CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

DOBBS: Congress voting to raise spending on port security. The House Appropriations Subcommittee voted to spend nearly a half billion dollars more on port security next year than this year. That extra money intended to pay for additional Coast Guard security operations, more cargo inspections and new equipment. The full House Appropriations Committee will consider the extra spending next week.

A widening controversy tonight over the Bush administration's intelligence gathering programs. The National Security Agency as it turns out, has been secretly tracking the telephone calls of tens of millions of Americans. "USA Today" this morning reporting three of the nation's largest telecommunications companies helping the NSA build the world's largest database.

That program raises questions about the president's constitutional prerogatives and whether he has exceeded them, and his nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency, General Michael Hayden. In a moment I'll be talking with the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Pat Roberts.

First let's turn to Senator Ron Wyden, leading Democratic member of the intelligence committee who questions what the National Security Agency and this administration are doing. Senator Wyden, joining us tonight from Capitol Hill. Senator, good to have you with us.

SEN. RON WYDEN (D-OR), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: The president today says categorically that the appropriate people have been briefed. Were you briefed on the gathering of these telephone numbers and the building of this database by NSA on tens of millions of Americans?

WYDEN: I was not, Lou. The first I heard about it was when I read the "USA Today" report. Here's the bottom line. I think it's possible to fight terrorism ferociously, to fight it relentlessly and still be sensitive to the privacy needs of our citizens.

But to do that the key people have to be credible. I now have substantial questions about General Hayden's credibility. For months and months, we have been told that this program essentially involved calls where one person was overseas and one person was here in the United States, or vice versa.

Today, the "USA Today" reports, and we'll see if it's accurate, that the NSA was part of some kind of huge domestic database that raises questions in my mind about whether this is the ghost of John Poindexter's program, what was called Operation Total Information Awareness.

DOBBS: Senator Feinstein, who has been supportive of the Hayden nomination to this point said today that she believes this could be a growing impediment to the confirmation of General Hayden. And even though she was expressing regret she thinks -- and said so straightforwardly, that we could be well on our way to a major constitutional confrontation over the Fourth Amendment. What do you think?

WYDEN: That certainly is a possibility. But again, you really have to dig into this, and suffice it to say, General Hayden went to the National Press Club. He was the principal proponent for the administration of the warrantless surveillance program. He didn't tell anybody at the National Press Club anything that would suggest there was this kind of domestic database. So we've got a lot of information to excavate and I think we can fight terrorism ferociously and protect people's civil liberties.

DOBBS: Senator, I'm less concerned what the general would tell the National Press Club than the fact that you haven't been briefed as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as to what NSA is doing and what information it's gathering.

The president assures us it's lawful, that I believe as he put it, the privacy of American citizens is being protected fiercely. That certainly isn't the impression that we, who do not sit on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has. What is yours?

WYDEN: Well virtually the entire Congress has been kept in the dark about this program, Lou, and it's particularly striking since Congress is now talking about reforming the program. The Congress doesn't do that great in terms of reforming programs it knows a lot about. In this case the Congress in terms of looking at this NSA program is like a doctor trying to treat a patient who hasn't been examined. You bet the Senate Intelligence Committee needs to be given the facts about this.

DOBBS: Would you reserve the possibility that other Democratic members of the Senate select committee on intelligence have been briefed?

WYDEN: Well certainly that's a possibility, because there is a select group that is given additional information, but the entire Congress is going to have to vote on whether or not to reform this program. It's not just going to be nine or 10 members. And the entire Congress ought to be in a position, along with the president of the United States, to be accountable to the public. You can't do that if Congress is kept in the dark and that's unfortunately where things are.

DOBBS: Senator Ron Wyden, we thank you for being here.

WYDEN: Thanks for having me.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/11/ldt.01.html