Originally Posted by
Legion
On March 12, 2013, Clapper appeared before the U.S. Select Committee on Intelligence.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was one of the last senators to ask questions during the open portion of the committee hearing.
Wyden: "I hope we can do this in just a yes or no answer, because I know Sen. Feinstein wants to move on. Last summer, the NSA director was at a conference and he was asked a question about the NSA surveillance of Americans. He replied, and I quote here, ‘The story that we have millions, or hundreds of millions, of dossiers on people is completely false.’ The reason I’m asking the question is, having served on the committee now for a dozens years, I don’t really know what a dossier is in this context. So, what I wanted to see if you could give me a yes or no answer to the question: Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions, or hundreds of millions of Americans?"
Clapper: "No, sir."
Clapper first stood by his comments. On June 6, he told the National Journal, "What I said was, the NSA does not voyeuristically pore through U.S. citizens' emails. I stand by that," Clapper said. (As the actual exchange shows, Clapper never mentioned email.)
Two days later, in an interview with NBC, Clapper further explained that he found himself in a difficult position when confronted with Wyden’s question.
"I thought though in retrospect I was asked (a) ‘when are you going to stop beating your wife’ kind of question, meaning not answerable necessarily, by a simple yes or no," he said. "So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least most untruthful manner, by saying, ‘No.’"
Clapper later admitted he made a mistake. In a letter to the committee’s chair, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Clapper contended that he thought Wyden was was referring to something other than the phone metadata program, one that targets foreigners.
But he admitted his answer, as stated, was wrong. "My response was clearly erroneous," he wrote.
President Barack Obama, too, in an interview with CNN said Clapper should have been more careful.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2014/mar/11/james-clappers-testimony-one-year-later/
Reply With Quote
Former Vice President
Posting Rules
Bookmarks