recently. so which of these sources are telling the truth? jim sciutto is out front. reporter: administration officials tell cnn the spying of loaders of close allies such as german chancellor angela merkle took place without president obama s direct knowledge. a senior official says it s not reasonable to expect that the president would have been involved in or necessarily briefed on decisions about individual intelligence targets. in an interview at the fusion cable network president obama says his administration is reviewing the way it collects intelligence. what we ve seen of the last several years is their capacities continue to develop and expand. and that s why we re initiating a review to make sure that what they re able to do doesn t necessarily mean that s what they should be doing. but he offered this defense. the national security operations generally have one purpose and that is to make sure
but the truth of the matter is, if we re monitoring the cell phone of an ally like germany, right, angela merkle, the president should know, shouldn t he? erin, there are thousands of intelligence data developed every day. it s absolutely impossible to know every detail in them. when it comes to this, and you look at it, you say 20/20 hindsight. if there s something critical in that information the president should know about it. if it s collection information there s no possible way he or anybody else could know what facts are collected every day. which is interesting and i think it s significant. you re a republican senator sort of defending the idea he might not have known. look, spying on the world leader of another major country is just a policy the president should have been aware of. but let me ask you about this, sir. because some folks on both sides of the aisle are defending what the nsa are doing and they re defending it point blank. and one of them might surprise
it s done by everybody. i want to get to that in a few moments. first to follow up on this point about what the president knew and when he knew it let s just say he didn t know the specifics. shouldn t he have? i mean, you may be right. everybody s going to monitor whatever they can monitor. but the truth of the matter is, if we re monitoring the cell phone of an ally like germany, right, angela merkle, the president should know, shouldn t he? erin, there are thousands of intelligence data developed every day. it s absolutely impossible to know every detail in them. when it comes to this, and you look at it, you say 20/20 hindsight. if there s something critical in that information the president should know about it. if it s collection information there s no possible way he or anybody else could know what facts are collected every day.
0 charged with felony assault. a judge reduced the charge and ordered brown to see his probation officer in california within 48 hours, he is also ordered to stay 148 yards from the alleged victim. and wolf, this would be the end of the story, unless a sneaky sea lion is lurking off camera. you see that? he or she stole the show, as well as the fish. the cameras were filming the cooking show chef on the water. thanks. that does it for this edition of that does it for this edition of ac360. captions by vitac www.vitac.com america spying on its closest friends. more questions about which world leaders are targeted by the nsa, and why the president claims he knew nothing about it. plus a massive man hunt under way tonight. two prisoners on the run after taking an unusual escape route. and chris brown arrested for a major assault. a decision was just made about those charges. let s go outfront. and good evening, everyone. i m erin burnett. out front tonight. breaking news u
0 he or she stole the show, as well as the fish. the cameras were filming the cooking show chef on the water. thanks. that does it for this edition of ac360. captions by vitac www.vitac.com and good evening, everyone. i m erin burnett. out front tonight. breaking news under pressure. the obama administration has just authorized the release of more details about the american government s collection of telephone data. the director of national intelligence, james clapper just said this in a statement. their declassification is not done lightly. i have determined, however, that the harm to national security from the release of these documents is outweighed by the public interest. now clapper and other officials are all going to be testifying in detail about this program on capitol hill tomorrow. the white house, though, so far has begged ignorance. but what exactly is the president s role? here s what we know. now hear me out here. a u.s. official tells cnn tonight that preside