Paul Ryan: NSA Surveillance ‘Comes Across As Creepy’

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Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) expressed misgivings with the National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance programs, suggesting on Monday that the activities “go way beyond the scope” of what the federal government has been authorized to do by laws like the Patriot Act.

“It comes across as creepy,” the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee said in an interview with the Wisconsin radio station WJRN. “I understand FISA court orders to go after some known person, and their phone records and whoever they’re communicating with. But to do a blanket dragnet nationwide, that seems to go way beyond the scope of the law that I’m familiar with called the Patriot Act.”

Ryan conceded that there’s “a lot more we have to learn.” 

“But the point is, is this necessary? Is this legal? Does this comport with the spirit of the law? Those are the kinds of questions we have to ask,” Ryan said.

Ryan’s fellow Badger State Republican and the author of the Patriot Act, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) disparaged the NSA’s surveillance programs last week, calling them “excessive and un-American.” 

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