Intelligence leaders call for prosecuting NSA leaker

The leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees said that the leaker who disclosed the National Security Agency’s phone and internet surveillance programs should be prosecuted.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said that the leak could endanger the security of Americans. “Taking a very sensitive classified program that targets foreign person on foreign lands, and putting just enough out there to be dangerous, is dangerous to us, it's dangerous to our national security and it violates the oath of which that person took,” Chairman Rogers said. “I absolutely think they should be prosecuted,” he added. Chairman Feinstein said efforts were made to protect the privacy of American citizens, including relying on a secret intelligence court for authorization. “If there is strong suspicion that a terrorist outside of the country is trying to reach someone on the inside of the country, those numbers then can be obtained,” Chairman Feinstein said. “If you want to collect content on the American, then a court order is issued.” "Here's the rub, the instances where this has produced good -- has disrupted plots, prevented terrorist attacks is all classified, that's what's so hard about this," Chairman Feinstein added. "So that we can't actually go in there and other than the two that have been released give the public an actual idea of people that have been saved, attacks that have been prevented, that kind of thing."