Greenwald: 811 words. Here: 199.
Congressional oversight of the NSA is a farce, as evidenced by yesterday’s hearing to which NSA loyalist (and oversight committee chair) Diane Feinstein invited several NSA apologists but no critics.
With the exceptions of Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, the committee members do not take oversight seriously. Even Wyden and Udall only hinted at the surveillance abuses, squandering their absolute immunity as Senators to reveal classified information on the Senate floor. Instead, that duty fell to Edward Snowden.
In the above six minute clip from the hearing, Wyden says, “the leadership of NSA built an intelligence collection system that repeatedly deceived the American people.”
Greenwald says “the single most revealing aspect of this entire NSA scandal” is:
that James Clapper lied to the faces of the Senate Intelligence Committee about core NSA matters, and not only was he not prosecuted for that felony, but he did not even lose his job, and continues to be treated with great reverence by the very Committee which he deliberately deceived.
Related:
NSA chief Keith Alexander invokes the Nairobi massacre in the newest episode of fear-mongering for surveillance.
Seymour Hirsch on government lies and the pathetic American media.
Shorter Greenwald 
