[BikerNYC]

"As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't say anything that's classified, I'm not worried," he said.

It's classified for him to say that nothing he said was not classified.

[Holicheese]

"But Tice disagrees. He says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA could be in the millions if the full range of secret NSA programs is used."

So if they were given permission, which they were not, they could eavesdrop on more people. They were not given permission, so they did not.