Feinstein defends NSA data collection and insists program is 'not surveillance'

Feinstein defends NSA data collection and insists program is 'not surveillance'

Democratic chair of Senate intelligence committee says in USA Today op-ed that NSA program has helped prevent terrorist plots

Paul Lewis in Washington

theguardian.com, Monday 21 October 2013 11.19 EDT          

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/21/dianne-feinstein-defends-nsa-data-collection

Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the US Senate committee charged with holding the intelligence establishment to account, declared on Monday that the National Security Agency's mass collection of phone records is "not surveillance" and should be maintained as an essential tool to combat terrorism.

Feinstein made the case for retaining the program, which routinely collects and stores the phone records millions of Americans, in an op-ed for USA Today, in which she wrote that the NSA's work had been "effective in helping to prevent terrorist plots against the US and our allies".

Dianne Feinstein

Dianne Feinstein is a U.S. Senate senator, and married to Richard C. Blum.

Note: Richard C. Blum is married to Senator Dianne Feinstein, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

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Daley returned to the practice of law, as a partner with the firm Mayer Brown (then Mayer, Brown & Platt) from 1993 to 1997.

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Allen H. Neuharth was the chairman & CEO for Gannett Co., Inc., and the founder of USA Today.

Donna E. Shalala was a director at Gannett Co., Inc., and a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Richard C. Blum is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and married to Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Dianne Feinstein is married to Richard C. Blum, and a U.S. Senate senator.