Congress could curtail phone surveillance

WASHINGTON (AP):

In a heated confrontation over domestic spying, members of Congress said Wednesday they never intended to allow the National Security Agency to build a database of every phone call in America and they threatened to curtail the government's surveillance authority.

Top Obama administration officials countered that the once-secret programme was legal and necessary to keep America safe. They left open the possibility that they could build similar databases of people's credit-card transactions, hotel records and Internet searches.

The clash on Capitol Hill undercut President Barack Obama's assurances that Congress had fully understood the dramatic expansion of government powers it authorised repeatedly over the last decade.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing also represented, perhaps, the most public, substantive congressional debate on surveillance powers since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Previous debates have been largely theoretical and legalistic.