WaPo: Officials’ defenses of NSA phone program may be unraveling

WaPo: Officials’ defenses of NSA phone program may be unraveling By Greg Miller and Ellen Nakashima:

From the moment the government’s massive database of citizens’ call records was exposed this year, U.S. officials have clung to two main lines of defense: The secret surveillance program was constitutional and critical to keeping the nation safe.

But six months into the controversy triggered by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the viability of those claims is no longer clear.