"I have been assured ... that there is no capability at NSA for anyone without a court order to listen to any telephone conversation or to monitor any e-mail.” Chambliss said that any monitoring of emails is purely “accidental.”
You can't have it both ways. Either there is "no capability", or the monitoring is "accidental." It can't be both.
1. A denial that they have the "capability" to do [insert method of mass surveilance], leaving open the possibility that "capability" means legal authorization;
2. A quasi admission that maybe the surveillance happens (Clapper: "not wittingly").
In other words, "we're collecting everything, but we'll only inspect your data if you're not American, or have a relationship of any kind with someone who has ever contacted a terrorist suspect."
Or if a random analyst is bored and finds you interesting for some reason.
At this point - every single "analysts" security-clearance worthiness has been jeopardized.
I don't trust ANY NSA employee at this point. NONE.
I would imagine that the schedule of who members of congress meet during the course of the day are part of the public record and should be subject to a FOIA request.
If our elected officials can see value in knowing the metadata of his or her citizens, then the citizens that elected those officials should be able to see the metadata of everyone his or her congressman calls, meets with or emails. The same should apply to all the senior staff of any elected official. One of the easiest way to handle making sure official meetings outside the office are logged is to only allow expense reports to be honored, when the other party in the meeting is logged.