Last night, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart cited ProPublica's reporting in a segment on the NSA spying on several world leaders, and how members of the house intelligence committee adamantly deny knowing anything about the situation.
Stewart quips that the committee has no right to be outraged and surprised. Using our mass surveillance timeline, he explains that "In 2001, Congress passed the Patriot Act giving our intelligence agencies access to 'any tangible thing.' That's the phrase that's in the Patriot Act," Stewart says. "Our nation's intelligence has to have access to everything except wishes and fairies. And that act was renewed twice by Congress."
He goes on to pull more information from our report – including the blanket surveillance provisions Congress allowed under 2007's Protect America Act – and how "the very legislature that was bewildered by the scope and reach of our spying appartus granted them the scope and reach."
Watch the full segment below:
The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook