US officials dodge questions on scope of surveillance

US officials declined to directly answer lawmakers’ questions about the full scope of the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ data, including whether it has ever sought to acquire large volumes of cellphone location information or other records.

NSA Director Keith Alexander dodged questions by a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee about whether the agency has ever tried to augment its broad collection of virtually all Americans’ phone-call records by gathering data that would indicate the callers’ locations. He noted that intelligence officials had given a classified answer to the question. “If you’re responding to my question by not answering it because you think it’s a classified matter, that is your right,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) told Gen Alexander at a hearing about the government’s intelligence-gathering programs. “We will continue to explore that,” Sen Wyden said, “because I believe this is something that the American people have a right to know — whether the NSA has ever collected or made plans to collect cell site information.” Questions by Wyden and Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) suggested that the agency has at least sought if not won permission to expand its domestic collection activities beyond what has been publicly acknowledged.