Were Ron or Rand Paul briefed on the Verizon snooping?

[economics102]

The claim is that "every member of Congress" was briefed on this. Did Ron or Rand know?

FYI, I'm not asking this for purposes of criticizing them for not saying anything. It just always struck me as problematic the way the confidential briefings work in Congress. I remember a while ago Rand was briefed on something classified (I forget what) as a way of "easing his concerns," but it seems like a fundamental problem if members of Congress can be briefed on classified information under the condition they not speak out about it. What if they don't like what they hear in the briefing??

Sort of like the "closed door" meetings or "off the record" press conferences...

I can imagine the conversation...



RAND: I'm concerned you may be spying on everyone.

NSA: Hogwash! Tell you what, if it will ease your concerns, we can give you a private briefing. It's classified, though, so you can't repeat anything we tell you.

RAND: Fine.

(NSA shuts door)

NSA: Ok, here it is...We're spying on everyone.

RAND: I'm not okay with that. The people need to be warned about this.

NSA: You can't, it's classified.

RAND: So...

NSA: Yep.

RAND: Um.

[Warlord]

Rand might have known something about it but can't say publicly. He did say they were monitoring 'gazillions' but couldn/t say true number

[tangent4ronpaul]

Neither are members of the Intelligence Committee so I doubt it...

As for the administrations claim that every member of Congress was briefed on it - I know for a fact that Dennis Kuchenich refused on principle to get a security clearance, so they are lying!

-t

[Warlord]

They never stop lying.

[CaseyJones]

I know a member of Congress who says thats a lie

[Reason]

Can we stop calling it "Verizon spying"? We now know better (arguably have known all along) that it has been all electronic communications...

[sailingaway]

When Ron learned of stuff he told us. As he did about NDAA when it was in the works. Mind you, he MIGHT have told us what he knew of this, he has warned against FISA and the Patriot Act abuses enough.

He even only once went to one of those 'national security' congressional meetings where you have to agree to keep stuff in secret to go. He said they talked about stuff people should know about and he wasn't going to agree to that, so he didn't go.

[Feeding the Abscess]

Ron's said on a few occasions that he never attended national security meetings, on the account they were propaganda outlets and meant to drum up support for whatever the government was planning.