Talking Points Memo reported:
A congressional hearing next Wednesday on the National Security Agency’s surveillance efforts will include testimony from critics, including the journalist who first reported on the programs.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) told The Guardian that he’s working with other lawmakers to spearhead the hearing in order to rebut “constant misleading information” from the intelligence community. It will not be a formal hearing, but will feature rougly a dozen lawmakers from both parties.
Grayson said that The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, who reported on the surveillance programs based on information provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, has been invited to participate in the hearing via video conference from his home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Greenwald indicated over Twitter on Friday that he will participate.
The Guardian reported:
Congress will hear testimony from critics of the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices for the first time since the whistleblower Edward Snowden’s explosive leaks were made public.
Democratic congressman Alan Grayson, who is leading a bipartisan group of congressman organising the hearing, told the Guardian it would serve to counter the “constant misleading information” from the intelligence community.
The hearing, which will take place on Wednesday, comes amid evidence of a growing congressional rebellion NSA data collection methods.
* * *
“I have been concerned about the fact that we have heard incessantly in recent weeks from General Keith Alexander [director of the NSA] and Mr James Clapper [director of National Intelligence] about their side of the story,” Grayson said. “We have barely heard anything in Congress from critics of the program.
“We have put together an ad hoc, bipartisan hearing on domestic surveillance in on the Capitol. We plan to have critics of the program come in and give their view – from the left and the right.”
Grayson said the hearing had bipartisan support, and was backed by the Republican congressman Justin Amash, whose draft the amendment that was narrowly defeated.
* * *
The hearing will take place at the same time as a Senate hearing into the NSA’s activities. That will feature Gen Alexander and possibly his deputy, Chris Inglis, as well as senior officials from the Department of Justice and FBI.
The simultaneous timing of the hearings will lead to a notable juxtaposition between opponents and defenders of the government’s surveillance activities.
“Both Congress and the American people deserve to hear both sides of the story,” Grayson said. “There has been constant misleading information – and worse than that, the occasional outright lie – from the so-called intelligence community in their extreme, almost hysterical efforts, to defend these programmes.”
Although not a formal committee hearing, Grayson’s event will take place on Capitol Hill, and composed of a panel of around a dozen members of Congress from both parties.
Grayson said those testifying would include the American Civil Liberties Union as well as representatives from the right-leaning Cato Institute.
“They are both going to come in and make it clear that this programme is not authorised by existing law – and if it were authorised by existing law, that law would be unconstitutional,” Grayson said.
The congressman added that Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first revealed details of the surveillance programmes leaked by Snowden, had also been invited to testify via video-link from his base in Rio.