New horror stories are coming out about the National Security Agency’s ability to spy on Americans, with reports the agency can fully control Apple iPhones, including texts, contacts, voicemail and even the camera and microphone.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the NSA needs to come clean about what it’s doing and put an end to the runaway fears about our privacy being invaded by government spies. “We need to be as transparent as possible with everything about our surveillance,” Grassley says. “The public ought to have a right to know what we’re doing as long as it doesn’t compromise our national security.”
For months, reports have been leaked about the NSA’s long reach, as agents and super-computers are reportedly listening to millions of our conversations and reading millions of email messages. Grassley says, “There has to be a balance found between the Constitutional obligations of the federal government’s number-one responsibility, for the national defense, and the privacy protections of the 4th Amendment.”
The NSA claims its techniques have led to the thwarting of “a few dozen” terrorist attacks in recent years, but Grassley, a Republican, says more information and openness would be welcome, as the American people shouldn’t be afraid of our own government. Grassley says, “I would say in the very least, it calls upon more Congressional oversight and more transparency.”
Reports say the NSA collects some five-billion records every day about the locations of cell phones in the U.S. and around the world.