NSA spying revelations ‘a shock’ to Patriot Act author

Deputy Attorney General James Cole testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee hearing.(Photo: Cliff Owen, AP)

WASHINGTON One of the principal authors of the U.S. Patriot Act, which allowed the bulk collection of virtually all Americans' telephone records, warned Tuesday that the authority would surely end unless the surveillance program was dramatically altered.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., addressing Deputy Attorney General James Cole at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, said the collection authority "never would have been approved'' had details of the program revealed last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden been more widely known.

"The revelations were a shock,'' Sensenbrenner said, adding that the program amounted to a "vacuum cleaner.''

The congressman's remarks represented the latest rebuke to the controversial surveillance program that has been the focus of congressional, judicial and administrative review since its disclosure last June.

Cole continued to defend the program as legal, citing the opinions of more than a dozen judges assigned to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

"Although we continue to believe the program is lawful,'' Cole said, "we recognize that it has raised significant controversy and legitimate privacy concerns, and as I have said we are working on developing a new approach as (President Obama) has directed.''

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NSA spying revelations 'a shock' to Patriot Act author