route. he did not cross the russian bored. we consider the attempts to accuse the russian side of violating u.s. laws and accuse us of a conspiracy. there are no ground for american officials to act this way. reporter: with snowden claiming he targeted this job at booz allen. it s important to consider whether this government, specifically china and russia have benefited most from snowden s leaks. martha: what about what s being done in congress in might of what we are learning about snowden? there has been an important development with seen more r year dem with senior democrat patrick leahy to curb section 213, the business records
edward snowden to one side because i think we can all agree that he comes from a very specific point of view and now has an axe to grind, what i ve been paying the most attention to are the comments of congressman james sensenbrenner who drafted what s called section 215 of the patriot act, the so-called business records section, and he feels uncomfortable with the broad way in which that section has now been applied and interpreted. and then critics who have been fully briefed on these programs who sit on the senate intelligence committee, senators udall and wyden, who say that these programs, again, have not led to that sort of primary or critical lead that breaks open an investigation. they ve done it in a secondary fashion, and they argue that that kind of information is available through other means that are less impactful on every american citizen, martha. martha: yeah. well, let s hope we get to the heart of that question. very essential in here. catherine, thank you very much.
thank you for continuing to serve to protect the united states. again, you have that great burden of knowing lots of classified information you cannot talk publicly about. i want you to know thank you on behalf of america for your service to your country. the committee has been extensively briefed on these efforts over a regular basis as part of our overgoing oversight respondent over the 16 elements of the intelligence commitment. and the national intelligence program. in order to fully understand intelligence collection programs, most of these briefings and hearings have taken place in classified settings. nonetheless, the collection efforts under the business records provision in section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act are legal, court-approved and subject to an extensive oversight regime. look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses about the extensive protections and oversight in place for these programs. general alexander, we look forward to hearing what you
international terrorism and greatest line against that is intelligence gathering capabilities. so we have to maintain that. it s a very delicate balance. these programs are within the law. the business records section is reviewed by a federal judge every 90 days. reporter: entire house of representatives will be offered a briefing on surveillance on tuesday. harris: steve, thank you very much. and mentioning congressman peter king, he ll joining us live at the bottom of the hour. first an update on the ten-year-old girl who needs a lung transplant in order to live. her story one that we are following closely. doctors giving her a breathing tube. update from sara s mother in how she is doing.
surveillance. an exclusive interview with the nation s top intel officer and his defense of the nsa s value to keep america safe. jury selection begins tomorrow in the trial of george zimmerman. we ll review the questions in the case jurors may have to decide. and why is nasa measuring glacier melt in alaska, and what s the connection to florida? hello, everyone. welcome to weekends with alex witt. just past 1:00 p.m. in the east. we re learning new details today about the government s surveillance program and new reaction from lawmakers. these programs are within the law. the business records section is reviewed by a federal judge every 90 days. it s overseen by the justice department. by inspectors general. by audits. by a 90-day review by the court. it s looked at as a method. i m very happy if there s a better way, we will certainly look at i am calling for reopening of the patriot act.