Wyden Wants Public Hearings on Intelligence

Ron Wyden has for many years had a dilemma about the goings on at NSA - they lied about almost everything they were doing, but the topic was classified so Top Secret he couldn't reveal that he knew they were lying without breaching security.  Thus he set about forcing their hand with a direct question to David Clapper in hearings last March, and Clapper told a direct lie.  Meanwhile President Obama (through Jay Carney) said...

“[Obama] certainly believes that Director Clapper has been straight and direct in the answers he’s given,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today.

Clapper himself explained his answer in a news interview, using bizarre language.

Clapper acknowledged this weekend that he was less than forthcoming with Wyden. “I thought though in retrospect I was asked when are you going to start–stop beating your wife kind of question which is, meaning not answerable necessarily, by a simple yes or no,” he told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful or least most untruthful manner, by saying, “No.” And again, going back to my metaphor, what I was thinking of is looking at the Dewey Decimal numbers of those books in the metaphorical library. To me collection of U.S. Persons data would mean taking the books off the shelf, opening it up and reading it.”

Wyden  issued a press release directly accusing Clapper of lying.  Here is a video clip of Wydens question and Clappers reply.

“One of the most important responsibilities a Senator has is oversight of the intelligence community.  This job cannot be done responsibly if Senators aren’t getting straight answers to direct questions. When NSA Director Alexander failed to clarify previous public statements about domestic surveillance, it was necessary to put the question to the Director of National Intelligence.  So that he would be prepared to answer, I sent the question to Director Clapper’s office a day in advance.  After the hearing was over my staff and I gave his office a chance to amend his answer.  Now public hearings are needed to address the recent disclosures and the American people have the right to expect straight answers from the intelligence leadership to the questions asked by their representatives.”