Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) has completely flip-flopped on his position on NSA surveillance in the past year, saying he was not surprised by revelations that federal security agencies collect phone and computer data on U.S. citizens, according to CBS-WCCO St. Paul, less than a year after declaring the NSA has "too dark a history of spying on innocent Americans" to be trusted with their private information:
The National Security Agency secretly gathered personal data on Americans since 2007, including their internet use and cell phone service. It’s something Franken says he "was very well aware of."
"I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people," Franken said.
Franken, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he got secret security briefings on the program and he says it prevented unspecified terrorist acts.
"I have a high level of confidence that this is used to protect us and I know that it has been successful in preventing terrorism," Franken said.
"There are certain things that are appropriate for me to know that is not appropriate for the bad guys to know," he added.
Yet Franken made a lengthy speech on the Senate floor on July 26, 2012, during discussion of a Cybersecurity Act of 2012, declaring the NSA should not be gatekeepers of the American public's information because of its poor track record of spying on citizens:
But the cyberthreat information that companies are sharing often comes from private, sensitive communications like our emails. And so the gatekeeper of any information shared under these proposals should never be the military. It should never be the NSA. Now, the men and women of the NSA are patriots and they are undoubtedly skilled and knowledgeable. But that institution is too shrouded in secrecy-and has too dark a history of spying on innocent Americans-to be trusted with this responsibility, under any Administration.
Under the new, revised Cybersecurity Act of 2012, the one that will soon be before us on the floor, companies can use the authorities in the bill to give cyberthreat information only to civilian agencies.
That is a critical protection for civil liberties-and it is a protection that CISPA and the SECURE IT Act do not have. I want to be very clear: An America with CISPA and an America with the SECURE IT Act is an America where your emails can be shared directly, immediately and with impunity, with the NSA.