The NSA refuses to deny spying on members of Congress
Source: Washington Post
"Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other elected officials?"
That's the question Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put to the National Security Agency's chief in a bluntly worded letter Friday. It seems, however, that the agency cannot categorically say no.
(snip)
"Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons," the spokesman said. "We are reviewing Sen. Sanders’s letter now, and we will continue to work to ensure that all members of Congress, including Sen. Sanders, have information about NSA’s mission, authorities, and programs to fully inform the discharge of their duties.”
The answer is telling. We already know that the NSA collects records on virtually every phone call made in the United States. That program was renewed for the 36th time on Friday. If members of Congress are treated no differently than other Americans, then the NSA likely keeps tabs on every call they make as well.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/01/04/the-nsa-refuses-to-deny-spying-on-members-of-congress/
(snip)
The statement read: “NSA’s authorities to collect signals intelligence data include procedures that protect the privacy of US persons. Such protections are built into and cut across the entire process. Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all US persons. NSA is fully committed to transparency with Congress. Our interaction with Congress has been extensive both before and since the media disclosures began last June.
“We are reviewing Senator Sanders’s letter now, and we will continue to work to ensure that all members of Congress, including Senator Sanders, have information about NSA’s mission, authorities, and programs to fully inform the discharge of their duties.”
Soon after Sanders' letter was published, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, announced that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) Court, the body which exists to provide government oversight of NSA surveillance activities, had renewed the domestic phone records collection order for another 90 days.
On Saturday, the New York Times published a letter from Robert Litt, in which the general counsel for the Office of National Intelligence denied allegations that Clapper lied to Congress in March, when questioned about NSA domestic surveillance.
From Sen. Sanders Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders
Must Read: NSA statement does not deny 'spying' on members of Congress - Spencer Ackerman and Martin Pengelly, The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/04/nsa-spying-bernie-sanders-members-congress
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/04/clapper-lie-congress-nsa-national-intelligence-counsel
= new reply since forum marked as read
...then presumably politicians, with an expressed active interest in partisan political struggles, should be among the first suspects. 
And then the next time it happens when they're caught red handed- they'll lie again, fake outrage and continue biznet az usual.
That's why I think the slow release* of Snowdens revelations is pure genius! Think about it- with a culture with the attention span of a mosquito- what better way to keep LIV Amerikans focused and forced to have a debate about this!
If they kill Ed tomorrow, there's no way to put the Genie back in the bottle now!
Pure Genius. Drip, drip, drip! 
*Although the real reason for doling out these revelations, incrementally, is to carefully vet it so no one gets hurt. You can thank Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald for that.
Something the White House can be proud of...
so why would members of Congress get worked up about it?
I mean, no Senators or Congressional reps could possibly have anything to hide, right? So -- like the rest of law-abiding citizens -- they should just submit to constant surveillance.
http://nsa.gov1.info/utah-data-center/
It's not like he wrote it in Shakespearean English and they need to consult a dictionary 
- To assure that they have received your question, and then to explain why asking it is irrelevant.
It's not an answer per se, more ''answer-like.'' It's a bonus if you can do all that, and also sound slightly intimidating without trying to.
"Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons," the spokesman said. "We are reviewing Sen. Sanders’s letter now, and we will continue to work to ensure that all members of Congress, including Sen. Sanders, have information about NSA’s mission, authorities, and programs to fully inform the discharge of their duties.”
K&R
