Senators want public answers on US spy programs

More than two dozen US senators are calling on the nation's top intelligence official to make information public about the scope and duration of the National Security Agency's surveillance program.
In a letter sent today to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, the bipartisan group of lawmakers also wants him to provide examples of how the bulk collection of phone records provided unique intelligence.
The letter from the 26 senators, organised by Democrat Ron Wyden, says they are concerned that the gathering of massive of amounts of data on the communications of ordinary Americans depended on secret interpretations of the Patriot Act.

The letter says those interpretations, along with misleading statements from US intelligence officials, prevented citizens from being able to evaluate the decisions their government was making.