Last March before Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s sweeping collection of phone and other data Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said no such operation existed. Now, a group of ex-national security officials urge President Obama to fire Clapper.
MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT: Fire James Clapper
We wish to endorse the call by Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, Committee on the Judiciary, that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be removed and prosecuted for lying to Congress. “Lying to Congress is a federal offense, and Clapper ought to be fired and prosecuted for it,” the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview with The Hill. “The only way laws are effective is if they’re enforced.”
Sensenbrenner added, “If it’s a criminal offense, and I believe Mr. Clapper has committed a criminal offense, then the Justice Department ought to do its job.”
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (right) talks with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, with John Brennan and other national security aides present. (Photo credit: Office of Director of National Intelligence)
This brief Memorandum is to inform you that we agree that no intelligence director should be able to deceive Congress and suffer no consequences. No democracy that condones such deceit at the hands of powerful, secretive intelligence directors can long endure.
It seems clear that you can expect no help from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to which Clapper has apologized for giving “clearly erroneous” testimony, and who, at the height of the controversy over his credibility, defended him as a “direct and honest” person.
You must be well aware that few amendments to the U.S. Constitution are as clear as the fourth:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Even the cleverest lawyers cannot square with the Fourth Amendment many of the NSA activities that Clapper and Feinstein have defended, winked at, or lied about.
Only you can get rid of James Clapper. We suspect that a certain awkwardness — and perhaps also a misguided sense of loyalty to a colleague — militate against your senior staff giving you an unvarnished critique of how badly you have been served by Clapper. And so we decided to give you a candid reminder from us former intelligence and national security officials with a total of hundreds of years of experience, much of it at senior levels, in the hope you will find it helpful.
Statements by DNI Clapper re Eavesdropping on Americans
March 12, 2013
Sen. Ron Wyden: “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?”
Clapper: “No, Sir.”
Wyden: “It does not?”
Clapper: “Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect but not, not wittingly.”
(7-minute segment of Clapper testimony; link below) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwiUVUJmGjs
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June 6, 2013
In a telephone interview with Michael Hirsh of the National Journal:
Clapper: “What I said [to the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 12] was, the NSA does not voyeuristically pore through U.S. citizens’ e-mails. I stand by that.”
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June 8, 2013
Excerpt of interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell:
Mitchell: “Senator Wyden made quite a lot out of your exchange with him last March during the hearings. Can you explain what you meant when you said that there was not data collection on millions of Americans?”
Clapper: “… in retrospect, I was asked ‘When are you going to start– stop beating your wife’ kind of question, which is meaning not — answerable necessarily by a simple yes or no. So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying No. …
“And this has to do with of course somewhat of a semantic, perhaps some would say too too cute by half. But it is — there are honest differences on the semantics of what when someone says ‘collection’ to me, that has a specific meaning, which may have a different meaning to him.”
(See link below to full NBC transcript)
(Full video 27 min.) http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/52158136 (27 min.)
(Most relevant segment) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbZt1zLQ11E
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June 9, 2013
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of Senate Intelligence Committee on “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos (after he showed video of Clapper testimony on March 12, 2013, denying that NSA collects “any type of data” on Americans):
Stephanopoulos: “Senator Feinstein, I have to confess, I have a hard time squaring that answer with what we learned [from the Snowden disclosures] this week.”
Feinstein: “Well, I think this is very hard. There is no more direct or honest person than Jim Clapper. … You can misunderstand the question.”
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June 11, 2013
Sen. Ron Wyden issued the following statement regarding statements made by Clapper about collection on Americans:
“One of the most important responsibilities a Senator has is oversight of the intelligence community. This job cannot be done responsibly if Senators aren’t getting straight answers to direct questions.
“When NSA Director Alexander failed to clarify previous public statements about domestic surveillance, it was necessary to put the question to the Director of National Intelligence. So that he would be prepared to answer [in his testimony on March 12], I sent the question to Director Clapper’s office a day in advance.
