[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 86 (Monday, June 17, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4510-S4511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NSA SURVEILLANCE PROGRAMS

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to discuss recent 
national security leaks by a former NSA contractor by the name of 
Edward Snowden. His name is known now throughout the world. Some have 
praised Snowden as a hero and a whistleblower. I do not. Anyone who 
violates their sworn oath to not disclose classified information and 
then leaks national security documents that compromise our intelligence 
operations and harm our country's ability to prevent future terrorist 
attacks should neither be called a hero nor a whistleblower. What 
Snowden has done borders on treason, and I believe he should be 
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
  Mr. President, it is no secret we have a serious trust deficit in 
this country with the Federal Government. I understand the concerns and 
the fears of my constituents and the American people relative to some 
of the things that have occurred here that lead them to question their 
trust in their elected officials or in their government.
  There has been a series of scandals over the past several months, 
including but not limited to the IRS targeting conservative groups, the 
actions of Attorney General Eric Holder, and the ever-changing 
responses from this administration regarding the attacks on Americans 
in Benghazi. We still don't have the full story, and the narrative 
keeps bouncing around with change after change after change. So I 
understand this distrust the American people have about anything that 
comes out of Washington, DC.
  A lot of this is being fueled by mischaracterizations and 
misrepresentations in the media, grabbing onto whatever is said in the 
Guardian. Of course, the Guardian says, and people hear: This is what 
is happening to your country. This is what is happening with your 
government. They are violating your civil rights and violating your 
privacy. But none of us stand for that, nor will we stand for that. But 
in their rush to be the first to break the news of the NSA or other 
classified programs, to break it first online or on the air, the media 
has fueled this distrust of the American people by misrepresenting the 
facts.
  Contrary to what some news reports and other sources have said, let 
me say this for the record: The government is not and cannot 
indiscriminately listen in on any Americans' phone calls. It is not 
targeting the e-mails of innocent Americans. It is not indiscriminately 
collecting the content of their conversations. And it is not tracking 
the location of innocent Americans through cell towers or their cell 
phones.
  There are civil liberties and privacy protections built into this 
program that are now being released in great detail, and it is 
important the American people understand those and know what they are. 
We have to understand this careful balancing act between protecting 
classified methods and sources to the detriment of losing that 
information, losing lives, identifying sources, and compromising 
programs, and the need to reassure the American people we are following 
the law and following the constitutional right of Americans to privacy. 
All of this has to be put in the right context.
  As a side note, let me just simply say, Mr. President, that it is 
ironic that a lot of American private companies seem to have more 
information about us than the government does. They may have a phone 
number, but many of the private companies know what we like to eat, 
where we shop, what we like to wear, what movies we order, where we 
like to vacation, and we are flooded with marketing attempts to use the 
information they have collected against us.
  But that is not what the NSA is doing under these programs and the 
programs in question. These programs are in place solely for the 
purpose of detecting communications between terrorists who are 
operating outside of our country but communicating with operatives 
potentially within the United States.
  The intelligence community neither has the time nor the inclination 
nor the authority to track people's Internet activity or pry into their 
private lives. Even if someone is suspected, by the way, of a phone 
call match with a foreign terrorist and someone residing or living in 
America and suspected of having a link to terrorism, the government can 
go no further than the court to get an order to investigate any other 
information or material about them. And let's not forget why these 
programs are there in the first place.
  Following the tragic attacks on September 11, 2001, America realized 
it needed to greatly improve our intelligence efforts and 
communications among our agencies--we were facing a different kind of 
war. This wasn't two States lining up against each other. This wasn't 
addressing wars from the past. This was a whole new way that enemies 
were attacking Americans on our homeland. We needed to modernize our 
approach, and we needed to connect the dots before a terrorist attack 
occurred again at the level of 9/11 or others.
  In fact, had these programs been available to NSA before that 
September date, I believe we could have identified some or all of the 
hijackers. When one of the September 11 hijackers called a contact in 
Yemen from San Diego, we could have identified them through this 
program. We could have prevented the terrorists from boarding those 
planes and blowing up the World Trade Center, striking the Pentagon, 
crashing into a field in Pennsylvania, and killing thousands of 
Americans.
  These programs connect the dots and have successfully thwarted dozens 
of terrorist attacks. They are some of the most effective tools 
available to protect our country from terrorist organizations like al-
Qaida.
  That is why I find it so troubling and, frankly, irresponsible for 
the media and others to distort the nature of

[[Page S4511]]

these counterterrorism programs. These programs are legal, 
constitutional, and utilized only under the strict oversight of both 
parties and all three branches of government, including a highly 
scrutinized judicial process. In the end, these programs rely on the 
trust of the American people. And with that trust lacking today, I am 
asking my fellow Members of Congress, as well as the media, to fact-
check first before mischaracterizing programs that save lives.
  I believe we can--and we must--protect both security and liberty when 
it comes to counterterrorism efforts, and I believe these programs do 
just that.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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