James Clapper: I Gave 'Least Untruthful' Answer Possible On NSA Surveillance (VIDEO)

No, I'm not giving Congress the benefit of anything, but It's actually understandable that members of Congress aren't diligent in their oversight of executive branch overreach because they're being manipulated presidential administrations. Whatever those who did know were told, it was presented in a way to assure them that it was all within the law and necessary to prevent terrorism.   Their STAFFs weren't allowed to see the information, and without being able to discuss it with experts, they'd have no idea of what they're dealing with. 

Do you remember how when the news of waterboarding and torture because public, everyone, especially Nancy Pelosi, went into defensive mode. She insisted that she wasn't informed, and Porter Goss said she had been informed. This is reminiscent of that time, and it conflates with how Bush and Cheney managed to get Congress to vote for the AUMF (Authority to Use Military Force) against Iraq. 

Former Democratic representative Pete Kanjorski told about a meeting he and other members of Congress were summoned to at the White House, with Bush and Condoleeza Rice floating in and out of. CIA was making the presentation, and it was later that he (and we) all learned that it was FABRICATED evidence - Photographs CIA was purporting to have been taken over Iraq, of Iraq's ability to get intercontinental missiles to the U.S. In actuality, the photographs were created in the U.S. southwest. 

We also learned from that account how Bush-Cheney managed to manage Congress, congressional approval, for criminal acts like torture and water boarding, and then saying "Congress knew all about it and approved" by breaking up 'notice' into component parts, like the budget for such an operation. It would then introduce it through a subcommittee which typically the congress's staff attends, but not necessarily the members themselves. As the staff has no security clearance for knowing about torture or waterboarding, the actual category for the expense is never divulged, but instead some generic label is given to the expense which nobody ever knows the real purpose. 

In both of these instances, the path for the deception went straight through John Murtha, Democratic representative from Pennsylvania, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, one of the top most corrupt in Congress, a big 'defense appropriations'-earmark guy.

Working the backdoors of Congress was Dick Cheney's and David Addington's real "gift" to the Bush administration - The inner workings of Congress from Cheney's time in the House, and how to get around that pesky body.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost