Senators lash out at NSA for excessive secrecy

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) lashed out at “the lack of transparency” surrounding the collection of Americans’ phone records.

Speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen Franken blasted top intelligence officials for delays in declassifying secret government documents authorizing the program. “I don’t want transparency only when it’s convenient to the government,” Sen Franken said. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), he added, “has known for weeks that this hearing was coming and ODNI released this only in the minutes before this hearing began. That doesn’t engender trust.”

Sen Franken vowed to introduce new legislation that would force the Obama administration to reveal more about the NSA’s controversial bulk surveillance programs. Sen Franken plans to introduce legislation soon that would force the National Security Agency to reveal how many people in the United States it has spied on. The bill would also allow companies to disclose aggregate figures about the number of surveillance orders they have received and how many users were affected by the orders.