<i>Yes. Does the NSA routinely intercept American citizens’ emails?<p>No.<p>Does the NSA intercept Americans’ cell phone conversations?<p>No.</i><p>It's worth noting that "intercept" has a very specific meaning here, which the Congressman asking the question nor the reporter may not have realized.<p>From <a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/245228/the-fbi-collects-all-telephone-records" rel="nofollow">http://theweek.com/article/index/245228/the-fbi-collects-all...</a><p><i>A few definitions: to "collect" means to gather and store; to "analyze" means that a computer or human actually does something with the records; to "intercept" means that a computer or human actually listens to or records calls.</i><p>So it is possible that the NSA routinely collects telephone and/or email metadata and that the NSA does not routinely "intercept" citizen's email or cell-phone conversation (depending upon the meaning of "routinely" used), and that an answer of "No" to the latter is not a lie.<p>This article by the same author has more information on the program's specifics (<a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/245285/how-the-nsa-uses-your-telephone-records" rel="nofollow">http://theweek.com/article/index/245285/how-the-nsa-uses-you...</a>), as his sources have told him:<p><i>The NSA would insist that it does not actually "spy" on you until it gets a further order, if at all. In most all circumstances, the FBI, not the NSA, would actually listen to your conversations if a FISA order was acquired. So merely "collecting" the data is like receiving a box full of records but not opening it until and unless they had a good reason to do so.<p>That metaphor is not terribly comforting, but it does appear to be the government's justification for insisting that they don't actually, actively "spy" on you. It is true: If they only compile these transactional records and don't do anything with them, and they faithfully honor this distinction, then the scale of the actual surveillance is not necessarily harmful, although it feels heavy. That's a big if. It depends on whether you believe the NSA follows the rules.</i>
In March 2013, the Director of National Intelligence specifically told Senator Ron Wyden that the NSA does not wittingly collect any type of data on millions of Americans: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwiUVUJmGjs&feature=youtu.be&t=6m9s" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwiUVUJmGjs&feature=youtu...</a>
It seems pretty clear that the NSA engages in bulk collection of databases which _might_ someday contain something interesting, and only considers it "interception" when they query their own DBs.<p>These creative redefinitions of seemingly benign terms are at the root of the problem.
He was asked about the interception of the email content, but most of the information we have suggests that the NSA is receiving information about email and phone metadata.<p>Also the questions focus on what the NSA is intercepting, not what they are being given /demanding under a NSL.<p>Also it's unclear what processing by computers may be done of such material. If you have a computer doing threat assessment of all emails, but the NSA employees only get the assessment results, not the text, they could arguably state what they are saying.<p>Wrong questions. Someone should clue congress into the right questions.
I wish I were only snarking when I wonder whether there's a double-top-secret exemption to the laws about perjuring one's self before Congress, which is, itself, secret. It just wouldn't do to have the laws that allow people to lie to Congress about secret stuff be public knowledge, after all...
I'm not sure I understand how this relates to the Guardian article. My understanding of that is that there's an NSL ordering Verizon to give electronic records of the calls to the NSA. The NSA isn't collecting, intercepting or monitoring anything. They're being handed the data by VZ. What's the relevance?
So, if I understand correctly, the "challenge" for the NSA is to route everything through routers in a foreign country. There the NSA is allowed to do whatever it wants.