“After the hearing was over my staff and I gave his office a chance to amend his answer. Now public hearings are needed to address the recent disclosures and the American people have the right to expect straight answers from the intelligence leadership to the questions asked by their representatives.”
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July 2, 2013
Clapper sends a letter to Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein, in which he refers to his March 12 testimony denying that NSA collects “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.”
Clapper: “My response was clearly erroneous for which I apologize.”
A spokesman for Wyden, Tom Caiazza, said that a staff member in the Senator’s office had asked Clapper to correct the public record after the March hearing, which he “refused” to do. Caiazza explained:
“Senator Wyden had a staff member contact the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on a secure phone line soon after the March hearing to address the inaccurate statement regarding bulk collection on Americans.
“The ODNI acknowledged that the statement was inaccurate but refused to correct the public record when given the opportunity. Senator Wyden’s staff informed the ODNI that this was a serious concern. Senator Wyden is deeply troubled by a number of misleading statements senior officials have made about domestic surveillance in the past several years.”
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Mr. President, are you not also troubled by those misleading statements? We strongly believe you must fire Jim Clapper for his lies to the Congress and the American people and that you must appoint someone who will tell the truth.
For the Steering Group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Coleen Rowley, retired FBI agent and former Minneapolis Division legal counsel
Daniel Ellsberg, former State and Defense Department official
Ray McGovern, retired CIA analyst
David MacMichael, Ph.D., former senior estimates officer, National Intelligence Council
Todd Pierce, MAJ, U.S. Army, Judge Advocate (ret.), Military Commissions Defense Counsel
Thomas Drake, Senior Executive, NSA (former)
William Binney, former technical director at NSA
Larry Johnson, CIA and State Department (ret.)
Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy NIO for the Near East, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
Philip Giraldi, CIA, Operations Officer (ret.)
Ann Wright, Retired US Army Reserve Colonel and former US Diplomat
This excellent letter should be turned into a petition a la MoveOn or CREDO, or on the President’s website. These patriots are to be commended, and it seems as though their numbers are growing
Justice delayed is justice denied. Lately, it has become apparent that on some issues, it will be delayed forever. The reasonable person must conclude that the judicial, executive and legislative branches are powerless to effect any measure of restraint over this rogue element of our government. If that is not the case, then the only other conclusion is an association of delinquency which serves to conceal the true nature of the workings of our government.
Tap dancing around clear answers to specific questions by invoking semantic notions of shades of “meaning” to a word like “collection” is laughable. It reminds me of the story my grandfather, a railroader, told about the two hobos. As they’re walking the tracks, one smells a fowl odor. Perplexed, he asks the other hobo if by some chance, he might have soiled his britches. The other hobo denies it. Time passes, but the odor does not. He asks again, and the denial becomes more vehement. Finally, in a fit of frustration, the first hobo pulls down his companion’s trousers revealing a plentiful accumulation of fecal matter. He says, “I thought you said you didn’t soil your britches”. The second hobo says, “I thought you meant today”.
In 1992, Congress passed the JFK records act. Twenty one years later, the intelligence community is still stalling. Obviously, they can do as they please. The American people apparently believe that whatever happened in Dealy Plaza fifty years ago still has something to do with “National Security”. When you’re that gullible, even “smart pills” won’t help…but that’s another hobo story.
Chickens really do stink.
You’re getting smarter already.
President Obama fire Clapper…just not going to happen. First and foremost, the President is perfectly happy with Clapper lying to Congress. He would rather have an argument over Clapper than have an in depth discussion about the merits of spying on everyone, out-sourcing the spying to connected Corporations, spying for economic reasons and, most importantly, whether Americans want their government collecting everything on every citizen. Those with long enough memories, or who can read, know what Hoover did. NSA is Hoover’s secret files on steroids. And ‘O’ don’t wanna discussion about that.
And the appropriate officials should dump Feinstein as well.