Al Gore Calls Obama Administration's Collection of Phone Records 'Obscenely Outrageous'

Former Vice President Al Gore. (photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

By Aaron Blake, The Washington Post

06 June 13

ormer Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday night leveled some rare and harsh criticism at the Obama administration, attacking its reported collection of phone records for millions of Americans.

The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald reported Wednesday evening that the National Security Agency has used a secret court order issued in April to collect the records of all phone calls made on the Verizon network.

The 2000 Democratic presidential nominee took to Twitter to call the monitoring "obscenely outrageous."

According to Greenwald's report, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) granted the three-month order on April 25, and it expires July 19.

The order reportedly allows the government to collect phone records for any of Verizon's customers, even if they aren't suspected of wrongdoing. It does not allow them to listen to the phone calls themselves.

It represents the latest headache for an administration that is already dealing with a series of controversies, including its collection of the phone records of Associated Press reporters and the monitoring of Fox News reporter James Rosen.