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Curated research library of TV news clips regarding the NSA, its oversight and privacy issues, 2009-2014

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Primary curation & research: Robin Chin, Internet Archive TV News Researcher; using Internet Archive TV News service.

Speakers

Edward Snowden
Whistleblower
CSPAN 12/31/2013
Brawner: Snowden appeared in a televised Christmas message released to the British public by TV station Channel 4. Here is what he had to say. Snowden: Recently, we learned that our governments, working in concert, have created a system of worldwide mass surveillance, watching everything we do. Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information. The types of collection in the book, microphones, video cameras, tvs that watch us, are nothing compared to what we have available today. We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person. A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.
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Edward Snowden
Whistleblower
CSPAN 12/31/2013
Snowden: They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. And that’s a problem because privacy matters. Privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be. The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surround us, and the government that regulates it. Together, we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance, and remind the government, that if it really want to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying. Brawner: Edward Snowden on December 25th released that Christmas message to the British public by TV station Channel 4.
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Darrell Issa
U.S. Representative R-CA
KNTV 01/03/2014
Issa: but the administration should honestly say that. We've already had Director Clapper say effectively he lied as little as possible before the congress.
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Rand Paul
Senator (R-Kentucky), Member of Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs
KGO 01/05/2014
Paul: in the end, history is going to judge that he revealed great abuses of our government and great abuses of our intelligence community. And that James Clapper, in lying to Congress, really, seriously destroyed the credibility of our intelligence agencies. And even though I actually give them the benefit of the doubt. I don't think James Clapper is a bad person. I think he's a patriotic person who wants to stop terrorism. So I don't think he was a bad person. But by lying to Congress he’s made us doubt and believe that maybe the government could be listening to our phone calls, even though they tell us they're not.
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Daniel Ellsberg
Author of
CNNW 01/14/2014
Tapper: The Freedom of the Press Foundation is announcing that Snowden is joining its Board of Directors. Daniel Ellsberg is a co-founder of The Freedom of the Press Foundation. You’ll of course remember him as the former U.S. military analyst who gave the infamous Pentagon Papers to "The New York Times" back in 1971. Mr. Ellsberg, thank’s so much for being here. Why has the organization decided to add Snowden to the board of directors even though he's not actually a journalist? Ellsberg: Well, I’m not a journalist either. In fact, I’m a source, actually exactly the same sort that Edward Snowden has been. And he represents the values, I think, of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, pressfreedomfoundation.org. It's essential to the first amendment, freedom of the press, and of speech.
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Daniel Ellsberg
Author of
CNNW 01/14/2014
Ellsberg: You can't have investigative journalism in the foreign policy or so-called defense area without, putting it very bluntly, leaks of classified information because the secrecy system and the classification system have been so abused, always, that the information that the public needs to know to be the sovereign public and to have an influence on these policies is routinely classified no matter what abuses that conceals. So he has acted. He’s put his life on the line. I admire him, personally, very much. He’s a hero of mine. And we're very proud, actually, to have him join us on the board which also includes, by the way, journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald who have been the channel into journalism for the revelations he's made which, in turn, have led to about half a dozen legislative proposals for reigning in (the NSA and I think he's been a very valuable citizen.)
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Daniel Ellsberg
Author of
CNNW 01/14/2014
Tapper: What is your response to those who say, not all of these leaks have been good ones and not all of them have been in the name of what the Freedom of the Press Foundation stands for? Ellsberg: Look, judgment has to be exercised in the question of what the public needs to know and ought to know and what has been withheld and there may be individual aspects of that where judgments may differ. But remember, we heard these same warnings at the beginning, middle, and end of -- I should say, the beginning and middle of the prosecution of Chelsea Manning over a matter of years. Blood was on people's hands and so forth. At the end of the trial, they have not produced one scrap of evidence supporting those assertions that anything or any person has been harmed as a result of those revelations, which was the largest since the Pentagon Papers and the largest until Edward Snowden’s.
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Robert Gates
Former Secretary of Defense
KQED 01/14/2014
Woodruff: Do you think the NSA and many of the programs and practices have gone too far? Gates: The question is, whether NSA developed capabilities and applied those capabilities that went beyond the guidelines or the left and right curves if you will that the President and the Congress expected and were briefed on. And that's why I think that the White House review and the Congressional Review are so important and if the program did go beyond those guidelines, did go beyond those limits, to get it back within those limits and if, in fact, there were people who knowingly went beyond what the president had approved, that they be held accountable.
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Daniel Ellsberg
Author of
CNNW 01/15/2014
Ellsberg: Now, as far as I’m aware, the government has not produced one scrap of evidence to back up the claims that he has actually harmed either procedures or people, entirely. So those have to be taken very skeptically. But I don’t rule out the possibility that there could be some items there where judgment would differ from him. By the way, he very explicitly said he didn't want his own judgment to be the last word on this. He gave it to these journalists and in turn to newspapers with very explicit warnings that they should exercise their own judgment and I think all of the items that you've been alluding to have appeared in
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Adam Schiff
U.S. Representative D-CA, Member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN 01/15/2014
Schiff: My bill would effectuate the recommendation of that task force. It would leave the records at the providers. It would also say that before going to the providers seeking the connections with a number, that it would go through the FISA court, get FISA court approval, unless there were an emergency. There would be an exigence circumstances exception where they could go straight to the providers, get the information they need. After the fact, have it reviewed by the court . If the court decides, no, that was not a proper request, it would be expunged. That's what my bill would do it think it's consistent with what the task force recommended.
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