NSA chief denies spying on Congress

The National Security Agency's director, responding to questions from independent Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT), says the government is not spying on Congress. But a two-page letter from Gen Keith Alexander to Sen Sanders goes on to state that the agency can make no guarantee that representatives or senators have not had their "telephone metadata" caught up in broad government sweeps.

"Nothing NSA does can fairly be characterized as 'spying on members of Congress or other American elected officials,' " Gen Alexander wrote. Sen Sanders responded by noting that the NSA chief failed to rule out any snooping on elected officials. "The NSA is collecting enormous amounts of information," the senator said. "They know about the phone calls made by every person in this country, where they're calling, who they're calling and how long they're on the phone. Let us not forget that a mere 40 years ago we had a president of the United States who completely disregarded the law in an effort to destroy his political opponents. In my view, the information collected by the NSA has the potential to give an unscrupulous administration enormous power over elected officials."