The secret surveillance program that has allowed the National Security Agency to obtain millions of Americans’ phone records and even more Internet searches was top secret for a reason. In a rare late-night statement Thursday, director of National Intelligence James Clapper condemned the leak of highly classified documents detailing the U.S. government’s surveillance program as “reprehensible.” “The unauthorized disclosure of a top secret U.S. court document threatens potentially long-lasting and irreversible harm to our ability to identify and respond to the many threats facing our nation,” Clapper said, insisting that the phone-tracking program that’s had the country up in arms is not only completely legal but necessary to intercept terrorist activities.
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