"No, sir," Clapper replied.
"It does not?" Wyden repeated.
"Not wittingly," Clapper explained. "There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly."
On June 5 and 6, The Guardian and The Washington Post published the first of a long series of revelations based on the information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The NSA had wittingly and massively collected data on American citizens, and Clapper was caught in a witting and massive lie.
Worse, the strongest backers of the intelligence community's claims have their own agenda, and ... someone please tell my fellow pundits ... their agenda does not primarily concern Trump. He is a late addition to their hit list, and the idea that he could be Russia's man is an unexpected gift to their cause.
Hillary and Bill Clinton, the ever-hawkish Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, most Republicans and many Democrats in Congress are doing what they've been trying to do for years, calling for war, cold or otherwise, against Vladimir Putin's Russia. And, in their fervor for the Putin-Trump Show, they have raised double-standards to a new high and self-righteousness to an art form.
If only some almighty god could step in and say, "You are all fired."
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