Rand: Dir. of Nat'l Intelligence 'Greatly Damaged' Credibility of Intel Community

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said on Fox News Sunday that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper “greatly damaged the credibility of our American intelligence community” when he testified to the Senate about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs in March. 

Paul stated “nothing has happened” and there have been “no repercussions” for inconsistencies and misdirection in Clapper’s testimony. 

Clapper had told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the NSA did not collect data on Americans, and after Edward Snowden leaked information about the NSA programs, he told NBC News that he gave the “least untruthful answer possible” at the testimony in question. 

Paul said that ultimately, the NSA’s surveillance programs were not “good police work” because it floods the system with data to the point where analysts did not even notice that one of the Boston bombers had gone back to Chechnya.