• Military
• WMD

• Intelligence Menu               

• Systems
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Imagery
• Links

• Homeland Security
• Space

U.S. Officials Defend Spying Program As White House Declassifies More Details

July 31, 2013

by RFE/RL

U.S. intelligence officials have told members of Congress that the government's domestic spying program is narrowly targeted and does not violate the constitutional right to privacy.

But they admitted that the program might need to be modified to address public concerns.

Robert Litt of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told the Senate Judiciary Committee, "We are open to reevaluating this program in ways that can perhaps provide greater confidence and public trust that this is in fact a program that achieves both privacy protections and national security."

Meanwhile, the White House on July 31 declassified details of the National Security Agency program that collects all domestic phone records.

The government says the logs can only be accessed when there is "reasonable suspicion" that a phone number is associated with terrorism.

With reporting by "The New York Times" and AP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/us-defends-spying-program/25062669.html

Copyright (c) 2013. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.