CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Second District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito says, at this point, she does not know if there has been any overreach with secret surveillance programs focused on Americans.
“I’m not sure,” she said of whether those with the National Security Agency have gone too far in collecting the phone and internet records of as many as 120 million Verizon customers.
Those collections recently became public in reports in The Guardian and The Washington Post.
President Barack Obama has since said the data collections represent only “modest encroachments on privacy” to help thwart future terror attacks.
“There is a delicate balance here,” said Capito. “I was, not surprised, but when you see the scope of it, of the billion phone calls a day and e-mails and everything else, it is rather jarring to think that this is in possession of your government, especially at a time where our trust in our government is not really at a peak.”
Capito was a guest on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Over the weekend, Edward Snowden, 29, a former technical assistant for the CIA, identified himself as the source of the surveillance program leaks. He is reportedly now in hiding in Hong Kong.
U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller said the program is not new. He was the lead author of the Congressional acts in 2008 that made changes to the warrantless surveillance program implemented under President George W. Bush.
Rockefeller said the updates strengthened civil liberty protections while improving national security surveillance to better protect Americans from terrorist attacks.
“The Boston attacks tragically underscore the fact that we still face deadly threats — most of which the intelligence community can thwart with the tools we have developed since 9/11. We always have a responsibility to scrutinize these programs and raise serious questions if there is any indication of overreach,” said Rockefeller in recent statement.
“But I believe that once the dust settles, and everyone has a chance to take a hard look at the facts and the choices we face, they’ll reach the same conclusion I still hold — that these intelligence programs do not pose a significant threat to our privacy, but they do help keep our country safe.”
Rockefeller is a member of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, meanwhile, has said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder should consider resigning because of the controversy surrounding the surveillance programs.
Capito, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said a complete review of the surveillance work is needed.
“I think it’s a good time to deep dive into this program, look at it again and make sure we’re not empowering bureaucrats and a government and an executive branch to do things, to become the big brother, that could happen if these powers were abused,” she said.