Ron Wyden MoJo Interview

Sen. Ron Wyden has an interesting interview with Mother Jones. You should read the whole interview. The portion where Gen. James Clapper lied under oath to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is amazing. Wyden asked Clapper is the NSA data collecting spying on American citizens. Clapper was caught lying by saying no. Clapper and his people were then going to maintain this charade.

RW: I've taken the view that I personally believe I can make the best contribution by complying with the rules and having the opportunity to try to be a watchdog inside the committee. For example, the questions I asked [Director of National Intelligence] Gen. [James] Clapper at the open hearing with respect to whether the government collects any data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans, that was an example of an area where we felt strongly we were complying with the rules and doing vigorous oversight.

That stemmed from a situation where the head the National Security Agency said that they were not holding any data at all on millions of Americans. And I was very, very troubled by that and another statement that no dossiers were being kept, and we couldn't get straight answers. So I sent Gen. Clapper the question in advance that I was going to ask. And in effect when you have a cleared official making a statement like that in public, that they don't hold any data at all, I thought it was important to get the record straight.

MJ: Then he had to basically admit that he was not telling the truth.

RW: After the hearing, one of my staff went to a secure room and said that this was inaccurate and needed to be corrected. Gen. Clapper's people said they knew it was inaccurate and they still wouldn't correct it. At that point it never, or at least for quite some time, would never have been known. Then there were the [Snowden leaks] and Gen. Clapper started offering one answer after another with respect to why he did it.

This is an administration that admits it lies to a U.S. Senator and is completely shameless abiyt it.