Senators accuse government of using 'secret law' to collect Americans' data

[babsbunny]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/28/senators-james-clapper-nsa-data-collection

Senators accuse government of using 'secret law' to collect Americans' data

Bipartisan group seeks answers from intelligence chief James Clapper over scale of and justification for NSA surveillance

Dan Roberts in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 June 2013 12.39 EDT

A bipartisan group of 26 US senators has written to intelligence chiefs to complain that the administration is relying on a "secret body of law" to collect massive amounts of data on US citizens.

The senators accuse officials of making misleading statements and demand that the director of national intelligence James Clapper answer a series of specific questions on the scale of domestic surveillance as well as the legal justification for it.

In their strongly-worded letter to Clapper, the senators said they believed the government may be misinterpreting existing legislation to justify the sweeping collection of telephone and internet data revealed by the Guardian.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Yup, a bunch of libertarians following Rand Paul

wait... Rand did not sign the letter.

ooopss

And most ARE DEMOCRATS

[frylock]

3. rand distancing himself from this group is all part of Operation: Ratfucker..

also couldn't help but notice that Sen. Al Franken has signed on. is he a ratfucker now too, or is he a ratfuckee?

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Oh who knows we are all Libertarians, racists, commie terrorists now.

I still unsubscribed from Al's news letter.

[Mnemosyne]

2. K&R nt

[grasswire]

5. the list of senators

The Senators signing the letter are: Ron Wyden (D-Or), Mark Udall (D-Co), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), Mark Kirk (R-Il), Dick Durbin (D-Il), Tom Udall (D-NM), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jon Tester (D-Mt), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Dean Heller (R- Nev),Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), Patty Murray (D-Wash), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Al Franken (D-Minn), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chris Coons (D-Del), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), Max Baucus (D-Mont), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc) and Mike Lee (R-Utah)

[grasswire]

6. comments are really good on that Guardian article. nt