Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (AP)
Less than three days after President Obama announced an “independent review” of the nation’s surveillance technologies, the White House has appointed James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, to run the panel.
Let that sink in.
In an announcement posted online Monday afternoon, Clapper’s office said he would run the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies.
“The Review Group will assess whether, in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States employs its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust,” Clapper wrote.
He’s a funny guy to be talking about the need to maintain the public trust.
In March, Clapper was at a congressional hearing where he was asked point blank by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.), about whether the National Security Agency collects “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.”
“No, sir,” said Clapper.
That statement now appears to be untrue.
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