Members of US Congress are blocked from supervising the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, new documents reveal.
Documents provided by two House members demonstrate that American lawmakers have been repeatedly thwarted when attempting to learn basic information about the NSA and the secret FISA court which authorizes its activities, The Guardian reports.
The Obama administration and the NSA claim that Congress members were aware of the agency’s disclosed spying programs.
"These programs are subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate," President Barack Obama said the day after the programs were leaked in June. "And if there are members of Congress who feel differently, then they should speak up."
On Wednesday night, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct) told MSNBC that “the revelations about the magnitude, the scope and scale of these surveillances, the metadata and the invasive actions surveillance of social media Web sites were indeed revelations to me."
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed in June that the super spy agency is collecting phone records of Americans and the Internet data of Americans and foreign nationals.
According to The Guardian, two House members, GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida, have so far failed in their efforts to learn about NSA programs and relevant FISA court rulings.
"If I can't get basic information about these programs, then I'm not able to do my job", the British newspaper quoted Rep. Griffith as saying.
He said his job includes "making decisions about whether these programs should be funded, but also an oath to safeguard the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which includes the Fourth Amendment."
Despite their efforts to find a response from authorities, neither Griffith nor Grayson has received any of the documents they requested, The Guardian said.
ARA/ARA
No comments:
Post a Comment