Political Quotes

“As I mentioned, during the last Congress, the Senate Judiciary Committee held six open, public hearings to examine the legal basis, effectiveness, and impact of these programs on Americans' privacy rights and civil liberties. We heard testimony from a wide range of government officials, legal scholars, technologists, and outside experts as the Committee sought to understand and evaluate the numerous issues raised by these activities. On July 31, 2013, I chaired the first full Judiciary Committee hearing to examine government surveillance programs with administration officials and outside experts. At the hearing, the NSA Deputy Director confirmed that the NSA's bulk telephony program did not help to thwart dozens of terrorist plots, as some administration officials defending the program had been contending. He confirmed that section 215 was only uniquely valuable in thwarting one terrorist ``plot''--the case of Basaaly Moalin, a Somali immigrant who was convicted of material support for sending $8,500 to al-Shabaab in Somalia. As a result of continued public debate about the government's surveillance activities, on August 9, 2013, President Obama announced that he was ordering the Director of National Intelligence, DNI, to establish a group of outside experts to review the government's intelligence and communications technologies and provide recommendations on possible reforms to surveillance authorities.…”