Politics

Cantor promises ‘very serious’ NSA leak investigation

Giuseppe Macri Tech Editor
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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on a Monday morning CBS interview said Congress would undertake a “very serious” investigation into the leaks of two secret National Security Agency domestic surveillance programs.

Executive branch officials have plans to brief Congress Monday on the disclosure of two programs amassing large amounts of data on cell phone and Internet usage by private U.S. citizens leaked last week.

“The investigation will be very serious,” the Republican representative from Virginia said Monday on CBS.

Among the topics to be discussed will be the legality of the leaks and possible prosecution of Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old intelligence contractor responsible for divulging the programs to the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers.

“If anyone were to violate the law by releasing classified information, outside the legal avenues, certainly that individual should be prosecuted at the full extent of the law,” Cantor said.

Snowden, a former undercover CIA employee and NSA contractor, revealed himself as the source of the leaks late Sunday from Hong Kong, where he currently resides.

Despite the public and media backlash against the controversial nature of the programs and their potential violations of Americans’ civil liberties, Cantor indicated the focus of Congress’ inquiry would be assessing the damage done to national security, and holding those responsible accountable.

“Right now, we know that there are active threats against the United States. We have terrorist threats that continue. There are possible security incidences that continue. And that’s just the world that we live in,” Cantor said.

Cantor acknowledged the need for congressional oversight to establish the line between security and privacy in such extensive surveillance programs, while simultaneously citing them as both necessary and constitutional.

The programs, which have the legality ground in the Patriot Act, are subject to judicial oversight through Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court, whose proceedings are secret, and legislative oversight through a congressional Privacy and Civil Liberties Board.

PRISM — the program that collects massive quantities of Internet user data through providers and database holders like Google — has been defined as constitutional.

“The administration is responsible for implementing this program, Congress is responsible for the oversight of this program. Obviously we’ll be dealing with a balance between national security and safeguarding our civil liberties,” Cantor said.

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