Terms like "bulk data collection" and "PRISM" may have only recently
entered the national conversation, but Sen. Ron Wyden has been talking
about them for years – or at least, trying to. The Oregon Democrat, who
has come out as one of Congress' most vocal opponents of NSA
surveillance, has been worried for nearly a decade that the government
is violating Americans' privacy rights, and, as a member of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, he's also been aware of the details. But given
the stringent rules governing what elected officials with high level
security clearances can and can't say, he's been unable to speak about
these programs, let alone critique them. "For all practical purposes,
there's almost a double standard with the rules," Wyden, a tall,
jeans-clad 64-year-old, tells me in his Senate office overlooking
Capitol Hill. "Leaders in the intelligence community can go out to
public forums and say, 'We don't hold data on US citizens,' but I can't
pop up the next day and say, 'Holy Toledo! That's just not right!'"
