Rep. McKeon: Let the NSA Continue Collecting Phone Data

“I have very little trust in the White House, but there’s lots of wonderful, patriotic, dedicated Americans that are foremost working to keep us safe. And the safeguards they have set in this program have been invaluable,” said Congressman Buck McKeon about the NSA data collection program on Wednesday’s Secure Freedom Radio program.

Rep. McKeon, who is Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, explained that it was reasonable for the program to have been kept a secret, “because of the nature of the war that we’re fighting against, this Islamic terrorist threat, if we tell everything that we’re doing we give them an upper hand on their ability to kill us.”

McKeon also argued that it is necessary to allow the NSA program to continue, saying “I know there are people that are trying to frighten people and say that all kinds of bad things are happening—this is keeping us from having bad things. Is it totally foolproof, could we still have attacks? No, it’s just one of those means, but it is a very important mean and I hope the amendment is defeated.”

The amendment Rep. McKeon referred to was defeated in the House of Representatives Wednesday evening, permitting for now the NSA to continue collecting phone call data in its fight against terrorism.

McKeon also spoke with host Frank Gaffney about US intervention in the Syrian civil war and his misgivings about providing small arms to the rebels. “We know that [Syrians have] killed about 100,000 people there. What we’re going to do is up the ante a little bit, throw more arms into the area, which means more people are going to be killed,” he said.

“I don’t see a good option other than maybe a very high level meeting with Russia to lay out, ‘Look, if this goes much further this could spin out of any our control and become a much, much bigger thing,’” McKeon concluded.