Wyden: "And this is for you, Director Clapper, again on the surveillance front. And 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 dozen years, I don’t really know what a dossier is in this context. So what I wanted to see is 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.”
Only in Wonderland would this answer be “truthful”. Probably not even there.
No, Mr. Clapper. The “least untruthful” answer would have been “Yes, sir.”
The lie was even more blatant than that. The question was:
“Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?”
“any type of data at all”. In light of the facts that have been revealed since, Clapper blatantly lied under oath. And spineless Congress will let him get away with it.
Of course they will let him get away with it. Congress may make shocked noises, but this kind of widespread data gathering is, generally speaking, A-OK in their book.
It is not that Congress is spineless – it’s just that Congress knows very well what it likes. And this kind of pervasive data-gathering? They like it very much!
(Feel free to substitute for “Congress” any governing body of your choice).