On Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, took a shot at Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, who last week revealed the federal government had been collecting data on phone records.
Rogers questioned Greenwald’s knowledge of the program and said there were checks in place to prevent abuses of this intelligence program.
“I absolutely believe that someone did not have authorization to release this information,” Rogers said. “And why that is so important, George, is because they didn’t have all of the information, I know your reporter that you interviewed, Greenwald, says that he’s got it all and now is an expert on the program. He doesn’t have a clue how this thing works. Neither does the person who released just enough information to literally be dangerous.”
“I argue that there’s other methods,” he continued. “They can come to the committees if they have concerns. We have IGs that they can go to in a classified way if they have concern. Taking a very sensitive classified program that targets foreign persons on foreign lands, and putting just enough out there to be dangerous, is dangerous to us, it’s dangerous to our national security and violates the oath which that person took. I absolutely think they should be prosecuted.”