NSA revelations stir congressional concern

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

New revelations from leaker Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency has overstepped its authority thousands of times since 2008 are stirring renewed calls on Capitol Hill for serious changes to NSA spy programs, undermining White House hopes that President Barack Obama had quieted the controversy with his assurances of oversight.

An internal audit provided by Snowden to The Washington Post shows the agency has repeatedly broken privacy rules or exceeded its legal authority every year since Congress granted it broad new powers in 2008.

In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — reports used as the basis for informing Congress.

Obama repeatedly has said that Congress was thoroughly briefed on the programs revealed by Snowden in June, but some senior lawmakers said they had been unaware of the NSA audit until they read the news Friday. The programs described earlier vacuum up vast amounts of metadata — such as telephone numbers called and called from, the time and duration of calls — from most Americans’ phone records, and scoop up global Internet usage data.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy announced he would have hearings into the new disclosures.

“I remain concerned that we are still not getting straightforward answers from the NSA,” the Vermont Democrat said in a statement.

Two senators who have consistently raised red flags about possible privacy violations stemming from NSA programs said the new information was incomplete.

“We believe Americans should know that this confirmation is just the tip of a larger iceberg,” said Democratic Sens. Mark Udall of Colorado and Ron Wyden of Oregon in a statement. Both declined to provide details, citing Senate rules about discussing classified information.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who generally supports the programs, said in a statement Friday that the new revelations “are extremely disturbing.”