Sen. Wyden Hints at Support for Rand Paul's NSA Suit

Interview set to air Friday

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) said in an interview set to air Friday that he finds the National Security Agency's (NSA) metadata collection "unconstitutional," hinting at support for Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) lawsuit against President Obama and the program. 

On Bloomberg's "Political Capital with Al Hunt," Wyden said he's not familiar with the details of Paul's lawsuit, but noted they've worked together on NSA issues, according to a transcript of the interview.

"Sen. Paul and I have worked very closely together on these issues. Both of us feel, Al, that the government ought to be able to collect the information it needs when it needs it to protect our citizens … but the reality is, the idea of collecting millions and millions of phone records on law-abiding Americans doesn't make us any more secure," Wyden said. "It undermines our liberty. I personally believe that, yes, it is unconstitutional to collect millions and millions of phone records on law-abiding Americans. It violates the Fourth Amendment."

Comments

[ThinkThrice]

Sen. Wyden - "the government ought to be able to collect the information it needs when it needs it to protect our citizens...I personally believe that, yes, it is unconstitutional to collect millions and millions of phone records on law-abiding Americans. It violates the Fourth Amendment" Well at least he acknowledged that it is important to have intelligence agencies.

Before the loonies get in here - for context let's remember that AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobil etc, etc collect millions and millions of phone records.

Edward Snowden is a traitor to us all and Russia should surrender him to us for trial.

Keep in mind the Russians and Chinese aren't stopping: - from Wiki - [Russian spys] are operating against the U.S. in a much more active manner than they were during even the hottest days of the Cold War."[11] From the end of 1980s, KGB and later SVR began to create "a second echelon" of "auxiliary agents in addition to our main weapons, illegals and special agents", according to former SVR officer Kouzminov.[7] These agents are legal immigrants. Another SVR officer described details about thousand Russian agents and intelligence officers, some of them "illegals" who live under deep cover abroad.[3] Recently caught Russian high-profile agents in US are Aldrich Hazen Ames, Harold James Nicholson, Earl Edwin Pitts, Robert Philip Hanssen and George Trofimoff." - those guys that the Russians turned gave up dozens of agents who were killed by the Russians.

[Eitan]

Speak for yourself. Edward Snowden didn't betray me. He informed me that my government betrayed me, by violating the 4th amendment and my right to privacy.