CIA Director John Brennan said the United States faces a level of threats that compares with the period leading up to the 9/11 terror attacks.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)
WASHINGTON — "Political grandstanding" over reauthorizing key parts of the Patriot Act is threatening national security, CIA Director John Brennan said Sunday.
Brennan, appearing on CBS'
Face the Nation, spoke as provisions in the act, such as collecting data on Americans' telephone calls, are set to expire at midnight. The Senate is holding a rare Sunday session to renew that authority.
In the interview, Brennan said the United States faces a level of threats that compares with the period leading up to the 9/11 terror attacks. Terrorists associated with the Islamic State and other groups, he said, are intent on exporting attacks.
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The intelligence community needs "tools" like the National Security Agency's phone-data collection to understand the tactical moves of terror groups, Brennan said.
"There has been a full-court effort to try to keep this country safe," Brennan said.
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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is a leading critic of the NSA collection program and vowed to continue to fight its reauthorization.
"Forcing us to choose between our rights and our safety is a false choice and we are better than that as a nation and as a people," Paul said in a statement.
Also on
Face the Nation, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who is expected to formally announce his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, called the data collection an effective tool that has not violated American's civil liberties.
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Meanwhile, Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism official, said on ABC's
This Week that the authority for the collection is not used often and that the FBI can go to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court and seek an order to get the data.
"It probably is not as big a deal as the president is making out," Clarke said.
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