WASHINGTON — The Obama administration continued Wednesday to resist the efforts of two Democratic senators who seek to learn more about the government’s interpretation of domestic-surveillance law, stating that “it is not reasonably possible” to identify the number of Americans whose communications may have been monitored under the statute.
In a letter to Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, Kathleen Turner, director of legislative affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, also said a joint oversight team “has not found indications of any intentional or willful attempts to violate or circumvent” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was amended in 2008.
For the past two years, Wyden has decried what he calls a de facto “secret law” governing domestic surveillance. He and Udall say they will again offer an amendment to the current intelligence authorization bill to compel the administration to reveal the legal basis for certain intelligence-gathering activities.
