy program hanging in the balance? >>> megamillions mania. tonight's jackpot now more than half a billion dollars and rising. could you end up being the big winner, john berman? >> no, i'm not going to win it aerge eith and either are you. >> i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. tuesday, december 17th and 5:00 a.m. in the east. >> it is, say it with me now. snow and cold and cold and snow and too much of both this morning for a big part of the country. maybe you thought a comfortable cruise until the holidays? think again! a big storm is hitting this morning as the temperatures continue to plunge. >> let's head to milwaukee first where snow is falling on monday at the worst possible time. that is the start of the evening commute you're watching there. slippery roads causing a few accidents around the area. more trouble could be in store today and even more snow expected for the morning drive to work. >> that snow is being blamed for a

that a civilian, not someone from the military, should oversee the nsa. er recommendations, the president said he will decide on them by mid january. brian ross, abc news, new york. >> the more you hear about it the more the big brother looms large in this. >> one thing to point out, they are not collecting your conversations. just the phone calls and the telephone numbers that you receive and telephone numbers that you call. and they say they are trying to do is identify terror cells in the united states. >> sure. >> at the same time, all of that information sitting at the nsa where they can just grab it if they need it is probably not the best thing. so therefore, the panel is essentially saying why don't we take it out of the nsa and put it somewhere else so there's a little barrier. >> specifically get a court order to get it from the phone companies. >> one extra step. one more eyeball on the situation before it becomes a little too out there. where everybody can grab it. >>> the dow opening this morning at a new record high. well above the 16,000 mar

we'll begin with breaking news. 46 recommendations to overhaul the nsa surveillance. chief among the recommendations, a call toned the mass storage of american phone records by the government. i don't mean getting rid of them. the panel wants to see private third parties handle storage instead, or the phone companies. the administration, ever fond of its secrets, was planning to keep a lid on the panel's relegations until january, but it's now releasing them to stone what it calls inaccurate and incomplete reports about this review. on the same day that president obama met with the panel that compiled it. the five members of the panel, most of them with notable backgrounds in national security, but one privacy expert, they were all hand picked by the white house. let's go right to our chief national security correspondent. jim, there's 46 recommendations, as we mentioned. walk us through the major ones. jim, apparently we're having some technical problems, jim sciuto, walk us through the major recommendations. >> reporter: well, jake, the headline point from this repor

i think on the nsa, the same thing. edward snowden releases a new document every other day. >> pat? >> a lot of it has to do with the nsa. the president's numbers started falling immediately when the numbers came out, the results, with snowden's revelations. they said this is too much. obamacare, that certainly is another aspect of this with big government. young people have taken a real turn. they're the most suspicious. they are really the most offended by what's happening with the nsa. when you mentioned the document dump, this is unbelievable that the president said. his own commission said there are problems with this. and the dump they had to do was disturbing. and it's not going to get better. we have numbers on this on big government. people are frightened of big government now. >> the highest number of people fear big government since 1965. >> that's bad news for the president. that's for sure. >> and the democrats, with the senate in 2014. think about it, if the republicans win the senate, keep the house, it's