Sen. Sanders wants to know if NSA has spied on Congress
By Cynthia Fagen From newsmax
A U.S. senator wants the National Security Agency to reveal if it has ever spied on members of Congress, Talking Points Memo reports.
“I am writing to you today to ask you one simple question. Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials?” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote in a letter sent to NSA Director General Keith Alexander on Friday.
Sanders said he was “deeply concerned” about the recent revelations that the NSA is “collecting enormous amounts of information about phone calls that Americans make, emails that we send, and websites that we visit.
“In my view, these actions are clearly unconstitutional.”
Sanders slammed the embattled agency’s tactics as “almost Orwellian,” adding it was “equally disturbing was to learn that the NSA has been involved in listening in on phone calls made by government leaders of countries such as Brazil, Germany, France, Mexico and other U.S. allies.
“This particular revelation has caused serious foreign policy setbacks for the United States, weakened our ability to work cooperatively with our allies, and caused an increase in anti-American sentiment throughout the world.
“Indeed, we must be vigilant and aggressive in protecting the American people from the very real danger of terrorist attacks. I believe, however, that we can do that effectively without undermining the constitutional rights that make us a free country.”
The senator has not yet received an answer from the agency.
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