Did Intel Dir. James Clapper Lie to Congress? It's Complicated

When someone who knows top-secret information is asked about it in a public congressional hearing, what should he or she do?

"The traditional answer is so easy: 'Frankly, senator, I'm unable to answer that in an open hearing,'" said Jim Lewis, a former Foreign Service officer at the State and Commerce Departments.

But James Clapper, director of U.S. national intelligence, one of the highest ranking intelligence officials in the country, didn't do that. He answered the question.

Sen. Ron Wyden asked Clapper at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March whether the government collected data on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans, and Clapper said, "no," or at least "not wittingly."

The rub is that government officials do, indeed, collect data on millions of Americans, even if they don't necessarily read it all.

Read more about NSA leaker Edward Snowden HERE.

So why would a senior intelligence official, who has in the past undoubtedly answered dozens of questions about classified programs with a quick pass, flub it this time?

The answer could be as simple as this: Wyden's question was confusing.

Wyden began by probing Clapper about a statement that National Security Agency Director Gen.Keith Alexander made at a conference. "The story that we have millions or hundreds of dossiers on people is completely false," Alexander had said.

Alexander's statement, even in light of the recently released information about the NSA's secret programs, is true. The government doesn't collect "dossiers," or "files," on millions of Americans.

Wyden said, "The reason I'm asking the question is, having served on the committee now for a dozen years, I don't really know what a dossier is in this context."

So what I wanted to see is if you could give me a yes or no answer to the question: Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" the Oregon Democrat continued, rephrasing Alexander's word "dossier" as "data collection."

So what does he do now? Admit that he simply misunderstood the question?

"He's kind of stuck because he's got to say we collect on a very broad range of individuals but we actually only process and read a tiny portion of them," Lewis, former Foreign Service officer, said. "He might want to issue a clarifying statement. A lot of people are either intentionally or otherwise don't understand the difference between collect and read."

Intelligence director Clapper explained it this way Saturday in an interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell:

"To me, collection of a U.S. person's data would mean taking the books off the shelf, opening it up and reading it," Clapper told Mitchell.

Clapper, however, could simply have refused to answer.

Lewis said Clapper possibly believed that refusing to answer the question would imply that the answer was "yes."

"The fear is by even refusing to answer the question, you're confirming it," Lewis said. "It put Clapper in a tough spot."

Clapper has not responded to an ABC News request for comment.

Strictly speaking, Wyden, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would have had access to a certain amount of classified information on the National Security Agency's surveillance program. And he might have skirted the line of revealing classified information by asking such a pointed question of Clapper about a top-secret program.

"Congressmen don't always have the best judgment and they ask about classified programs in open hearings," added Lewis, who is also director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank. "They never like the answer where you say, 'Congressman, I'm afraid I can't answer that question to even confirm it or deny it.'"

Clapper told Mitchell it's a "when are you going to stop beating your wife" kind of question.

"So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful or least most untruthful manner, by saying, 'No,'" he told Mitchell.

That may explain why Wyden has used the incident to call for additional hearings and "straight answers" from intelligence officials about the program.

"So that he would be prepared to answer, I sent the question to Director Clapper's office a day in advance," Wyden said in a statement Tuesday. "After the hearing was over my staff and I gave his office a chance to amend his answer. "

But when asked directly by reporters Tuesday whether he believes Clapper lied, he declined to accuse the national intelligence director of intentionally misleading Congress.

That hasn't, however, stopped others from using the "L" word.

Rep. Jason Amash, R-Mich., today said frankly that Clapper lied to Congress and should resign.

"It now appears clear that the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, lied under oath to Congress and the American people," Amash wrote in a Facebook post. "Members of Congress can't make informed decisions on intelligence issues when the head of the intelligence community willfully makes false statements."

"Perjury is a serious crime. Mr. Clapper should resign immediately."

The most destructive wildfire in Colorado history: By the numbers

Fires rage across Colorado for the third consecutive day

There are multiple wildfires raging in Colorado right now. The worst of them, located northeast of Colorado Springs in the Black Forest area, has destroyed more buildings than any other fire in state history. Another near Royal Gorge Bridge and Park threatens the highest suspension bridge in the United States. Here is a look at the devastation by the numbers:

360
Homes destroyed so far by the Black Forest fire. El Paso County officials haven't been able to confirm the condition of 79 additional homes, meaning that number could rise significantly in the coming days. The previous record was 347 homes destroyed in 2012 by the Waldo Canyon fire west of Colorado Springs.

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38,000
People who have been forced to evacuate the Black Forest area. So far, no deaths or injuries have been reported, although one person who refused to evacuate is considered missing.

15,000
Acres consumed by the Black Forest fire since it started Tuesday. The cause of the fire isn't clear.

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0
Percentage of the Black Forest fire that has currently been contained by firefighters.

35 mph
Wind speeds expected Thursday afternoon, with single-digit humidity and a high of 83 degrees. Weather forecasts predict a 10 percent chance of isolated showers sometime in the afternoon.

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12
Air tankers dropping fire retardant over the fires throughout Colorado. That accounts for every single tanker currently contracted by the U.S. Forest Service, which has forced the agency to ask the Department of Defense if it can borrow several cargo planes.

$5.5 million
Funds authorized by Gov. John Hickenlooper to fight the Black Forest fire. The governor has alsoapproved $4.5 million to contain the Royal Gorge fire and $150,000 to fight a smaller one Huerfano County, located in southern Colorado.

