A National Security Agency official will be brought to answer publicly before Congress on Wednesday for the first time since details of the agency’s phone and Internet surveillance programs leaked last week.
CBS News reported that Army Gen. Keith Alexander, National Security Agency director and head of U.S. Cyber Command, will testify in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s scheduled session.
Alexander had already met with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who chairs the committee, said the committee had asked Alexander to declassify some information pertaining to the NSA surveillance programs so that Congress could better explain their purpose to the public.
“I think they’re really helpful,” Feinstein said, as quoted by CBS News. “And that’s the problem, it’s all classified… If we can get that declassified then we can speak much more clearly.”
