US spy chief Clapper defends Prism and phone surveillance

[Peter Lemkin]

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is openly accusing the nation's chief intelligence officer of lying to lawmakers in statements earlier this year. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told a Senate hearing in March that the National Security Agency does not "wittingly" amass the personal data of millions of Americans. Speaking to CNN, Paul said Clapper lied outright.

Sen. Rand Paul: "What I'm saying is that the director of national intelligence, in March, did directly lie to Congress, which is against the law. He said that they were not collecting any data on American citizens, and it turns out they're collecting billions of data on phone calls every day. So it was a lie. What I'm saying is that by lying to Congress, which is against the law, he severely damaged the credibility of the entire intelligence committee community."

After the recent NSA revelations emerged, Clapper said his answer was the "least untruthful" response he could provide at the time.