US: Bipartisan Senators Send Letter to National Intelligence Director on Phone Record Surveillance

Local Editor

A bipartisan group of 26 senators is pressing the director of national intelligence to shed more light on the scope of a controversial surveillance program to collect the phone records of tens of millions of Americans.

In a letter released on Friday, the senators said that the program under Section 215 of the Patriot Act "raises serious civil liberties concerns and all but removes the public from an informed national security and civil liberty debate."

"We are concerned that by depending on secret interpretations of the Patriot Act that differed from an intuitive reading of the statute, this program essentially relied for years on a secret body of law," the senators wrote.

A classified NSA draft inspector general report obtained by The Washington Post and the Guardian stated that bulk collection of phone records, outside of court or congressional authorization, began in the fall of 2001, shortly after September 11.

In the letter, the senators also asked whether there have been any violations of the court orders permitting the bulk phone records collection.

According to the Washington Post, The senators also pressed Clapper to "specify instances in which intelligence gained by reviewing phone records from the program proved useful in thwarting a particular terrorist plot, and instances in which useful intelligence was gained by reviewing phone records that could not have been obtained without the bulk collection authority."

Source: The Washington Post, edited by website team