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900
Prisoners evacuated from the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility due to the Royal Gorge fire.

30
Chickens, along with hundreds of horses and several cows, miniature horses, and alpacas, taking refuge in a country fairground northeast of the Black Forest area.

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Germany to draw up $10.6-billion flood damage fund

Germany plans $10.6-billion fund to pay for flood damage; economic impact seen limited

Associated Press -

BERLIN (AP) -- Germany will create a fund of up to 8 billion euros ($10.6 billion) to pay for the damage caused by recent flooding, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.

The country, which has Europe's biggest economy, won't raise taxes to cover the costs and will raise borrowing, Merkel said after meeting Germany's 16 state governors.

The cost of the fund, meant to finance long-term rebuilding, will be split equally between the federal government and the states; details of financing have yet to be finalized but Merkel said issuing government bonds is one possibility.

The Elbe, the Danube and other rivers overflowed their banks following persistent heavy rain, causing extensive damage over the past two weeks in southern and northeastern Germany. The water is now slowly receding in most areas.

Fitch Ratings earlier this week estimated that the cost of damage in Germany would total about 12 billion euros, and that insurers would face claims of up to 3 billion euros.

Merkel stressed that "we don't yet know the concrete scale of the damage," but officials named a "generous" figure of up to 8 billion euros as they launched a drive to pass legislation by early July.

Some of the same areas were hit by flooding in 2002. Officials at the time drew up an emergency fund of up to 7 billion euros; not all of that money was eventually used.

The flooding does not appear likely to throw off course the German economy, which has been doing better than most in Europe and was expected to accelerate in the current quarter after growing by only 0.1 percent in the January-March period.

Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING in Brussels, noted that flooding in Germany hasn't had major economic effects in the past, in part because it tends to hit rural rather than major industrial regions.

"All in all, as in the past, the current flood will not come without costs and individual tragedies," he said. But "the growth path of the total economy ... should hardly be affected."

The Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary also have been hit by this month's floods.

Workers at the windows of ERT headquarters in Athens, which they have occupied in protest at its sudden closure. Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

Reuters – June 13, 2013

http://tinyurl.com/l4sy2dr

Buses and subway trains have stopped running in Athens as Greek workers begin a nationwide strike in protest against the “sudden death” of state broadcaster ERT, switched off in the middle of the night by the government.

Greece’s two biggest labour unions plan to bring much of the near-bankrupt country to a standstill during the 24-hour strike against Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s decision to close down ERT, which they describe as a “coup-like move … to gag unbiased information”.

The government described its decision to shut the 75-year-old broadcaster as a temporary measure before its relaunch in a slimmed-down form.

But the move infuriated the coalition partners keeping Samaras in power, recreating an atmosphere of crisis in a country that had seemed to be emerging from the political drama accompanying one of the worst peacetime economic collapses in history.

Iron shutters blocked the entrance to the state-run Athens subway stations early on Thursday and city buses did not run.

Several marches were expected to culminate in demonstrations outside ERT’s headquarters, where workers have gathered since the closure was announced.

But there was little sign of private businesses joining the strike. City streets were full with commuters and car traffic, supermarkets were open and cafes were serving customers as usual.

“The lowest ERT employee is making in a day what I’m making in a week, so why should I strike for them?” said vegetable vendor Yannis Papailias as he sorted out his wares.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs. Who protested for them?” said waitress Maria Skylakou.

Representing about 2.5 million workers, the unions have gone on strike repeatedly since Europe’s debt crisis erupted in late 2009, although action has been less frequent and more muted lately than last year when marches often turned violent. The last nationwide strike was in February.

“In a systematic and autocratic way, the government has abolished the rights of workers and citizens one by one,” said the public sector union ADEDY, which is organising the walkout with its private sector sister union GSEE.

“We call on every worker and every citizen to fight to overthrow the government’s catastrophic plans,” ADEDY said.

Separately, a union representing journalists in Athens has called an indefinite strike of members, preventing some newspapers from appearing and forcing commercial broadcasters to air reruns of sitcoms and soap operas instead of the news.

An employee in the ERT control room wipes tears as she works with colleagues to broadcast a web TV signal on Wednesday. Photograph: Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters

The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) has shed viewers under pressure from commercial television, and its three statewide channels had a combined audience share of only 13%. Many Greeks regard it as a wasteful source of patronage jobs for political parties. But the abruptness with which it was shut – with newscasters cut off in mid-sentence – was a shock.

Samaras said he would press ahead with plans to reform ERT and relaunch it as a leaner and more efficient organisation, dismissing the broadcaster’s defenders as hypocrites who would block needed reforms.

Shutting the broadcaster was proof of the political will needed to transform Greece from “a real Jurassic Park, the only place on earth where dinosaurs survived”, he said.

The opposition’s rhetoric was no less heated. Leftwing leader Alexis Tsipras, addressing protesting ERT workers in Greece’s second biggest city, Thessaloniki, called on Greeks to defend democracy.

“What we experienced yesterday was unprecedented, not only for Greece but for all of Europe,” Tsipras said. “Public television goes dark only in two circumstances: when a country is occupied by foreign forces or when there is a coup.”

Most public sector activity is expected to come to a halt during Thursday’s strike, with train and bus employees and bankers among various groups joining the walkout.

Unemployment has climbed to almost 27% in Greece with more than 850,000 jobs, mostly in the private sector, wiped out since the beginning of Greece’s six-year recession.