Intelligence chief Clapper apologizes for ‘erroneous’ statement to Congress

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has apologized for a “clearly erroneous” statement he made to Congress over the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities.

In a letter to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Clapper said he was mistaken when he told Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) that the United States did not collect data on millions of Americans. “My response was clearly erroneous — for which I apologize,” Clapper wrote in the letter dated June 21. “While my staff acknowledged the error to Senator Wyden’s staff soon after the hearing, I can now openly correct it because the existence of the metadata collection program has been declassified,” Clapper said. Clapper’s statements at the March 12 Senate hearing have received enormous scrutiny ever since news stories revealed the NSA’s telephone and Internet surveillance programs last month. Clapper directly contradicted those stories in his comments on March 12.