Yes, what Obama said was TECHNICALLY true. It was a lawyerly non-lie.
What Clapper stated was MUCH closer to a lie.
The non-NSA world understands “intercept” to mean a signal in transit has been recognized, received and stored, even if garners no immediate human scrutiny at all —the bar is low.
But NSA does keep it’s own professional lexicon:
At NSA “intercept” is has a very narrow, specific definition which DOES include human scrutiny —the bar for the same word is higher:
That slight of hand means Clapper CAN go up speak in “NSA-ese” to Congress, and have confidence that the meaning that pops up in the mind of the American public and their elected representative inquisitors is very different from that in his own.
The same word has two different meanings to two different groups, much life gift in America being a present and in Germany being poison.
Clapper really IS a liar, though a well-paid and unindicted one.
[It was a lawyerly non-lie.]
That’s all I’ve come to expect from him and his direct employees.
“That slight of hand means Clapper CAN go up speak in “NSA-ese” to Congress, and have confidence that the meaning that pops up in the mind of the American public and their elected representative inquisitors is very different from that in his own.”
He intentionally deceived, that is a lie.