an interesting read on the state of things. Wyden does Oregon proud, [only excerpted, whole thing is huge. waiting for cryptome to mirror... ] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/16/131216fa_fact_lizza?currentPag... """ Wyden estimates that he gets about fifteen minutes a year to ask questions of top intelligence officials at open hearings. With the help of his intelligence staffer, John Dickas, a thirty-five-year-old from Beaverton, Oregon, whom Wyden calls “the hero of the intelligence-reform movement,” Wyden often spends weeks preparing his questions. He and Dickas look for opportunities to interrogate officials on the gaps between what they say in public and what they say in classified briefings. At a technology conference in Nevada the previous summer, General Keith Alexander, the director of the N.S.A., had said that “the story that we have millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people is absolutely false.” Wyden told me recently, “It sure didn’t sound like the world I heard about in private.” For months, he tried to get a clarification from the N.S.A. about exactly what Alexander had meant. Now he had the opportunity to ask Clapper in public. As a courtesy, he had sent him the question the day before. Wyden leaned forward and read Alexander’s comment. Then he asked, “What I wanted to see is if you could give me a yes or no answer to the question ‘Does the N.S.A. collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?’ ” Clapper slouched in his chair. He touched the fingertips of his right hand to his forehead and made a fist with his left hand. “No, sir,” he said. He gave a quick shake of his head and looked down at the table. “It does not?” Wyden asked, with exaggerated surprise. “Not wittingly,” Clapper replied. He started scratching his forehead and looked away from Wyden. “There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly.” Wyden told me, “The answer was obviously misleading, false.” """