Intelligence chief blasts NSA leaks, declassifies some details about phone program limits

WASHINGTON – The director of national intelligence is trying to set the record straight after leaked documents revealed information about two top-secret intelligence-gathering programs.

James Clapper says the disclosure of an Internet surveillance program is “reprehensible” and a document leak about a phone records program could cause long-lasting and irreversible harm to the nation’s ability to respond to threats.

Clapper says articles about the programs contained inaccuracies and omitted key information. He’s declassifying some details about the authority used in the phone records program because he says Americans must know the program’s limits.

Those details include that a special court reviews the program every 90 days. He says the court prohibits the government from indiscriminately sifting through phone data and queries are only allowed when facts support reasonable suspicion.